The following article is an attempt to create the ultimate collection of free and creative commons based stock photo websites with the best places to search for Hi Res Photos and get nice quality images.
All Websites in this collection contain free digital stock photographs. For some you have to be registered to access and download high resolution imagery others have instant download options. I hope this will help you find open-source and creative commons images and photography to help you create stunning designs without spending as much as a dollar.

A marketplace for royalty-free stock video, sound effects, music, after effects, photos and illustrations. Pond5.com

ClipDealer is an open marketplace for royalty-free media.On ClipDealer you will find a selection of stock video footage, photos, vector graphics, sounds and music in various resolutions respectively qualities. ClipDealer offer an easy and attractive fixed-price system, depending on the resolution, but regardless of what they are used for. There are currently 850,000 media on ClipDealer. Clipdealer.com

Celebrity pictures and photos from the world’s first and only micro stock celebrity photo agency. Imagecollect.com captures all of the major events including awards shows, movie and TV premieres, concerts, festivals, social events, red carpets, and more. Currently holding over 1.5 million celebrity pictures. With real time uploads from the latest events and photos available on demand through a simple, general use license. Imagecollect.com

Warmpicture is a collective of independent stock photographers producing premium quality royalty free images.  Warmpicture was founded in 2011 to combat rapidly rising stock image prices at leading agencies. Warmpicture.com

Imageselect is a company which, for the last 10 years, has focused entirely on stock photography. Their primary aim is to offer the widest variety of images from the widest assortment of suppliers. They have highly professional material as well as the more conventional shots. Imageselect.eu

At FreeDigitalPhotos.net you can download free small size (400 x 260 pixels) to HiRes 10 dollar priced images for use in corporate and personal projects. To use the free Images you must acknowledge the Image creator and FreeDigitalPhotos.net Check the terms of use for more information on acceptable use of FreeDigitalPhotos images. Freedigitalphotos.net

Depositphotos is a source for premium royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vector art. If you are a designer, advertiser, photo editor, content manager or blogger, they have millions of high-quality photographs and vector images available at affordable prices to fill your image needs. Depositphotos.com

Matton offers royalty free media with over 5 million images, fonts, film, music, maps and illustrations. Images for all occasions. Browse through Premium, Value and Subscription images. News and special offers from Matton! Matton.com

From the makers of stock.xchng and Stockxpert. Download high quality stock photos, graphics and vector illustrations for affordable prices. Stockfresh.com

Clipartof can be described as a stock image library offering royalty-free (rf) stock illustrations and clipart from professional illustrators and cartoonists. All images are available as posters and art prints as well as digital downloads. Clipartof also offers free image hosting, and clipart illustration collections. Clipartof.com

Moodboard is a hybrid microstock and premium royalty-free stock photography library. You can get moodboard microstock images for a variety of usages such as blogs, websites and presentations, and their high-resolution photos for print ads, newsletters and billboards. Moodboard.com

Germany, Stuttgart based micropayment stockphoto website Digitalstock.de offers thousands of royalty-free photos. Image prices ranging from 5 euro to 15 euro. Digitalstock.de

With over two million stock photos in their collections, SuperStock offers Rights-Managed, Royalty-Free and Subscription stock photography. search through millions of Contemporary, Vintage, and Fine Art photographs, illustrations, clip art and digital video footage, available at high resolution and for immediate download. Superstock.com

A stock image agecy offering royalty free photos and illustrations for sale and some even for free download. Special licences are available for blog publishers. Featurepics.com

Intuitivmedia provides hand selected royalty-free images to advertising, graphic design, pre-press, multimedia, and print related businesses. Established in 2002 by Philippe Ramakers (CEO & photographer), the creative stock photo collection is growing. Im-visions.com/website2

Snapfish Stock Images is an image collection featuring photographs from Snapfish.com’s 95 million members worldwide. With a vast pool of contributors, the Snapfish collection features unique, inspiring & authentic imagery. Images are available to license as Royalty Free microstock for immediate download. Stockimages.snapfish.com

Vivozoom is a new stock licensing site offering various image products. Their mission is to provide a quality service to the professional image buyer. With Pay-as-you go and Subscription purchase models, photographs and illustrations. Vivozoom.com

Search Can Stock Photo for stock photography, photos, illustrations, picture clip art, royalty-free photograph images and stock video footage. The Can Stock photographers provide digital content for as little as 1 dollar. Buy cheap photographs and get immediate image file downloads or subscribe for a low monthly fee. Canstockphoto.com

This stock photography website is a division of Getty Images—a leading creator and distributor of still imagery, editorial imagery, footage and music. At Photos.com you can choose from 2.6 million royalty-free stock photos and illustrations with releases—available as single images, image packs or subscriptions. Photos.com

German based Photocase.com is a website for people who don’t want typical stock photos. There are no “stock clichés”. If you’re interested in buying or selling really unique photos, Photocase can help you. You can buy single images starting at 12$ or you can save up to 80% by buying a credit package. Photocase.com

Swiss based AbsolutVision is a team composed of photographers and graphic professionals. It was created to give to the customers a tool for downloading inexpensive professional quality, royalty-free photos for your brochures, ads, newsletters, on-screen presentations, web sites, etc. The images are available in two ways: through annual subscription (3600 images/year) or daily subscription (10 images/day). Absolutvision.com

While they offer premium stock photos in a variety of sizes, there are also 1,000′s of free stock photos available for immediate download in the gallery. The free stock photos are 400-600 pixels in maximum dimensions at 72 dpi, ideal for web use, and the selection of free photos is at the discretion of each photographer. Creatingonline.com/stock_photos

ImageTrail is a photo search engine that indexes multiple professional stock image agencies for easy searching. All images shown are available for purchase and download. Most images are available for $1.  All images indexed by the ImageTrail search engine are professional and legal to be used for personal or commercial purposes. Imagetrail.net

Inmagine is a supplier and distributor of Royalty-Free digital stock photography in the world. It represents more than 10 million RF-stock images from over 100 collections, one of the biggest Royalty-Free publishers in the market today.  Inmagine provides a one of a kind 24-hour service throughout their offices all over the world. Inmagine.com

Veer provides elements for design and creativity. A new perspective on royalty- free stock photos, and illustration, as well as typefaces and stylish … Veer.com

Choose from Getty Images, iStockphoto and Jupiterimages collections of royalty-free photos, vectors and illustrations. Download up to 25 images a day with a subscription. And once you’ve used an image, you can keep using it – over and over – in future projects. Thinkstockphotos.com

Crestock is a growing player in micropayment royalty-free stock photography, helping clients with small budgets find creative images for their projects. With a fast and reliable image upload system, Crestock also gives photographers and illustrators a great platform for licensing their creative work. Crestock.com

All images from Photo laboratory photl.com can be downloaded and used for personal, educational and other non-commercial purposes free of charge. In case of commercial use a 1$ sum should be paid within two days from the image download. Images for commercial use have an extended royalty free license. Photl.com

123RF.com is a royalty-free microstock image library, that is also a targeted subscriber and community-based website. The platform gives photographers, illustrators and designers a chance to showcase their photographs, vectors, illustrations and designs, allowing them the space to promote and sell their creations to an international audience. 123rf.com

Berlin-based stock agency Shopshot.com for selected budget RF photography. Shotshop’s online shop offers high quality royalty-free images from all areas and is well known for its simplicity and ease of use. Shotshop.com

Fotolia is a microstock photography agency that is based in New York. It was started by Oleg Tscheltzoff, Patrick Chassany, Thibaud Elziere in November 2005. The company also has offices in Seattle, Washington and Paris, France. Fotolia.com

Well organized and easy to use Stockphotography website and registered trademark of Shutterstock. Download royalty free stock photos and vector art from Bigstock™ Search from over 8200000 affordable high quality stock photos and vector illustrations. Bigstockphoto.com

Dreamstime provides imagery to an infinite gamut of clients in the creative market from independent customers in the private sector to Fortune 500 companies (including the world’s largest advertising agencies, national and international magazines, film and television production companies). Dreamstime.com

Shutterstock is one of the biggest subscription-based stock photo agencies in the world. Every day thousands of photographs, illustrations, video footage and vectors and are added to the collection of premium, royalty-free images. Select the subscription plan that’s best for you and start downloading. Shutterstock.com

Alamy describes itself as the biggest online agency in the world, providing a one stop shop for photographers. It’s anticipated that it will have at least 27million images by the end of 2011. Alamy has a global network of suppliers, including 569 international picture agencies and over 25,000 photographers. Content spans cutting edge creative stock, editorial, news, sport and entertainment imagery. Alamy.com

Clipart.com is  the largest collection of royalty-free clipart, photos, vinyl-ready images, Web graphics, illustrations, fonts and sounds offered by subscription on the Web. Great for: Web sites, newsletters, brochures, advertisements, announcements, labels, e-greetings, Web templates, vinyl cutting, routing, engraving, screen printing, mechanical embroidery, holidays and more. Clipart.com

This is the mission of aboutpixel.com. One of the biggest online image database and photo communities around. More than 40,000 high quality photographs and 100,000 members are what characterise the aboutpixel experience: Art meets people. Aboutpixel.com

iStockphoto is a royalty free, international microstock photography, illustration, audio and video content provider operating with the micropayment business model. Images cost between 1 and 150 credits, depending on size and image collection (with credits ranging from $.95 to $1.50 USD each). istockphoto.com

Cutcaster is a simple-to-use website for intelligently searching and buying royalty free photos, hi-res pictures, stock vectors and free stock images for use on websites, newsletters, advertising, publishing or any commercial project. Cutcaster.com