Polylooks adds enhanced search and payment options

Improve your search with Polylooks' email alert service

Today we can announce that Polylooks has added a number of services to enhance your experience on the site. These include:

• Email search alerts – for whenever new, relevant images become available (a first among microstock agencies)
• Enhanced payment options with the addition of ClickandBuy
• £5-worth of free images for new accounts opened before 7 May 2010

If you’re frequently searching for specific images you can now set up email alerts, so when new stock images matching your criteria become available on Polylooks you will be notified immediately. With the introduction of this service, you’re guaranteed you won’t miss any new images matching your requirements. You can also nominate your favourite photographers and receive notification of their latest additions to the site.

All you have to do is use the ‘Save search’ function after entering a search criteria, then pick the opions that best suit you.

We’re also offering increased payment choice, as Polylooks now enables the purchase of credits with the addition of ClickandBuy to its existing payment options, supporting an expanded range of credit cards, direct debit and payzone.

Until 7 May 2010, all new registered users on Polylooks can benefit from £5-worth of free credits. For more, visit http://uk.polylooks.com/microstock-user-show_registration.php

Happy shopping!

General Selection: Choosing the right election images

The race for Number 10 Downing Street has begun, and the UK General Election 2010 is set to be the most online-focussed campaign

Election-ready art on sale at Polylooks

thus far. Bloggers, publishers, agencies, all will be looking for election images to use with their content, as will political interest groups, in the weeks running up to polling day on Thursday 6 May, 2010.

When selecting election images to accompany UK General Election-related content, to comply with copyright laws it may be difficult to find images you have the right to use. Many images of party leaders and other MPs will have been taken by freelance or newspaper photographers which means that without the right relationships – or paying for the privilege – publishers will have to look elsewhere for election-related images. You simply can’t copy and paste images of politicians and other ‘intellectual property’ found on the Internet  and use it for your own content. This is where stock image suppliers such as Polylooks come in handy.

Selecting election images: Cast your vote!

Picking a suitable election image for your publication or blog depends a lot on look and feel. You may want to engage the colourful paraphernalia of an election campaign or you may want something a little more sober to reflect the seriousness of what is likely to be the most important election since 1997. Using the ‘Emotion’ option on Polylooks, you can find the right look and feel for your election image.

Another thing to consider is the colour scheme. The main three UK parties will be proudly displaying their reds, blues and yellows, so if you’re focussing on any particular party, be sure to use the Polylooks colour filter.

Polylooks has around 500,000 images on sale, including more than 450 parliament images, plus buying through stock images sites such as ours guarantees that you’ll not be breaching any copyright in the weeks running up to the election.

Polylooks contributors have been preparing for the election and you’ll find a wide selection of illustrations, compositional photographs and other relevant election images especially created for the UK General Election 2010. Whatever your politics, it promises to be an intriguing contest and we’ve got the right images for you on Polylooks.

Images for Easter: Grab your camera!

This weekend sees a welcome four-day break and it looks like spring has finally sprung. The daffodils are out, the buds are appearing,

Just one of 5,000+ Easter images on Polylooks

and this Easter break promises to signify the end of a long cold winter. OK, we’ll ignore the forecast that it’s expected to rain again!

Within both religious and secular circles Easter signifies rebirth, hence some of its most enduring images – eggs, flowers, young chicks and bunnies. If you’re blogging or publishing about Easter around this period then you’ll need images which you have the right to use publically.

At Polylooks we’ve got more than 5,000 images tagged as ‘Easter’ so you’ll be able to find the right image for your needs. You can also find:

• 2,339 images of eggs
• 673 daffodils
• 80 rabbits
• 54 chicks
• 23 egg hunts

Get behind the lens this Easter

Easter is also a great time to dust down your camera and take advantage of the longer hours of light in the evening since the clocks went forward last weekend. There will be a whole flood of colour coming forward in the next few weeks as the buds begin to bloom.

If you’re interested in photography, why not read our blog on how to photograph spring?

Have a great Easter break, whatever you’re up to, from all of us at Polylooks.