Does Alamy judge a cutout to be white all around the outer part of the frame?

[RWatkins]

This image I uploaded isn't classed as a cut out if you select the "Cut Outs" search filter. There is a slight shadow at the bottom of the picture. Is it the shadow (that I annoyingly missed when processing) or is it the fact the pencils aren't surrounded by white and cross the frame edge?

 

 

I've partially answered my own question doing some experimenting with searches but it has left me a little more baffled.

This image is classed as a cut out but neither has a white background nor the same colour at the edge all the way round the frame.

 

 

I've always aimed for white (255,255,255) when creating a cut out but it appears Alamy doesn't require white for their automatic cut out detector.

[Ed Endicott]

What's in the keywords?  That may be the difference.

[RWatkins]

As far as I understand, keywords don't affect the "cut out" filter. If you search the Alamy image reference for my image E64698 it shows but disappears when you select Image Type > Cut outs

 

The other image AM37JY shows with or without Cut outs filtered.

[Phil Robinson]

I think the best technical answer is that 'it's a bit hit and miss'. I have a lot of cutouts of statues with white all round the frame - some come up in cutout searches, some don't. And many where the base reaches the frame DO come up.

[Allan Bell]

Another question in the same genre.

 

Can images, say of a coin for simplicity, be surrounded entirely in black and still be a cutout?

 

Allan

[John Gaffen]

Personally, I judge a cut-out as a subject that has been removed from its original background and then superimposed against another (plain) background. This can be either done by cutting out  around the subject,  or cleaning/clearing  the background  completely. This can then be combined with painting in a new background colour to suit.  There may be other ways to do this, that  I don't know about though!  I don't know if any of this fits in with Alamy's definition?

[Phil Robinson]

Another question in the same genre.

 

Can images, say of a coin for simplicity, be surrounded entirely in black and still be a cutout?

 

Allan

 

I'm pretty sure it can be any colour.

[Pearl]

I find Alamy's cutout filter to be very hit and miss.  I recently uploaded an image which I thought should be a cutout but It wasn't selected as such by the filter.  When I questioned Alamy about this they said it was because of a very slight shadow which went to one edge.  I redid it and the second attempt was fine but just take a look at the very first image in Alamy's Cut Outs category promoted on the front page - a butterfly with a definite shadow touching the edge.  Such inconstancy is not really very good IMO.

 

Pearl

[RWatkins]

Personally, I judge a cut-out as a subject that has been removed from its original background and then superimposed against another (plain) background. This can be either done by cutting out around the subject, or cleaning/clearing the background completely. This can then be combined with painting in a new background colour to suit. There may be other ways to do this, that I don't know about though! I don't know if any of this fits in with Alamy's definition?

I guess Alamy's definition may be "an image which can be easily cut out and placed on a new background"??

 

I aim for white so print users can place them on a white page and not have to edit. Perhaps this makes work for me that isn't necessary.

[woody]

Can't honestly say how Alamy see it but it shouldn't matter what colour the background as long as it is uniform (i.e identical RGB values throughout) and no shadows etc. I mostly use white but sometimes something different for impact if, say, the figure itself has a lot of white.

 

Edit:

 

Out of curiosity, had a look at the search on my port.

 

• Using the cut out filter returns 36 results all on white
• Taking off the filter and using keyword "isolated" returns only 34 results
• I have 46 images using the keyword isolated, 40 of these on white

So the cutout filter is not terribly precise but I'd be much more concerned about the search not picking up keywords.

 

[Pearl]

Can't honestly say how Alamy see it but it shouldn't matter what colour the background as long as it is uniform (i.e identical RGB values throughout) and no shadows etc. I mostly use white but sometimes something different for impact if, say, the figure itself has a lot of white.

 

Edit:

 

Out of curiosity, had a look at the search on my port.

 

• Using the cut out filter returns 36 results all on white
• Taking off the filter and using keyword "isolated" returns only 34 results
• I have 46 images using the keyword isolated, 40 of these on white

So the cutout filter is not terribly precise but I'd be much more concerned about the search not picking up keywords.

I think you will find that the keywords "isolated" "cutout" "cut-out" etc are not picked up if the software does not see the image as a cutout so there is no way of overriding it.

 

Pearl

[clupica]

I'm pretty sure that Alamy has said in the past that on-black is not a cutout. If you search using the cutout filter you'll see a few oddball images that have a colored background of some sort but nothing that I've found has a solid color background other than white. Most of the images that have a background of some sort appear to have a white border all the way around.  This is readily apparent in some of the poster like images. 

[woody]

Thanks Pearl, that's interesting.

 

Clupica, when I do an isolation its rendered on a fully transparent background which corel puts on white when saved as jpeg.  I I put a different coloul its totally uniform.

[clupica]

...  I I put a different colour its totally uniform.

Isolated on a color isn't the same as a cut out. I do a lot of isolated on black. A "properly done" cut out can be put on any color background.  An on-black image will always have a gray edge that grades to black.  Someone can edit out the gray edge but it's a lot of work.  Work that a buyer is unlikely to want to do.  So, IMHO, a "proper" cut-out is an object on a white background, with or without a shadow. 

 

This is all just my opinion but, looking at what the Alamy search engine returns, it's easy to conclude that almost all "cutout" images are of some object isolated on white.  If a contributor wants their imaged to show up in a cutout search, then the images should be on-white. BTW, isolated is a good keyword to add where appropriate.