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How to Find Good Reference Images

Using an Internet search engine and some well thought out keywords, you can search for reference images around the globe. Photographers from many countries either post their pictures to private and public sites, or submit them to stock Web sites. Prior to posting these pictures, many photographers will insert keywords into the metadata of the pictures. These keywords describe the picture and make it possible for search engines to find pictures when individuals enter the keywords that match those in the picture.

Instructions

Narrow Your Search
- 1
  Write down several keywords that describe the type of picture you are looking for. The more specific you can be, the more relevant the results from the search will be. Starting with broad keywords like "Landscape" or "Color" will narrow the returns to pictures that only appear in color and in a horizontal orientation.
- 2
  Connect to the Internet and open up a search engine. Change the search parameter to "Images" and enter the keywords you wrote down. The search engine will return pages of different pictures, with the most relevant being on the initial pages. Scan the pictures and see if the returned results are close to the type of images you are looking for. If not, re-evaluate your keywords. If the search returns too many pictures then add additional keywords to narrow the search until you are getting the type of reference images you are looking for.
- 3
  Click on the images you want to use. Once opened the image will indicate where it came from. If on a stock site, see if it is in a "free images" section, if the site has one. If the image resides on a photographer's personal Web site or on a public site like Flickr, contact the photographer directly and negotiate a usage arrangement for the picture.

Photography