For many years, I have always wanted to have a way to let anyone search all my images. Yet none of the solutions I could find was user-friendly or useful. No one wants to see a gallery with 10000 images.
Some photographers are using location-based hierarchy, so you need to know what you are looking for in order to find it. For example, if you want an image of El Capitan, you need to know it’s in Yosemite National Park in California in the US. I have always found this way too restrictive. A better system is the one Getty Images uses, where you can search images using keywords. In order to work I need to add keywords to all my images. I do have keywords on my images but I don’t have nearly enough. You need to have keyword for the dominant color, generic keyword like architecture if it’s a building, historic if it’s old, etc…
There was no way I could have such level of “keywording” for my images. Recently someone pointed me to a service that automatically generates keywords for an image. The service is far from perfect but it’s a good start. The best part is that it has an API for it, which meant I could make the entire process almost automatic.
After a couple weeks of coding, I was able to automatically add keywords to 3000 of my images. Today I will let you use it and see if you find it useful.
You can search any images by entering keywords. For example, if you are looking for images taken in California, simply search “California”.
If you want to refine the search, you can enter multiple keywords separated by a comma: “California, bridge” will display all the images with the keyword California and with the keyword bridge.
Try it here: http://www.retygallery.com/search-pictures
You have now access to more and more of my images, the goal is make it easier for you to find an image you are looking for. Hopefully you will take the time to explore and found the perfect image for you and order a print.
Disclaimer, this is a beta system. There is mislabeling in some of my images and I will fix them over time. Also there is currently only 3000 images in the system but I’m planning on adding about 1000 images a month for at least a year. I want to reach 15000 images available in one year.
Disclaimer 2: There is a bug, when you click on the search bar it removes what was in it, it’s frustrating so I highly suggest to
copy/paste the keywords you are searching with.