Free for Commercial Use: Another Load of Free Stock Photos

FFCU is the abbreviation of the new stock photo provider "Free for Commercial Use," and that name says it all. All you'll find on FFCU are completely free to use photos. You probably already know the mind behind the service.

FFCU: Public Domain For Every Legal Purpose

Regular readers of Noupe already know the name Markus Spiske. The photographer and media designer from the German city of Erlangen is also responsible for the stock photo page Raumrot, which we also presented here, back in 2014. Of course, brain-active readers will immediately ask why you'd need two of these websites. The answer is simple. On Raumrot, all images are under the license CC-BY-2.0, requiring users to mention the creator, origin, and license. Spiske gets rid of this requirement on Free for Commercial Use (FFCU) entirely. Of course, he'll be happy to see you give back attribution, but it is not required for you to be allowed to use them. The contrary is the case, as Spiske clearly labels all images on FFCU under CC0 and public domain. This means the photos are completely free to use for any legal purpose. The photographer stays true to his style on FFCU. Spiske's photos always have a vintage touch, and always focus things in detail or off the common perspective. You won't find random snapshots in his arsenal. Nonetheless, he manages to take images in a way that still makes them good options for general purposes. The following photo can serve as a good example: [caption id="attachment_102448" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Source[/caption] FFCU already contains 1,000 images, and Raumrot has also grown to more than 1,000 photos. The delivery of the FFCU photos is done via the photographer's Strato Hi-Drive. All images are provided in 300dpi resolution and weigh about 10 MB. Only time can tell how long Strato will let this slide. In the worst case, it should be possible to find an alternative solution for the distribution pretty quickly.

Clean: Wanted and Found

On FFCU, photos are sorted by topics, and displayed in grid overviews. You get to like, and share individual images on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, directly from the grid. One click on the photo preview opens the respective image's detail page. Here, you'll receive some background information on the picture. However, information that would be interesting for photographers, such as the entire EXIF area, is missing. Alternatively, you can use the free text search to go through the individual subject areas. As a result, you won't get a grid overview, but a list of results. If you're looking for public domain images that don't look just like a million others, FFCU is definitely worth visiting. The photographers' special style won't appeal to everyone, but, in the times of the omnipresent Instagram filters, it is entirely suitable for the masses, without obviously trying to be.