Are there any totally free programs to restore lost data from an iPhone?

I recently lost almost all of my photos from my iPhone 5S because they were in my photo stream and not my camera roll when I upgraded to iOS 8. I lost about 1000 photos from concerts and trips overseas, but I can see them when I use the free trial for programs such as Fone Rescue, but these free trials won't let me restore them.
I also tried some that restore lost files from your computer and say they can do so to external hard drives, but they don't recognise my phone.
I'm in college and I'd prefer a free option if that's at all possible.
Are there any programs that will let me restore my photos for free?

I understand you well. You are in college so you don't want to cost much money on software to recover lost photos from iPhone 5s. But as you described, there are so many precious pics that you value much. So how can you mean that little money to lose measures like pic memories?

From my idea, you can completely save the money from other costs to buy such an iPhone data recovery. Yeah, as you told me, the free trial can just give you the preview of the lost pics, to get the lost photos back, you need to buy it and register to the full version. However, you still have a chance to get a discount by writing email to the software company. Good luck!
Recommended reliable iPhone Data Recovery Software: http://www.tenorshare.com/products/iphone-data-recovery-win.html
If you are using Mac, just switch to the Mac version.

Connect iPhone to computer, and then open "Computer", iPhone should show as a drive letter there. If not, please follow these instructions: In iTunes, right click on your iPhone and select "iPhone Options". Under the "iPhone" tab, make a tick in "Enable Disk Use". Click OK. Unplug your iPhone, then replug.

Now follow steps below
Step1: Download this data recovery software, then install and launch it in Windows machine correctly.
Step2: Sync your iPhone with computer. Then you should see it shows as a drive letter in 'My Computer' like H:/.
Step3: Select iPhone drive letter and then click "Next", you will find all your lost files in the lists.
Step4: After the automatic scanning, it's time to finish all the steps by clicking "Recover" easily to Recover your files!

Yes there are lots of free apps on internet for you to choose to recover your iPhone files. But you need to pay attention to this: Some free apps may bring you some ads, even virus which may damage your computer because you need to install the software on your computer then plug your iPhone in your computer to scan for the files and then recover the files.
In my opinion, you can try some free download and free scan paid version data recovery software. It offers the full support and better service. Free scan function can help you to scan your iPhone first, after scanning is finished, you can use the preview to check if it can find out your lost files (if the software you choose which offers the preview function). If it can find out your files, you can decide if you want to pay for it or not.
You can simply check this post to get more details before you choose the software to recover your files: Hope my answer can help you a lot and good luck.

Genevieve, as far as i know, there's not a totally free program for iPhone data recovery but a trial version.

Yes, it is a fact that camera roll is missing from iOS 8. There's a article about for recovering photos from iOS 8:
http://www.easy-iphone-recovery.com/photo-recovery/ios-8-photo-recovery.html