CCD images of the fields of 115 radio sources from the 1Jy, S4 and S5 catalogues are presented. New optical counterparts have been found for a total of 34 sources, a large fraction of which had as yet only been described as empty fields on Sky Survey Plates. Of the 54 radio sources with previously published identifications, 50 optical counterparts have been confirmed while for 4 sources new identifications are proposed. R band magnitudes, derived from the CCD images, are provided for all but a few identified optical counterparts. The fields at the positions of 27 radio sources are still empty down to a limiting magnitude of at least m_R_=22mag, requiring much deeper optical as well as additional infrared images for establishing their optical counterparts.