Public Lightboxes

I’ve discussed the iStockphoto.com “private” lightbox before, as a way for contributors or buyers to keep a collection of images together for later viewing.  So, if that is a “private” lightbox, what is a “public” one?

A “public lightbox” is a collection of images from the community that revolves around a theme.  This theme could be “Halloween“, or “Blank Signs“, or “The Environment“.  These lightboxes must contain at least 20 images and have content from more than one artist.  A public lightbox can be moderated by 1 or more persons, who have an interest in contributing to the community in such a way.  They can, of course, contain the contributor’s images, but the intent is to provide a wide variety of targeted imagery to the viewer.  The moderator can add the images from searching the collection for something specific, or from requests from other contributors to add their images.

These public lightboxes are searchable from the site Lightbox Page , which you can get to by clicking the link at the top of most pages, or the sidebar, occasionally.

You will find, however, that some contributors will clog up the lightbox search with personal image lightboxes, with one image from another artist to get around that requirement for variety.  Unfortunately, there are some bad apples who realize the intent of the rule, but feel their desires are more important.  If you feel there is an issue with this, I would contact iStockphoto support, as we have not been able to get this regulated.

Anyhow, on the lightbox page, you will find several items.  The search bar for searching the public collection, the public lightbox of the week, newly added lightboxes, the lightbox blog where people request images for new boxes, and if you are logged in, the moderation panel.

Hopefully, the question you are wondering, is “Why would I search lightboxes when I could just use the search”, which is a great question.

You’ll find there are some wonderful collections out there, moderated by people with an active interest in serving the buying community.  As in the above “Blank Sign” collection, there is someone who has made an effort to pull out the best images along that theme, from the content collection.  When you search, you may find images coming up for “blank, card” that don’t fit the bill because their keywords are inappropriate (accidentally or purposefully).  Some may have the sign as an insignificant part of the image.  With the moderated public lightbox, someone is trying to present what they feel is the best of what they found.  You may agree with that, or not.

It may also help you to brainstorm, if you look along different themes.  I entered “future”, and as one result, got back “The Road Ahead“, a collection of “Long, straight or curvy roads going off into the distance.”  It may not have been something you had even considered for your project.  But there is a bunch for you to look at.  You may also find futuristic collections of backgrounds, or people, or abstracts.

So, consider the Public Lightbox search as an alternate to the regular search, when looking for themed imagery.

One note, keep in mind that your image collections for a project or for fun, can be kept private.  That just means they don’t show up in the search.  Others can still view them with a link in an email or blog.  This just helps to keep the collection clean, because it doesn’t particularly help other buyers to see “ABC Business Collection for XYZ Project” in the public search.