Looking for Asian photos and images? Whether your need is professional or personal, a trip to Asia does not have to book. Online stock photography agencies will save you time and money and provide the perfect shot. Travel virtually and experience Asian culture through stock photography inventories taken by professional travel photographers.
How does Stock Photography work?
Stock photography agencies have an inventory of professional and unique Asian pictures that will meet your immediate needs. With searchable databases on the sites and keyword tagging on each photo, you can narrow down your search for Asian photos, make a decision and download photos in seconds.
Keywords will be your secret weapon and define the stock photography images that will show up in your search. Keywords are critical when searching for images, photos and pictures and the more specific you can be the easier it is to match your needs.
How to use keywords successfully
Let me give you an example. When these keywords were put into the istock search function on their website, the results were the following:
- Asian found 108, 050 photos and images
- Asian women found 54, 727 photos and images
- Asian women in cultural dress found 1968 photos and images
- Asian women in black cultural dress found 116 photos and images
The narrowed search brings you closer to the image and stock photos you are looking for and will narrow down your choices. Looking through 54, 727 photos could take days. Looking at 150 images manageable.
So a successful search takes a few mental steps before you put in those ever so important keywords
- Narrow down what you are looking for in the image; a specific Asian city, like Tokyo for example, or a specific Asian country like Japan.
- Add another noun or two to further define your search. ie by Asian landscape, Asian food or Asian architecture, Tokyo architecture, Tokyo food. Your keyword search will build the results of your photo and image search.
- Using adjectives and the inclusion of them in your search words will narrow down your search even more; Famous Asian architecture, Asian women in blue dresses
If you don’t have a clue what you are really looking for and many times we don’t know what we need so you are not alone, conduct a generic search, check out some of the photos and images and then check the keywords that have defined the pictures you like. Inspiration can come from an initial generic search and help you to define what you need. It’s not cheating, it’s sometimes a necessary part of a search for the perfect image.
For Asian photos, some good keywords when searching on these sites could be Asian women, tai chi, Chinese markets or Japanese culture. If you are one of the lucky ones who know exactly, exactly, exactly what you are looking for, put in your nouns and adjectives and see what comes up.
Test these and more keywords of your own right now in our shop! Enter the desired terms in the search field below and hit the magnifying glass button to see the results!
In an ideal world, grabbing the next plane out with camera in hand is much more fun but with time constraints, using these stock photography agencies will get you those Asian pictures you are looking for in seconds.
Image © Duncan Walker / iStockphoto.com
Amos Struck
I am a publisher and entrepreneur in the stock imagery field. I focus on providing knowledge and solutions for buyers, contributors and agencies, aiming at contributing to the growth and development of the industry. I am the founder and editor of Stock Photo Press, one of the largest networks of online magazines in the industry. I am the founder of Microstock Expo, the only conference dedicated to the microstock segment. I created several software solutions in stock photography like WordPress plugins. Plus I am a recurrent speaker at Photokina Official Stage, and an industry consultant at StockPhotoInsight. I am passionate about technology, marketing and visual imagery.
