Sunday Stock: iStockphoto Image of the Week

You may already be familiar with the folks at iStockphoto. They supplied 1000 high-resolution images for inclusion with CorelDRAW X4. And when you registered, they gave you credits towards the purchase of more images.

I know users are hesitant to create accounts sometimes because they don't want to get extra e-mail. I can't remember when I created my iStockphoto account, but it was probably at least two years ago. I do get 2-3 e-mails a week. Some are purely promotional, most have something of value. For example, one of them tells me about the free image of the week. That's right, once a week you can download a high quality image for free! Some of the images will be something you can use, others will be interesting though not useful in your line of work. I just make sure to download all of them and store them in a folder just in case. Once a month they also offer a free vector illustration for download.

Yes, you'll need to create a free account to download the freebies. I think it is a very fair trade-off to get the free images and illustrations.

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The Weekly Graphics Unleashed Blog Schedule

I told you earlier this week that I would be making some changes to this blog. I've always felt that I didn't post often enough. When something came along, I'd write about it. I just think that I can give you more information on a more regular basis. In order to do this, I've put together a schedule for what to cover on each day of the week. Certainly if there is something really important that comes along, I'll have an additional post on a given day. I'm sure there will be days when I'm just too busy to follow the schedule. For now, my weekly schedule is listed below. I'll start following it on Monday, July 21.

Macro Monday: I'll discuss a useful macro for CorelDRAW and/or Corel PHOTO-PAINT. Heck, it might even be for other software if I feel that it would be useful for many of you.
Tutorial Tuesday: I will search high and low for a tutorial that will teach you something useful about graphics software. It might be something on the Graphics Unleashed site, it might be on another site.
Hump Day Hardware: The last I checked, we all use computers to help us create our graphics. Each Wednesday, I'll focus on a piece of useful computer hardware. It could be something really inexpensive, it could be quite expensive. As long as I feel it would be useful to you.
Thursday Tip: Sure, you'll already get a full-blown tutorial on Tuesday. I'll focus this post on one of those little gems that can take your productivity to the next level.
Font Friday: Does anyone ever have enough fonts? I just don't think it is ever possible to have too many. Early in my career I worked at a font foundry and had access to the whole library. Yet I still wanted more. Most of the time I'll feature a free font, but there may occasionally be a good one with a cost attached.
Weekend Widget: Just like fonts, there is always another useful utility out there. When I get a new computer, I know there are several must-have utilities I install. Some of them are freebies while others have a well-deserved cost.
Sunday Stock: I know you are always looking for clip art, stock photos, templates and more. Sunday I'll find some cool art to tell you all about. Again, some will be freebies, some will have a cost attached.

I'll also try to keep an archive of each subject. So if you want to see a list of all the fonts I've promoted, we'll have that for you.

What do you think of the schedule? Is there a major area I've missed that you would like covered? Over time I know there will be some changes, but I think I've put together a good mixture of topics that will appeal to all users of graphics software.

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Making a Photo Mosaic

A few years ago it was rare to see a photo mosaic. Now they are becoming much more common. If you aren't sure what makes a "photo mosaic", let me describe it in a bit of detail. Then I'll tell you how you can create your own.

A photo mosaic is an image where each "pixel" of the image is actually another smaller image. I saw one recently where the main image was of Tiger Wood's face. The really cool part was that each of the smaller images were also of Tiger Woods. This probably took tens of thousands of smaller images to get the main image to look just right.

Therefore there are two things you'll need to create a photo mosaic. First is a large library of images, and then you need a utility that can put them all together automatically. Sure it could be done manually, but it would be a very tedious job. AndreaMosaic is one such program and you can download it for free. While it is free, the author does accept donations and I highly encourage you to support programmers who create these cool tools. Not only can you download the program, you can download a starter set of images. Combine that library with images you take with your digital camera and you will see be creating your own cool photo mosaics.

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Shooting Great Product Shots

With the advent of the digital camera, there are more people shooting pictures of their products for use on the Web and in other areas of their promotional campaign. This leads to some great pictures and some really awful ones.

The folks who created Bling It have created a short video (go ahead, it's free) that gives you some pointers on getting better pictures. Some of their top suggestions:

• Don't use a flash
• Fill the frame with the product
• Try to shoot in natural daylight
• Hold the camera still. Use a tripod or steady your arm on a wall or table.

All very good common sense things to keep in mind. Yet non-professionals don't always remember them all when it comes time to get some pictures.

If you aren't already familiar with Bling It, it is a cool utility that takes plain product shots and adds "bling" to them to help them drive more sales. All things we could do in Corel PHOTO-PAINT, but it makes this exact task very easy to do.

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