Where can I get good stock photos?

[Rooster]

I'm getting into compositing and I need some good, high-res photos of scenes such as SF, gothic, spooky, post-apocalyptic, dereliction etc. There are so many stock sites out there it's bewildering and they seem rather expensive. Is there a good, reasonably proced one anybody uses? If I could get 'em for free somewhere that would be even better!

 

[Pookeyhead]

Why not shoot your own, so it's all your own work?

 

[Rooster]

Why not shoot your own, so it's all your own work?

Well I've got some decent dereliction shots but I need a wide range. In particular, Sci fi style landscapes are basically expert Photoshop jobs.

 

[Pookeyhead]

Fair enough, but depending on the rights assigned to the images you download, you may be violating copyright law if you ever publish the results.

You'll find it hard to get hold of royalty free stock images of such subjects I would think. Anything you just happen to find on the internet is very risky as you'll have no idea if you are entitled to use it or not.