Very cool thread, Jimmy.
I guess I find myself stuck in the photography section of the hobby for the most part, though, that doesn't mean that I'm only after originals. In my case, I'm just as good with the reprints, which can come at a fraction of the price. Sometimes that means that there is somewhat of a loss in image quality, and those I usually stay away from. But then again, sometimes bad copies are all that I can get my hands on. In the end, everything ends up going in my storage files and binders to be painted, or used as reference for something else.
Primarily, when I'm searching anywhere (be it on eBay, Corbis, Legendary, books, DVDs, etc.), I'm always after great images. The word 'great' can be pretty loose obviously, so I try to keep in mind some of the most important factors first. Always at the top of the list is clarity. If the image is blurry or pixelated, for the most part, I can't use it. Also, more often than not, I stick to photos that were taken in natural light. In other words, shots taken with a flash, though still beautiful, I'm not crazy about painting - I find that the bright, cool light can really flatten things out. In dealing with composition, I can usually work around it, as they're just so many options to play around with in something like Photoshop. And the same goes for contrast - it's never been easy to give an image the full range of black and white values it may have had 80 years ago.
So, with that in mind, here's what I specifically search for the most when it comes to photos:
1) Shots of ballplayers from behind home-plate, especially the big four Yankees. I've always thought that these make really awesome paintings, especially when I can add to them to get a panoramic view. This DiMaggio is pretty typical of what I look for most:
2) That damn shot of Honus Wagner that I've been looking for for years now. No one on earth seems to have seen a high-res shot of this. I swear its the Conlon Cobb's twin, and if I don't do a painting of it before I die, I'll probably kill myself. Or something.
3) Dynamic Deadball-era action photos. These remain pretty damn hard to come by. Obviously, action photography was still finding its way into professional sports, so it would make sense that not a hell of a lot of game-time photos of players doing their thing ever really made it out. I especially look for the Hall of Famers (Matty, Wagner, Cobb, Plank, etc.), but am ALWAYS happy to get ANY.
4) Nice portrait shots. These are always nice to find, as they give me nice breaks from the really big stuff I try to paint. From a business stand-point, it seems like a lot of people can identify with them better, especially since they're somewhat close to the size of cards.
5) Team shots. This is kind of a new thing. I had never really considered doing paintings of these until about a year or so ago. I just think that they can be beyond bad@$$, especially when they're done really large!
6) Harry M. Stevens ballpark panoramics. Sold in the Stevens auction sometime in 1996, These photographs were used to demonstrate to advertisers the state of their scoreboard ads for a given year. The image clarity of these photos is astonishing, as they were produced straight from glass plate negatives. The dates depicted ranged from 1934 to 1956 I believe, and many of the MLB ballparks were depicted, including: Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, Fenway, and Braves Field. I've been able to land a few here and there on eBay, and have since made scans and sent the originals back into the hobby.
7) Gabby Hartnett's Homer in the Gloamin'. Before Bobby Thomson in '51, Gabby's shot was considered to be the most important walk-off homer in history. To read a little more about it, check out Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_in_the_Gloamin%27
Close-up shots of Gabby touching home plate are pretty common, all of which seem to be taken with flash. Though, the one below came from Christie's Baseball Magazine auction from a while back. After seeing it in the catalog, I haven't been able to track it down since. Boo.
8) Stadium shots. I know, it's a pretty general term. But anytime I can find ANY images of various stadiums and ballparks - especially with dates - I have to either buy them or save screen-shots. This becomes really important to keep current on...well...maybe that's the wrong phrase. It's important to find as much information as possible. Knowing that in addition to stadium and ballpark renovations, the advertisements in pretty much every park would be changed at least once between each season. Sometimes, they were even changed at the All-Star breaks. There's one year (1938) in which I know Yankee Stadium had at least three different Gem razorblade ads to the right of the scoreboard. Wow. Am I really writing this?
Anywho, just thought I'd chime in. Now my fingers hurt.
Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend - I'm still snowed in!
Graig