1. A method comprising: receiving from a user a search query comprising an annotation criterion for black and white or grayscale images from a database comprising images and an associated set of annotations describing each image, and a user-selected image attribute comprising a user-selected degree of image brightness, a user-selected degree of image balance and a user-selected degree of image light; conducting a search of the database to identify a set of black and white or grayscale images responsive to the annotation criterion and the user-selected image attribute; for each image responsive to the search: resizing the image to a predefined size; calculating each of a degree of brightness, balance, and light for the image; generating an image color spectrum histogram for the image using the calculated degree of brightness, balance, and light for the image; and adding the image to a pool of acceptable images if at least one of the calculated degree of brightness, balance, and light for the image of the generated image color spectrum histogram for the image corresponds to the user-selected degree of image brightness, the user-selected degree of image balance, or the user-selected degree of image light of user-selected image attribute; and displaying images in the pool of acceptable images to the user.