I came across a great post by Torchdesigns on Dreamstime which talks about what designers are looking for from stock photography. It’s a great post and well worth your time to read but the summary is they are looking for:

  • Something specific
  • High quality
  • Harmony with the other elements

When I have purchased images for use in presentations, the above points really ring true. For example, in the beer vs. wine post, I wanted images that would look good together and I looked at a ton of beer & wine images before choosing the ones I did.

Torchdesign’s final point can be applied in a wide range of scenarios

Of all of the work that I have done It was always important to have the client in mind when considering the finished product. What does the client want the finished piece to express about them?

No matter what you do, there’s always a client. Keeping him or her in mind raises the ultimate quality of your final product.

(As an aside, I think the harmony point could seed a really interesting search filter idea – not just similar images, but images that might look good together. e.g. if you add one shot isolated on black to a lightbox, maybe show more shots of other subjects on black when searching for different subjects. This would allow you to build a cohesive collection of images for use in a subsequent design.)