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iPad wallpaper #4

in ,

Winter came to Sweden early this year, with lots of snow and temperatures up to down to -25 °C last week here in Uppsala. I managed to stay out long enough to take some photos of the beautiful white landscape and one of them is this week's iPad wallpaper.

Click/Tap here to view and save the wallpaper in full size. The previews below were made with the great template from Intridea.

 

winter-shadows-preview.jpg

Click here to view all iPad wallpapers on memento.

 

workspace

in ,

I've been working at home the last week, writing a research paper. I found out that sitting at the kitchen table was much better for reading and writing than sitting in front of my big iMac where I do my photo editing and surfing. I guess because of the little buddha figurine or the "bamboo". Or plainly because of the combination of bright window light and black coffee!

 

workspace2.jpg

Click on the images below to view them one by one:

how to transform a bathroom mirror self-portrait to a studio-like photo (and get a haircut for free)

in , , ,

This is not meant to be a tutorial, I just thought it would be cool to show the steps that led to creating my all time favorite self-portrait (as of  yesterday). I use Lightroom for editing, but I won't go into technical details, the process is far more interesting and can be done in most of the photo editing programs.

First, the obligatory before/after image.

before
after

(continued on next page)

1. This is the original photo I took in my bathroom.

tut-1.jpg

2. I started by fixing white balance and brightness/blacks levels.

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3. I tried different brightness and contrast settings but wasn't satisfied. The image was lacking something, it was too dull. So I thought I should make it high key instead and I dodged my eye a bit.

tut-11.jpg

4. Next, it was time for some split-toning. I like mixing "cold" and "warm" tones (mostly to the "cooler" side) so I went for some green and red.

tut-15.jpg

5. The right part of the image was a bit too dark compared to the rest, so I added some "light" by using a graduated filter with added brightness.

tut-17.jpg

6. I was quite happy at this point, but there still was something bugging me. The background was distracting. I started dodging the lines and it was then that it struck me. Why not completely white out the background to make it look like a big light source? I also changed the color to give an overall greenish tint.

tut-18.jpg

7. Finally, some fine brush work and the haircut!

tut-19.jpg

in , ,

I may not like snow that much but it makes for some fine photos! This is one of my favorite views of Uppsala domkyrka (cathedral) and it gets so much more beautiful with some snow.

I've posted the b&w version of the photo on Flickr but couldn't really decide between that and the color version, so here there are both of them with the "before/after" slider I used in two older posts.

Uppsala domkyrka in color
Uppsala domkyrka in b&w


OK Go, Last Leaf

in , ,

Remember the post about OK Go and their then-to-be-released music video of "Last Leaf"? Well, it is out! It's a stop motion video and, apart from a Samsung NX100, it was made with 2430 pieces of toast.


before/after 1

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I've always liked "before and after" images, like the photos in this gallery, or this one (but, please, no celebrities!).

Some time ago I found the Before/After jQuery plugin and I've finally got it working inside a post. Thanks to Zach Fine of "in LA”, who took the original plugin, created by the admin of "Catch My Fame”, modified and wrapped it into a Wordpress plugin. I've just changed the color of the slider handle to match the colors of the blog (by the way, orange is my favorite color!)

So, here is the first before/after image. It's a photo of Vayia, friend and my yoga teacher some time ago. I took the photo last summer during a photo shoot with Andreas, photographer and Vayia's husband. You can view the "after” photo in a Flickr set, along with other photos from the photo shoot, here.

 

before
after

 

Drag the handle or click anywhere on the image to move the slider. Tap if you're on an iPhone or iPad.

it's contest time!

in ,

Here are the photos I've submitted to two online contests today.

The first three are for the contest on John Bartdoff's blog that sports three categories, i.e. portrait, still life and landscape, all in black and white. (click on the images to see my entries on the contest page)triptych.jpg

The second contest was on Karl Taylor's site and the theme was cityscape.

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