Design and Photography Highlights

FTP Server is down for Maintenance

admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:29:36 +0000

Just an update. We had to take down the option to upload files to our server via FTP as we performed a quick update. We will let you know when it is back up again. Thanks for your patience and all your uploads.

What is a stock photo and how can I use a photo I find legally?

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:15:32 +0000

We hear this question a lot on social networks and user feedback emails so we thought a short post would clear up some of the misunderstandings that image users had.

Stock photography is the supply of photographs and vector art which can be licensed for specific uses and also broken down basically into three types. Rights Managed, Royalty free and Free. Those three types come with different rights that describe how the person who downloads the image can use them. Anyone working on a creative assignment would use these images and illustrations instead of hiring a photographer. In today’s world, stock images are organized in searchable online databases generally called digital asset management systems. Using online technology, stock agencies and individual photographers let image buyers purchase and download imagery online.

There are four different levels of stock photography.

1. Macrostock: Known as traditional stock photography and generally has higher priced, exclusive stock photos

2. Midstock: Stock photography priced between micro stock and macro stock, generally between $20-100 USD.

3. Microstock: Lower priced, royalty free stock photography

4. Creative Commons or Free: Generally requires attribution or a link back to the source but this stock photography can be downloaded and used for free

For more information on what a stock photo is and how you can legally use a stock image visit Stock Photo License.

Cutcaster Celebrates 1 Million Images, Quality over Quantity

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:54:29 +0000

Cutcaster.com, one of the internet’s premier sources of high quality, royalty-free stock images, announced a major milestone as its image collection surpassed 1,000,000 photographs, illustrations, and vector art.

“Everyone’s proud of the recent milestone,” says John Griffin, CEO of Cutcaster. “We weren’t the first or the fastest to a million but from the start we stressed quality over quantity and that guided our image growth strategy. Cutcaster is about providing world-class images to our customers and that will remain our top priority.”

The one-millionth image was submitted by Serbian photographer, iMarin, of a woman singing into a retro microphone. “I have been selling stock since 2006 and uploaded my photos to Cutcaster because of their high commission rates for sellers and their low $25 payout request for getting my earnings,” iMarin explained.

With a global customer base spanning many different industries including publishing, advertising, web design, blogging and product design, it’s crucial that Cutcaster provides images suited to a wide variety of applications as well as innovative solutions to meet their customers image needs. Image buyers have nearly limitless creative options when using Cutcaster images, which are provided under a royalty-free license with the option to purchase additional extended rights.

“Due to the smaller budgets, we are seeing an increased demand for affordable, premium royalty-free images,” Griffin noted. “As a result, Cutcaster is directly addressing the changing needs of the marketplace by providing an expansive selection of high-quality stock images via an affordable, user-friendly licensing model.”

The company attributes its tremendous growth to its innovative business model, which harnesses the power of talented photographers and illustrators worldwide, who regularly upload their work to Cutcaster’s website. Over the last 6 months, Cutcaster’s library has been adding 20,000 new images per week or nearly two images every minute. Cutcaster’s expert review team screens every image for quality and compliance, enforcing some of the strictest standards in the imagery business. “Two out of every three images submitted by approved artists are now accepted at Cutcaster,” Cora Reed, the companies creative director noted.

“The photos I find at Cutcaster feel authentic and work perfectly within my layouts and budget,” says Mike Armenta of Taylor Stitch in San Francisco, who uses Cutcaster’s affordable images to make the newsletters he creates more appealing. “The website is simple to use, has fast search and great customer service.”

Earlier this year, the company introduced the commercially available search engine, SpiralSearch that was custom built using a unique controlled vocabulary and faceted search. SpiralSearch is just one of the many features of “Spiral” which is their custom framework used to build Cutcaster. Today, customers can find great stock images faster, more easily and with precision using the Spiral framework.

Cutcaster was founded in 2007 and has grown into one of the internet’s largest pay-as-you-go and credit-based stock image agencies. The company crowdsources the talent of more than 30,000 digital photographers and illustrators from around the globe who collect earnings each time a customer downloads their images.

Fall in Love with our new Valentine’s day images

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:50:35 +0000

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. We have the images you need for your last minute projects, (news) letters of love, blog posts, and to freshen up your website!

Find all the above images by clicking on the links below.

http://cutcaster.com/photo/901326756-Grungy-Tulips/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100740710-Toddler-in-a-Fairy-Outfit/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/901392325-Happy-valentine-s-day/

http://cutcaster.com/vector/901376196-Grunge-Valentines-day-card/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100313572-Vintage-Valentine-hearts/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/800999118-Fantasy-happy-winter-couple-blowing-a-christmas-wish/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100041829-Water-Heart/#S126328

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100464494-Disgruntled-Cupid/#S126328

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100162042-Heart-cake/#S126328

Interested in working with Cutcaster’s API to add images to your business

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:26:51 +0000

If you have not heard yet, recently we released Cutcaster’s simple to use API that lets developers and small businesses quickly integrate a diverse database of images into their business models and workflows. Using our API is very simple and it is well documented.

If your business, website, online tool or product needs millions of high quality photos and vectors, Cutcaster wants to team up so you can integrate our stock photography library into your business. At the same time, you can work with our experienced business development team to determine the best path for achieving your business goals using the Cutcaster’s API.

To learn more about our powerful APIs, visit our Developers area or you can request additional documentation by emailing webmaster@cutcaster.com.

New Referral Program banners and graphics

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:54:59 +0000

Want an easy way to make more money and be the first to share with your friends and colleagues a great website for finding the perfect images or illustrations? Kill two birds with one stone by adding the banners to your website, blog or social network sites in order to refer new members to Cutcaster and get paid. The banners are automatically linked with your unique referral ID and you just need to cut and paste the code into your website. See the details below and check out the new referral page to download your unique referral banners and graphics.

Create a referral link

Add a referral link to your blog, or include it in an email or any other online communication.
Users who come to Cutcaster through your link and complete a transaction, regardless of if they sign up or not, will automatically be credited to your referral account. (Note: Users must have their cookies enabled for the referral to be credited to you.)

To create a link, add a forward slash (/) to the end of any Cutcaster URL, and then add your referral code, shown below:

Let’s say for our example the referral test code is: #R874219924

Examples:

To share Cutcaster’s homepage: http://www.cutcaster.com/#R874219924
To share your Studio page: http://www.cutcaster.com/search/portfolio/874219924/

This will ensure that any users who click through from that link and make a purchase or sell an image through Cutcaster you will get a percentage of that royalty payment we collect. The referred user needs to have their cookies enabled and sign up or checkout within 30 days of clicking on your link.

Get paid

You can request a payout at any time after your account balance (unpaid accrued earnings) reaches $25. Payments are made via PayPal or by check.

Click the following link to sign up for Cutcaster’s referral program and get your banners today.

Click on the below graphics to see the entire banner.

Happy Holidays and New Year from Cutcaster

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:24:24 +0000

From the team at Cutcaster, we wanted to wish all our members, friends and supporters out there a happy and safe holiday season. Thanks to you, who helped support and grow Cutcaster with all of your hard work and emails of encouragement in the last year. We wouldn’t be here without you. 2012 is sure to be another impressive year of growth and success for our entire community and company. We’re blessed as a company to have this opportunity to serve you and let’s kick some ass together in the New Years.

Happy Holidays and New Year from Cutcaster

Where to find the best Christmas photos and illustrations this Holiday

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:10:36 +0000

Everyone knows the holidays can be some of the best times of the year to give and hopefully receive!! Spread the love with this holiday season with images from Cutcaster.com‘s. Find high quality, beautiful Christmas photos that are perfect for an office flyer, e-cards for your client, or your holiday emails. At Cutcaster, you will find the perfect image for all the December holidays for just a few dollars!

Best wishes for the holiday season! Find the above holiday images at Cutcaster.

Magic gift box

Christmas holiday woman with snow

Beautiful gold Christmas tree background

Santa Claus robot juggler

Present decorated with Christmas decoration

Woman holding a gift

Motorized Santa Claus

Christmas note

Red Shoes

Finding photos of Grandmothers and Grandfathers

admin — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:58:59 +0000

It’s been a while since we have put out an image request update but lately, a number of image buyers have been downloading and asking us for more images of elderly people, seniors and grandparents doing everyday things. The range of activities that these mature adults could be doing include working out, dating, eating, playing with younger kids, routine medical check-ups or any type of activity that takes place on a normal day. To give you an idea for what types of images we have of elderly people doing everyday things take a look at these elderly people photo lightboxes. We thank you for your support and uploads.

To download any of the images above please visit Cutcaster.com or the seniors lightbox page which has over 200 high quality images of older people doing everyday things.

1,000,000 Images…Here we come.

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:32:59 +0000

Cutcaster is almost to 1,000,000 new photos and vectors.

We want to celebrate this huge milestone by giving you up to 49% off any image download when you use Cutcaster credits but you have to act quickly. This offer is only valid now until we hit 1 million images so lock in the savings by purchasing a credit package at Cutcaster. See the savings.