Free Photos, Set 01: 105 Mixed Pictures
Set 01 of the BigFoto library: 105 free photos of signs and pictograms, buttons and keys, trees and autumn leaves, lakes and sunsets, and everyday things in Swiss towns, grouped by subject below. Click any photo to see it large and download it.
How to download: click a photo to see it large, then use Download. The originals are about 1200 × 800 pixels: right for blog posts, slides, social media, school projects and video call backgrounds.
Signs and pictograms
Road and warning signs, a cash machine pictogram, shop and restaurant figures, a house number and an SOS button.
Trees, leaves and plants
Bare trees against the sky, frosty twigs, maple and autumn leaves, grass and dry seed heads.
Lakes, sky and weather
A windsock above a lake, rowers and boats, a paraglider, fog, hail and sunsets over the water.
Town, work and leisure
A shopping street in Zurich, building cranes, café chairs, a vending machine, a basketball hoop, old trucks and farm things.
Objects and textures close up
Buttons, a key, loudspeakers, a ruler, a pendant, cracked soil, peeling paint, light trails and other details.
About photography
The early days and camera obscura.
The dream of making permanent images and recording observations has existed since ancient times. The principle of the camera obscura (Latin for dark room) was known even by Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). Light entering a tiny hole in the wall of a darkened room or box forms an inverted image of whatever is outside on the opposite wall. It was not until 1568 that Venetian professor Danielo Barbaro produced a clearer image by substituting a lens for the pinhole. Despite the fact that in 1725 German physicist Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that silver salts are radically changed by exposure to light, it took another 100 years until the optical and chemical principles were brought together to produce what we now call a photograph.
The first photograph.
The world’s first photograph was taken by Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. He coated a polished pewter plate with bitumen of Judea, exposed it to light for eight hours and then treated it with a solution of oil of lavender and turpentine. This produced a ghostly image of a view of the courtyard at Gras, France and is officially recognized as the world’s oldest existing photograph. Some believe that he succeeded as early as 1822, but if so, the image did not survive. His creation of a permanent image was fundamental to the development of photography.
More free photos
- Free photos, set 02
- Free forest pictures
- Free lake pictures
- Free close-up pictures
- Free background pictures
Questions about set 01
Can I use these photos for free?
Yes, for personal and commercial projects. All we ask is a link back to BigFoto.com; the box at the top of the page has a credit link you can copy.
Why is this a mixed set?
These photos were added to the library in batches of about a hundred and did not fit one theme or place. They are grouped by subject on this page; the sets before and after it hold more of the same kind of everyday pictures.
