It's not uncommon to come across stock photos that aren't quite right for your needs. Browsing or performing keyword-based searches can help you uncover a wealth of potential photos at the various stock photo agencies, but may not help you locate the exact photo you're looking for. Coloration, image quality and a wealth of other features only need to be slightly off to justify looking for something better.
Fortunately, there are numerous ways to locate the perfect stock photo by searching for similar images. Performing similar image searches can help you find photos that are closely related to the images you've already searched to find, making it easy to discover photos that fit your needs perfectly. Similar image searching is something of a new feature, and is not in full use at every stock photo agency yet. That said, there are a few well-known places to search for similar stock images, and find your ideal photos.
Similar Images in Stock Photo Secrets Shop
Our Stock Photo Secrets Shop now includes a great reverse image search engine that lets you find photos based in visual similarity. It's an intelligent software that analyses images and improves search results from user experiences. It recognises all relevant elements in a photo like subjects, colors, composition, etc. How cool is that?
It's very simple and quick to use too. You can watch this walkthrough video below:
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
And here's a quick step-by-step guide:
- Click on the camera icon in the search bar
- Drag and drop an image in the popup field, or click on it to upload a file from your device
- You'll see results within seconds, that you can refine:
- Use “visual similarity + keywords” button to get the precisest matches possible
- Use advanced filters to narrow your results even more
- Use the “search similar images” button in any photo you like to discover images similar to that one – this is also shown in the image page, below the preview
- Use the star button to add an image to your lightbox right away, and additionally use the envelope button to email the image preview to anyone, or the arrow button to get the comp image file
- When you're ready to buy, simply click the download button in the image page. If you already have a plan or image pack you will have the download deducted, if not, you will be directed to our purchase page to choose your plan or pack and complete the payment process (do check out our popular 99club plan!)
All this can be done superfast and without any hassle, which makes it very easy for you to find similar images in no time, without even having to type in any keywords or do any heavy thinking to describe what you're looking for. Don't you love it?
Visit Stock Photo Secrets Shop and play around with the Reverse Image Search. If you want to know more about our service, read our Stock Photo Secrets Shop review.
Similar Images from iStockphoto
Perhaps the most common place to perform a similar image search is at the popular stock photo agency iStockphoto. This site is known for its comprehensive search feature, which allows you to easily browse through the millions of photos housed on the site. Other media such as vector illustrations and video clips are also licensed for stock use at iStockphoto, and these items are also available via search.
The search feature at iStockphoto allows you to find photos and other media via several parameters, including color and relevant keywords to help you narrow your choices. When you find an item you're interested in using, or want to refer back to, the built-in Lightbox feature allows you to save it for future viewing. This is particularly helpful if you want to save a great photo for a future project without having to purchase a license to it in advance.
Pixmac's Similarity Search
Another great tool for finding similar photos is Pixmac's similarity search. This service is a part of Pixmac's stock photo agency, and makes it very easy to locate photos that are similar. Pixmac's search features an intuitive visual similarity tool, which analyses an image before returning similar results. The visual similarity function within Pixmac is capable of analyzing attributes such as colors, shapes and photo composition to return very similar photo choices. Unlike the tool at iStockphoto or other stock photo agencies, this tool allows you to upload your own images and find similar results. Pixmac's similarity search also works as a photo search engine, allowing you to easily find photos based on keyword searches.
