Requesting An Image

Sometimes, when looking for an image on iStockphoto.com, you’re just not able to find the right combination of keywords to get what you want.  Or maybe you have, but there is no content fitting your needs.  Perhaps you need a little creative inspiration.

Where can you find help with all of these?  On the Image, Illustration and Video Request forum board.

The forum is filled with other contributors and buyers ready to help you find what you need on iStock.  Keep in mind, this isn’t a place to put job postings for work outside of iStock.  Or really custom imagery requests that may sell once, only to you.

The first thing to keep in mind is to make a descriptive title.  “I need help” is no good.  “Need female rock climbing” is a better way to go.

Let’s look at the best way to approach these three situations.

I need help searching!

If you’re having a hard time coming up with just the right combination of keywords to find something, this is a good place to find help.  Be clear in the description of what you are looking for.

Bad: I need a picture of two people working.

Result: “two people” working – 3713 images returned

Good: I’m looking for an image of two caucasian women, in business suits, in an office setting with a laptop.  Mid 30’s is good.

Result: “two people” caucasian woman office laptop not man not male – 98 images returned

So, giving others a concise idea of what you are looking for will help them help you.

Right Keywords, No Content

So, you have the right search set up, but the content isn’t there.  You need it with an Asian female, mid 20’s.  Or from the waist up.  Or isolated.

Can’t hurt to ask for new content.  Sometimes contributors are looking for new ideas.  Maybe they have a shoot coming up with your subject and can fit in your request.  Perhaps they want a new dish to cook for dinner and are willing to photograph it for you.  Either way, you’re likely to luck out.

Again, the more concise you are, the better your chances of getting what you want.  You also get a better response if your concept is saleable to others.  Requesting a very specific person, holding a very specific thing in a very specific place kind of puts out the contributor, if it doesn’t sell at least a few times to pay for the time invested.

Bad: I can’t find a picture of a man with a laptop like I like!

Good: I need an image just like the one below, but it needs to be a solid textured background (not white), with a younger Asian male, maybe mid 30’s.  No glasses.  A no teeth smile.  I’d like it by next Friday if possible.

If people see your post, and they can work it in, it is likely you will end up with what you want!  As an aside, I always appreciate it when a buyer purchases the largest image available, since I went out of my way to help them out.  That’s just my opinion.

Concept Help

Sometimes you need a little help brainstorming.  Other members can help, but be prepared to sort through a lot of responses.  Again, here, the better you describe what you are looking for, the better tuned the response.

Bad: I’m making a brochure and needs something that evokes fun!

Good: I’m making an annual report.  I need a vertical XL image for the cover that says “futuristic”.  The color scheme should be blue.  Should not feature any one person.  Anonymous people or body parts fine.  Would be helpful if it incorporates a sports theme.  Must have copy space in the upper 1/3 .

The Last Bit

One thing to keep in mind for all of these requests, is that when you do find the image you want, or no longer need the image, please close the request, by changing the title.  Add the word “COMPLETED” or “CANCELLED” to the beginning.  It’s also nice if you modify your first post, or add one at the end to tell others what you choose, and why.  Not required, but nice.

Happy requesting!

Is it Safe?

There’s a popular misconception that it is dangerous in some way to use imagery from a microstock content site, such as iStockphoto.com .  Dangerous in a legal sense.  That someone may come back someday and say that you don’t have the right to use a certain image.

Rest assured that buying an image from iStockphoto is very safe.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read of a buyer who followed the licensing terms, having a legal issue.

Let’s take a look at several things that can assure you, the buyer.  Keep in mind, I’m not a lawyer, but a sensible person who reads a lot .  Note that in the following paragraphs, I’m addressing using imagery in a commercial context (advertisements and promotions), and not particularly editorial (educational and news pieces).  While you are free to also use iStock content in an editorial context, iStockphoto does not offer a section of unreleased (model or property) content, such as celebrities or newsworthy events.  I believe this is to help protect buyers who may be confused about the differences between the two types of uses.

The Model Release

When an image is used in a commercial context, such as an advertisement, or food packaging, or book cover, there needs to be permission given from the model in the content.

This permission is communicated in what is known as the model release.  You can view the current iStockphoto model release here .

by signing this release I hereby give the Photographer/ Filmmaker and Assigns my permission to license the Images and to use the Images in any Media for any purpose (except pornographic or
defamatory) which may include, among others, advertising, promotion, marketing and packaging for any product or service.

….

I acknowledge and agree that I have no further right to additional Consideration or accounting, and that I will make no further claim for any reason to Photographer/Filmmaker and/or Assigns.

So, with the release, the model is giving permission to use their likeness, and assurance that they will not be coming back in the future with any claims of any sort.  The release does offer the model some protection as well, regarding allowed uses, and the iStockphoto license agreement is very clear about what is allowed and what is not.  See section 4.a. of the agreement.

iStockphoto has always required a model release for images where the subject is clearly recognizable by the average person.  This used to be the industry “standard”, if you will.  There has been some concern lately that this standard might not offer enough protection to the buyer, so iStock has stepped up it’s requirement for a model release to include any photo where a person is the main subject, recognizable or not.  See this article’s section about contextual model releases: Evolving IP Standards .  This new standard started around January of 2008, so there has been a reduction in the number of “grab shots” of random people in the collection.  Some earlier content that might fall under this new standard may not have a release, such as people from the back or someone from the waist down, but to be honest, I’ve not read of any legal issues with images of that sort.

While the image details page does not currently tell you if there is a release for an image, you can rest assured that any image where the subject(s) are identifiable has a release.  If you have a question about an earlier piece of content, you can always contact support for a definite answer as to whether a release is attached.  We, as contributors, are making an effort to have this information provided on the details page.

As an aside, these are two great places to read about releases and legal issues:

1. Carolyn Wright’s photoattorney.com
2. Dan Hellar’s photography website

Property Release

Like a model release, the property release is permission from the owner/creator of recognizable property in the content to use that property in an image sold for commercial use.  Typically, on iStockphoto, the property release is used in an instance where another person’s art is visible in the content, like a painting on a wall, or a sculpture in a park.  There is a time limit on a person/heir’s right to protect their work, and that right usually goes away after 70 years after their death.  So you will see a lot of very old sculptures (early 1900’s and earlier) in public places on iStock.  What you won’t see is famous paintings in museums, because the museums will control the publicity rights of the pieces they own, and that includes commercial photography.  You may see modern sculptures if commissioned by a public government, and the government has the right to assign commercial rights to the photographer.

Another usage, is for actual property.  Images of publicly visible buildings taken from publicly accessible roads tend to be fair game for commercial photography.  An exception is property that has been trademarked, or is part of a trademarked logo, such as the famous Pebble Beach Lone Cypress .  Or the copyrighted nighttime light display at the Eiffel Tower .  Sometimes these things are ok in an image, as long as it is not the main subject of the image.  The London Eye is not permitted as a main subject on iStockphoto, but it can be included as a minor part of the London skyline.

After some resistance from the photographic community, the need for some property releases may be relaxing.  Witness the famous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame case, wherein it was determined that trademark protection for a piece of property may not actually be that easy to achieve for the property owner.

Rest assured, the iStockphoto inspection team is very vigilant and up to date when it comes to property releases, and they will err on the side of caution.

Conclusion

While, ultimately, in my opinion (and most that I’ve read), the onus to use a photo correctly falls on the buyer (and is stated so in the iStockphoto legal agreement), iStockphoto makes every reasonable effort to protect the, perhaps unknowledgable in these matters, buyer when it comes to properly released images.  While there is no buyer warranty provided as such, iStockphoto does their best to provide content that is safe for the buyer to use.  This is not some amateur photo sharing site where there is no oversight on these types of things.  This is a business, and is run as such.

Feel safe to purchase away!

Already Popular

Guess people out there like these buyer tips.  A search on google for “istockphoto buyer tips” puts this blog as the second entry, just after iStockphoto itself.

I have to admit, the field is a little light, as most stock image contributors seem to enjoy putting up blogs encouraging the competition, like “How to Make Money in Stock Photography”.  I don’t understand that – I think we should be helping those who are trying to buy our images, and have a successful business.

Thanks for reading!

Buying Images at iStockphoto.com

This is a relatively low level article, but I thought I would cover it for those who are brand new to buying stock imagery.

At iStockphoto.com, there are two ways to purchase images.  There is the “Pay as you go” system, and the “Subscription” plan.  This is true for both individual and corporate accounts, with some minor differences.  Not having a corporate account, I can’t delve into that, but we can look at the individual’s buying options.

First, you need to sign up as an iStockphoto.com member:

Second, you need to choose your plan, either “Pay As You Go” or “Subscriptions” (see below for details):

Once you have picked a plan and bought credits, you can see your bank of credits (of both PAYG and Subscription), by hovering (mouseover) in the browser over the “Account” link in the top bar:

You’re then free to spend these credits on anything you like, be it imagery, video, flash, illustrations or audio (coming soon).  You’ve now got a wallet full of iStock “money”.  If you need them, you can get receipts for your purchases here .

For more details on the plans, keep reading.

Pay As You Go

Back in 2002, iStockphoto pioneered the credit system for purchasing stock imagery.  Basically, instead of buying images directly, you bought a package of credits that you then traded for the imagery:

A download credit costs 50 cents US. You can buy packages of credits in $10, $20, $50, and $100 amounts. $100 is the best value if you have a lot of future projects: you get 250 downloads for $100!

In the above graphic, BitPass was a website that allowed you to purchase things on other websites for a premium, without signing up of those websites.

As time went on, the price of the credits increased, and the credit price per image increased.  This is the August 2008 credit price and image cost.

No one likes it when development and supply costs go up.  iStockphoto.com is like any other supplier, in that they have costs, like bandwidth, development, advertising and overhead, so they get hit with increases just like you.  And they like to keep contributors happy, who are out spending thousands of dollars on technology, models, props and more, to keep the buyers happy.   And the buyers are happy, because they are getting premium quality for a historically reasonable price.  So, we’re all happy .

One way to keep costs down is by buying in bulk.  You can see in the graphic above that you get a pretty good discount when you buy a lot of images.

Why choose “Pay As You Go” over “Subscription”?  When you are an infrequent buyer, or a buyer who needs a lot more on one day then another, PAYG is probably the right answer for you.  Daily subscription credits in the “Subscription” plan do not roll over to the next day.  It’s a use them or lose them system.

Subscription Plan

In June of 2008, iStockphoto.com came out with an innovative subscription plan, more or less aimed at corporate buyers (but individuals can still buy it) who like the fixed and billable costs of things like that.  It is a plan that is different than other stock sites, in that you are buying a certain number of iStockphoto credits per day, and not a certain number of images per month.

The beauty of the system, is that if you need a certain number of credits regularly, you can get them for around $.30, which is a huge discount from the regular price.  The other bonus, is that, like PAYG credits, you can use them on any content that iStock sells.

Contributors like this system, because unlike other stock sites who can pay as low as $.25 total for any subscription download, they are paid on the regular cost of the actual number of credits used to purchase the image.  So, if the buyer spends 10 subscription credits on an large sized imagery, the contributor will get their royalty based on the PAYG price for 10 credits.  iStock can do this because of the studies they have done on subscription buying behavior.  Basically, it is a win-win-win system for all 3 parties involved.

Subscription plans can be tailor made.  You pick the duration, and the number of daily credits you want to purchase.

Why choose “Subscription” over “Pay As You Go”?  Maybe you have couple of designers sharing an account, and you know the team needs around X credits a day.  Perhaps your one-person shop has the discipline to come back every day to buy one image and build a small library of vectors.  Remember, the system revolves around a daily usage of credits, and if you don’t use them, they flitter away to credit heaven.

Any questions on the buying process, feel free to comment.  Thanks!

iStockphoto email

iStockphoto.com likes to keep you in the loop.  How much you are in the loop depends on you, ie. how much email do you want to receive?

In the upper right of your screen, next to your language choice, is the link for your “Control Panel”.  Clicking on this will reveal an html layer below the title bar with lots of other interesting things to explore regarding some of your site preferences.  Let’s look at the section titled “Notifications”.

So what are each of these?

1. Email Newsletter :  Every two weeks, on Thursdays, iStockphoto sends out “The Contact Sheet”.  This newsletter is jammed with little goodies.  Usually several short articles which may be about something that is happening, like a contest, a new photo trend, some new tech gadget for photography or maybe a price change or discount.  There are also typically links to the free images offered that week.  A side bar normally contains a short article from an inspector or a designer with some useful tips.  There are links to active threads in the forums as well.  Pretty much a “What’s Going On” for iStock.Here is a link to a recent “Contact Sheet”: http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=490You can also search back through old articles (including the Contact Sheet) here .There is a separate “Contact Sheet” for buyers and contributors.

   Also falling under this heading, is the bi-weekly “Hot Shots” newsletter, which is a collection of images from both iStockphoto and Getty Images, the parent company of iStock.  It’s a purely promotional piece, but it’s fun to see what is showing up on both sites, and compare them.  (Well, that’s fun for us, anyways)

2. Email Weekly Tips : Twice a month, on Tuesdays, iStock sends out a weekly tip.  Ok, so it’s a bi-weekly tip .  This is normally a more extended article on something, like using something in the Advanced Search or how to buy images in the Dollar Bin.  It’s not something you need to survive, but something that would probably help out a bit.  The kind of thing I’ve been writing here, I guess.Find previous tips of the week here .
3. Email Partner News : This, and the following choice are rarely used, but this one deals with allowing iStock to send you news about any of the partners it may deals with.
4. Marketing Offers : While iStockphoto does not sell your email, they do at times come up with marketing promotions you may want to know about.  Like #3, I can’t really remember ever receiving anything to do with this, but that doesn’t mean something might turn up in the future.

If you write on your iStockphoto blog, you can also turn on or off your “Blog Comment Notification” to get or not get email when someone responds to your blog post.  That’s under “Profile” in your Control Panel.

Have a good week!

Looking for Copy Space

First of all, what is “copy space”?  Well, it is an area of an image with … space for copy.  “Copy” here meaning some text or something else you wish to lay on top of the original image.   To make your text more clearly readable and stand out from the image, the space in the image needs to be fairly free of distractions.  Either the image needs to be a single color in that area, or substantially blurry, or even just a lack of people or other texture.

So, a while back, iStockphoto.com came up with a trademarked tool to help you find the image you are looking for, with copy space in the area you want it.  Oddly enough, it is called “CopySpace ™”.  CopySpace is a patented tool that meshes your other search terms with your desired copy space requirement.  It is an automated definition, done when the image is initially processed, and it may not be perfect, but it sure can help.

Where is this tool?  Easy enough to find under “Advanced Search” in the upper right.  The tool offers you up a 3×3 grid, which you fill in with color to show where you want copy space in the image, and where you want the subject to be.

Clicking a box turns it green, for copy space, then red, for subject, and then grey, for “I don’t care”.  Five small boxes underneath show how sensitive you want the search think about copyspace, from full white (tighter) to find completely empty spaces, to transparent (looser) to find space with some detail.  To be honest, adjusting this doesn’t seem to affect anything for me.  Perhaps it is just the searches I am trying.

The above image shows that I want images with some subject on the left side, emptiness on the right, and whatever in the middle.  The following image shows a search for “laptop” with these settings.

That seems like a pretty darn good result to me.  Stuff on the left, empty on the right.

One catch when thinking about copy space, is that some images are easy to add copy space to, but wouldn’t show up in this search.  For instance, in the following image, it is easy in Photoshop to expand the canvas to the left with a white background to add as much copy as you want.

However, iStock convention is to keep these kind of images at the size they come from the camera which should be pretty tightly cropped to the subject, since it is so easy to add more white (or whatever color) background to the image.  So you may miss out on some content that could easily have copy space added when you do a CopySpace search.

Here is an iStock page on Copy Space: http://www.istockphoto.com/popup_search_tips.php#copyspace

Hopefully you’ve learned of a new tool today, and a new way to speed up your search.

Your name here!

Everyone likes to personalize their design work, and an easy way to make something “yours”, is to find an image made for just that purpose.  A billboard, hand with business card, sign, whatever, that you can just photoshop your work into.  Again, finding these on iStockphoto.com is all about using keywords.

What are some good keywords to find things like this?

• blank
• empty
• copy space

Pair that up with what you are looking for, like:

• “business card”
• sign
• billboard

… and you get a pretty good result.

Another, similar design element, is the “white card”, which is someone standing next to or above an area of white.  This may also be called a “cut out”.

These are easy to put next to, or above an ad, or a website page, or anything like that.

Of course, once you have an image like this, it is fairly easy to use Photoshop or your image processing tool to add your content in.  For things like billboards or business cards that are not square to camera, you would want to use the transform tool to drag the corners of your content about (hold down cntrl on Windows) to fake perspective.

If you find any other good keywords for this type of thing, let me know!

More Images Per Page

The default search return at iStockphoto.com is 20 images per page.  For most normal users, that isn’t enough to be able to scan through the return quickly.  You want to see more images, so you can save time on clicking from one page to the next.  It’s easy enough to change that number, though you need to know where to look.

Click on the “Advanced Search” link in the top bar, next to the sort bar.  This will open up a layer in the window that shows a bunch of search options you can work work with.  Midscreen or so, you’ll see this:

You can choose to show 20, 25, 30, 50 or 100 images per search return page.

However, make sure you click on “Save” under “Save these settings” to the right, otherwise your choice(s) will be lost.

Searching and Sorting

When you do a “search”, the iStockphoto search engine returns any number of images.  But how does the engine choose the order in which those images are displayed to you?

Well, that depends on the “sort” order that you choose the “search” results to be displayed in.

The sorting method you use matters a lot to contributors, because we all know that if something good shows up on the first page or two of a search return, the buyer is likely to buy that, without delving too much further in.  Let’s take a look at these sort methods, what they do, and why you might use them.

Best Match

What is it? This method is the default sorting method, with fairly good reason.  It gives a nice sampling of images from a variety of artists on each page.  The iStock algorithm for calculating the “best match” sort is kept a secret.  Forum discussions have brought up any number of factors that might influence the sort in one way or the other:

• the image’s downloads per month
• the age of the image
• the image’s pixel size
• the acceptance level of the contributor
• how long the contributor has been a member
• the image’s download count
• the number of views the image has received

However, as I mentioned, no contributor really knows what, and how much of what goes into figuring out the “best match” rank of an image.  And the “best match” can change when administration decides to tweak things.  There is also a limit on the number of images any contributor can have on any one page, so as to display a nice variety to the buyer.

When would you use it? Since “best match” offers up such a nice variety of artists, download counts, new and old images, it is a good general purpose sort.  It does tend to favor currently performing content, so new content may get passed by.

Example: Here (and in the following) is a search in my portfolio for “family”, and the sort method here, is “best match”.  It is a good mix of age, performance, size, etc.

Age

What is it? The “age” sort is purely based on the newness of the images.  Results will be returned in order from the most recently accepted to the oldest.

When would you use it? For some buyers, “fresh” is the word.  They want images that no one has seen yet.  Maybe to catch the latest trends, or to capitalize on content their competition isn’t using yet.  It’s the best way to see what’s new, however, you may have to dig more, as there is a lot of chaff in there with the wheat.  Sometimes contributors will upload too many images from a series just to boost their download count, and this will fill up a search return with lots of similars.

Example: These are my most recent “family” images.

Downloads

What is it? In some ways, iStock is very transparent.  The download counts are available for any image.  This sort method is purely a return of the images that have been downloaded most, to those downloaded least.

When would you use it? Sometimes you’re pressed for time, and need to operate on the “if everyone bought it, it must be good” theory.  And this is true, most of the time, but sometimes popularity just breeds more popularity because of this sort, regardless of the image content or quality.  Remember, if an image is a match for a keyword, it will still get returned, even if it isn’t a great representation of that keyword (ie, a single apple on white, versus an really popular image with an apple way in the background)

It’s also a good sort if you are not concerned about the competition using the same image.  Downloading the #1 family image may be fine for a small local business or powerpoint presentation, but not necessarily if you are a huge multinational corporation with lots of competitors.

Example: I have some of the most popular family images on iStock, the most downloaded of which are from my earlier days as a contributor.

Contributor

What is it? “Contributor” is an alphabetical sort based on the contributors’ usernames.  Non-alphanumeric names come first ( -sjlocke ), then those with numbers ( 123sjlocke ), then A-Z (sjlocke) .

When would you use it? I have no idea.  I can’t see the usefullness of a sort like this, except to make people come up with names like “—111Aardvark”.

Rating

What is it? iStockphoto members are allowed to rate any image on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).  While probably started with good intentions, these days, rating any image as less than a 5 causes concern to a contributor, as it could be seen as someone trying to have an effect on their livelihood.

This sort method is a return based first on the review ratings themselves (5 first, 1 last), and within each value, the amount of times it has been rated that (ie, 7 five ratings, then 3 five ratings).

When would you use it? You could say that ratings are somewhat indicitive of quality, or at least interest by fellow members.  People are more likely to hand out a five when the thumbnail attracts their attention, even if they don’t take the time to zoom in and look at it technically.  For example, check out the food portfolio of kcline.  Almost every image has multiple 5 star ratings.  So, it could be seen as a sort based on how visually interesting the images are.

Example:  In my experience, the number of people giving out ratings has dropped over the years, so my earlier images tend to rank higher in a ratings sort.

Size

What is it? Size does matter!  At least in this sort, where images are returned purely on the total pixel count of the image (Length x Height), in the order biggest to smallest.

When would you use it? If you don’t mind digging for what you want, this might be a good way to find that huge image you need for a billboard or car wrap or something.  However, with nothing else figured in there, you’re going to get a lot of inadequate images as well as the good stuff.

Example: My latest images are shot with the Canon 1ds MK3, which produces a 21 MP size image, an XXL size on iStockphoto.  So these will come up first for me.

Title

What is it? An alphabetical return, like “contributor” above, based on the title a contributor gives the image.  This is why contributors are not allowed now to start titles with numbers or “A”, as in “A red rose”.

When would you use it? I don’t see any real use for sorting this way.  Let me know if you think of one.

Example: Guess I got in a numbered image before the embargo .

Hopefully, this helped you grasp the difference between “searching” and “sorting”, and maybe even introduced you to the sort bar at the top if you hadn’t noticed it before.  Suprisingly, a lot of buyers never even notice it until someone points it out.

Here’s a recent iStockphoto thread with some designers discussing sorting:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=74889&page=1

Happy sorting!

“Photos” and “Illustrations”

Lets take a look at the terminology “photos” and “illustrations” when it comes to iStockphoto.com .

“Photo” on iStock, means a raster image.  An image made of of individual pixels, or what is known as a bitmapped image.  The kind of image that you cannot resize larger, without losing detail.  A “photo” can be any of the following:

• an image created by a digital camera
• an image created by scanning a slide or film negative into an image processing program
• a 3d computer render from something like Maya or 3dsMax
• a photograph, or a scan of a piece of traditional media art, like a painting, or pastel work
• a digital illustration created entirely in a raster image program, like Photoshop, or Painter

“Illustration” on iStock, means an image that is actually created mathematically in a program such as Adobe Illustrator, which is then rendered to your screen by the engine of the program.  The contributor doesn’t work mathematically, but creates shapes and constructs using visual tools.  The resulting file is, however, a mathematical or programmed description of the file.

Because the image is actually rendered to the screen by this description, the program can render out any size image you like, without losing detail.  This is in contrast to the “photo” or raster image above, where every pixel in the image is assigned a color, and trying to resize it means trying to make up data between two pixels that doesn’t exist.

This is why “photos” are priced by the size of the image, and vectors, which are infinitely resizable by their nature, are not.  They are priced on skill and complexity.  If you need extra detail (size) in a “photo”, you pay for it.

So, now that we understand the difference, we can use it to find what we are looking for.

At the top of every page on the site is the search bar.  As you can see, there are checkboxes for each type of media iStock sells.  Unfortunately, this piece (the checkboxes) of user interface can be a little flakey.  ie, it is hard to make your choice “stick”.  I’ll try to visit this gem on another day.

Assuming you can get your choice to stick, you can select just “photos” (raster images) or “illustrations” (vector images) to search through.

Lets say you are looking for a traditionally painted image of a bird.  You know you do not want a vector file for whatever reason, so you uncheck “illustrations” in the search bar.  You can then search for:

bird “painted image”

So, we did pretty good, however, we are getting some actual photographs that include painted birds.  Lets try adding in “illustration”:

bird “painted image” illustration

Much better.

So the point, is to first figure out whether you want a “photo” (raster image) or “illustration” (vector image) for your design.  Then you can use keywords for media types, like “painted image” or “pastel drawing”.  Finally, if searching “photos” you can use the keyword “illustration” to get rid of images that maybe show actual pastels or something that is painted.

Here’s some good keywords to get you going:

• “painted image”
• “pastel drawing”
• “digitally generated image”
• 3d
• “charcoal drawing”
• “pencil drawing”
• “chalk drawing”
• “pen and ink”
• “crayon drawing”
• “mixed media”
• “stained glass”

There’s a lot of great non-vector illustration work on iStock.  Of course, there’s a lot of great vector illustration as well.

If you need help with raster art, contact diane555 .   She’s the iStock contact person for this type of image.