Getty Images Keywords Guide


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Keyword guide: Tools to help you find that perfect image or clip

Choosing the right search terms is the key to finding the right still images and footage clips.

The gettyimages.com site offers millions of still images and hundreds of thousands of moving images, and hundreds are added every day. So how do you find just the right asset for your project?

Use this keyword guide, which shows just a sampling of our keywords and phrases, to discover different ways to search. You might have some idea of what you want, but can't quite describe it. Or, you might know exactly what you want - right down to the angle of the shot.

Either way, getting familiar with our keywords and phrases will help you find the perfect image and footage clips on gettyimages.com.

Choose a category below to view sample keywords.

Click category to view example keywords.

People

Find keywords by these sub-categories: characteristics, generations, relationships, or combinations.

  • Characteristics
  • Generation
  • Relationship
  • In combination

Concepts

Find keywords related to emotions, moods and ideas.

Age

Find keywords related to age ranges, milestones and stages of life.

Human Emotions

Find keywords related to feelings, attitudes and frames of mind.

Editorial-specific terms

Find keywords by these sub-categories for editorial images with terms that appear in the captions.

  • Archival
  • News
  • Sports
  • Entertainment: Film
  • Entertainment: Music
  • Locations

Images and footage styles

Find keywords related to styles, techniques and industry-standard terms.

  • Photography terms
  • Footage terms

Topics

Find keywords related to events, issues and interests.

Sayings

Find keywords related to common expressions, catch phrases and clichÃ's.

Tips and Tricks

Here's some advice on using keywords to refine your search. Choose a tip category below and roll over the term to view sample images.

Combination of terms

The following examples illustrate how to combine terms to get more specific results. These are also known as Boolean operators:

Creative

Include the following creative terms in your search to find the right variation of an image:

Editorial

Include the following editorial terms in your search to find the right variation of an image:

Footage

Include the following footage terms in your search to find the right variation of a clip:

Truncation and wildcard

An asterisk * placed after letters in a word will find variations of word endings, e.g. "Ski*" matches "Skis," "Skiers" and "Skiing." Use it for proper names that you may not be sure of the spelling, e.g. "Arnold Schw*."