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Our site has the capability to do simple keyword searches as well as more search options based on multiple criteria. The basic search tool is part of the toolbar at the top of the main pages. You can access more search options by clicking on the +more options link. If you are viewing with more options and wish to reset to the default search settings just click on -less to go back to the simple search mode.
To start searching by keywords you can enter keywords in any search box, separated by commas or spaces, for example 'mountain,lake,Canada,Rocky,landscape' and press 'Search'. Your results will be shown as thumbnails. If your search resulted in more than one page of matches you will be able to move forward through the results one page at a time.
If your search returns no results you will be given the opportunity to submit an image request as well as additional options to refine your search to increase the results.
You can change the number of images displayed at one time to better suit your available screen space by selecting an alternate layout from the 'Display' menu. For example 8x5 will show 8 thumbnails wide by 5 rows deep for a total of 40 thumbnails per page. The default is 5x5 or 25 thumbnails per page. NEW FEATURE - you can also now scale the thumbnails up to see more details by selecting a medium or large size thumbnail display, however the number of thumbnails shown at one time will be less.
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| our normal (Small) sized thumbnail | our Medium sized thumbnail | our Large sized thumbnail |
For more searching options see the section below.
Some SMART built in searching features
If you know the Image ID of the image you are looking for you can enter it directly into the keyword search box and it will jump directly to that image. Note Image ID's are always seven characters with the first three characters being letters and the next 4 characters are numbers, for example 'NAN1234'.
You can use the '%' as a wildcard. For example to find 'apple, apply, application, etc' you could type in 'appl%' into the search box.
You can search for orientation (horizontal, vertical or square) by adding that word to the end of the search phrase. For example to find all pictures with the word 'rose' that are vertical (higher than wide) you could enter 'rose vertical'. For wider than high enter 'rose horizontal', etc.
You can search for specific prefixes (which also denote the image theme) by entering the 3 digit prefix. For example typing the prefix 'NBI' will take you directly for the theme page for 'Nature/Birds'. Note you must enter the prefix in UPPER CASE for this feature to work.
If you need help you can just type in 'help' or '?' into the search box.
Note: Certain commonly used words (and, if, or, on, the, image, etc) will be removed from your search prior to displaying the results. This is done to improve the effectiveness of your search. Do not use works like "photo of" or "I need a picture of..." in the search box as this is unnecessary.
If you misspell a word or our dictionary does not recognize a word you will be given a choice of alternate words to try search on. Just click on the alternate word to retry your search.
If you fully understand these options they can provide a very powerful way to find exactly what you are looking for very fast. The most common options are selected by default so if you just wish to do a basic keyword search you can do that too and not change any of these values. These options will be displayed near the top of the page after entering your initial search or by clicking on the 'More Options' button.
Find All Words / Most Words / Any Words. First decide whether you wish to find all words, most, or any words. The difference being that a search for any words will come up with matches against ANY of the words you entered (a much broader search), while a search for ALL words must find each of the keywords in the same record (a much narrower search). ' The default is MOST words, which must find at least half of the search terms to be listed. The listing will be organized such that the images with the most words matched will come up first followed by the next highest matches and so on.
The search relevance indicator
will show you how strong of a match the displayed image received.
Licensing: You can choose to limit your search to one of our two available licensing options - Royalty Free OR Rights Managed. The default is to find ALL images, regardless of licensing type. For more information about the different types of licenses please visit the Image Usage page.
Releases: You can limit your search to only images that have releases (either model release or property release depending on the image). Note this will not find images which do not require releases as many of our images do not.
Orientation: If you are looking for only a landscape (horizontal), portrait (vertical) or square type of image you can limit your search to one of the other. This is convenient if you are looking for an image that fits your design requirements.
Select Photographer: If you had previously selected a specific photographer, you will have the opportunity to limit your search to a specific photographer by selecting one from the dropdown list. If no photographer is selected all will be used.
Note all of the above options are cumulative, meaning that if you select a specific photographer, portrait and RF only you will only get image results which are by that specific photographer, are Royalty Free and are portrait orientation.
Other Search Techniques
On the Thumbnail search page, below the keyword search box you will see these additional search options;
Most Recent: The default search will show the most recent images added to World of Stock, one page at a time.
To initiate a theme based search, first click on 'browse by theme' below the search box at the top of any search page. You will be taken to a list of top level themes with random thumbnails from each theme, which you can then "drill down" to the next level by clicking on the thumbnail under the category name. Your current location within the heirarchy of themes is shown above and you can click on any linked are to go back to that level.
NEW FEATURE: Search within theme. With this new feature you can sharpen your search even more by searching within the displayed theme. When viewing a particular theme page you will see a checkbox below the search box labelled 'search within this theme'. Enter a search phrase and check this option to only search within the theme you are currently viewing.
View the Smart Theme Browser now
Having trouble finding the image you need? Why not let us do the research for you? With over 50 photographers contributing to this site, we have access to a pretty good network of talent. There are thousands of other images available, which may not be on the site at this time. We'll help you get the word out and send you links to potentially suitable images as they come in. Just make sure you supply the correct e-mail address so we can contact you with the information.
We can even create a custom image for you if you have a very specific need.
A link to the image request feature will come up automatically if your search yields no results, or you can click on the link in the title bar at the bottom of the image finder page. Once your request is submitted we will send it out to our list of photographers and see if we can come up with anything. We'll respond to your email address with any results, including links to any images we feel may meet you criteria. We can even set up a custom lightbox for you. We will even search other sites if you would like, however there may be a research charge for this service. If you ultimately buy the image from World of Stock or one of our photographers there will be no extra charge.
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