We received almost 500 entries to the best stock photo contest and I must admit that there were a lot of really great photos submitted this year, which makes the judging very hard. The judges and I are still working hard on selecting the winner, but we are down to the top 5 images in no particular order.

Catch the light by Anupam Pal

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I’m working hard on finishing the new design for Stockvault.net - I’m also upgrading the back-end system to the newest version of PhotoStore, which will bring a lot of new features to the site.

Here are some of those features which I find worth mentioning:

• Batch upload function for photographers
• RSS feeds for every gallery, popular and newest photos
• Ajax Rating system to rate the photos in the gallery
• E-mail notice when a uploaded photo gets approved or not
• Faster loading gallery and search results

There will also be some big changes in the general look and feel of the site and we are cutting down on the amount of advertising which has been very dominant the past year. By doing that I hope to make the site better and easier to navigate but also to attract more members and photographers to Stockvault.net. I still have some big bills to pay, but I’m sure I can cover those costs without an excessive amount of ads.

I don’t have a set release date yet, but hopefully I can launch the new site next weekend, or next week.

We are done accepting entries for the Best Stock Photo Of 2007 contest. The winner will be announced on February 14th. Thanks to all that submitted their entries, we had a lot of amazing photos entered into the contest.

It’s getting close to the end if you want a shot at the $1000 grand prize. You now have only 2 days left to submit your entries. We have over 330 entries so far, so hurry up and start uploading your best stock photos. The deadline is February 2nd at midnight EST.

If you want a shot at the $1000 grand prize you have 5 days left to submit your entries. We have around 90 entries so far, so hurry up and start uploading your best stock photos.

Smashingmagazine has put together a list of the best Photoshop tutorials of 2007.

“When it comes to graphic design, Adobe Photoshop is usually the first option to consider. However, the software itself is a quite tough nut to crack — and definitely extremely hard to master. For instance, the concepts are not always intuitive and it’s not always clear when to use what tool and how to use it effectively. In fact, in Photoshop it usually takes pretty much time to achieve something you have never done before.”

The tutorials are divided into the following categories:

• Photo- and Picture Editing and Processing
• Drawings, Paintings, Cartoons
• Texteffects
• Buttons, Logos & Menus
• Adobe Photoshop Techniques

Here is an example of the tutorials that made it to the list:

Selecting & Extracting Hair - Masking Tutorial - Extraction Tips
One of the most challenging montage or masking jobs in the profession of post-production editing is the hair lift. When the model has long flowing hair and the subject needs to change location many post-production artists call in sick.

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Today I launched another site which I’ve been meaning to do for ages. I’ve had the domain name laying around for months and finally had time to set up the site over the holidays. Stylevault.net is a great addition to the “vault” network, and acts as a web design showcase for designers. Feel free to submit your own or designs you like to the showcase.

Due to the extremely low amount of submission to the contest I have decided to extend the deadline until February 2nd 2008. I realize that many are busy during the holidays, and since we started the contest pretty late this year, I want the contestants to have more time to submit their best photos.