1. A method comprising: receiving a request to search multiple images, the request being associated with particular search criteria; obtaining covariance based characteristics of each of the multiple images, the covariance based characteristics of an image identifying one or both of a direction and a magnitude, in a color space of the image, of a distribution of color values of pixels of the image; identifying, based on both the covariance based characteristics of the multiple images and the particular search criteria, one or more of the multiple images that satisfy the search criteria; and providing, in response to the request, the one or more of the multiple images.