Search tips
Four things worth knowing. They apply on every tab and in every search box on the site.
Two words means both
horse portrait finds pictures that match horse AND portrait. Adding a word always narrows the search — it never widens it.
Quotes keep words together
"opening ceremony" looks for that exact phrase rather than the two words scattered anywhere in the caption.
Minus removes
horse -portrait finds horses and drops anything that also matches portrait. Useful when one word keeps dragging in the wrong pictures.
The tabs are different libraries
Editorial is the news wire and dated reportage. Specialist is the curated archive collections. Creative is commercial stock. Free is the free-to-use providers. All searches everything at once and blends the results.
If a search comes back empty
Every word you add narrows the search, so the usual cause is one word too many. We will offer a broader version of the same search — the same words matched on any rather than all — and you can take it or refine instead. Dropping the most specific word by hand is often quicker than rephrasing the whole thing.
Which tab to use
- All
- Every library at once, blended. The best place to start when you do not yet know which library holds the picture.
- Editorial
- The news wire and dated reportage — what happened, and when. Licensed for editorial use.
- Specialist
- Curated archive and specialist collections: history, art, natural history, travel. Deep rather than current.
- Creative
- Commercial stock — concepts, lifestyle, backgrounds. Available on accounts with creative licensing enabled.
- Free
- Free-to-use providers. No cost, but check the credit requirements shown on each image.
Still not finding it? Ask us — we have researchers who do this all day, and access to material that is not in the search index.