Premium images and graphics for free

If you are designer, whether web or print, identifying the right images to be used is a very difficult task. Sometimes when you identify the right image you realize the owner is selling it for a very high price. Some of the images at the premium websites like Getty Images and Corbis start with a price of $55.00!

Since I dabble with web designing, blogging and do Internet Research for my customers I realized there is a huge demand of stock images and usually the preferred price is free or a ‘reasonable’ price. I decided to search and come up with a list of websites where one can find free images. The list is not comprehensive but it does include some very good websites. So here it is

Yotoweb: Yotophoto is a search engine for free-to-use stock photographs and images. The service searches images that are either in the Public Domain or released under generous Creative Commons, GNU FDL or similar licenses.
Openphoto - The Open Photo Project: The Open Photo Project (http://openphoto.net) is a moderated photo community with the goal of uniting image consumers and producers through friendly Creative Commonsy (http://creativecommons.org) licensing.
Stck.xchng - Social image exchange: Stck.xchng as an alternative for expensive stock photography. The idea was to create a site where creative people could exchange their photos for inspiration or work. In about two years the site evolved into this massive community you see now - there are over 1.000.000 registered users and more than 250.000 photos online!
FreeFoto - features exclusive images: FreeFoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet (link back and attribution required). Some of the images are priced.
Pixel perfect Digital: Though not a dedicated image directory or search engine Pixel Perfect Digital has a collection of more thatn 5000 images uploaded by the forum users and there are some great looking images.
Morgue file: A place to keep post production materials for use of reference, an inactive job file. This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.
Texture King: TextureKing is a project by REH3design. Throughout this site you will find a growing repository of high quality stock photos that are free for professional and personal use. We hope that you put find them useful and enjoy the site as much as we’ve had building it.
Creative Commons: Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. Our licenses help you keep your copyright while inviting certain uses of your work — a “some rights reserved” copyright.

A few other links which I refer to in case I’m unable to find that exact image. They are

http://www.masternewmedia.org/where_to_find_free_images_and_visuals/ : An excellent post which has about 66 links which you can use to find free images on the Internet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources : A collection of resources for free images and their URL’s.
Picfinder: A search engine for images which are available for free.
Iconfinder: If you are looking for free icons this is the site for you which searches resources where free images are available.

If you know of any other resources please list them in the comments.

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