diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 5ddda45f..13a6f59b 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ numpy>=1.6
 scipy>=0.9
 six>=1.3
 networkx>=1.6.2
+pillow>=1.1.7
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 3d71f3f4..83979b1a 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -80,7 +80,6 @@ version='%s'
 
 
 def get_package_version(package):
-    version = []
     for version_attr in ('version', 'VERSION', '__version__'):
         version_info = getattr(package, version_attr, None)
         try:
@@ -105,8 +104,11 @@ def check_requirements():
         if package_name == 'cython':
             package_name = 'Cython'
         dep_error = False
+        if package_name.lower() == 'pillow':
+            package_name = 'PIL.Image'
         try:
-            package = __import__(package_name)
+            package = __import__(package_name,
+                fromlist=[package_name.split('.')[-1]])
         except ImportError:
             dep_error = True
         else:
diff --git a/skimage/novice/tests/test_novice.py b/skimage/novice/tests/test_novice.py
index 02d5c7a8..a1f750ab 100644
--- a/skimage/novice/tests/test_novice.py
+++ b/skimage/novice/tests/test_novice.py
@@ -143,14 +143,14 @@ def test_update_on_save():
     assert pic.modified
     assert pic.path is None
 
-    fd, filename = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix=".png")
+    fd, filename = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix=".jpg")
     os.close(fd)
     try:
         pic.save(filename)
 
         assert not pic.modified
         assert_equal(pic.path, os.path.abspath(filename))
-        assert_equal(pic.format, "png")
+        assert_equal(pic.format, "jpeg")
     finally:
         os.unlink(filename)