Aside from the usual stock sites (istock, shutterstock etc.,) does anyone have a good resource for high-resolution backplates?

Looking for just about anything — race tracks, roads, parking lots, fields, woods etc.,

Thx!

I'm a bit confused, are you asking for backgrounds?

It depends what you are wanting to use them for to be honest,

If it's just for your own personal art use, for the joy of doing art, then flickr is full of brilliant photographs. If you plan to use it to advertise yourself or commercially, it'd probably be best to ask for the photographer's permission first.
It's often good to combine many sources into one, taking the best bits to create something that's unique - we prefer to see this, as it's more creative and isn't 'ripping any one off' quite so much.

Some good links here to get you started:
http://www.autemo.com/forums/?t=13791

Not all have the HiRes links remaining, but many do
Hope this helps

Yes. I've always heard them referred to as backplates but technically, they're the same thing.



Honestly, they will be used for both commercial and personal however I'd never steal an image and not credit the photographer. Most of the composites I do require a lot of editing and the backplates are made up of multiple images (usually sky, background and foreground with other elements brought in).

Thanks for the link.

Well deviantart has a huge stock part to it where you can use whatever you want.

I suppose that I will have to dive into that heap. Sometimes there's just so much junk on DA that sifting through it all to find a hidden gem is a chore.