Splashbase: Find free, public domain, hi res photos
splashbase.co
splashbase.co
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain
Though I'm not sure how you can search just that subset.
Found it, add +incategory:"Public Domain" to the search, as in this example searching for "cats":
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASe...
Example result (interestingly tagged as both public domain and CC):
"Two cats, dressed as humans, holding rope, which doll appears to be skipping"
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_cats,_dressed_as...
Though, from the dearth of results that may not be searching sub-categories.
The main issue with pointing to Wikimedia is that it seems to funnel people into Creative Commons licenses. Maybe that is not the intent, but that is what happens. I like the idea of a prominent place that encourages the Public Domain.
I also think a lot of people of the current generation probably don't think that much about licensing and copyright and don't realize how many strings they're attaching to the use of their image when they upload it, when my guess is that for most people, one of the CC licenses like CC-by-SA is essentially the same as releasing it into the public domain (for them), but of course it excludes it from inclusion into any non-CC works for likely over 100 years.
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.
Yet, I think Splashbase has a far more useful & easy to navigate interface.
Could you add more sources?
Which was discussed a while back:
Also, a little shameless self promotion... I've been trying to give this image away for a little while now: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jscheel/13069799215/. Feel free to use however you want.
Currently, the buttons are bulky and awkward, especially when the screen is re-sized for mobile devices.
I have no idea wether visitors get anything out of this, probably not, but I use random color schemes on my personal site and it makes it much more enjoyable for me to work on it. Most people only ever see one page or two, but I have seen thousands if not tens of thousands, and a bit of variety can go a long way :)
the original site unplash.com, has infinite scroll.
there are only a few images in total so I don't think splashbase is necessary. It takes less than a minute of scrolling to get through the entire db of images.