Using Photoshop Masking to Save Money

Hanukkah is coming up, and part of the holiday is lighting candles in a menorah for eight nights, starting with the helper candle and a single candle to the side, and ending with a total of 9 on the last night.  Stock photographically speaking, I could upload 8 different images to represent the holiday, each with another lit candle, but here’s a different tact, giving a little more flexibility to the buyer.

I’ve actually uploaded two images.  One with just the helper, and another with the helper and all 8 candles.  In Photoshop, you can make any number of nights you wish.  Check it out.  (By the way, these images will be here and here on iStockphoto.com when active in a day or two.)

So, to do this magic, we start with the two open images, as above.  Select the “move” tool in Photoshop (hotkey: v) Click on the tab of the lower image to make it active.  Hold down the shift key (this will lock it into the same location in the upper image) and click on the lower image itself and draaaaag it into the top image.  Now, since you have both versions in the same workspace, you can close the lower one.   Open your layer editor to see that you have both versions in the same file (hotkey: F7).

You’ve got “Layer 1″ selected (if you don’t, click on it).  Now, create a mask for it.  A mask is an “image” attached to that layer that tells Photoshop which part of the layer is opaque (solid) and which is transparent (see through).  White represents opaque and black means transparent.  Just click on the grey square with the white circle inside at the bottom of the layer editor.  It will make a white rectangle next to the thumnail of “Layer 1″, indicating the entire image is opaque.

Also, notice the extra black border around the white rectangle?  That means it is selected, and any painting we do now will go into that “image” to define opacity for the full menorah.  You can only paint in this layer in black and white, because you only need black, white and grey to define opacity.

What we will do is use the selection tool to draw a selection around the candles that we want to get rid of.  For example, we want an image representing 4 nights of Hanukkah (be sure to remove the ones from the left because you put candles in from right to left as the nights go on).   So, draw a box around the leftmost 4 candles.

Now, all you have to do, is fill (hotkey: Shift F5) the area with black to reveal the empty menorah that is stacked below the full one in the layer editor.

You can see we now have a perfect image representing four nights of Hanukkah.  In the layer editor, you can also see the black area in the opacity mask which reveals the empty menorah below.  So, basically, you get nine images for the price of two, for a few minutes of work.

Opacity masks are used all the time in Photoshop, but this is a very specialized example.  Hope this was useful to you.

Don’t Pay For Plain Pixels!

“Don’t Pay For Plain Pixels”, otherwise known as “Buying smart”.   I’m talking about trying to keep your spending smart by not buying more image than you need, in particular when it comes to a white background.

Very popular on microstock sites, including iStockphoto, is the “isolated”, “isolated on white” or “cut out” image, such as the one below:

I’ve put a 2 pixel border around the image so you can appreciate the white area.  This image was originally shot on a Canon 5D, at the full pixel resolution of 2912 x 4368.  This is a smaller version, but the same aspect ratio.  By the way, you can find this image on iStockphoto here.  As you can see, I’ve filled the frame pretty fully with the model.  I’ve not added any more area than the camera originally captured, nor have I cropped any pixels from it.  I think this image provides plenty of “subject” real estate for use – ie. there are a lot of useful pixels in the image.

Imagine, however, I decided to shoot this horizontally, putting the model on frame left.  This might appear useful to a designer, with lots of room for copy or text on the right, but that is something easily added (I’ll show you how, below).

As you can see, if I uploaded the original, uncropped, straight from the camera version of this image to iStockphoto, while it may look nicely composed in the search thumbnail, over half of the image is nothing but white pixels, something easily added by a designer.  Essentially, you are paying for pixels that have no value to you.

Now, I’m not saying that subjects should be cropped within 3 pixels of the edge, but I think we can see where some cropping is necessary to ensure buyer value.  In fact, iStockphoto does reject some images with too much white space.  However, some do make it into the collection with too much white space in frame (IMO).

However, your design may call for white space in a certain area, relative to the subject.  It’s easy to add white space to your image using Photoshop (or any other program – the idea is the same).  For example, you could use the free online graphic tool “Phoenix” by Aviary.  It has the canvas function mentioned below, although the process is slightly different.

1. First step, open your image.
2. Under “Image”, go to “Canvas Size”.
3. “Canvas Size” will show you the current dimensions of your image.  For the clearest (to me, anyways) way to increase space, change the second pulldown for width and height to “pixels”.  You can now tell Photoshop the new image width in pixels.  Let’s say “400″.  But before we hit “OK”, we need to click on the leftmost, middle box in the bottom graphic.  This tells Photoshop, in the new, larger canvas, where to stick the old image.  We want it smack to the left, so we click the left middle box.  Any of the left boxes would work, since we aren’t changing the height.  Lastly, change the “Canvas Extension Color” to white, so the added pixels will be white.
4. Hooray!  We now have our new canvas, with plenty of copy space to the right of the model.

The point of this post is that you should make sure that you get the best value for the credits you are spending.  Given the choice between two similar images, see which one gives you the most useful pixels to work with.

Twitter Discount Codes for iStockphoto

If you’re on twitter (for whatever reason you may be on twitter), you may want to add iStockhelp to your follow list.  They seem to be throwing out iStockphoto.com discount codes fairly frequently.  For example:

Get 15% off 600 credits or more on iStockphoto: enter TWEET15 on check out. Valid until May 18

And of course, feel free to add me as well.  I promise I’m not annoying and tweet once or twice a day, max.

Giving (and Getting) Credit(s)

iStockphoto.com has a buyer referral program.  When a member refers a new member, and that new member ends up buying credits, the original contributor gets $10.  Not a big deal, but someone did the favor of referring you (and likely gave you a free credit code), so it would be nice to make sure the original member got the bonus.  It is a bit convoluted though, so, let’s take a look at the process of signing up.

First thing, is to make sure your mentor member’s user id is in your referral cookie.  In case you didn’t know, a “cookie” is a bit of information your browser hangs onto that is supplied by a website.  In the following examples, I am using the Firefox browser.  I assume IE is pretty much the same.  When I go to “Tools->Options->Privacy->Show Cookies”, I get a list of all the cookies my browser holds.  In the image below, I’ve filtered on “istock” in the top bar, to show only my cookies coming from iStockphoto.

The cookie “istockreferral” shows the member that will get my credit when I sign up.  Content:  351711 .  That’s my userId, actually.  How did that get there?  Well, I cleared out all my cookies dealing with iStock, and then I went to http://www.istockphoto.com/sjlocke .  And the cookie was set.  I went to other user’s profiles after that, and my userId remained in that cookie.  So, the first profile you go to gets the referral.  If you want someone specific to get your referral, you need to clear out that cookie.  So:

Step 1: Use your browser’s preference box to clear out all iStockphoto cookies .

Step 2: Go to your favorite user’s profile page, like: http://www.istockphoto.com/sjlocke

Ok, now the cookie is set, so the right person gets the $10 bonus.

Now, you might have a 10 free credit code from an iStockphoto member’s MOO business card, the back of which looks like the card here:

To redeem that code, you first need an account.  So go to the signup page:

Step 3: Sign up for a new account here.

Once you click “sign up”, you’ll be presented with a user agreement to read and accept.  Having done that, you get a page with a “Thank You”, and some options, including an area for “Member Code”.  This is where you would enter your Moo card code.

Select your email preferences, enter the Moo code, and hit continue.

Step 4: Enter your Moo card code for 10 credits.

Then, go to the email you supplied, find your password, and comeback to iStockphoto and login with your username and password.  The 10 credits should be in your account.

Step 5: Login with your new username and password.

Say, however, you left that page without noticing the code box for the credits.  Next time you go back to the sign up page after logging in, you’ll be redirected to the front page of the site.  Instead, go here :

Step 4 (alternate) : Login with your new username and password.

Step 5 (alternate) : Go here to enter your Moo card code for 10 free credits.

Viola!  If you hover over “Account” at the top, you’ll see you now have 10 free Pay-As-You-Go credits.  You will need to fill out all the private profile  member information on the current page before you are allowed to run around and play.

Now, feel free to use those credits, but when you run out, you’ll need to purchase some more credits in the iStock store.  It is after you purchase these credits, that your mentor member (from up in Step 2) will get the $10 bonus.  Remember, just using the Moo code is not enough to link your account to your mentor member.  You need to follow Step 1 and 2.  I’m not going to go ahead and do this in my testing here, as I don’t want to get busted for trying to get free cash under my account, but I assume if the above steps are taken, it will work ok.

Step 6: Enter your private profile information.

Step 7: Shop with your free credits, and then purchase more in the iStockphoto store.

To conclude, hopefully, at this point, you will have a pocketful of purchased credits, and your mentor member will get their $10 bonus.

Whew!  BTW, if you need a 10 free credit referral code, just drop me an email.

The Right Value for your Money

Let’s face it, times are tough all over.  People are tightening belts and looking for ways to save money.  This, of course, applies, not just to consumers, but designers and businesses.  If you were looking to purchase, say a company car, would you go crazy for a Cadillac with all the bells and whistles, or would you try to find a vehicle that fits your needs and offers the best value for your money?

This is sort of in response to a recent article by Lee Torrens called “Selling the Same Stock Photos at Different Prices“, as well as some discussion around the internet forums.  The base question is, “It is acceptable to sell the exact same photo at widely differing prices?” in the stock industry.  Of course, we don’t really mean “sell”, we mean “license”.  A license gives you, the buyer, certain rights in the way you can use an image.  “Widely differing prices” means anything from an Royalty Free image you purchase for 1 credit (around $1) at iStockphoto.com, to an image you license from gettyimages.com, which could run into the hundreds of dollars.

So, how do you determine the best “value” for your money, when licensing an image?  I think the best place is to look at the license terms and other license offerings.  ( By the way, you can see all the iStockphoto license terms here, and the gettyimages terms here .)

License Flexibility

When you look at a typical microstock license, you’ll find that there are lots of ways you can use your licensed image, and lots of ways that you can’t.  Microstock evolved from various designers sharing images, so the most flexibility in the terms revolves around using an image for marketing purposes and advertising.  Making a brochure for your business?  Great!  How about an ad for a big newspaper?  No problem. As many as you want.  Book cover for a major author?  Help yourself.

You will, however, start to find restrictions when you want to use the content to actually make money, such as selling tshirts printed with content, or web templates.  Also, when you want to distribute content across your business group, or go over so many uses of the image in non-advertising copy (like a newspaper article).

This kind of thing is no problem for the typical user of microstock – the church designer, the guy who makes up those coupons you get in the mail, the student writing a report.  They do present an issue for those more innovative users, and this is why many sites offer the Extended License.  The purchase of various extended licenses offer the buyer the ability to do things like print content on products and sell it, or design web templates, or distribute the content across the network (multiple seats) or have extended print runs.  So, for your basic (really, a wide range of ) needs, the regular license offers excellent quality standards with an excellent value (price – $1-$20) unheard of before 2000.  For extended needs, the extended license is there at a price ($50-$150).

Now, take a look at gettyimages’ license agreement.  Its terms are much more open:

Getty Images grants to Licensee a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, worldwide right to Reproduce the Licensed Material identified in the Invoice an unlimited number of times in any and all media for all purposes other than those uses prohibited under Section 3 of this Agreement.

This, then has no print limit, allows the usage on products for sale (electronic or otherwise) and another paragraph allows up to 10 network users per license.  Guess what, though?  These terms come at a price – from $50/image up into the $1000 range, depending on size, country, etc.

So, the question for the buyer is, “What are your needs for this project”?  If the exact same image is available on two different sites, which of the sites offers the licensing terms that best fit your needs for the best price?  Note, that this doesn’t just apply to a gettyimages/iStockphoto match up, but across the various microstock sites, as many contributors upload their content across the spectrum of stock agencies out there.

To offer a more concrete example, say I was a buyer designing a t-shirt for my online web store.  I found a great image of an isolated dog to use on iStockphoto.  I need the large size, which runs me 12 credits, or around $15 at my credit package price.  However, to sell, I need the extended license for products for resale at 125 credits, or around $150.  I plan on selling my 2000 t-shirts for $20 each, netting me $40,000, so the license investment isn’t a big deal.  Total cost at iStockphoto, around $165 for the content that will actually make the shirt sell.

The exact same image on Getty (assuming the contributor offers it there), at the size I need will run me around $300, but that includes the rights to be able to sell product.  Ok, pretty obvious here, that for my needs, iStockphoto is the better choice.

However, maybe I am planning on selling 6000 t-shirts?  The extended license cost goes up at iStockphoto to $450, making the gettyimages photo a better deal.

The point here, being, figure out your needs, and find the offering at the best value that suits those needs.

Service

One other point brought up, is that you get a higher level of service, for the higher price you pay at places like gettyimages.  They offer image searching services, and live chat help, which popped up several times as I was poking around the site.

This is something that could certainly be useful to someone, and may be worth considering, when you are assigning “value” to the various stock offerings out there.  If time is money, and professional assistance can help you out, then an option like gettyimages could prove more cost effective.

At iStockphoto, we try to crowd source image search help in the Request New Content forum, but you tend to find contributors offering up their own content that fits the request, which can be helpful, but you may miss out on other content in the collection.  There are some, though, that have the time to search a bit more, and post community work, as we realize buyer satisfaction helps everyone.

In The End…

… it is up to you to figure out your needs and find the content at the site that best serves those needs, without overspending.  That’s the best way to get true value for the money you spend in this crazy economy.

PAYG smallest package updated

With the recent rise in credit prices per image, a large image now costs 12 credits at iStockphoto.com .  This presented a small inconvienence, as the smallest amount of Pay-As-You-Go credits you can buy was 10 credits.

As you can see above, the smallest package has now been updated to allow a single purchase of 12 credits (at 12 x $1.50, instead of 10 x $1.50), the assumption being that large is a fairly popular purchase size, and this accomodates the occasional buyer.

This does not affect subscription plan buyers who purchased before the increase.  The subscription is a contract, and the previous credit per image prices (as long as you use your subscription credits) are locked for the duration of your subscription.

The Designer Spotlight

Everyone like free credits right?  And how about free publicity?  How about both?

Well, you can pick up some of each at iStockphoto.com when you submit to the Designer Spotlight .  The Designer Spotlight is a place for designers to submit examples of their work that they have used iStockphoto content in.  Viewers are then free to browse submissions and get details on the work used, the design itself, and anything else provided in the description.

It also lists a “Design of the Week”, which can give extra exposure to your business.  You can browse submitted designs by type, so it is also a place where you can get some inspiration, and maybe some examples of how iStock content has been used successfully.

What’s nice, at least for contributors, is that your submission actually links to the content used in the piece.  The contributor will receive an email when the submission is accepted, notifying them of the design.  Contributors love to see works in action, so this pleases a lot of contributors.

Other members, as you can see, are able to rate and comment on your design which is a great way to receive feedback.

Submitting a design is easy enough.  Just go to this form page and fill out the information.  There is a link at the bottom to enter the iStock content information.  You will need an screenshot of your design: 800 x 600 minimum; 1600 x 1200 maximum.  iStock will make a thumbnail for the spotlight page.  There is a checkbox for “not my design”, so it would seem you can submit work you have found in action, although I have heard in actuality they may reject these.  So, for now, I would stick with your own work.

The reward for your dedication to submitting to the spotlight, is currently five free credits added to your account.  So you can see that might add up significantly if you have a few iStock inspired designs laying around.

Have a great week!

New Partnership Gives Discount and Free Images

It’s not my goal to publicize every press release out there, but I thought this was a pretty big partnership between iStockphoto.com and another company.

Avery Dennison Office Products Company today announced a global agreement with micropayment imagery pioneer, iStockphoto. This deal allows Avery Dennison to give its customers images from the world’s busiest image market, and offer them an introduction to inexpensive professional photos, illustrations and videos.

The press release is here.  This part is interesting enough:

iStockphoto featuring Avery templates online and Avery Dennison promoting iStock online and in educational outreach outlets

However, you’re probably interested in the discount and free stock images, right?  From the page at ( sorry – I had to remove the link temporarily – iStock is having some backend issues) , you get %20 off of your first order of credits with the code: AVERYNEWS .  Actually, that page doesn’t say that, but the press release mentions the “first” bit.  You also have access to choose 20 out of 60 regularly licensed images free, from the choice at: http://www.istockphoto.com/imageoffer.php?lpid=averynews&page=1

More Free iStockphoto Content

Aside from the “Free ___ of the ___” content that I discussed yesterday, there are also some partner promotions out there that can be a source for free content.  These may, or may not have a regular license like content downloaded from iStockphoto in the usual manner.  I’ll try to cover that in each case.

Free Content

Microsoft Office

If you’re a Microsoft product user, you may have access to hundreds of free images.  Does the following apply to you?

You must have a valid license to a Microsoft Office suite or any of its programs or a software product that includes Microsoft Clip Gallery or Microsoft Clip Organizer to download this content.

If so, head on over to the Microsoft Clip Art Collection.  The images here are easy to go through, easy to select, and easy to download to your Clip Organizer.

License: The images in the Microsoft Clip Art collection are for your personal use, only!  Microsoft bought special extended licenses from the contributors to this collection.  If you need a regular license to use for business purposes or a higher resolution version, each image has a link to the iStockphoto regular image download page.  For more details on the Clip Art license, see: http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/permissions/default.mspx#E4

HP Promotion

Logging in, and going to the following site link allows you to download 30 out of 52 free images: http://www.istockphoto.com/imageoffer.php?lpid=hpfree

These images come with the standard iStockphoto license.

Caldera Imaging

Like HP, if you are logged in and go to the following link, you can download 10 out of the 15 images provided: http://www.istockphoto.com/calderaoffer

Again, normal iStockphoto license.

Free Credits

Here is a link to sign up with a the code “5EDUFREE” for 5 free credits, and 20 free image downloads from a pre-selected group: http://www.istockphoto.com/educationaloffer

If anyone wants 10 free credits when signing up a new buyers account, just get in email contact with me, or leave a comment with your contact here, and I will send you a code.

Discounts

The following codes all say they work on your first purchase, but it couldn’t hurt to try to use them on subsequent purchases as well.

The code “TWIP” will give you 20% off of your first purchase price of $60 or more.

Use the code “5COOPT” during your credit purchase, and get 20% off your first purchase.  Plus, when logged in, you’ll be able to download 30 out of 60 pre-selected images, here: http://www.istockphoto.com/scoopt

Use “TWITSTOCK” when purchasing, to get 20% off of your first $60 or more Pay-as-you-go credit purchase, or get 20% off your first 30 credits/day Subscription with “TWITSUB”.  More info here: http://istockphoto.com/twitstock

Courtesy of HP Training, get a first purchase 20% discount on Pay-as-you-go credit packages over $60, plus 20 out of 50 free images here: http://www.istockphoto.com/hptraining.php?code=hpcd_en

From StockLayouts.com, get a first purchase discount of 20% on a $25 minimum PAYG order, when you enter “5TOCK1AYOUT5″ and 20 out of 50 free images here: http://www.istockphoto.com/stocklayout.php

Conclusion

Those “X out of Y” content download areas seem to have differing images, so pick your favorite and download away.  I hope some of this will be able to save you some money and make you a longtime customer.