Find The Perfect Image For Any Project In 5 Steps
Posted March 19, 2009 in Graphic Design, How-To, Web Design
Finding the right image is a constant challenge for designers, writers, freelancers, photographers — and just about anyone else who works on visual projects. Wading through the myriad of images and websites that are out there is tough, and picking a single one of those photos can be even harder.
In this article, we’ll show you a simple 5 step process that can make finding the right image much easier. It’s a process that’s been used to find hundreds of great images on this site, and it’s been used to find thousands of images for various other projects.
Step 1: List Your Constraints
Before you can begin looking for the right image it’s critical to gather and list all of the constraints you’ll face when using this image. Almost every project has certain limitations on the imagery that will work best in the final use, and it’s important to know these limitations before you begin to spend time searching.
Here are a few common constraints to watch out for:
- Exact Dimension (e.g. must be 3″x5″, can’t be wider than 600px)
- Aspect Ratio (e.g. must be 8:10 aspect, must be portrait orientation)
- Quality and Type (e.g. must be > 300dpi, must be in vector format)
- Color (e.g. image needs to be predominantly blue, image should be light)
- Misc Other Limits (e.g. image must be cut-out of background, etc…)
Once you have the exact details and requirements for your project, put them into a list or some other format that’s good for quick reference. This will help to easily cut out images that won’t work, as well as help you save time and guarantee that the final choice is perfect for the project.
Step 2: Find The Exact Purpose
Every image should have a specific reason or purpose for being included in your project. Some images are there to grab attention, others are included to make something more friendly. Some images need to set the mood of the audience, others just need to look pretty and take up space. Whatever your project, it’s important to figure out what this image needs to do.
Really think about the final resting place of the image, carefully consider your audience and placement, and then do your best to come up with a detailed purpose for it being there. The more details you can decide on for the image’s purpose, the better — it will make finding an image much easier and will significantly improve the final result.
If you can’t find any specific purpose for including the image, then it might actually be worth leaving out.
Step 3: Turn Abstract Ideas Into Concrete Search Terms
Now that you’ve got a very good overview of the requirements and purpose of this image, it’s time to translate this information into concrete terms that you can actually use to find some images. Trying to find an image that represents ‘difficulty’ is going to be a lot harder than finding an image of a ‘rock climber’ or even ‘hurdles’, so you want to brainstorm as many concrete terms as you can.
Some good things to consider are objects, actions, specific situations (e.g. ‘business meeting’), places, or anything else that could be used to label an image. You want to do your best to convert the abstract requirements of this image into concrete ideas that other people might use to label a stock photo, or that you could use to send a description to a professional photographer.
Here are a few examples of this translation:
- Luck can become four-leaf clover, gold, or bingo
- Freedom can become sitting on the beach
- Difficulty can be hurdles, narrow staircase, or rock climber
- Inviting can be open door, outstretched arms, or embrace
- Growth can be a little plant, plant in hands, or a financial chart
As you can see, there are many different specific terms that can represent a single abstract word or feeling. It’s up to you to find as many of the specifics that could fit, and from there to choose the terms that best fit your project.
Step 4: Start The Search
It’s finally time to start looking at images — and now that we’ve done all of the prep-work, this stage will go a lot faster and should be a lot easier.
From the last step you should have a list of very specific terms that describe the image you’re looking for, so now the goal is to find as many images as possible that fit those terms. The easiest way to do this is by searching various stock and image websites. Here are a few good options:
Free stock/image websites (be careful of copyrights)
Premium/paid stock image websites
The best way to handle the image search is usually to create a lightbox or other way of gathering the images you’ve found together. This way, you can look very quickly and save anything that could possibly work for review later. The object of this step is to find lots of potential images, and not necessarily to find the perfect image. We’ll get to that part in a minute…
Step 5: Review Options and Select The Final Image
It might seem like a good idea to combine this step with the last one, and just review and critique the images as you’re looking through the search — but that can actually hurt things. If you combine the search with the review it’s easy to miss images that could work, or to select an image that isn’t really that good. Splitting the search and review into two separate steps will make sure you can compare all of the good possible images together at once, and then make the overall best pick for the project.
When you search and review at the same time, what you’re actually doing is grouping the images in your mind, and then comparing each one to the selection you’ve already seen. This does sometimes work well for small image searches, but for any larger projects it will actually slow you down as you’ll end up looking over the same image group multiple times to try and remember everything you’ve seen. So, always remember to split the searching stage and the review/selection stage.
When you’re reviewing your images, it can sometimes be very difficult to select one because so many would work well. In other cases, it can be tough because none of the images really fit what you’re looking for. In both situations, I recommend one thing: give yourself leeway in image choice. The image you select doesn’t need to explain everything exactly, that’s why there is text. Let yourself pick an image based on feeling, abstract ideas, and overall impression — not necessarily on very specific details.
In the end, the final selected image should be the one that closest matches your purpose for this specific image. It should convey the right feel, it should attract the right amount of attention, and it should get across the point that you need it to make. If you can do that, then chances are you’ve found the perfect image.
How Do You Find Images?
That’s it for this process — but there are still a lot of little things that we didn’t cover. Do you have any tips you’d like to add? How about horror stories about trying to find the right image?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Images in this article were found on Flickr by using Compfight. Credit goes to: Sergie Arsenie, 416style, Ella’s Dad, and Andreq Ciscel.
Related posts:
- 5 Steps for the Perfect Tabbed Navigation Menu
- 25 Sites to Find Good Free Vector Files
- I Really Need to Find It!!! Resources And Tools For (pretty much) Everything
- Creating A Pure CSS Image Gallery With Descriptions
- How To Create A Vibrant Image Using Photoshop
About the author: Mason Hipp is a designer, entrepreneur, and writer. He is co-author of the Book The Unlimited Freelancer, and has just recently launched a collection of premium graphic resources for web designers called MediaLoot. Follow him on twitter @MasonHipp
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40 Comments
Laura Spencer
March 19th, 2009 at 2:41 pmGreat tips!
You always seem to find the perfect image for the post. . .
Rafie
March 19th, 2009 at 4:40 pmPersonally, I’ll go for keywords and main idea of the article/update. If it is something unique, the photo can be a bit off-topic just to attract the readers.
Look for free quality images and if there is none that suits, spent about 50 cents to get decent image via any stock websites as mentioned in the article.
Cheers!
Kim
March 19th, 2009 at 5:05 pmDon’t forget, you CAN hire freelance illustrators and photographers to create an image to your specifications, rather than just looking for stock. Original work can be real nice, communicate your message more clearly, and hey, illustrators and photographers need to eat too. :) Obviously this isn’t feasible for small projects, but if you’re a designer and you’ve got a client and a budget, give it a chance, you know?
That said, for times when you need stock, this is good advice to find it.
Preston Lee
March 19th, 2009 at 6:58 pmExcellent article!! I especially appreciate the links to image providers. Thanks for the great suggetions!
Thiago Cavalcanti
March 19th, 2009 at 7:49 pmI liked your steps, they are better then my current ones. I think I’ll put them to use soon.
Thanks!
Lee Munroe
March 19th, 2009 at 9:30 pmUseful article Mason, thanks
Gabe Harris
March 19th, 2009 at 10:20 pmThanks for the article, great tips. Any hints on how to go from the abstract concept to the concrete example (i.e. from “difficulty” to “narrow staircase”)?
I love Webdesign
March 20th, 2009 at 3:54 amyou hit exactly the topic I always searched for the whole web! Thanx a lot for this article!
tim
March 20th, 2009 at 4:21 amThanks, this is a really useful article, I always struggle wading through stock photo sites looking for that “perfect” image. I think it would definitely be more productive if I had a game plan before even going to the site.
Jeremy
March 20th, 2009 at 7:35 amI’ll be the first to admit that image selection and placement is a real struggle for me. Getting better, but I still feel like it takes quite a bit longer than it should. Excellent article and interesting to see how others go about selecting the perfect image. Thanks, definitely planning to implement some of the ideas here.
iHazim
March 20th, 2009 at 8:43 amThanks for the useful tips.
Nikhil
March 20th, 2009 at 1:36 pmGreat Articles & The Images in the Articles are great and they are always great in each article.
It will definitely will help for the blogger for finding perfect image for their blog to make attractive and meaningful.
keruchan
March 21st, 2009 at 8:47 amnice tips, I do manipulate them according to my preferences all I need is to find stock photos combine them and a new image reborn.
Sarah
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:33 amI like to use Flickr to find photos especially Common Creative type of photos. Not only it is easy to sort out the type of photos, it is also easy to credit the owner. Otherwise I would get stock photos and perhaps edit the photo to suit my context.
Steve Atkinson
March 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pmEven though we all are aware of copyrights, I think that there should have been more mention about copyrights in the article. Especially when using sites such as Flickr.
Everyone should be watching what rights are being giving. Maybe the stock photo rights holder has given the rights to be used within a newsletter, but not in advertising. I’m sure that there are many other examples.
Freelancer Crowd
March 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pmI maintrain a list of sources of free images.
Hope it would be of some use http://freelancercrowd.com/community/graphics/stock-images/
AlexinHouston
March 22nd, 2009 at 1:11 pmExcellante!
Jared Walker
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:08 pmSometimes I have a hard time finding the perfect image when I’m working on web or Flash design projects. I have exactly what I want pictured in my mind, but can never find it on stock sites. Sometimes I can find it after a lot of searching, but often I have to make it myself (similar to what Kim said). I’ll make my own image by taking an image that’s close to what I want and add the elements that are missing in Photoshop/Illustrator. Or I’ll have someone take a photo of exactly what I’m looking for. Sometimes it’s a lot easier and faster than searching and searching, especially when you know exactly what you want.
Tom
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:53 amIt´s easy when you know how :) thanks for the information! [Stumbled]
Marc - Welshscribe
March 24th, 2009 at 10:00 amGreat tips Mason.
My process is three fold:
1) Take your “key” word, phrase or concept
2) Visit Flickr/iStockPhoto
3) Open up a thesaurus :)
Mike
April 1st, 2009 at 4:58 amTurboPhoto is not free stock
hkki
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:41 pmgreat tips
Mghmg
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:14 amExcellante
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