I'll download it in a second, but where do you obtain your renders? I have trouble picking because I never know what I'm looking for. (Like what keyterm/searchword do you use?)

I don't use renders, I find stocks in packs or certain sites. In this case I was looking up a guitarist I admire so I searched his name and found an image in a pack.

Do you cut the render from the stock yourself?
I find it takes forever (for a clean cut), unless there's something I'm missing.

In a lot of cases, I just work the effects around the stock instead of cutting it out. But sometimes I do cut it out, just using the pen tool and zoomed in. Doesn't take too long for simpler stocks, the annoying ones to render are the ones with lots of hair etc.

For some reason I just pick those like ALWAYS.

Do you erase some parts of the stock then?

Yeah sometimes I do. Just depends what kind of effects I am trying to achieve.

I find stocks more forgiving and receptive to effects than renders, because with a render if you build a bad background then you won't get good effects.