The search engine is very literal. Use the “'Or' Keyword Search” option with single word or combinations of words, but omit articles, conjunctions, and prepositions (e.g., “bridge twilight California” rather than ”bridges at twilight in california”). If you want a more narrow search then use the “'And' Keyword Search.”

Keyword structure:

• Use only nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
• Do not use conjunctions such as "to", "with", "and", "at", "that is", as these will interfere with efficient image retrieval from the database.
• Use singular instead of plural noun. [Since our search engine is designed with the "contains" criteria, most often you will want to use the singular form of your keyword (home instead of homes, light instead of lighting). This is especially important when the spelling of the plural form is different from the singular form (family versus families). You may want multiple images of a single family to review, but using the keyword "families" may produce only images that have two or more families in the same photo.]
• Use a present tense verb.When we are looking at a photo, we see the action happening now, not in the past or future. For example, use the keyword "run" instead of "ran".
• Spell out keywords completely. Do not use abbreviations, such as two letter state postal codes (use "Illinois" instead of "IL"), or combined words (use "physical therapy" instead of "PT").
• Use correct spelling. Search engine criteria is a precise science - one letter error in a keyword and the images will not be seen. For mutual success, we need to keyword our images with correct spelling, and you need to search with correct spelling.
• Exclude punctuation Do not use commas, colons, hyphens, etc. Simply leave a space where these symbols normally would be.
• Think like a thesaurus. Our keyword experts, like you, are only human, so there may be room for interpretation about what people see and describe in a photo. Therefore, you can greatly increase the odds of finding your perfect stock photo in our database by using various keywords that describe the basic concept you are working on. How would someone else describe what you need? If you get a "Sorry, no photos found" response for certain keywords, or if you are not satisfied with the scope of images presented for you, browse our (searchable keyword list) to get ideas of other words that describe what you need. Let our vision and creativity work for you!