How To Search For Brilliant Images For Our Stories!
Are you frustrated spending way too much time searching for the right image? It is time to perform image searches using better techniques. This story shows how.
I know how it feels. We spent 45 minutes writing and polishing our masterpiece, only to spend another 30 minutes searching for the right image. As it turns out, image mining is a skill on its own that I have grown to respect.
Before that, it is important to understand the tricks of the trade.
We need to sit back and think about how we perform our image searches. We use words to search, am I right?
This is where the mystery lies.
We need to use the right words to search for the right images. I will show you what I mean using the following words.
- Boring.
- Happy.
- Smiling.
- Sleeping.
For simplicity of illustration, we assume that we have any of, or a combination of the 4 words in our story headlines.
We start with Boring.
These are the top 2 images when we search using the word Boring.
A zoo appears, and you might be scratching your head. The real reason is Boring is hard to depict. Classes can be boring, we can be bored to tears at home, and bored of eating sunny-side-up daily.
Boring is an adjective, and adjectives are not too useful when it comes to image searching.
Next, we search for images using Happy.
These are the top 2 images.
I get a happy bloke in the streets and an image of floating balloons. If they fit the spirit of your stories — Congratulations. I suspect that more scrolls are required if we want to find the right image within this set of results.
Happy is another adjective, by the way.
Next, we search for Smiling.
Ah, so much better. The results show people Smiling, and the relevance of our search inches upwards. We can continue to refine our search from Smiling to ,Women Smiling, or Babies Smiling.
You will get unexpectedly great, relevant images.
Smiling is a verb. Differences start to surface.
And lastly, Sleeping.
Now we really get people Sleeping. It shows that the definition of our search is important when it comes to searching for the right images … when we are short of time.
By the way, Sleeping is a verb.
A Simple Summary.
We have to think like photographers.
When they work to capture the realities of life via images, they index these images using intricate descriptions.
Boring can be different when the context changes. Smiling is Smiling.
When in doubt, search using verbs instead of nouns.
You will be surprised at the quality of the results.
Full Disclosure: This story is written and illustrated using Unsplash.
A Defined Search Works Much Better.
Aldric
Related Stories from the Author.
About the Author:
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure.
Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.
Because simplicity adds value.
And with clarity — We grow.
Follow me for my stories on Medium!
This is more “About Me”.
