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Monthly Archives: December 2010

Cheap online image masking services: www.clippingimages.com, my first experience

A friend of mine has a webshop where she has a need to get a lot of images masked out from their background. Products which need to be view on the same background, so a masking process is run and you have the product free of background. It is a time consuming process which you simply do not have time to do on your own, if you as her and other webshop owners need to add images to your webshop product catalogue. She has been using many online masking service companies, and when she told me about www.clippingimages.com I was impressed with the service goals they offer!

The images

Here is information about one of the images:

image image image

What do you get?

I do not want to rewrite the whole offers from www.clippingimages.com here, you may instead visit the site and see the current prices and offers. At the time of writing however the price is around $5 for a image masked out. The speed of delivery is ofcause also a parameter, and in my case I recieved the images the same day (!) as I subitted them (3 images). I took the offer to get the first 3 jobs for free, so that I could evaluate the quality, that in it self is a great deal!

How does it work?

The process is going on through their webapplication (their homepage):

  • You create a free profile on their webpage
  • Uploade images
  • Specify how you want them back (PSD, TIFF or other) and how quick you need them
  • You recieve a quotation (price)
  • You accept and at pay using paypal (I guess, as I got my first 3 images for free)

The tests I did

  • The support is perfect
  • The masking is well, not 120%. It is ofcause better that I could have done it, but they are pros, it is a professionel service and I would expect it to be perfect. I know that am being very strict here, and I think that 98% of all users would find the result perfect.

I got 3 types of result, and tried to open them with

image image image
www.irfanview.com www.xara.com www.gimp.org
  • Irfanview wll only render the PSD files correctly, but remember that it is a free program.
 Using masked images and Xara Designer Pro 6 you create things which normally only can be done in DTP programs, watch the text flowing around the images!

 GIMP handles, not supricingly, the PSD version perfectly!

  • GIMP handles, not supricingly, the PSD version perfectly!

This is a TIFF version loaded into GIMP. The clipping path has been converted to a selection, inverted and cleared.

  • TIFF with clippingpath is also handlet perfectly
  • The JPEG with clippingpath however was not handled correctly.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that the masking service delivered by www.clippingimages.com is a superb service, delivered at a low cost, high quality and high speed. With prices starting at $2 per masked image and with a very responsive 24/7 service I will have no problem recommending them.

A litle comment

Even if I find the service superb, I cant help feeling a litle split in my mind. The reason is that the low price because of the low wages undermine the same services in my own contry. It is leading to people loosing there jobs. It is nothing new that this is happening and it is a natural thing, even so – I feel a litle sad for the people in my country who is loosing their job in this area.

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Time-lapse recording using Android based HTC Legend and app “Tina time-lapse”

Tonight I did a test of the Tina free app for Android – an application which will record pictures. Here are my comments, which may come handy for you.

Tina time-lapse, getting it and how to use

It is no problem getting the application ofcause. You may goto the Market and then search for “Tina time-lapse”. The app is for free and is straight forward to use. You simply enter a name, how often images should be take (say every 7th second), a limit for the number pictures taken may be entered and the resolution of each picture.

Doing the recording

Tonight I decided to place my HTC Legend phone in the front window and let it record the around 15 minuts drive to Aarhus (a city approx. 12 km from where I live). I did some calculating and decided to go for 540 pictures. I pushed record and drove into the night. The problem is ofcause that the phone may tilt as it is not mounted – that I will have to come up with a solution for. Anyone know of a device like which makes it possibel to mount the phone on a standard camera tripod? Please write if you do so.

When I reached my goal in Aarhus and picked up the phone I am not sure, but I think that the app intelligently stopped recording! (smart if so). The reason that I think that it did it automatically is that it only recoreded 173 frames/pictures and not the 540 which I had specified.

Converting the pictures into a movie

Well that part was actually not difficult either. I simply followed the instructions given by the Tina time-lapse developer: Wessel Rossing on his page about this app: http://wesselrossing.nl/blog/view/21 – he has recorded a in which he describes how you can get your images to your PC and convert them into a using the free program “avidemux” (see screenshoot below).

Screenshoot of Avidemux

I choose to add the audio from Madonna – “Ray of light” which in the original video actually also uses Time-Lapse recordings.

I changed the framerate to 8,5 fps, and I also added some video filters to fix the low light of the evening pictures. Here is how it looks like when you save the video:

Saving the pictures as a movie - started good

Movie encoding stalled....

The 2nd go at encoding to movie..

Well I had to try again… And this time it went fine! The encoding took almost no time, but strangly enough it ended up with a crash. The video however was okay!

The video is here:

 

 

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