I hold this article in my bookmarks as a starting point to search various services like this one: http://designrope.com/design/find-stock-photos-dont-suck/ http

I hold this article in my bookmarks as a starting point to search various services like this one: http://designrope.com/design/find-stock-photos-dont-suck/ http://designrope.com/design/find-stock-photos-dont-suck/ I love these sites, but unfortunately the amount of really useful photos you can find in these sites is pretty low, unless you don't really have boundaries on the subject. Even then, I find these pictures incredibly difficult to use properly. 1) Even in the flat blur era, you can't illustrate everything with a cool and inspiring picture of a mountain or the slightly unsettling picture of a dark forest. Sometimes the clients needs them smiling construction workers with all their safety gear in place. Good luck finding a picture like that on those free stock websites. It's obvious that if you're doing client work you shouldn't even think of not billable options, there's really no reason to avoid Stocksy, Creative Market and other cool pay-per-picture services. 2)Although you may find the rare gem, these images are free because their quality is not that high (technically speaking, composition is usually pretty good). I increasingly find myself looking at headers of glorious full width websites with a clear noise in the dark areas that completely ruins the effect. 3) Originality is lost. We reached a tipping point where you can spot an unsplash picture from miles away. Conclusion: use them as placeholders in new projects, use them for templates or themes you're selling, use them to illustrate your blog post about some inspiring stuff. Avoid them for a personal project you care about, abhor them for client work.