I've recently purchased a Lomography camera (a modern re-make of classic Russian Lomo camera), which takes very stylised photos due to it being an all-plastic camera and therefore a bit crap, but crap in an interesting way. You never quite know what you're going to get with a Lomo, but the best shots really capture something a normal camera never can.
That said, you can re-create the best-of-Lomo look with a normal photo and some image-editing software (Photoshop for this tutorial). Once I get my first Lomo film back, it will be interesting to compare the real thing against the fakery, but for now, you can see the basic Lomo effect from the results of the Photoshop fakery.
So here's the transition from standard camera shot (left) to Lomo effect (right) - click the image to see an enlarged version:
There are a number of guides to creating a Lomo-effect using Photoshop, but most of those I tried lacked something or weren't very adjustable. A few sites had Photoshop Actions you could download, but these make the process automatic and limit the amount of control you have, although they are create to use for a quick-and-easy adjustment.
I used four sites with 'how-to' guides to assess which processes were useful and which were the simplest techniques to get the job done. The following is a 'best of' from these 4 guides, and although I don't claim it to be the ultimate guide, I've split it into 4 easy sections so you can easily understand the process and alter it to your image accordingly:
3. Choose the Circular Marquee Tool and set the feather amount to ~1/12 the width of your picture. Draw an oval that fills the majority of the picture.
4. Right-click the selection and choose 'Invert Selection'. Now go to Layers -> New Adjustment Layer -> Levels. In the first pop-up box click OK (100% opacity, normal) then drag the arrow in the middle of the graph towards the right, until a suitable vignette effect shows on your image.
Over-exposure
5. Now add a new layer above the base layer and select the Gradient Tool (select radial gradient and 'foreground to transparent' mode).
6. Change your primary color to white and with the gradient tool, click in the middle of the picture, and drag the line out to the farthest edge of your picture.
7. Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay and the layer opacity to ~70%.
8. Add a new layer
Radial Blur
8. Select the base layer (your original photo) and go to Filter -> Blur -> Radial Blur. Select 'Blur Method' to 'Zoom' and set the blur amount at either 1 or 2, so it gently blurs the edges of the photo, with sharp focus in the middle.
Final Saturation Adjustment
9. Add a new layer above the base layer, fill it with Black. Change the blending mode and set it to Hue and reduce the opacity to ~30%.
So, that process should give you the effect as shown in my image above. I'm sure you'll tweak the process on the way - in fact, the final step (#9) is there for that purpose. It is similar to step #1, but allows a gentle readjustment of saturation after the other key processes, whilst step #1 changes the image's look to best-suit the other adjustments.
It's a pretty fun thing to have a play with anyway, best of luck in your efforts. I'll try and do a post later on when I've got some real Lomo shots to compare it to - until then, here are some useful links to get your teeth into:
I know, I know. It's been a while.. Work has been pretty hectic and I've just not had time to finish off a number of posts that I've written 80% of. Somehow they've become an annoying job, so for now I'm moving on to something new.. and pretty old.
So, we've got a Christmas photo competition going on at work and for the 'funny' category I've entered a pic of me impersonating a security guard somewhere on Lake Geneva. Saving any suspense, here's the photo:
All I remember (well, until further research helped out) was that the sign was next to a big castle on Lake Geneva, near the town with the Freddie Mercury statue. Well, that town is Montreaux and a small amount of googling got me to the castle as well, Chateau du Chillon:
Now that is a pretty amazing photo, and looks for all the world to be an HDR shot, although apparently it isn't. Anyway, I particularly like the fact that I visited this castle but only bothered to take a comedic shot of me and a sign, the castle features no where in my album - ha.
Just for fun (this would also have been another route of castle-based discovery), I maximised the sign to try and get the french and then translate it. The bit I could make out reads, "..saut autorisation expresse de intendant du chateau du chillon la plage sise sur cette..", which comes out as:
I'd love to go to a beach where you need a Superintendent's permission to visit - sadly I didn't have said permission so just ended up disrespected his/her authority instead. For those interested, there's a wee map of the area below, along with a few links - enjoy!
I've just ordered myself an HTC Hero phone, the latest Android offering from HTC (and the 3rd Android phone released to date). It's got everything I wanted in my new phone: 5MP camera, WiFi, GPS, Social Networking integration and stylish looks.
And yes, it has a chin. I think it looks great - futuristic and 80s retro all in one, but others may disagree. Take a look at the info below and see what you think. I'll perhaps post a wee 'user experience' post later on:
Last week, the results of the annual Ian Parry Scholarship were announced, with an outright winner, a 'highly commended' award and 3 'commended' awards. There's a bit about the award below, but this award has become one of the most prestigious in photojournalism and as you will see later, the quality of entrants is very high:
I really wanted to post about this Award because some of the photos are really impressive and their creators' websites are also well worth visiting. Not only have I not got an eye for shots like this, but the context and story behind the images has been carefully considered also. This kind of photography takes time and effort and I'm sure this year's finalists will go far. Photography is very prevalent on the web and it's not all exactly world-class, so it's nice to look at some real quality for once :)
This year's winner was Maisie Crow from Ohio University with a series entitled "Love Me". Maisie explains the concept behind her work on her website:
More information can be found at the official website (see links below) and from the photographer's websites, and most have other series on offer that weren't entered into this competition. There's something really nice about photojournalism as it has to help tell the story itself, rather than simply add a bit of context and I think the examples on this page have something to say.
I'll leave you with one of Ed Ou's pictures, as his work struck me as being very powerful as well - and second place in this award is still very impressive! And if you're on a photography course or are under 24 and this work has inspired you, why not think about entering next year's competition - details via the links below:
One last thing, if you're in London in the next couple of days, photos from this year's competition are currently on show at the Getty Images Gallery, Eastcastle Street, London. They should be on show until 12 August 2009, so get your skates on!
UPDATE [14/08/09]: I've just seen an article on the BBC website about the future of photojournalism and thought it would add to this post nicely: BBC Viewfinder: Photojournalism today
There has been a bit of press of late about the Colorado River Bridge, whose arch is about to become connected, high above the Black Canyon. It is being built to take pressure off the Hoover Dam road and once completed will make the canyon even more picturesque (if you like modern architecture, that is!).
Having said that, the pictures of the bridge in contsruction are equally impressive and a few are showcased here, showing the varying stages of the project as well as a bit of information sourced about the work:
So, there we have it - It should be a sight to behold when finished. It still amazes me just what a monumental job the original dam was and more information on that can be found via the link below.
Finally, don't forget to explore the blog for more articles on architecture or check out one of the blog's most popular posts, discussing unusual bridges and bridge building games:
A few weeks back, I posted a story about "The Shed", a Yorkshire music venue with an unusual leaflet. A short time after, I received an email from someone who'd stumbled on the post and could offer a bit more info:
Paul also gave me a link to Kathryn Tickell's website and another photo of her, this time involving some fiddling action, rather than bagpiping. There are more photos from the event here and here.
As Paul partly stated in his email, he found the post whilst searching for an image of bagpipes to use in a flyer for this year's William Kennedy Piping Festival, Armagh. Happily, Paul found an image that was suitable and the design is now complete, reproduced below - the festival is from 12-15th November 2009 so do pop along if you're in the area. You may well see Paul and his Uilleann pipes whilst you're there!
And one last thing, I'd just like to say that any festival with a flyer as cool as that should definitely be visited - the Marxist style graphics are a nice touch :)
I was in Northallerton a few months ago and found a brilliant leaflet in the pub, offering an exciting venue for tourists and locals alike...
...I'm not sure if it's the state of the woman on the front (her period costume ends up making her look like a tramp...the bagpipes are a nice touch too!) or just the brilliantly simple name, but I had to laugh at "The Shed":
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh or maybe the cover was slightly tongue in cheek, but it looks like a cracking tourist attraction. In reality, The Shed is a small music and arts venue on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors but I prefer the idea of it just being a shed with some woman with some bagpipes nearby :)
We all get random emails with 'great' photos in, don't we? And they are very rarely 'great', hey? Well sometimes they are, or at least over time a few of them might be classed in this category. But the one problem with this way of sharing photos is that the source information tends to get lost. Unless it's watermarked, you generally get no credit for your work as it's sent around the world on your behalf.
So I understandably hesitate to publish any of these types of shots on the blog when due credit can't be given. However, when they are emailed all around the world without credit, I'm probably not adding to the problem by much! But either way, I'll do my best to find a source if possible.
So, over the last few months, I've saved the odd photo from these emails in the hope of building up a few nice ones to post, and that's what I'm doing here. I also discovered the original photographer for one of the photos and perhaps for a couple more.
But I'll start with the photos and then see what I can find out about the source! These are just some random photos that I enjoyed (for no particular reason), so I hope you like them too:
So, I found the source of one photo as Detlef Winkelewski and it's plausible that more than one of the other shots is his too, as these emails don't tend to use a massive variety of sources! If I can confirm that or find any other sources, I'll be sure to add them.
[There's a lesson here I think: ALWAYS WATERMARK YOUR PHOTOS!]
Anyway, a quick google search unearthed a few other photos by this photographer (he seems to be quite prolific!) including the portrait photo for a Sicilian villa, Gianferrante, near Paternò:
Whilst visiting this website, I found a few other photos from guests of the villa, and Mr Winkelewski pops up again, with a couple of great shots of Sicily:
So there we are, another weird tour of the internet with quite a few nice photos thrown in for fun. One day I'll write posts that have a slightly more logical fabric to them, but until then, I hope you keep enjoying the madness! :)
I was looking up a few things on Wikipedia and came across a huge selection of photos showing atmospheric effects. I'd started looking up parallax as it had been in the pub quiz the night before, but ended up collecting a nice selection of pictures showing phenomena you might not see every day.
To save you from me explaining them all, I'll turn to some more considered sources, just click on the reference to access the original source.
I was inspired by the illumination of York Minster in 2005 (I saw it at the time, but was reminded of it via a photo today!) to trawl the internet for some other examples of buildings being illuminated for art's sake. Unsuprisingly, there are quite a few examples - I've assembled a small collection here. I'll stick a few references at the end, but otherwise just enjoy the show! :)
Some pretty amazing pictures, I'm sure you'll agree - These illumations seem to happen pretty often (especially at Christmas time) so keep your eye open for a similar show near you!
I'm pretty confident this place will blow you away. The "Door to Hell" is a burning entrance to a chasm in the desert in Turkenistan, near Derweze (commonly referred to as 'Darvaza'). Due to its remoteness, there isn't a lot of information on it online, but I've done my best to collate what I can!
I'll kick it off with some amazing pictures. We'll see later from the satellite images (taken in daylight, suprisingly) that the glow of the hole on these photos is considerably enhanced by the fact they're taken at dusk, but it's still an amazing sight:
I think you get the idea now - pretty cool, huh? For a bit more explaination and as I have no personal knowledge, here's a quote from Joshua Kucera who blogged on the same topic:
"It's 60 meters in diameter and was apparently created sometime in the 50s when the Soviets were prospecting for natural gas in this area. That’s all the guidebook says, and when we got there I asked my guide for a more complete explanation. So, how exactly was this made, I asked. "It was natural", was the answer"
I've heard this "accident" was supposedly some prospectors who were checking the area for signs of natural gas when the ground collapsed into a large underground chasm (presumably costing some human life in the process). Gas started leaking form this newly aerated chasm and to stop a major gas leak, the (remaining) prospectors lit the leaking gas to allow it to burn away safely. Of course, it would have to have been burning for decades now, but who knows? It looks like a large hole!
The image below shows a couple of map views of the "Door to Hell", showing a hole (I think it's visible anyway!) in the middle of the desert. The Google Maps image appears to show the whole glowing an orange colour (photos taken at dusk / dawn?) whilst the Yahoo images show blue deposits around the hole. I did a bit of digging as to what these deposits could be, but it's much more likely that the image correction process has slightly misrepresented the colours in this case. Click on the image to be taken to a site giving a variety of map choices for the location:
So there we go - A bit of information on a slightly crazy phenomena, but the photos are worth it on their own!
The Starfire Optical Range (SOR) is a US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its main duty is to "develop and demonstrate optical wavefront control technologies". Due to the fact it is classified a secure lab facility, there isn't a great deal of information about its operation, although it is commonly reported to be looking into the feasibility of using ground-based laser as an anti-satellite weapon.
There aren't a great number of photos of the facility but what are out there are pretty impressive. Have a look at the photos below; references to various sites offering more information can be found underneath these:
The last image is a view of the underside of the Columbia space shuttle during its entry from mission STS-107 on Feb. 1, 2003, as it passed by the Starfire Optical Range. This image was received by NASA as part of the Columbia accident investigation and is being analyzed.
Well the first F1 night race kicked off in style yesterday in Singapore with large crouds and plenty of excitement. Now I'm not a big F1 fan (it's my dad's favourite cure for insomnia though!) but there was something pretty spectacular about seeing the F1 cars under floodlights in the middle of Singapore.
It wasn't just a night race, but a street race as well - with reporters saying it could quickly become the 'new monaco' of the F1 circuit.
I’ve recently developed a bit of a vested interested in the various islands off the UK (it’s vested as I want to visit them!) and have trawled the internet to find some interesting places, stories and photos from our watery rocks.
Firstly, I was interested to note that the most populated island in the UK (bar the mainland, of course!) is in fact one that many people here will not be familiar with. For the island of Portsea off the south coast is home to a large portion of the city of Portsmouth and although only seperated by a small strip of sea (and happily connected up by roads) it is by still an island all the same.
According to google maps there are three major bridges connecting up the island and what looks like a roundabout-bridge - is that unique in the UK?
So moving on from Portsea, we’ll head west northwest to the Britsol Channel and the Isle of Lundy. It’s easy to see why people love visiting here with rugged UK cliffs and beautiful blue sea and sandy beaches, it seems to offer the best of the UK all in one island. Below are two image of Lundy, the second being a live webcam image:
Isle of Lundy Webcam Image
As with quite a few islands they have a penchant for producing their own stamps - and for people to enjoy collecting them - and Lundy is no exception. The following is taken from wikipedia and you can just about see the postcode, this letter is going to around Waterloo Place in Edinburgh - not far from me!
I know that you’re thinking - "can’t we jump needlessly halfway up the country to a new island?" - well, yes we can...
The Isle of Seil is connected to the mainland by the famous Bridge Over the Atlantic and is somewhere I’ve visited recently. It’s similar to Portsea Island in the fact that it is connected to the mainland by a small bridge and is only separated by a small channel of sea. But with the Isle of Seil, there aren’t the thousands of residents, mostly due to it’s remote location on the west coast of Argyll. But it’s a lively spot and is home to the Oyster Brewery which has it’s own bar on the harbourside of the main village, Eillenabreich.
Just off the coast here is the only unnavigable stretch of water off the UK, the Corryvreckan whirlpool but it also happens to be one of the finest marine environments in UK waters so if you’re a diver, it’s well worth a wee look!
Now moving a little further from the mainland (but not far) we come to the majestic Isle of Rum. In terms of rugged looks, this is my favourite island in the UK - it’s just such a perfect shape: a mountain popping out the sea, seen here from the Eigg:
Seen in glorious sunshine, Rhum looks like a tropical paradise but can also boast some high peaks, snowy winters and great climbing - but even in this shot the sun is shining...I promise that’s not always the case, not by a long shot! the island across the water is Eigg, so this shot is almost a reverse of the one above:
The Inner Hebrides have their own unique flavour, but for sheer ruggedness it’s always good to head offshore. So winging our way around the country, to the north west coast, we move on to Fair Isle.
I love this photo; it conjures up all the nice aspects of a rugged island, rough sea, sharp rocks, big cliffs, a lighthouse, and (unusually!) fine weather. Our islands and always easy to inhabit but they offer a wide range of landscapes in which to do so, all of which have their charms!
Just to keep this post contemporary, here’s a webcam image from Fair Isle, which should keep updated - although may not work too well in the evening:
Fair Isle Webcam Image
"Hang on a minute! I’m bored, can’t we swing all the way round the other end of the country and finish of?"
Alright. The last place I’d like to touch on is Sealand. Some may have heard of it and sound may haven’t, but it’s got an interesting history and is probably the world’s most well-known micronation. A micronation is an area that has declared itself independent of the country it lies in, but has no international or national recognition of this status. In other words, they are normally small areas of land owned by eccentric people having a bit of a laugh.
Sealand is slightly different as it lies off the UK coast in international waters and is an old oil platform. It doesn’t consist of much other than a few portacabins and a helipad but it gets by all the same - they even have their own passports, just ask Prince Roy!
That’s quite enough island hopping for now, but hope you enjoyed the journey - feel free to check out the relevant links below:
Went to see a jazz trio last night at the The Jazz Bar and found a great photo of them online. Now, they didn't quite look like this in the flesh (they were in colour afterall!) but I love the old-fashioned americana theme of this shot:
I thought I'd round up a few things I've seen online recently, all with a nice photo. Just click on the photo to go to the relevant story, it's as simple as that!
I've been pretty busy of late and decided it was time for a nice, (relatively) simple and good-looking app. My plan was to make a service using little thumbnail pictures and mouseover effects but i wasn't quite sure where it would end up.
Well, it ended up with PhotoWords and I'm pretty pleased with it :) You type in a phrase (max 25 characters although it's best if you have exactly 25), put your name and the person who it's for and press go!
Then you get the finished message - the photos change as does the cryptic pattern needed to read the message (see the centre square), so it should look fresh every time you use it.
Every time you create a message, the permalink is shown below the PhotoWord, so be sure to send it on and make this our most popular app to date...
I've looked at making a nice, Flash-free image switcher before and have had some success but thought I'd adapt it a bit for a new set of pictures.
My previous image switcher efforts used a menu system, but this time I'd like to use 'forward' and 'back buttons, meaning creating an image map for each photo. I've also opted to use an iFrame this time, guaranteeing all the files are in the right place!
I think it works pretty well and is a code-light app, so nice and easy to replicate!
I'm a fully paid up member of the Cloud Appreciation Society (oh yes) and as such, have an interest in cloud formations - especially ones that look awesome :)
One of my favourite clouds (it's maybe a bit populist) is the Mammatus cloud, which effectively occurs when a low sun lights up the bottom of a curved cumilonimbus. They look great but good examples rarely occur in the UK (you'd have to go the USA for that) - so to see a photo of a Mammatus cloud in St. Albans a couple of days ago was a great sight. The photo is below - I'm not sure who took this shot but it is now appearing on the BBC so I'll presume they have copyright over it [click to enlarge]:
Another photo update, this time just a couple of interesting shots I found from the internet.
First up, a couple of photos from National Geographic showing the collapse of Wall Arch in Utah. When you visit these natural features, you're aware they could collapse at any time, but let's hope no one was under this as it tumbled!
The next photo was one I found on Richard Wanderman's Photography Site, although I can't really remember how I stumbled across it! It's a great shot, showing the edge of farming land in New Mexico - a stark contrast I've not seen documented so well before [click to enlarge]:
I recently stumbled upon a few of photos I'd been meaning to post a while ago. The first three are different shots of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències - a stunning building in Valencia. The last photo is a brilliant photo of an altostratus cloud, not that I've seen one like that before! [The first photo can be clicked on to enlarge.]
There has been a fair amount of buzz about the new BBC series, 'Britain from Above', in which satellite imagery and geo-tagged data are combined to help tell the story of Britain.
Well, that's what they'd like you to think - of course, none of the promotional imagery is anything other than computer-generated, albeit from geniune data sources. People like to believe that satellite images are standard photographs, when the truth is a lot of standard imagery is false-colour. Although the images provided to promote the series are intruiging, they are really just graphical representations of data on top of an altered satellite image.
I've nothing against this type of representation per se, but I do think that data is more readily accepted when it looks pretty. These images and maps offer brightly coloured lines and dots and the appearance of a fast-moving, exciting world. Often the images look great and you think 'wow, look how interesting that is' without really thinking about whether it shows anything at all.
Take a look at the 3 images below and have a think what they REALLY show you - and whether it's an unlikely outcome or just a nice represenatation of a fairly obvious principle [click on each image to enlarge]:
These images are certainly interesting - especially because I created the 2nd image on photoshop in 5 minutes. All it actually shows is lots of green and white lines on a tinted satellite image. I'm not sugegsting that any of the other images are faked or misleading, but just a word of warning - think about what the data actually shows and how relevant it is as it's not hard to make a pretty picture that illustrates nothing!
Well last week we weren't exactly bathing in sunshine. Instead, Britain had rain for about a week non-stop and some exciting thunderstorms too. This may not be hugely uncommon, but I liked the photos I saw from readers of the BBC website, so thought I'd stick the best ones on here.
I was reading an article on Wikipedia about Tutankhamun (Tutankhamun Entry), when I stumbled across an image of Egyptian iconogrpahy depicting Tutankhamun at war.
It just seemed to have a striking resemblance to the Bayeaux Tapestry (1000s of years seperate their creation!) - The top and bottom borders, the fight scenes, the characters dotted around the space. I guess good design is good design in all cultures!
A lot of the posts on this blog centre around design techniques for business and commercial use, but sometimes it's good to just have a bit of fun. When I'm not working on a commercial project, it's nice to put a little bit of effort into making a fun profile picture for a website or social networking site.
I realised I've created a number of 'arty' (and some stupid..) pictures for my Facebook profile page and thought I'd stick them all together for all to see. These are by no means design classics (!) but thought I'd share them anyway, hopefully inspiring others to make stupid profile pictures and make me look less stupid!
These images really speak for themselves, so just take a look at the majesty of a volcano meeting a lightning storm. Click either photo to be taken to a news story relating to the event.
Photosynth is a Microsoft acquisition which first surfaced in 2006. It brings in photos from a variety of sources on a specific subject and aligns them in a 3D space, bringing together these various shots into an explorable whole.
Rather than giving an extended description, it's best to watch the video from the 2006 TED conference, seen below:
Although it's seen little further development (in the public arena, anyway) since its introduction, it still blows me away in 2008. As this is a Microsoft Labs project, there is a large amount of information on the official website detailing the service, so I'll let you explore at will (you need a small download to view it).
I really hope this technology has further use - it did feature in a Nasa project in 2007 - as it still has no contemporaries in the web world.
I was recently traveling on a train and saw an advert for free wireless on all National Express train services. The advert conveyed the point simply whilst using the photographic background to get across the slogan.
A low-res version of this image is below - the advert used this with the National Express Logo and the slogan "Free Wireless - Your Gateway to the World":
This got me thinking about the possibilities of using a similar technique for a simple advertising campaign. So...I got Photoshop open and made a fake ad for a made=up company, 'Fauxcorp'.
The premise was of a lady "sitting on the fence", which paints the picture of why you may need Fauxcorp: Decision-making. It was just a 5 minute job, but it shows what can be achieved when the picture tells most of the story.
I was recently browsing through the results of a photography competition for night shots (found via Digg) and as you would imagine, there were a number of good photos in there.
However, one stuck out for me for the way it had an 'atmosphere' - sounds a bit cliched, I admit, but it really is a great shot.
It's all well and good talking about photographic design and image manipulation, but a great photo still requires one thing, an inspiring subject.
Photography from space has wowed people over the years (and rightly so), but until recently, these photos have mainly been limited to distant shots of planets and stars, or grainy shots of planetry surfaces.
The image below has recently been released by NASA and shows an avalanche on Mars:
(c) NASA / JPL-CALTECH / University of Arizona
"Hills near the Martian north pole have avalanches, according to this photo from Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The ground to the left, carrying carbon dioxide frost, is hundreds of metres higher than on the right. Fracturing of rock due to heating and cooling may produce debris for avalanches."
Seems a very impressive image, especially with its frost, cliffs and other recognisable features from our own planet..
It's nice to use Photoshop and similar programmes to fine tune your photography or to make nice designs for websites etc, but combining the two can also be fun!
Here, I've taken a photo from my collection and applied a simple Photoshop filter - the stained glass effect. Then, applying it at different levels, I have saved 4 images that vary from difficult to comprehend to the original image.
This feature could easily be used to hide the identity of a photo for a guessing game or competition on a website - with the half-way images used for clues when the competitor is stuck. The setting used for each shot are shown at the bottom of the photo. Just go to Filter -> Texture -> Stained Glass.. to eneter the effects menu:
There are a variety of ways to create sepia effects on photos using a simple photo editing programme. Some seem more complicated than others, but they don't need to be - here's a very simple technique for creating a nice sepia effect using photo shop - starting with a standard colour digital photograph.
First, choose an image and open it up in Photoshop. The following image will be used in this tutorial, so the effect can be seen from start to finish:
Firstly, remove the colour from the image. This can be done by converting it to black and white, but can just as easily be done by following this menu path: Enhance -> Adjust Colour -> Remove Colour.
Next, add a new adjustment layer and use an orange colour similar to #9b6921. Now, in layer options simply select 'Soft Light' rather than 'Normal' and you have yourself a nice sepia image.
**For an even simpler (but slightly less effective) method, simply add a new fill layer with the colour above and set the opacity to around 15%.
Due to the christmas break, the blog may well have a week or two off so I thought I'd leave on a Christmassy note! So here's a wee christmas message from Beats! Design:
The following example is quite self-explanatory, just click the labels to get a zoomed in image at full resolution:
After exploring techniques for showing multiple-layer images on the web, it occurred to me that this technique could be applied to add content to an image by zooming into higher detail areas.
The following example is quite self-explanatory, just click the labels to get a zoomed in image at full resolution:
Well after discussing the possibilities of multi-layer photographs using JavaScript and HTML, I felt the system could be quite effective with a bit of fine-tuning.
The following an image taken from Nelson's Monument in Edinburgh and 5 layers are included and are toggled using the little key in the top right hand corner. The same applies for the image below, which is of the coastal view from Culross, Fife but this uses a blog key toggle as an alternative. I may use this system in the future as it is nice and simple and doesn't require any plugins, such as Flash (although does require a JavaScript-enabled browser - but they're pretty common!).
The letters in the key refer to: (c) colour image, (s) sepia image, (b) black and white image, (a) artistic image, (i) inverted image.
After many, many hours of fine-tuning, I've created a nice little system for displaying multiple photographic layers withing one image. This is great when you have multiple versions of one image (say a colour and b&w copy) and want to be able to easily flick between layers.
This uses a relatively simple piece of JavaScript as well as HTML image maps, but the reason it took so long to perfect was because of problems using this script across different internet browsers. Instead of setting the multiple layers to invisible div tags, they have to have the setting 'display:none'. This allows the layers to be pre-loaded without the HTML displaying a blank space where the image should be. Secondly, a lot of issues were encountered when using multple instances of the same script on one page, but again these issues have been resolved.
The first example shows a black & white image and a colour image of Napier University's Craighouse campus:
The second example shows a different image of the same campus, but this time using four layers with different tints applied in Photoshop. This allows the effects of various photographic filters to be reviewed:
The final example shows a slightly more intuitive use of this code, using a little bit of image design to alter a night time photo by adding 'lighting' to an image. Clicking the lamp will turn on the lights and increase the image brightness:
At the moment, I'm going to leave this example without script details. It took so long to perfect that I can't face explaining all the code right now, but feel free to view the page source to have a wee look at the process. I'll update this post with detailed instructions in the next few days!
Another photo / video technique is that of a time-lapse photo, where multiples photos are taken with a time interval and then played back one after the other as a slideshow.
Although this is an increasingly popular techniqe, the results aren't always very impressive. In the following video however, all things blend together nicely to make an inspiring video about Edinburgh (called 'Koya Moments'):
I've been considering new photography techniques recently and it made me wonder whether a photo should be a representation of a view or a monent...I was looking at image of Calton Hill (Edinburgh) on Flickr and some of the photos look amazing - but sometimes seem to suggest a landscape you wouldn't witness directly.
Maybe it doesn't matter if a photo looks slightly unrealistic if it conjures up the image of what the environment feels like? Tricky one.
Anyway, here are a few examples of HDR - a technique that broadens the contrast range, allowing light and dark area to be visible in one shot:
But then again, a trusty night shot needs a long shutter speed, allowing more light and warmth to hit the shot - but in this case, I think it helps show the moment!
..unless specifically authorized by the Superintendent of Chillon castle located on the beach.. 
