People around the world are projected to spend a total of $17.6 billion this Valentine’s Day to show their loved ones how much they mean to them. With so much on the line, it’s important to get the message just right. Picking out the right card or gift is an annual labor of love.

Over time, hearts have become the predominant symbol associated with Valentine’s Day. Like all relationships, no one heart is the same as the next one. Color, size, imagery, and emotion are just some of the qualities to consider when you choose the heart that best represents your relationship.

Are you looking for playful and cute, or sentimental and romantic? Do you want traditional red, or would a burst of color highlight your excitement? Or do more abstract hearts speak to you? Take a spin through our favorite heart-shaped images here.

Say it with your heart this Valentine’s Day.

© Shutterstock/andreiuc88

Sometimes it’s not the subject matter that makes a photograph frightening. Simple lighting effects or even a particular angle or extreme close up can make a photo disturbing and, well, spooky. The correct combination of factors might turn a simple hallway into an empty, haunting corridor or a common hotel sign into an eerie glow. Shadows build suspense by calling to mind who — or what — might be hiding around the corner. Meanwhile, the hint of a person in the frame could be mistaken for a ghostly apparition.

With Halloween approaching, creepy imagery will be in demand more and more. And when it comes to scares, less is certainly more. We picked out a few of the more terrifying images in the Shutterstock collection. For more, take a look at our Spooky lightbox or search for more using keywords such as “horror,” “darkness,”or “spooky.” Continue reading ‘Fear the Photo: Photo Techniques For Spooky Pictures’ »

© Shutterstock/Serov

We often hear about the importance of lighting in making a photograph. But what about the absence of lighting? With the application of darkness, photographers can add drama to a picture—and make deft use of the light that remains.

Like a film director, a designer can convey a mood of seriousness, beauty, tension, competition, or even terror through the use dramatically lit images. Here we’re showing off a few examples from the Shutterstock collection, all of which are available to Shutterstock customers. To see more, visit our Dramatic Lighting lightbox, or do a search for words like “darkness,” “contrast,” or “moody.”
Continue reading ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: An Inspiration Gallery’ »

© Robert O. Brown Photography/Shutterstock

It’s easy to conjure a chalkboard image when your project needs to say “back-to-school.” But chalk can be far more interesting than algebra class and dusty erasers. You’ll find chalk used in sports and games from hopscotch to baseball. Kids and adults use it to create sidewalk art. You can use chalk to announce the specials at a restaurant, plan a football play, keep a list, or just to create a smear of granular color for a design project.

Chalk has the retro charm of basic, manual technology. It’s getting rarer, too, as people replace chalkboards with marker boards and digital screens.

See what people are chalking about: Check out this sampling of chalk-related images—all of which are available to Shutterstock customers—or search our site for “chalk” and see what catches your eye.

Continue reading ‘Something to Chalk About’ »

© STILLFX/Shutterstock

In the last few years, there’s been a growing interest in do-it-yourself projects, such as making crafts and scrapbooking. At the same time, we’ve noticed more designers using paper textures to convey that “homemade” feeling that connects so well with people.

As any origami artist, printer, or bookbinder can tell you, paper can be rich and fascinating. Recently we put together a papercraft lightbox to show off some of the paper-themed images and vectors in our collection. Here are a few examples.

Don’t let anyone tell you a blank page is just a blank page. What can you make with it?

Continue reading ‘The design magic of papercraft’ »

© Kuz’min Pavel/Shutterstock

Pass the popcorn! Young and old, everybody loves movies. The influence of the silver screen extends to other visual arts, too. Some talented photographers manage to recreate the sweeping ambition of an old Hollywood epic, the grit of a sexy film noir, or the bold pop of a modern summer blockbuster. We’re happy to showcase a selection of Shutterstock photos shot in classic cinematic styles.

See examples in the great images below, and more in our new lightbox of cinematic photos.
Continue reading ‘Best of Shutterstock: The Cinema’ »

© Konrad Bak/Shutterstock

Go ahead, be a kid again. Pretend you’re in a magical land of fairies, castles, unicorns, and cities in the clouds. Here’s a collection of fantasy images by Shutterstock artists showing imaginary encounters and whimsical dreamscapes.

Transport yourself to a land of enchantment with the images below, and view a lightbox of more fantasy images here.

Continue reading ‘Shutterstock Gallery: Fairy Tale Fantasies’ »

Russian illustrator Larissa Kulik, who’s known on our site as Ann_Mei, has been a Shutterstock contributor since 2009. Her portfolio is relatively small compared to other artists, but her whimsical illustrations have been sensationally popular.

Continue reading ‘Meet a Shutterstock Contributor: Larissa Kulik’ »

© Jorg Hackemann/Shutterstock

The bicycle is a simple, affordable invention that changed the way people get around. Wherever you go in the world, you’ll find men, women and children riding bicycles for transportation or recreation.

Bikes help commuters speed through congested cities, they bring families together for sunny afternoons in parks, and they let great athletes test the limits of human-powered speed.
Continue reading ‘Nice wheels! Best of Shutterstock bicycle images’ »

© kokitom/Shutterstock

With fast computers, crisp screens, and so many filters and special effects available, digital artists are developing lusher, more detailed designs than ever before. But at the same time, we’ve noticed a number of artists reacting against this trend by returning to minimalism: Poignant and powerful designs that reduce a subject to its most basic elements. Minimalism is closely associated with post-World-War-II modernists, but today we’re seeing a surge of interest in the style, especially on blogs. This is partly driven by new ideas in interface design, where simple products are more appealing.

Creating more with less can be a stimulating challenge. The best minimalists work like poets, boiling a subject down to simple shapes, and incorporate something wise or witty, often a visual pun. Contemporary graphic artists like Jason Munn and Federico Mancosu have developed cult followings online for their minimalist takes on music and movies.

We spent a few days recently combing through the Shutterstock collection for cool examples of minimalist design. Take a look at our selections below, and see more examples in our new minimalism light box. All of these images are available to Shutterstock customers as EPS-format vector illustrations.
Continue reading ‘Break It Down: How Minimalist Images Say More With Less’ »