Happy Holidays, 2008

Looking for some content for your 2008 design work?  I do my best to provide a variety of royalty free stock image content for the holiday season, and I’d sure appreciate it if you took a look.

All New 2008 Imagery

All of my holiday imagery this year is available in iStockphoto’s XXL size, and was shot with the Canon top of the line 1ds Mk3 21MP camera.

Halloween is my favorite time of year.  How about some children trick-or-treating?

Actually, I think I like Thanksgiving more, with all the delicious food.  I’ve got some new images of my favorite little girl dressed as a pilgrim (and some in casual wear as well).

However, Christmas is definitely the most fun, and the most festive.  I’ve got design elements, like borders and such.

As well, I have some new great people images, decorating cookies, wrapping gifts, shopping online, etc…

Need something you can easily add your elements or copy to?  Try out something in my holiday backgrounds series.

Happy New Year!  Don’t forget my 2009 Happy New Year Candle Series!

Getty Images

I also have a selection of holiday images on Getty Images, including some work with a great female model.

Holidays 2007

Lots of great content was uploaded last year, as well, including my warm Family Thanksgiving Dinner Set.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas

So, if you’re on the lookout for holiday imagery, please take a look at my portfolio.  I think you’ll find something you can use.  In addition, I’ll be uploading more over the next month, so keep an eye out!

Minimum Image Dimensions

I’m going to expand what I’m doing on this blog a bit.  While it’s been said that contributors might benefit from reading some of my posts targeted towards iStockphoto.com buyers, buyers might benefit from some articles towards contributors.  So, I’m going to also be posting on some subjects that constantly come up in the iStock forums.

For example…

What are the minimum dimensions for M, L, XL and XXL images on iStockphoto?

In other words, what size is an XXL?  Will my camera shoot an XL?

• Medium 1600×1200
• Large 2560×1920
• XLarge 4200×2800
• XXLarge 4900×3300

These image sizes are based on some standards in the printing industry.  For example, an A3 sized page is around 11.7 x 16.5 inches.  Printing that at 300dpi requires a pixel sized image of  3510 x 4962, an XXL image.

Keep in mind that the aspect ratio is not set in stone.  A medium can be 1600×1200.  It can be 1920×1000.  It can be 384000 x 5 .  The important thing is the final pixel count, ie. 1600×1200 = 1920000.

Note, that iStockphoto creates the smaller sizes for you.  The S and XS are generated by the server, if you upload a medium.  If you upload an XXL, all the lower sizes are created.

iStockphoto creates the S and XS sizes at 72 dpi, and the higher sizes at 300 dpi.  Remember, dpi is a setting that relates to the output device you are using (like a printer).  The pixel size is still the pixel size, regardless of if you change the dpi setting in Photoshop, or wherever.  For more information on adjusting the output resolution, please read this iStockphoto article on resolution.

This information can also be found in the iStockphoto FAQ.