Photomanipulated Group How-To

Photomanipulated will be a very interactive and hopefully very inclusive group for photomanipulators, designers, mixed media artists and resource providers - so in short, anyone who has something to do with manips be it by using the techniques in their work or providing resources for the manip community. We strive to give you a platform to share your inspiration, your resources, your techniques and your questions via submitting artwork and resources (your own or those you love) to the group.

Here is how this is supposed to work:


Membership requests are set to auto-approve and we welcome all photomanipulators, resource providers and related genres to join us. Before you start submitting anything, please make sure you read this journal top to bottom!


The galleries are open for member submissions, please make sure you submit to the right folder and keep to the folder's submission rules!
Please note that we reserve the right to decline Premium Content submissions (Tutorials / Stock / etc) on the grounds of not being able to view the actual content without paying (two main reasons: 1) we need to make sure no copyrighted material was used and 2) we want to make sure people get their money's worth - both of these points are sometimes impossible to tell without downloading the content which we won't do because it costs points).

• "this month's" photomanipulations has a limit of ONE submission per WEEK, so choose wisely. It's the only folder where artwork should be placed in as long as it has a good deal of photomanipulation in it (including digital mixed media or webdesigns/other editorial designs) AND all stock is credited properly. We will only be screening for those two things, we're not looking for perfection (though we'll take it if you can offer it). The best submissions will end up in our Featured gallery folder each month!
  _{Proper crediting doesn't necessarily mean direct links to all stocks used, but actually reading + heeding stock rules wherever you find your stock and not using illegal (copyrighted) items to begin with. That includes the use of premades, brushes, cut outs as explained here! Please read this article for more information! If you are using your own stock, please state that in the description; if you are using stock from pay-sites such as fotolia or dreamstime, please state which parts were bought where (ex. model from fotolia). Also, please note that according to an official statement from sxc.hu, their stock can NOT be used in manips unless special permission from the photographer is given!!! For more information, see this journal post.}
• Photomanip and Resources News is for news from the galleries, especially cv updates, but also any other journals that collect helpful information on the genres that don't fit in the other categories. The folder limit is set to TWO per DAY so you can submit things you see around dA as you go.
• Tutorials and helpful News Articles is where you can submit your own deviations that deal with teaching someone something - those can be regular deviations or journals/news articles. The folder limit is set to TWO per DAY so you'll have plenty of opportunity to submit helpful stuff!
• Stock and Resources is the place for all your stock images and other resources (like brushes etc) that you'd like to share. The folder limit is set to TWO per DAY. We will check for sufficient quality on a technical level (i.e. no blur, at least 1000px on the small side, not too grainy, no important parts cut off, etc.) as well as on the legal side of things - as always: you can only share what you have created yourself, that includes having taken the pictures yourselves for premades and cut-outs! If you use stock for premades, make sure to credit the original stock providers as you would for any other manip! We will NOT accept anything where we can't be certain that you actually have the right to share this with us in the first place! Please read this article for more information! Resources with just a preview image on dA and the main file hosted off site will not be accepted! Neither will premium content stock if the quality cannot be deduced from the preview!
• Photomanip related Contests and Events is all about promoting contests, projects and events that have something to do with photomanipulation. The folder limit is set to TWO per DAY.
• Interviews, Artists and Art Features is a collection of journals promoting artists and artwork - this includes your (irregular) journal features! We just require the focus to be on photomanips or stock /resources to use in manips. The folder limit is set to TWO per DAY.

Each folder has an individual limit - by submitting to the Resources category for example, you will not take away your ability to submit your art once a week to the "this month's" manip folder and so on!
Remember that you can also add something you haven't done yourself, but that you want to share with us!
If you should need to exceed the submission limits for a good reason, please note the group and we'll add your deviations.

More information on our policy regarding Premades:
PREMADES #Photomanipulated SubmissionRules CHANGE!First, let me clarify: I'm not just talking about premade backgrounds, but also about cut-out stock and brushes or anything else where people use images (their own or other people's) to create the resource. And while this is mainly geared toward members of Photomanipulated, I do hope that this journal will also be able to shed some light on things for others.
Personally, I've never been a fan of premade backgrounds, but I'm also not the type of person who thinks everyone else should do as I say just because I have a bad feeling about something. So far, that held true for premades: I steered clear of them because I feared copyright issues, but I didn't have much more than a bad feeling and some research on my part to confirm this. Now, an official dA blog has strengthened my believe that as an artist, using premades will do you more harm than good.
Copyright is something that often falls by the wayside with premades. And if it turns out the image

More information on Copyright in general:
Of Copyright + Premades

Disclaimer: I'm no lawyer, I do not work for deviantArt, I'm merely someone who has been doing photomanips for quite a while and has taken the time to read quite a few articles on the topic. The views expressed hereunder are mine alone. They do not reflect any "official dA opinion" nor are they to be taken as "legal advice". Furthermore, you may live in a country that hasn't signed any of the treaties that govern international copyright law, so you'd have to check with your country's national laws.
I strongly urge you to not only read the journal, but also the comments underneath it as there are a lot more examples of what you can and can't do as well as more links to information being shared by your fellow deviants!
What is Copyright?
I'll paraphrase/quote the wikipedia article on the topic for this:
"Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclus

More information on Photomanipulated's stance on sxc.hu stock:
Attention! SXC.HU not usable for manips!I just came across a journal by Aeirmid saying that sxc.hu's terms of use have been misinterpreted by us (= photomanipulators) all this time!
She wrote an e-mail to sxc.hu to clear this up and the fact of the matter is
sxc.hu is NOT availablefor derivative works, i.e. photomanipulations and collages
unless you ask the individual photographer for permission and get it (getting no answer is NOT an affirmative I'm afraid).
Here are Jade's journals on the matter:

Now, what you do with this information is up to you. I for my part will no longer use sxc.hu stock because I don't want to have to wait for permission each time I consider using something. Thankfully, our resouces and stock gallery here on dA is very extensive.
BUT also there I would be careful sometimes - if it feels off, I don't use the stock. That is especially an issue for premades, brushes and cut-out stock as some peo

More information on Photomanipulation (meant for Beginners, but not only!):
_{Includes an intro on what we define as being a manip on dA in the first place, as well as information on legitimate sources of stock. It also introduces the most common software briefly and touches on how to best get started without being overwhelmed by options.}
Photomanips for BeginnersWhat is a photomanipulation?
Photomanipulations are images that have been composed of two or more photographic elements to create something new.
This is what the gallery description states. But what does it mean?
It means that a photomanipulation is based on photographs.
Not sketches scanned in (like line art for example) or screenshots from a video game. However, if you scan a photograph or for example dried flowers, it would be considered a photograph; while a photograph taken of line art still remains a sketch and is not consiered a photograph. Video game screenshots are copyrighted images btw and as such cannot be used at all.
It means that you need to use more than one photograph.
Retouching work as well as work that uses brushes or texture overlays only to "spice up" a photo that was taken by yourself(!) should be submitted to Photography > Darkroom, while work that uses stock images (i.e. images that you did not take yourself) should be


The journal/blog is also open for member submissions (see how below). Please make sure your blog entry has something to do with photomanipulation first and foremost! You are welcome to pimp your contests, do (manip) art features, write about tutorials or other resources or do artist features or interviews. Anything you like basically. You're welcome to use the Photomanipulated skin fav.me/d4ydn72 or your personal css for your features.

BUT we are going to screen your entry before it goes through to make sure you are not using our group to do the following:

• pure self-promotion (a little section at the bottom is okay, but keep it reasonable!)
• soliciting/begging for points or DD suggestions
• doing raffles for points - if you want to give away points, do a contest, we want no part of any kind of lotteries in here!
• advertising/promoting your own or any buisness, be it a website or commissions or whatever - this group is not your free add service
• anything unlawful, such as violating copyright by offering resources you have no right to offer (goes from "stock" that is not yours to telling people where they can "get Photoshop for free" or any such things) - Please read this article for more information!
• anything meant to discredit, flame or abuse someone else including shouts of "deviant xy is a thief" - if you find stolen work in our gallery, please note the group about it, we'll deal with it, trust us!
• and lastly, no racial slurs, no excessive gore, violence or porn - we're okay with a medium amount of horror and nudity, we're deviants after all - but please keep it reasonable!

If you are doing a feature of stocks and are unsure about one or two items being legit, you can always note the group when you submit your blog and we will take a look and in case there's something shady in there we can remove the thumb.

How to add CSS to your entry:
You need to locate the button below the entry right underneath the word "Skin" - it'll usually say "Deviant Green (default)" until you hover over it. When you do, the button says "Choose a skin..." which you can do in the window that pops up. BEWARE though, you won't be able to choose the skins you have installed on your own account but only those that are installed on the group account, one of them is the Photomanipulated v1 skin (the one used here). You can always create a new skin for everyone to use within the pop up window (see .:How to add CSS to Groups tutorial by GinkgoWerkstatt), or you can use the tab on the main input page that says "Extras" to paste your (one-time-use) code in or alter something existing there.

Please do NOT alter the Photomanipulated v1 skin in the pop up!!!

Note: It seems that the submission of journals as journals via sta.sh only works for admins (contributors, moderators etc) If you plan on submitting journals frequently (maybe you have a series you want to share with us etc), contact us via note and we'll see about a "promotion" to Contributor status