Images: Searching for Images
Tips for Searching
Your search for images is guided by a few key questions:
1. What type of image do I need?
Deciding exactly what kind of image you’re looking for is important. Is it a map, an illustration, a specific art work or a photograph of a historical event? Making this determination will help you decide which types of databases or search engines to use, but you should also consider using the type of image as part of your keyword search (e.g. map, historical, illustration).
2. What subject area would include the image?
This is an important step because many image databases are subject specific. If you need an image of a patient with rheumatoid arthritis, you probably won’t find what you need in an art related database. That said, there are also large general image collections that can be useful to search as well.
3. Is the image specific or general?
Looking for pictures of a dog is much different from looking for Giacomo Balla’s Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash. If you’re looking for a very specific image, you’ll want to use as much information about the image as possible and a subject oriented database.
[This content is adapted from the University of Michigan Library's Images guide, authored by Rebecca Price.]
Creative Commons Image Search
- Creative Commons Image SearchCC Search searches across more than 300 million images from open APIs and the Common Crawl dataset. It goes beyond simple search to aggregate results across multiple public repositories into a single catalog, and facilitates reuse through features like machine-generated tags and one-click attribution.
Basics
- GoogleUse Tools on the Image Results Page to filter images (e.g., Clip Art only)
- BingImage Results Page allows limiting by Image Size, Color, Type (e.g., Line Drawing) and other options.
- YAHOO! SearchLimit image results by Color, Size, Type, and License
Search by Visual Qualities
- Bing Search Engine Image SearchFilter your results by color, shape, size, etc. or use Image Match to find similar images.
- FlickrTry searching by color or form. Use advanced search to refine your searching.
- Google Images: Image MatchClick on the camera in the searchbox to load or link to an image for comparison.
Limiting Image Search by License Type
Google, Bing, YAHOO!, and other search tools permit users to filter by type of image license.
License types include:
- Free to share and use: Changing and editing not allowed, but using and sharing is permitted. Non-commercial use.
- Free to share and use commercially: Changing and editing not allowed, but using and sharing is permitted. Commercial and noncommercial use allowed.
- Free to modify, share, and use: Same as "Free to share and use" and you can also edit and modify images.
- Free to modify, share, and use commercially: Images can be shared, used, edited for both commercial and non-commercial use.
- Public domain: Works owned by the public. May use, share, modify, for commercial and non-commercial use.
