Sometimes a photo can be the difference between a good design and a great design. But good photography often comes with a steep price. Thankfully with the generosity of budding artists eager to make a name for themselves, free stock photography sites flourish all over the internet. I'd like to share my three favorite free stock photography sites.

stock.xchng - I've been using stock.xchng for years, the quality of the photography varies greatly, but they also have a lot of stock art and backgrounds to choose from. Stock Xchng's art is free, but often times the photographer will ask to be credited, or at least notified of where you used their art. This is of course, an "honor system" thing, but if you don't want to go to the trouble of notifying every photographer, it's easy enough to stick to the photos without any extra notification rules.

Stockvault - Stockvault is easily the prettiest and most user-friendly of the three sites. With a fresh design and a modern interface, it's very easy to search and browse photos. Stockvault allows you to browse by category and includes some unique specialties like textures and 3D renders.

Freerange - Freerange Stock is at the bottom of the list, while it does offer some great photography, the user interface can, at times, be a bit clunky and the download process is less than straightforward. That being said, it does offer a wide variety of stock photos and offers the ability to request a specific photo if you can't find one appropriate enough on the site.

When you don't have the time or perhaps the budget for a professional photographer, sometimes a stock photo can be a project-saver and between these three great sites, you're sure to find a photo that fits your needs.