iStockphoto - Stock Photography Training Manual

4.0 Quality Standards

4.5 Isolation & Cropping

Isolation

Isolating a subject against a solid (generally white or black) background can make for great stock images. There are some important considerations while doing it – following these guidelines can help your file get accepted and have a better chance of attracting downloads. Here are some things to consider:

Shoot the entire subject: A cropped isolation is often less useful than a whole subject.
Lighting and reflections: A subject that looks like it was cut out of its original context is often less useful than an isolation that looks like it was intentionally shot as an isolation.
Depth of field: An isolated subject that has all its edges in focus may be more useful than an isolation with a narrower depth of field.
Negative space: After the background is removed, has the subject been left floating in too much empty space?
Finally, consider whether an isolation is even the best way to show the subject or convey the concept.

Unacceptable Examples

Poorly executed magic-wand isolation or poorly executed paintbrush isolations.

Overly sharp clipping path / lasso isolations or overly feathered isolations.

Isolations that leave foreground elements (like grass) overlapping the subject.

“Isolation"” that has the subject on a white paper background where the whole thing is lit with a mix of tungsten and daylight.

Poor isolations that leave parts of the background grey, or where background light spills over the subject.

Cropping & Negative Space

Extra empty space for copy and text is really helpful in a stock image. There are of course a few simple rules:

The subject is squarely in the middle of the frame here, and about 50% of the image is just empty pixels. That isn't useful negative space, and is there for no reason other than making the image larger. We would reject this image.

The original section on the left has a nice 3:2 ratio of subject to background. Since the red background is uniform and evenly lit, the additional empty red space to the right is unnecessary. There is no additional value here and if the designer needs more space they can add it themselves with a few clicks.

Tips:

Useful copyspace lets a designer add text without having to alter the image – shallow depth of field and out of focus areas, in a well-composed ratio of subject to background.
Pure white/black and/or evenly lit uniform colours aren't useful copyspace - a designer can add that themselves.
With isolate studio shots, particularly various objects on tabletops, pay attention to background leftovers.
In general, crop tightly. Do not add simple colours just to achieve pseudo-copyspace. This particularly goes for isolated objects pasted onto a colour canvas.

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