Photo Guidelines

Thanks for your interest in getting your photo on the Bing home page. Before you submit, we'd like to tell you a bit about what we're looking for.

In a Nutshell

  • The image should make you want to find out more about it.
  • The image should draw you in and be a starting place for exploring Bing
  • The subject of the photo must provide enough interest to program all the content that we use to support that exploration.
  • Strive for subtlety and poetry. You shouldn't have to know that it's Halloween, Columbus Day, or Boss's Day to enjoy the photo.

All images that we consider must meet a number of requirements, so keep this in mind as you're looking for photos to submit.

Subject matter

We strive to show new things every day, but we do have the following limits on subject matter:
  • No recognizable people
  • No 3rd party trademarks (e.g., Mickey Mouse ears)
  • No objectionable content, such as alcohol, smoking, guns, violence, or nudity

File type, size, etc.

The raw image files that you submit need to meet the following requirements:
Format
JPEG only
Dimensions
Minimum of 970px width and 528px height.
Higher resolution is better. Please send images at the full size as photographed; e.g. 10 megapixel. Note that we prefer to have the image submitted in its original size and aspect ratio, which will allow us the most flexibility when sizing and cropping to meet the needs of the home page. We do crop and edit images at our discretion to work within the constraints of the home page.
Orientation
Horizontal.
Resolution
At least 1MB. You will find that many photos of the minimum size (970x528) compress to be much smaller than this. Unfortunately such small images will not have the high quality level necessary to be considered for the Bing home page.
Markup
No watermark, signature or photographer name can be included in the image file. The photographer credit will be added to the page separately.

Composition

The logo, search box, and explore pane need room to breathe. Images we use on the home page need to have the main focus away from that area of the frame, as shown below:
the main area of interest should be in the lower and right side of the photo
You may wish to overlay the Bing graphics on your photo to see how it looks: Bing Overlay.png

Quick list of reasons we may not use your picture

  • If it's a digital composition or other obvious computer manipulation (we don't use this type of imagery)
  • If we can't crop the image to fit the page
  • If the image is vertically oriented (would result in empty space)
  • If the subject fills the entire frame (can't crop)
  • If the image is too busy (can't compress)
  • If the resolution is not sufficient (image would be grainy)
  • If the image is obviously staged or shot in a studio (not our style)
  • If there isn't enough contrast with the page background (too monotone)
  • If there is a watermark, signature or photographer name burned in the image (we add the photographer credit separately)
  • If the image doesn't work with our page layout (see composition section)
  • If the image doesn't meet the technical, subject matter, and composition requirements outlined above