title: Magento Product Placeholder Image
body: <p>I have product placeholder images set in the backend at System -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Product Image Placeholders</p>
  
  <p>I can half-successfully access a product placeholder image programmatically in one of my views using the following code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$this-&gt;getSkinUrl($this-&gt;helper('catalog/image')-&gt;init(
  Mage::getModel('catalog/product'), 'small_image'));
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My issue is that the above returns:</p>
  
  <pre><code>http://x.dev/skin/frontend/base/default/http://x.dev/media/catalog/product/cache/7/small_image/0dc2d03fe217f8c83829496872af24a0/placeholder/default/logo_4.jpg*
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It seems like getSkinUrl does what it says and adds the skin path to the string, this is my <strong>real issue</strong>, to fix the issue I thought I would just remove getSkinUrl:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$this-&gt;helper('catalog/image')-&gt;init(
  Mage::getModel('catalog/product'), 'small_image');
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But the above code throws:</p>
  
  <pre><code>PHP Fatal error:  Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can anyone see a problem with this, I seem to be doing less and it seems to be getting stuck in a loop.</p>
  
  <p>Alternatively does anybody know an alternative method? I am really stuck and I really don't want to hard code it.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>