69) Photogen
http://www.photogen.com/

Photogen is a free photography web-site that provides high resolution free images both for commercial and private use.

You can search for images, or simply browse by category. When you click an image, you will be brought to its page, where you can add comments, rate it, see the resolution, number of downloads, and other details.

To upload your own images, you need to register to the service.

68) FreeRangeStock.com
http://www.freerangestock.com/

FreeRangeStock.com contains a collection of free high resolution photos. All photos are post processed (sharpened, distortion corrected, and color corrected) and originate as DSLR files or 4000dpi slide scans of an original 35mm slide. Some images have been manipulated in Photoshop to make them more effective.

If you can't find what you're looking for, submit a photo request. The site also has a couple of graphics tutorials that currently cover bitmap and vector graphics.

You can browse the catalogs or use the search tool to match terms. As you look at a photo, click to get more information such as keywords, the photographer, and copyright information. To download images requires signing up for a free membership. The terms as explained in the frequently asked questions state that users downloading photos will not redistribute photos or use photos within products that are mass distributed in any type of archive format.

67) Open Stock Photography
http://www.openstockphotography.org/

Open Stock Photography is a site that helps designers find free stock photography (or public domain photography). All images listed at Open Stock Photography come from Wikimedia Commons and as such can be used by anyone, for any purpose.

A unique feature on Open Stock Photography is the color search where you can pick a color from the color wheel or enter the hexadecimal code to find images that match a particular color. The feature requires patience as the site searches the extensive database for matching colors. Each entry comes with color swatches, full-size and thumbnail view, as well as links to crop / resize the image.

66) Fotogenika.net
http://www.fotogenika.net/modifica/igallery.asp

Fotogenika.net contains photos sorted into a handful of categories with subcategories. Images from this site "may be used freely for personal, educational and non-profit projects. You may not used them commercially, claim authorship and/or sell them."

A category page displays subcategory folders with thumbnails or thumbnail images only when there's no subcategory. The thumbnail pages display a brief description, a vote button and the number of views. When you click an image, its full size displays along with a disk icon so you can download it.

Some categories only have one page of photos while others you need to click Next to see more. It's a well-organized site that's easy to use and has a lovely collection. Its submission page rules clearly indicate the site aims to provide high quality images and it shows.

Updated: February 28, 2006

See also:

Finding Images Online
a Directory of Web Image Sites
by Paula Berinstein
http://www.berinsteinresearch.com/fiolinks.htm

To bloggers and online publishers.

No matter which sources you use, I recommend always crediting and — where possible — informing the authors that their work is used and published somewhere. To someone who has been so generous to offer his creative work for your own use, it is not much to offer full credit, acknowledgment, a link back and information about where the image is used. In this way, we allow the authors to use such free use for good credit and to show potential customers how their work is used.

To photographers.

The ageless issue of "How do I get work as a photographer if everyone wants me to have some experience and credential first?" is finally solved.

Expose some of your good photographic work for others to use and leverage the good exposure, visibility and credentials generated by this to build your reputation and price when bidding for work.

I am interested in listing other similar resources that you know about.

Photo credit: Carlos Paes

***
Thanks to Brain Kennemer and his blog about online image resources for inspiring me to research this subject in detail.

65) Mayang's Free Textures
http://www.mayang.com/textures/

Mayang's Free Texures is a library of over 3000 textures from architecture, building, fabric, man-made items, metal, nature, plants, stone and wood. Images are high quality resolution at 1600x1200 or larger with most at 2560x1920.

All images are free for all uses except for selling and they appreciate credit. The site has a mailing list for those who wish to be notified when new textures are added.

The download limit is 20 textures per day. The site lets you know how many you've downloaded. Each image comes with a caption describing it. The aerial view of Paris and other locales are amazing. Not all images look like background pictures especially the autos collection. So don't let the term "texture" throw you off.