We love graphics. Especially free ones!!
Who doesn’t? In this article, we’ll show you how to quickly find the perfect image for all your designs.
Imagine yourself sitting at your workstation. You have a clear idea in your head of that one, killer image that you need for a project you’re working steadily on. The only image that will complete your design. And, perhaps you’re creating something for a client who is being impatient and needs it yesterday.
Fear not! Pexels is chock full of the very best free stock photos in one place. Chances are, you’ll find what you need there.
Easy peasy.
But . . . wait. There’s more.
Pexels isn’t the only trick in our hat. There are other great sites out there loaded with perfect images just sitting there, waiting for you to download and use.
There’s also Pixabay, where they report to have millions of free images at your fingertips; StockSnap, where they offer hundreds of free, high-resolution images (with more added weekly); and let’s not forget about PicJumbo where they offer to deliver free images straight to your inbox to consider.
As you can see, there are a handful of great sites just waiting for you to partake of their resources. Oh, and we absolutely love Unsplash.
The sites above offer completely free and high-resolution stock photos.
And since you don’t have to spend any money on them, spending a fair amount of time perusing them shouldn’t be an issue. But that’s a given, because good things take time.
What else do you need?
just in case you can’t find what you are looking for and you need more of a premium image, you can try shutterstock, istockphoto, photodune, 123RF, etc. But be prepared to spend a pretty penny for some. if you need a custom graphic, you can hire MDM and we can create all that you are envisioning!
So now that you’ve got the inside info, we’d like to offer a few tips on getting the job done quickly and on point.
#1: BE SPECIFIC.
This might be the fallback of many great graphic designers. Not being specific and focused on the graphic they need, thus wasting time and energy on their search.
The discouragement mounts when you aren’t finding what you need. Let’s see if we can resolve that before it happens.
Sometimes, finding the right image is all about proper visual comparison. You have references, you have the image in your head, and perhaps you’ve got previous renditions of the design you are working on.
Well, all of the above image resources offer great search tools, so focusing on the image you need, refining your keywords, and trying not to search too broadly will go a very long way.
For instance, looking for the word “girl” would produce tens of thousands of results. Maybe more! You must be more specific.
If you’re looking for a girl with her arms raised at the beach, then make your search: “girl beach, arms raised.”
You will still get a large amount of results, but they will actually be of girl at the beach, and chances are, your image will be waiting for you there. Boom.
#2: GET TO KNOW THE REFINE SEARCH TOOL.
Now that you have a girl at the beach with her arms raised staring at you, you might want to define more specific components that further refine your search. This can bring up the images within your current search that are more in tune with exactly what you need.
You might indicate if you need a vertical, horizontal, or panoramic image for your design. With this one, simple refinement, you’ve further narrowed down your search results and have a better chance of finding that killer image you need. The one that makes your design.
#3: MIX IT UP.
So even though you started your search with the perfect image in mind, you might not have known what you actually needed until you saw it before you.
Image discovery is an intuitive process, and you might not nail it until you’ve glanced through your refined search results.
Once you’ve done that, using the above tips, you’ll be surprised at the effectiveness of shuffling those results up a bit.
Play around your results. Switch between the options in the refine panel: Best Match, Newest, and Most Popular to get different impressions.
Best Match is your chosen graphics site’s recommendation based on the factors you’ve defined for your search. If you’re limited on time, this might be your best bet. They’re pretty good at this, actually.
Newest is self-explanatory and will just show you images newer to the site. No particular matching strength except it fell under your commands of refinement. 😉 So there’s that.
Most Popular is going to display images that have been downloaded most by users of the site. This gives you reassurance that the images were perfect for other great designers like you, passing filters and refinements with flying colors.
That said, they might be images you’d see elsewhere more often than not merely because of their popularity. So unless you feel they are IT, Best Match might be the perfect medium for you.
Are you stuck? Contact us or Schedule a Call