The Hard Work is Done Finding Sources for Royalty Free Photos
Most small business owners are too busy to conduct research for royalty free photographs to use online or in print, so I created this directory to save you time and money. Most web graphics are 72 dpi which is fine for web sites, but for quality printing, high resolution photographs are needed.
Rating System: To help minimize your search time, I went out and reviewed 150 sites for Business Related Photos and rated each using a 5-Star System from 
One Star to 
Five Star based on photo quality, selection, and terms of use. The search was extensive, and the results are 22 sites out of 150 that I feel deserve your attention.
NOTE: Study license terms carefully before using any photograph to avoid copyright infringement. The word "free" is used loosely by some websites, and rights violations may extend beyond "copyright". You should review the US Library of Congress comparison of rights: copyright, publicity, and privacy here.
Five Star - Search These Top Sites for Quality Stock Photos
Morgue File contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.
PhotoGen - Free Stock Photos images are FREE for commercial and personal use. The images are not for resale, or redistribution. Registration required to download.
Stock Xchng contains over 300.000 quality stock photos by more than 10.000 users for personal or commercial use. Must register as member (free).
Wikimedia.org contains a contributed database of over 2.5 million high resolution media files including photographs, graphics, and multimedia.
Four Star - Continue Your Search for Royalty Free Photographs
Copyright Free Photo Archive has 27,000 free photos from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Note: Photos of identifiable persons should NOT be used because signed model releases are unlikely.
PD Photo - Free and Public Domain has thousands of royalty free pictures. Not all are available for commercial use, so read each license. File size of some may be unsuitable for print.
Public Domain Photos displays over 5000 public domain photographs. You may use these images for any purpose, including commercial. Some photos may contain logos or products, so you need to be careful.
Uncle Sams Photos is a directory of the U.S. Government's free stock photo sites. Note: Includes many low resolution photos that may be unsuitable for artwork for print.
YotoPhoto is a search engine for free-to-use stock photographs and images with over 150,000 free images.
Caution: Many links are to web quality graphics and may not be appropriate for printed materials. Some search results may lead to providers with commercial use limitations.
Three Star - More Sites with Nice Photos, and Worth Your Time
Burning Well is a repository for public domain (free for any use) images. You are free to download, copy and use the photos for any purpose.
Cepolina includes 3577 free photo available for download.
Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from the site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial.
Stock Vault allows you to download high quality stock photos, textures, and other images completely free.
Two and One Star - More Options, Listed Alphabetically
Creating Online has free stock photos for personal or commercial use.
Free Digital Photos has free pictures for commercial and non-commercial use.
Note: Some photos are web quality and may not be appropriate for printed materials.
Free Photos Dot Com has free stock photos for your website, brochure, or design work with no credit or royalty required.
Free Photos Bank has free stock photography and their site is searchable and browsable.
Free Stock Photos Dot Com features free photos for your personal or commercial design projects.
Free Media Goo has totally royalty free photos.
GeekPhilosopher includes a collection of stock photo, background, and desktop wallpaper, and the quality images are free to use.
Free Stock Photos has free photography for personal or commercial use.
Note: Some photos are web quality and may not be appropriate for printed materials.
From Old Books features scanned images, engravings and pictures from old books.
Yellowstone National Park has over 13,000 image digital slide files of Yellowstone National Park with captions.
Check out my photo edit tutorial for advice using photographs in advertisements. Please contact me if you have a stock photo gallery to suggest adding to this list. Thanks.
