Tired of the predictability and expense of standard stock agencies? Then it’s time to check out one of the growing wave of free stock photography sites. While they don’t have the vast archives of the big stock houses, you can’t beat the price or the quality. From Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction.com, here are some of the “mushrooming number of free stock photography sites, where the parties responsible—agencies and photographers, mostly—have turned their images into promotional introductions to the freelance service.

Unsplash

(Martin Dörsch via Unsplash)

“A variety of attractive photographic styles that generally don’t have the stagey, saccharine sheen of standard stock catalogs,” says Khoi. Others that have followed Unsplash’s example: Picography, Superfamous, Gratisography and Little Visuals

Magdeleine

(Photo by Pasquale Vitiello via Madeline)

Organizes photos from several different sources into searchable themes, including by color.

Startup Stock Photos

(Photo: Startup Stock Photos)

“Crisply composed and aesthetically impeccable (photos that look like they are) either shot inside, nearby, or by an employee of a Brooklyn farm-to-table restaurant,” says Khoi.

(via Subtraction.com)