Working with Shutterstock’s AI Editor to Create Unique Images

What’s better than a stock image source? An individualized stock image source, offering selections that will be unique to you and to your project specifically.

Most images in Shutterstock’s 450 million strong inventory can be adjusted to give you an image that you won’t see anywhere else on the web or in print, using Shutterstock’s powerful AI Editor.

Accessing the AI Editor

Step 1: Choose an image that has the potential to fit your project’s needs

Step 2: On that image’s page, at the bottom right hand side of the image itself, you will see a “Remove Background” button. Hitting this button will reveal all of the AI tools that can transform the stock asset into a distinct image that expresses the precise aim of your article, website, or ad campaign.

Step 3: Once you’ve clicked “Remove Background”, a series of 6 buttons will line up on the right hand side of your new editing screen, including Magic Brush, Expand, Variations, Background Remover, Filter, and Crop. Use these tools to tweak and fine-tune the image to your needs!

Step 4: Once you’ve perfected the image to your individual wishes, you can license and download it. Hitting the download button gives you a zip file which will include both the original image and your adjusted creation.

The Magic Brush Tool

This might be the most genius tool to come out of Shutterstock’s AI to date. If the image of choice has a person or object in it that doesn’t fit the bill, by simply highlighting the area with the Magic Brush, the item can either be magically erased, or replaced with something completely different! Employing AI powers Shutterstock to seamlessly replace the unwanted portion with literally anything in seconds, blending in the background around your replaced item.

The Expand Tool

The Expand selection will allow a user to enlarge any image, relying upon AI to supply what might be in the new space.

In our example, we’ve chosen a good representation of a woman speaking to an audience. However fitting this image may be for our story, the chosen image is a little too zoomed in on the woman, and we’d like to see more of the auditorium and audience around her. A simple click upon “Expand” instantly produces several selections that include more audience and more auditorium around the edges. If we like, we can choose an AI generation that includes more of the woman’s body and podium beneath, with added details in the ceiling, creating a completely different feel to the picture.

As with any AI, at times the added material will be a little off. By clicking the Redo button, we can give the Expand function another pass until we find a generation that satisfies our project.

The Variations Tool

The Variation tool in Shutterstock’s AI Edit toolbox allows for multiple creative takes on the same basic image.

AI takes a look at your chosen image and imagines several similar but different arrangements of the same scenario. If you don’t like what you see, you can hit the “Redo” button on the bottom right to get a whole new set of variations to choose from.

Background Remover

The Background Remover tool will accurately and cleanly remove the background to the stock image of your choice, and present you with your main subject on an alpha background.

The Filter Tool

Shutterstock’s Filter tool in the AI Editor gives the option to adjust the overall tone of each image. With the options of black & white, sequoia, warm, tranquil, and vintage, users can explore how changing the color tone of stock imagery will add to its value before pulling the trigger on a download

The Crop Tool

The Crop tool is exactly what you’d expect, allowing you to focus on only the area of the image that you need before download.

However, Shutterstock’s crop tool also allows you to determine how well your image will fit into popular social media aspect ratios. Automatic crop choices include TikTok, Instagram Post, Instagram Story, Facebook Post, Facebook Ad, and YouTube Thumbnail. This saves time in the image selection process by ensuring that the stock image you choose will fit into a specific campaign, and saves time again by cropping your image to the right shape and size before download.

Download Flexibility

If the edits that you’ve made to your chosen stock image are not quite correct for your project in the long run, Shutterstock has you covered. The stock image that you’ve edited has been purchased with a credit from your plan, and that specific image can be re-visited, re-edited, and re-downloaded again and again until you are happy with the result, so long as you are editing the same stock image each time. This gives you the freedom to create and even change your mind later.

With Shutterstock’s large library, compounded by the capabilities of the AI Editor, the possibilities for stock images are truly endless!

Learn more with these Shutterstock articles at Creative COW:

How to Sample Shutterstock’s Inventory to Complete Your Projects

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