Cycling through blending modes can be a pain if you’re doing it one at a time with the mouse. I quickly discovered clicking on the list, and then using the up and down arrows on the keyboard. This method is even easier, using the shift and plus minus keyboard shortcuts. Enjoy! I’ll have to remember to start breaking my old habits, and use this way myself.
In this tutorial, we learn how to make a simple selection using the lasso and magic wand tools in Adobe Photoshop. After making the selection, Bob shows how to clean it up with masking, using the quick mask mode. Later, the actual color of the gumdrop candy is actually adjusted in the hue / saturation dialog box. Yes, this is just one of many ways to adjust color of an object in a photo, selectively. If you get adventurous, try also playing around with “select color range” as an added selection option. The “replace color” feature is also a pretty valuable resource, when used properly. Each of these techniques can be done very wrong, if the details are overlooked. Be careful to watch surrounding color casts. If a green object is casting red, it’s just not going to look all that real.
There are some pretty large changes going on with istock… again. This afternoon istockphoto dropped the bad news of pay cuts to all contributors. The parent company, Getty, definitely likes to stir the microstock “pot”. Your canister level won’t mean a thing anymore (other than how many images you can submit each week) and neither do your all time download totals. Now they are going to pay us according to how many credit sales we have made/sold from the prior year.
The new royalty rates chart:
More info and discussions here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=251812&page=1
http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=861
http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/istock-changing-royalty-structure/
So basically, another example of frustration to the world community of microstock photographers. I can’t see how any microstock contributor, whether exclusive or non-exclusive would be happy over this change. I’m projecting at least a 4 figure loss in income from my istock earnings for next year. That’s a loss of 3% commission on every single sale. Like 20% wasn’t low enough (pretty much the industry low) now I am expecting to fall under the 17% range. Great. That top tier of earning 20% is just set up there as a tease, I don’t think any one contributor even earns that many annual redeemed credit sales.
Responses are looking terrible across the board. What a big surprise! This is just like a slap in the face to every one of the contributors who helped istock and Getty grow over the years. I feel bad for exclusive contributors who have all of their eggs in one basket. This is the exact reason why I will never be able to allow myself to go exclusive with any one given company.
If a lot of exclusives jump ship, there’s definitely going to be an influx of new quality work on the remainder of the big 6 agencies. I feel bad for them though – a lot more work for probably still, less pay. It takes a while to build steam in a portfolio. Images that were indexed and ranked in agency search engines from 3-5 years ago are what has helped us long time microstockers stick around through all of the chaos. It’s not as easy when you just dump a bunch of images into a collection. Momentum of uploads is key to success in this business.
Here is what I think and hope actually happens. Established contributors (both exclusives and non-exclusives) should be grandfathered in to the minimum royalty rate they’re already earning. Let these changes go to the new ones that join, if at all. Other agencies have structured it that way, and it doesn’t cause mass chaos or letdown like this ridiculousness has.
I hear this a lot from those looking into microstock to earn a full time living. Questions like this come up frequently on microstock forums, twitter and facebook. How many images will I need? What can I make hourly? Is building up a sizable microstock portfolio even worth the effort? Read the rest of this entry »
What Should I Shoot? That right there is the million dollar question. Even seasoned stock contributors find themselves asking this at times. The world of stock is a mindset, and even once you’re in it, it’s easy to get to the point where you wonder, “Okay, what should I try and shoot now”? If you really struggle with coming up with ideas on what to shoot, then you need to start opening your eyes to the world around you. I don’t care where you are, what you’re looking at right now – inspiration can be smack dab in the front of your fat head. Sometimes it’s there and we don’t even realize it. Open your eyes, and don’t just see, but try to truly observe. Reflecting on the who what, when, where, why, and how of everything around you is an easy way to come up with stock concepts. Try to write things down when you think of them. This applies in the graphic design world, as well. Rip out that cool magazine ad you saw in the latest issue of your wife’s Elle magazine (I wasn’t looking at it, I swear…I was just sitting next to her on the couch at the time). Save that piece of junk mail with the interesting modeling pose. I tend to note things a lot, but I forget to follow through. Make a little notebook or scrapbook of the things you’d like to try, the things that look are cool, and the things you think would appeal to a buyer, especially.
