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Women stock photos and royalty free images

Visual artists have been captivated by creating images of women since our earliest days. Figurines and cave paintings around the world depict our deep fascination with creating images of ourselves and others. From Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" to your favorite cartoon superhero, images of women are part of our daily lives. With contributors from around the world, Shutterstock has a huge variety of women stock photos and royalty free images. Simply scroll down to explore our curated collection of women images, including some of our favorites in every style.

About women stock photos and royalty free images

Images of women for creative projects take many forms. Our library includes images of happy women, strong women, multitasking women, sad women, and even more abstract ideas like woman power. We have images of women's day, business women, women's faces, women logos, yoga women, fitness women, and healthy women. If you need women's portraits, women thinking, confident women or specific details like women's hands or women's hair, our library features images of women from all over the world in all walks of life.

Trending images and photos of women

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Questions about women images and backgrounds


What are popular images with women?

Popular images with women include close-ups of women's faces and hair, action images of working or running, and images of emotions like "sad" or "happy." Images of women in social media campaigns or marketing efforts need to draw the eye and capture viewers' attention. Features like hair, eyes, and faces show us highly detailed images of women that we don't see every day. Action shots can pull us out of our office chairs and away from our phones and into the world of activity and movement. Images of emotions are one of the best ways to communicate with an audience visually, and they can set the tone of a creative project. This makes them very popular and highly useful.


What makes a good photo with a woman?

A good photo with a woman needs to be an image we can relate to. We look to see ourselves in images of other people — their features and activities and emotions. Images of people can begin to look the same unless their creators use dramatic angles or artistic approaches to creating the image, so taking something familiar like "image of woman" and producing a good photo means accentuating what's unique about the woman in the image. Look for images where women stand out from their backgrounds and bring the image to life with strong contrast, bold colors, and interesting angles. Bold design elements can create visual drama in the image, which will help it stand out among the many millions of images of women out in the digital world.


How to search for images with people?

Searching for images with people is easy. To begin, you can simply scroll down and explore the curated collection of images of women below. We've pulled images from contributors all over the world for this showcase, reflecting the diversity of the images in our library. If you want to look for a specific image, head over to the Shutterstock homepage, and type your search terms into the "Search for images" field. You can refine your search by adding terms like "crowds" vs. "individuals" or "groups" vs. "in-action." Use the results filters on the left side of the page, and you can further refine your results by orientation, image type, color palette, and more. If you already have an image, and you'd like something similar, click "Search by image," upload your image, and Shutterstock's proprietary AI will return similar compositions.


Should images with women have model releases?

When you're working with images of people in your creative projects, it's essential that you secure model releases. A person's likeness is like a copyright — you can't simply use it without permission. If you do, you could face takedown notices or legal problems. This is why it isn't a good idea to simply download an image off the internet or to use free stock image sites. Every image in Shutterstock's library that features someone's likeness has a signed model release on file. That means you can safely use any images of people you find in our library without fear of likeness issues. Some images of likenesses are for different types of projects, which we keep clearly labeled and identified on each of our photos so you always know exactly what you need.


What makes photos with women engaging for creative projects?

Photos with women are engaging for creative projects because they inherently contain drama — which is what captures our interest. Every image with a woman will contain actions, emotions, physical details, and other aspects of a living person making her way in the world. Each image captures a unique life, much like our own, and it raises questions about the model that we can never know. For that reason, we answer them ourselves by relating to what we see as familiar in the image — what we already know or have experienced. Drama comes from conflict, challenge, and action, and it's much easier to capture these elements with an image of a person than an inanimate object. For this reason, marketers, creatives, and other people working in design use images of women to tell visual stories in their projects.

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How to use images with women creatively

Using pictures and images of women for social media Images with women are great for social media posts. Social media, at its core, is about connecting people, so using actual images of people reminds us why we're using social media platforms in the first place. Generally speaking, we shy away from images that we find negative, dark, or unsettling, so look for images that feature bold contrast, bright colors, and interesting points of view. Social media feeds are full of images that are easy to scroll past, so you want to give your viewer a reason to stop, look at your image, and then read the messaging you've attached to it. Your image and your copy can tell complementary stories without saying exactly the same thing, so think of associated locations, activities, or features that you can highlight in your image as they relate to your message copy. Using images of women in marketing campaigns Marketing campaigns rely on images that help sell the idea that your life will be better with a product or service than it is without it. Marketing is essentially the process of telling stories, and those stories feature your audience as the main character. When you're using images with women in your marketing campaign, you want to select images that first capture our attention, and then help us tell our own marketing story in relation to the woman in your image. That means calling attention to things we recognize, like activities, emotions, or locations. The woman in your marketing image is the visual narrator of your viewer's story, so be sure the visual elements of her image contain drama, color, movement, and interesting uses of light. Using images of women for websites Pictures of women work well on e-commerce websites and landing pages. If you're selling goods or services, people want to know that they can trust you, and that what they're paying for is worth the price. One of the best ways to convince them is by using "social proof," or the idea that the experience went well for others, so it will probably go well for you as well. Images of women aren't social proof in and of themselves, but they do show how this website relates to other people. You can use images of women to model your goods and services, or you can use them as examples that invoke satisfied customers. Choose images that capture your viewer's attention without overpowering the messaging of your copy. You don't want the image to be too experimental, or it might actually pull the viewer out of the buying experience. You also don't want the image to be too boring, so look for dramatic lines, bold colors, and interesting angles in the images of women you want to feature.

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