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I'm working on splicing together stock photos to make F/F pre-made covers, but so many stock photos have the same gendered poses with the man wrapped around the woman. Which makes its even harder to make F/F cover art, urgh.
Here's some of the premade covers I've made so far. All have women pulled from different photos. I'd like to have some more romantic looking poses, but those will be harder to achieve (see above).
I'd really love to do some with women in floofy period dresses. I've had some small success finding photos by searching "sisters" (thanks to @heatherosejones for the tip)! But it'd still likely require splicing different images.
Also it's not easy to find women of color in fancy period clothing. Which is something that's been discussed for a long time.
I did find a site with a category labeled "genderfluid" so I'm hoping the models are nonbinary? I can't find any information on the site though. https://www.thestockalchemist.com/-/galleries/gender-neutral
There's a trans guy model on ShutterStock and I think some of his photos could be used for urban fantasy. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-transgender-man-formal-clothing-poses-746001790
I feel like this is turning into a thread of "cool things I've found while stock photo hunting" and honestly I'm fine with it. It's hard af to find diverse stock photos.
There's some more photos on Shutterstock with a genderfluid model, some of which have urban fantasy potential. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/serious-young-gender-fluid-woman-urban-416588821
This photo's tagged "sisters" but I think it could work for f/f historical, and honestly I want to make that cover.
(there's also some in the same series with three women... if you want f/f/f) https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-sisters-738217684
(there's also some in the same series with three women... if you want f/f/f) https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-sisters-738217684
This boutique site (Bewitching Book Stock) has a rogue/assassin fantasy shoot with a black model. It's also got some urban fantasy stuff with black models! https://www.bewitchingbookstock.com/-/galleries/fantasy/josie-rogue-assassin
Neostock's "Gia Fantasy Maiden" shoot is one of the only stock photo sets I've found of a black women in medieval clothing. https://www.neo-stock.com/-/galleries/historical-fantasy/gia-fantasy-maiden
The same site has "Yuu Cyberpunk Agent" with an Asian model in some sci-fi type clothing. They've got a few other photo sets with people of color, and they're a site that focuses on stock photos for book covers. https://www.neo-stock.com/-/galleries/urban-fantasy/yuu-cyberpunk-agent
Period Images has a lot of models in period clothing and is geared towards book covers. It's also depressing af to look at since there's very little diversity. But they do have a handful of photos of women of color in period clothes. https://www.periodimages.com/-/galleries/historical-western/brittany
The artist "Lorado" on iStock has a lot of high-quality images of medieval/warrior costumes. They're a bit pricer than some others but they include some of black women. https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/beautiful-black-warrior-princess-gm1019393526-273958952
"Ironika" on ShutterStock has some photos that seem pretty gay although they're usually not tagged as such. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wicked-insidious-medieval-witch-red-long-1682395225
It was when looking through Ironika's stuff that I found the photo shoot @dovelynnwriter's THE ICE PRINCESS'S FAIR ILLUSION came from! https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-beautiful-princess-girls-walking-luxurious-738790804
Also on ShutterStock, I found a photo set of a Chinese model in a Victorian costume. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chinese-woman-wearing-victorian-costume-holding-58787476
I'm just going to pause for a second and bemoan the fact that there are so few results for women of color or possible f/f couples in period clothes that I can gather everything I find into one thread.
Searching for stock photos is like "close to 2000 pages for 'Victorian'". Then you change the filters to be like "only people of color" and it drops to 20 pages. Many of those are still somehow photos of white people.
Stocklarium has some good stock photos of people of color in costume. Their about page says "We specialized in offering a diverse model cast, especializing in Latin, Mixed Heritage and POC." https://www.stocklarium.com/
I should probably mention it before someone else does, but if you're writing articles and need a photo to accompany them, there's the Gender Spectrum Collection. The license doesn't allow them to be used for book covers however. https://genderphotos.vice.com/
If anyone else knows of boutique stock photo sites specializing in book cover material, please point me towards them!
That's most of what I've found so far. I'm going to keep digging for more diverse stock photos.
If nothing else... take this thread as an example of how bad it is. Sure, I found some stuff. But it's VERY little.
If nothing else... take this thread as an example of how bad it is. Sure, I found some stuff. But it's VERY little.
