
Quickly generate product screenshots in realistic environments - NirDremer
http://placeit.breezi.com/productshots/
======
ryanbrunner
This is a more of a rant on an overall trend than criticism of this site
completely, but I honestly do not understand the "drag to upload a file"
interaction at all.

I'm in all likelihood going to need to navigate through a bunch of folders to
locate what I want to upload anyway - why force me to open up Finder,
reposition it so that my browser and finder are both visible, with the "drop
area" visible as well, find my file and drag it over? With the default file
upload that HTML provides, it's going to open a conveniently sized open window
from the start, with a clear call to action on how to select the file in
question, and no requirement for an awkward drag into some box on a webpage.

It really feels like prioritizing "cool" interactions over usability.

~~~
eterm
1\. The default file chooser on windows is horrible.

2\. With multiple monitors, multiple desktops, etc, quite often people will
have their working files open anyway.

3\. You can drag a picture straight from another open browser tab so it never
needs to touch your browser.

4\. Most sites give a choice of either method.

5\. It's a fairly intuitive action. I know that I caught older family members
struggling when they used to drag images and then the image would display in
their browser. At this point they thought the photo was online and would be
confused when they couldn't then find it on the site when they came back to it
later.

~~~
Groxx
6\. file pickers are frequently modal, so you can't do anything in other tabs
while trying to find a file.

------
replax
Seems like this guy's images became somewhat handy afterall:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5794083](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5794083)

~~~
tehwebguy
Was somewhat sure these were the same but wasn't sure how to find the old
post. Neat to see it come full circle.

------
codeulike
Nice. [http://placeit.breezi.com/cade2ae](http://placeit.breezi.com/cade2ae)

~~~
nodata
Nicer: [http://placeit.breezi.com/e0d7579](http://placeit.breezi.com/e0d7579)

~~~
deleted_account
[http://placeit.breezi.com/3c07b95](http://placeit.breezi.com/3c07b95)

~~~
rfnslyr
Holy shit that is creepy. What/who is that?

~~~
ColinDabritz
Who is right! Doctor Who villain, the Slitheen:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slitheen)

------
sethbannon
This should save a lot of people a lot of time. FYI it's all done under
Creative Commons license allowing commercial use of the images.

~~~
zalew
with attribution

[http://breezi.com/blog/using-placeit-images-for-
commercial-p...](http://breezi.com/blog/using-placeit-images-for-commercial-
purposes/)

 _You’re completely ok to use PlaceIt-generated-images for commercial use. You
just need to attribute PlaceIt if the work is publicly displayed. We’re ok
with any attribution so long as you’re clearly not trying to be an asshole and
just burying it. Doesn’t have to be large or very prominent either. Anything
along the lines of mentioning PlaceIt is fine. We’d obviously really
appreciate a link back._

~~~
kybernetyk
Hmm, I certainly won't 'watermark' my app store screenshots and distract
potential customers. I'd rather pay a fee to breezi for using the templates.

~~~
philtar
You can mention that you used them in the app description.

------
jqueryin
This is fantastic. I'm surprised I haven't seen something like this before. I
think you've got a great potential market here for monetizing. It's like stock
photography meets product upsell.

My first suggestion would be to get similar shots to those you've already done
with a female replacing the male. It's an easy way to add more shots quickly.

I also like the idea of more scenes including people. Make it look like
they're having fun and also using the phone/tablet at the same time. Smiling
faces sell products!

~~~
zachrose
Yes, absolutely fantastic.

"Hands holding photoshop-able screens in environments" is rich photographic
territory. I would also love to see fat hairy hands, dark-skinned hands, waxy
old hands, prosthetic hands, etc.

------
cpursley
Thanks for sharing, I'll be using it on my revamped marketing site.

I think in terms of conversion, potential users emphatically see themselves
using the product with their device with this type of frame (opposed just a
screenshot with no device frame).

However, I would suggest several PC shots. Like Lenovo laptop, Dell monitor,
etc instead of being so Apple-centric.

------
evadne
I was trying to find screen reflection :)

The iPhone 5 screenshot area is off. Top left corner too high, top right
corner too close to the right, two bottom corners too close to the right so
perspective looks incongruent.

Actually content areas in almost all templates are slightly off. All these
screens have gaps around them, it’s chrome - bezel - screen gap - pixels.
Consider shooting template images with the device showing a solid color so you
have the actual image area baked into the original, not with the screen turned
off because you’re more likely to get the placement wrong that way.

------
gedrap
Found it on HN on January and... Why it's free?!

I would be glad to pay for each screenshot generated because saves plenty of
time and simply makes presentations look way better.

There is a channel (you already have it), there is a real problem to be solved
and it's something people would pay... Sounds brilliant :)

~~~
zekenie
I bet its free because now I know what breezi is, and I didn't before Jan. I
agree this is an awesome service. I would shell out a few for it too.

~~~
navidsafa
We're keeping it free for now until we release a much larger library of
imagery - at that point, we'll decide what makes the most sense.

~~~
pyrocat
Maybe 30 stock images for free, gain access to larger library for flat fee.

------
Yetanfou
Only Apple products there - why tailor to the minority? Globally Apple has
around twenty-something percent of smartphones, thirty-something percent of
tablets and ten-something percent of 'PC's'. You wouldn't suspect if you
looked at the media though where it often is Apple or bust. I never understood
this herd mentality and I still don't. People will start dropping Android
screenshots in your iProducts, Xmonad runninng on Macs (OK, that is plausible
but still...), Windows will suddenly magically run on more iProducts, etc.

Diversity is good. Apple is not very diverse. Why not add something else?

~~~
codereflection
You didn't look far enough. There are Androids and Windows Phones / Tablets to
the right.

~~~
Yetanfou
Ah, better. Now mix them so there is no selection bias.

~~~
ceeK
Surely it would make more sense to group them? If I'm going to be creating a
universal application for iOS, it would be much easier to see all the
available options.

That said, I do think the other platforms should be given some sort of
visibility to show that they're actually present.

------
scrozier
Isn't working for me right now...possibly server load? But great idea. I too
would pay. And I second the suggestion for more diversity in the shots. E.g.,
I could use one right now in the hands of a Hispanic teen girl. In general, I
would need more women.

~~~
navidsafa
Give it a try now - and we'll add more women - thanks

------
nisdec
If you do an image search on google you can actually find companies which are
using them... for example:

[http://sobytes.com/world-news-translate-piechart-news-
option...](http://sobytes.com/world-news-translate-piechart-news-option/)

( Did the image search with this one:
[http://placeit.breezi.com/uploads/stage/stage_image/113/bree...](http://placeit.breezi.com/uploads/stage/stage_image/113/breezi_placeit_17.png)
)

------
nns
This has been discussed before over here -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914)

~~~
cbhl
Previous Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4988914)
(118 points, 66 comments, 221 days ago)

------
joeblau
I used this for a mock that I posted on Dribbble[1]. I remember when it was
first released and there were only a few templates so it's great to see that
it's still growing. If the OP is here, how hard would it be to have a scene
with multiple images?

[1] - [http://dribbble.com/shots/1023533-Moneys-Mobile-Digital-
Wall...](http://dribbble.com/shots/1023533-Moneys-Mobile-Digital-
Wallet?list=following)

------
kafkaesque
It looks very nice.

Is it possible to add glare/reflection to the actual screen? It would make it
look more 'integrated' into the photo's surroundings.

~~~
navidsafa
Some have reflections and glares on them already

------
GuitarJ87
I created an opensource alternative a few months back, called snappshot.
([https://github.com/justinjudd/snappshot](https://github.com/justinjudd/snappshot))

Right now I have just posted my own images, but my goal is to get other
photographers/individuals to add photos of different devices.

I am updating my webserver right now, but for now you can run it locally or
deploy it yourself.

------
cdawzrd
realistic _Apple_ environments :-)

(I realize there are one or two Android and Windows phones in the list, but
still...)

------
jacog
Brilliant. Bookmarked.

Would love some Windows-y machines as well, all laptops are Macs. (Which is
what I use, but still live in a world of Windows laptops)

------
gdilla
I love breezi. Unfortunately, it is against Apple's marketing guidelines to
use their product in unauthorized ways to promote your app. It is loosely
enforced, but they have pointed it out to us and asked for a takedown
(politely). They can also hold it against you if they're considering you for a
feature.

~~~
hrabago
Are you saying you've used the "iPhone being held"/"Photographed in context"
style before and Apple told you to take it down? I would be interested in this
because I've been considering this style for my landing page update.

~~~
gdilla
We have. But that's because we're a big publisher and Apple manages our
account with humans. They expect us to follow their rules (in return for
heightened visibility with the iTunes store curation/editorial/marketing
folks).

------
brandon272
Looks great, but it's taking forever to process the image. And I'm sure that
because the app provides no feedback or indication that your image is queued,
people are probably stopping the process and re-trying their upload which
probably only slows things down tremendously!

------
ohwp
Why not transform the image on the client side? It will save load on the
server.

But it's a nice idea!

------
enraged_camel
I really want to share this with people, but it's horrendously slow. I
uploaded a 2048 x 1536 image generated from my iPad, and it has been
processing it for the past 10+ minutes.

edit: over 20 minutes now. I had to restart it.

~~~
nachteilig
Not working for me either, but I have to imagine the combination of image
processing and HN front page isn't terribly kind to a webserver.

------
sbashyal
Feature request: stages like these
[http://www.slickwebsite.com/img/showcase1.png](http://www.slickwebsite.com/img/showcase1.png)

Also, stages with transparent background would be nice

------
philjackson
Amazing. Thanks for sharing this. I'd been searching for stock images like the
ones offered here in which to superimpose screenshots but always came short so
just didn't bother. Now I'll bother.

------
mgkimsal
nice idea. i can see people paying for this to use some premium background
images. 3-4 generic ones are free, you could offer up a lot more custom ones
for a small fee.

------
subsystem
I do wonder if something bad happens if you try to screenshot the screenshot
script url, being a get request and all.

~~~
jlebrech
something goes wrong

------
XERQ
We had a little bit of fun with these:

Images + Discussion: [http://www.xerq.net/showthread.php?158334-XERQ-
marketing-at-...](http://www.xerq.net/showthread.php?158334-XERQ-marketing-at-
its-finest)

Images Only:

[http://i.imgur.com/cN6JnLh.png](http://i.imgur.com/cN6JnLh.png)

[http://imgur.com/ZP26pAQ.png](http://imgur.com/ZP26pAQ.png)

[http://imgur.com/of7SN4p.png](http://imgur.com/of7SN4p.png)

[http://imgur.com/RDPznPc.png](http://imgur.com/RDPznPc.png)

[http://imgur.com/ZyKmPkl.png](http://imgur.com/ZyKmPkl.png)

[http://imgur.com/xJu3fE1.png](http://imgur.com/xJu3fE1.png)

[http://imgur.com/F9T34z7.png](http://imgur.com/F9T34z7.png)

[http://imgur.com/OQiCHx5.png](http://imgur.com/OQiCHx5.png)

[http://imgur.com/sl892ST.png](http://imgur.com/sl892ST.png)

[http://imgur.com/TrOHEyb.png](http://imgur.com/TrOHEyb.png)

[http://i.imgur.com/9BDMxZz.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/9BDMxZz.jpg)

[http://i.imgur.com/qUUA1mx.png](http://i.imgur.com/qUUA1mx.png)

*Some pictures may be NSFW

------
chmike
Can I have one context photo with a laptop on the top of a roller coster ?
This could be a good introduction for a VC or startup conference presentation.

I would suggest to provide HP or Dell computers too because Apple computer
everywhere is getting boring. Ask them to giveaway the laptop as marketing
campaing.

------
triplenineteen
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you are sending a Safari user-agent
string for all of the devices.

It might be worthwhile to send the proper user-agent strings for each device,
so that you'll get a custom response from servers which dynamically generate
content based on that header.

------
trin_
awesome service!

any chance of getting a good ol' boring office version maybe with a real
monitor or just a laptop on a desk? the kind of people i would use this for
really dont go for "macbook air with a notepad in the garden"

------
ceeK
Awesome. I was just the other day thinking that there should be this exact
service when considering doing one of these shots. This is going to save me a
lot of time, thank you. Will be much easier to create marketing assets.

------
quartus
I loaded up my first screenshot sequence of the day.
[http://placeit.breezi.com/3443524](http://placeit.breezi.com/3443524) Please
advise on how to kick up the 4d3d3d3

------
ollysb
I'd love this as a webservice (I'd pay). I need to create product shots for
every customer I have (white labelling) and it would be awesome to be able to
generate them on the fly.

------
alevans4
Would be awesome if this had stages for industrial environments.

~~~
lttlrck
Yes, that would be fantastic.

------
mjpa
I'm guessing it takes a higher resolution image than what the device would
use? The sites I tried ended up rendering wrong in terms of what media queries
were used...

------
aaronz8
I tried to drag and drop one of the images on top, but I get:

We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly.

~~~
navidsafa
Yes, sorry try it in a little while. There's a lot of load right now

------
slawwwc
I was just looking for something like this. Works great!

------
quadrant6
Very nice. When I typed the url of my own website, which is responsive, it
didn't get the responsive version. If it did, it would be perfect.

------
davefp
I'd love a way to filter the options. Scanning through all the pics looking
for all the laptop ones (for example) is annoying.

Otherwise: I like it!

------
andyhmltn
It doesn't work at all for me. I just keep gettign 500's

------
the_kat
what are the terms of use? what is breezi doing with my uploaded screenshot?
can I find that out somewhere? are the screenshots stored on their servers?

------
foxhop
url2png is kicking my butt when it comes to conversions!

They get around 5 new customers for every 1 new linkpeek.com customer.

------
aytekin
Awesome idea. Great execution.

