by Royce Radcliffe

Created on: July 15, 2008   Last Updated: February 17, 2012

Want to show the Taj Mahal but don't have the money to fly down and snap the photograph yourself? Want to show a close up of a lion without having to risk your own hide in the process? Want to access just about any photograph in the world from the comfort of your living room? There is only one answer: use stock photographs.

Stock photographs are a great way to enhance any visual presentation. There are a ton of websites that will offer you a world of photographs for a nominal fee, but why pay for something when you can get it for free? There are many other websites that give you the same or close to the same amount of quality and variety absolutely free.

There are three that stand out from the throng in this regard.

My favorite resource is undoubtedly openstockphotography (yes, it is meant to be in lower case). It is found at http://www.openstockphotography.org/. This site is probably the largest collection of stock photographs known to man, literally housing millions upon millions of them! The website is an offshoot of Wikipedia and also powered by Yahoo. The images are available through Wikimedia Commons so there are no rules as to how you may use them.

The second best resource is Every Stock Photo. It is found at http://www.everystockphoto.com/. This website is a search engine for Creative Commons photos and contains nearly four million images. The pictures come from many sources and are license specific. You have to join to gain access to the photographs but since membership is free that should present no problem. You can rate, share or use the photos at your discretion.

If you are looking for pictures illustrating nature in all its glory then the Yellowstone Digital Slide File is for you. It can be found at http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/index.htm. It contains only thirteen thousand images but they are some of the best nature related visuals you will find anywhere so they had to be mentioned. The only real drawback of this site is that you are not allowed to use the pictures for commercial use.

Of course there are literally thousands of websites just like the ones mentioned above. Most of them do not have near the amazing quantity of opensourcephotography and Every Stock Photo but many of them do cater to select niches. If you have something very precise in mind I think you would probably be best served to use a search engine to find these websites. Just try to avoid using the search engines themselves to find photographs directly, tempting though it may be. Even though search engines have access to more photographs than all the free usage websites combined in most cases those same photos are copyrighted and thus off limits for any but unpromoted personal use.

Stock photos certainly allow you to add another element to any presentation that could use a visual boost. Photographs take the viewer places that no amount of eloquent prose can match. In just one glance they serve to empower whatever they are a part of. With the three sites listed above you should have even your most specific needs covered in this area and if not the search engines are always there for you as well.

Learn more about this author, Royce Radcliffe.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.