Public Domain
If an image is in the public domain, you can use it without attribution.
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Creative Commons
Creative Commons promotes the sharing of creative works.
Click here to see a slideshow about creative commons. |
Copyright Protected
If something is copyright protected it means that the only person who can use it legally is the person that created it.
If you don't know the rights to an image, video, music, etc. - assume it's copyright protected. Do not use anything with a watermark across it. The person who created it is trying to let you know it is copyright protected. You must ask permission from the owner before using it. |
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Wikimedia Commons - Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language.
NOTE: I like this site because it provides clear attribution information. 
Stock Up is a search engine that aggregates stock photos from dozens of free stock photo sources. Because of that we have a larger database of free stock photos than most (we currently have 9,102 photos— most websites host a few thousand).
flickr - Flickr is a large online photo management and sharing application in the world. Go to the "advanced search" page and select "only search within creative commons-licensed content". Click on the image below to access "The Commons" on flickr.
Image After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial.
Every Stock Photo is a search engine for free photos. These come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo's license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos. Membership is free and allows you to rate, tag, collect and comment on photos.
National Zoo Photo Gallery - Take a virtual visit to the National Zoo by exploring the photo galleries. You can also learn about many of the species from all over the world found here at the Zoo. Most of these pictures are in Creative Commons and require attribution.
Pics4Learning - Pics4Learning is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use the copyright-friendly photos and images for classrooms, multimedia projects, web sites, videos, portfolios, or any other project in an educational setting.
Wellcome Images: History of Medicine Free CC Images
Over 100,000 images ranging from ancient medical manuscripts to etchings by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Francisco Goya are now available for free download as hi-res images on our website.
LA County Museum of Arts
Images of works from LA County Museum of Arts (LACMA) collections that LACMA believes are in the public domain, some of which are made available without restriction (these images are marked "Public Domain High Resolution Image Available"
Protected Content: LACMA and relevant third parties retain all rights, including copyright, in the Protected Content. Users may download and use the Protected Content subject to these Terms and Conditions, and subject to any additional terms or restrictions applicable to the individual file or program, provided all copyright and other proprietary notices contained on the Protected Content are retained. 
The Getty Puts 4600 Art Images Into the Public Domain (and There’s More to Come)
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Compfight is an image search engine tailored to efficiently locate images for blogs, comps, inspiration, and research. Use tags "creative commons" and"safe search".
NOTE: I like this site because it provides html attribution. You can also click on the photo and get attribution information from Flickr. 
Public Domain Pictures is a repository for free public domain images. Material can easily be browsed by various categories, including professional or seasonal photos. Image tags allow an easy search.
Free images is a high quality resource of digital stock photographic images for use by all. All images in our collection are free to use on websites, printed materials and anywhere you need photos for illustration and design use. They only ask that you credit them when you use it.
Pixabay is a repository for stunning public domain images. You can freely use any image from this website in digital and printed format, for personal and commercial use, without attribution requirement to the original author. If you register with pixaby you can save yourself the trouble of having to type in captcha each you want to download a pic.
Public Domain Photos - All photos on this web site are public domain. You may use these images for any purpose, including commercial. But if some photo contains logos and products you need to be careful. Using someone else's trademark commercially can get you sued.
Some of these photos are in the public domain or U.S. government works and may be used without permission or fee. However, some images may be protected by license or copyright. You should read the disclaimers on each site before using these images.
If you have questions about the copyright status of an image, please contact the government agency that produced the image. 
Looking for music, video, writing, code, or other creative works? Creative Commons has got you covered. Search for creative work through sources like Google and Flickr right here.
Please note that search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link. Since there is no registration to use a CC license, CC has no way to determine what has and hasn't been placed under the terms of a CC license. If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content.
Morgue File - Looking for high resolution stock photos for your illustration, comp or design needs? Search morgueFile for free reference images. Yes, they're all completely free. whether you're an illustrator, art director, instructor or looking to add a defining visual to a presentation.
Through the Open Content Program, the Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required. Open content images are identified with a "Download" link.
The internationally recognized WorldImages database provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It has just been selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collection of Internet materials. It contains approximately 100,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery
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FlickrCC searches for creative commons images in Flickr and provides attribution information.
John James Audubon's Birds of America is a portal into the natural world. Printed between 1827 and 1838, it contains 435 life-sized watercolours of North American birds, all made from hand-engraved plates, and is considered to be the archetype of wildlife illustration. Nearly 200 years later, the Audubon prints are coming to life once again, thanks to our vibrant digital library. Roam around below and enjoy one of the most treasured pieces of Audubon's grand and wild legacy. Each print is also available as a free high-resolution download.
NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art. On this website you can search, browse, share, and download images. A standards-based reproduction guide and a help section provide advice for both novices and experts. More than 32,000 open accessdigital images up to 3000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use. NGA Images is designed to facilitate learning, enrichment, enjoyment, and exploration.
Go to The British Library’s collections on Flickr Commons offer access to millions of public domain images, which we encourage you to explore and re-use. The release of these collections into the public domain represent the Library's desire to improve knowledge of and about them, to enable novel and unexpected ways of using them, and to begin working with researchers to explore and interpret large scale digital collections.
The Metropolitan MuseumThe Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that “more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum’s website for non-commercial use.” Even better, the images can be used at no charge (and without getting permission from the museum).
Freer Sackler
Welcome to Open F|S, the complete digitized collections of the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Freer Study Collection. With more than 40,000 works being made available for high-resolution download—expanding regularly with our new acquisitions—you can explore the Smithsonian's museums of Asian art from anywhere in the world, whenever you like. Images can be used for all non-commercial purposes, from desktop wallpapers to artistic gifts for family and friends. Send us your creations and your feedback about this beta version at openfs@si.edu! 
SmithsonianThe Smithsonian welcomes you to make fair use of the Content as defined by copyright law.Information on United States copyright fair use law is available from the United States Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html. Please note that you are responsible for determining whether your use is fair and for responding to any claims that may arise from your use.
In addition, the Smithsonian allows personal, educational, and other non-commercial uses of the Content on the following terms:
According to Open Culture, "Not only can userscreate their own online galleries from selected works in the museum’s collection, they can download Rijksmuseum artwork for free to decorate new products. (Note: users will need to create a free account to get started.)"
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Smaller Collections
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A curated collection of free resources, all for commercial use. Free images, free icons, free templates. IM Free - the anti-stock photo website. This site has images of "devices".
Superfamous is the Los Angeles-based studio of Dutch interaction designer Folkert Gorter. Folkert’s photography (link below) is available under the conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0license. This means that you can use the work for your own purposes — including commercial use — as long as credit is provided.
Cool & free photos for You! Photos for business or personal use in high resolution for free. Includes pictures of devices.
DesignersPics.com - FREE Hi-Res photo each day for your personal & commercial use. Attribution not required!
New 100% Free Stock Photos. Every. Single. Week.Everything you need for your creative projects, all public domain images!
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Free Stockphotos for personal and commercial use
You can use this high-resolution pictures on your personal and commercial projects for free. All pictures on the website snapographic.com were captured by Thomas Mühl and free of Copyright Restrictions (CC0 1.0 Universell) . A backlink is not necessary, but it would be nice. Have fun with it! ;) 
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. See Other Information below. 
Free food pictures in high resolution for any personal and commercial use! Get beautiful food photography for your blog posts, articles, website’s sliders and headers or any kind of design.
Search by categories, icenses,or search via the dominant color featured in the pictures.
Search millions of Creative Commons photos from Flickr and add them to your blog posts easily.
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Free high-resolution photos. No copyrights restrictions. Images for personal & comerical use. New photographies added weekly! All images are donated to the public domain. Hand-made with love by Leeroy Advertising Agency in Montreal & its network of photographers.
A photographer's treat by Jonas Nilsson Lee -
Free (do what ever you want) photos. Choose from scenery, landscape, objects and animals. 
Kaboompics is the best way to get Free Photos
for personal and commercial usage - includes abstracts, city & architecture, fashion, food, landscapes, and other. 
FREE -handpicked- stockphotos for your commercial and personal works. All available hi-res/hi-quality pictures you can use on personal and commercial projects. Please be respectful to registered trademarks.
Startup Stock Photos has lots of business/ technology images.
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Others
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LEARN NC around the world in multimedia - offers a collection of more than 2,000 high-resolution photographs and audio recordings from Asia and Latin America, with historical and cultural context and related lesson plans.
Clipart History - Absolutely Free Public Domain Historical Clipart
3D Toad - 3DTOAD.com is 3D/360 website that allows parents, students and teachers free access to 3D images of a variety of educational subjects. Items that once could be viewed only in the classroom are now available 24 hours a day via any internet connection. Images presented for viewing are selected jointly by Techtol Imaging LLC as well as Ohio Universities and Colleges.
Behold - New free tool! Safeguard your use of free images with ImageStamper Searching 1,040,000 high quality images from Flickr.
Find Icons - As its name suggests, FindIcons.com is an icon search engine helps you find free icons. We have the largest searchable free icons database in the world (Found somewhere with more icons than us? Let us know!) and both a sophisticated search filtering and result matching system make it possible for you to get an icon you need for every design task.
FreeFoto - FreeFoto.com is made up of 132516 images with 182 sections organized into 3638 categories. FreeFoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet (link back and attribution required).
FreePhotoBank - FreePhotoBank is a free stock photo site. Feel free to download pictures (up to 2048 pixels, Creative Commons licence)
Humanline - Humanline.com is a visual library related to our civilization's history, art and science.
Professors, students and teachers are free to use it in classroom presentations and demos, dissertations and other non-commercial academic works, researches and all related not-for-profit activities (see site for more details)
ookaboo - Find Free Stock Photos With Unprecedented Precision
Looking for free pictures of places, people, animals, and other things? Stop and explore Ookaboo, a collection of free images organized around precisely defined concepts. Open Clipart Library - The Open Clipart Library (OCAL) is the Largest Collaboration Community that creates, shares and remixes clipart. All clipart is released to the public domain and may be used in any project for free and with no restrictions.
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School Clip Art - The clip art images you find at School-Clip-Art.com are provided FREE for educational use. Teachers can use them for worksheets, Lesson Plans, Quizzes, Web sites, and other classroom needs. Students can use them for their homework assignments and Web sites too. When using clip art please provide a link back to http://www.school-clip-art.com giving credit for the clip art used. If you have questions please contact us.
Sprixi - An image search engine.
Veezzle - Veezzle is a free stock photo search engine, we are indexing free photos from big communities such as SXC, RGBStock, StockVault ..."Our" photos are made to be distributed over the Internet so you have the RIGHT to use them online or in your work.
Visual Dictionary - The Visual Dictionary is designed to help you find the right word at a glance. Filled with stunning illustrations labeled with accurate terminology in up to six languages, it is the ideal language-learning and vocabulary dictionary for use at school, at home or at work.
You may display, print or download parts of the Content only for your personal, non-commercial use, provided you do not remove or alter any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary notices or legends. If you want to post, publish or use part of the Content on your blog, and provided that your blog is free of charge and for non-commercial purposes only, please refer to the “‘Blog This’ License Agreement” hereunder. PicSearch - connects its users to the vast visual resources of the internet. Picsearch uses its own technology to crawl the web and has created a searchable index of images. When a user sends a query to Picsearch the result is received as a set of thumbnail images that are sorted to ensure that they are as highly relevant as possible. When the user clicks on a thumbnail they are linked to the original web site where that image is located. Picsearch image search technology has three main features that make it unique. It has a relevancy unrivaled on the web due to its patent-pending indexing algorithms. Also, Picsearch has a family friendliness that allows children to surf in safety as all offensive material is filtered out by our advanced filtering systems. The site is also very user friendly as it's designed to be simple, fast and accurate. Due to all of these features, Picsearch is perfect for fun, school, business and families!
4FreePhotos - Download public domain images and free photos. We are a group of photographers who enjoy taking pictures and decided to share them with the public to use them for free in their private or commercial projects. We hope you will find the collection of free and public domain images useful.
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