WebRev Blog

Once of the hallmarks of our generation has come to be that about once every couple of months Facebook does something, and the entire Internet revolts.  Sometimes the Internet has a good reason to revolt - especially in the cases in which Facebook has made changes that affected its users privacy or security without adequately informing them first. Facebook seems to have learned its lesson in this regard, however, as evidenced by the fact that it took several weeks to roll out the new "timeline" format for profiles and pages.  This, of course, didn't stop the Internet from revolting.

This revolting every time Facebook makes a move has become a tradition - or a bad habit, depending on your perspective - as evidenced by this week's acquisition of Instagram by Facebook.  Remember Instagram? Just last Friday we were exploring this site, which allows users to create artwork out of their mobile photos before uploading them to their favorite social networks. 

While the real news of this acquisition is that it was reported for One Billion Dollars (with a "B"), which is HUGE for a start-up application that just finally rolled out to (Google's) Android devices last week.  Previously, it had only been available on (Apple's) iPhones.

Why was Facebook willing to pay so much? My guess is that Facebook wanted to get it before Google scooped it up. Critics are concerned that Facebook primarily wanted the user data from Instagram.  This seems unlikely, however, because although Instagram had its own social network, its primary purpose to be used as a tool to filter photos prior to uploading to Facebook and Twitter.  Ergo, most of the users probably already had Facebook, and were already sharing their photos on Facebook or another social network.  And, of course the Twitterverse is going nuts - as per usual.  Even the reaction among Facebook users is mixed, and hysterical.

OK, here's the deal.  Facebook is a for-profit company, and so is (was) Instagram.  So are all of their competitors.  They are going to make business decisions that they hope will make them as much money as possible, and keep them in business as long as possible.  This is how business works, and that's what this acquisition was - a business decision.  I think it was probably a good one all of the way around, and I'm very happy for the folks at Instagram who has the business acumen to develop a great program that turned out to be worth $1B. 

Now, let's all calm down, and save our energy for the habitual outrage that is sure to ensue as soon as one of these media giants buys the other photo-related time-sink, Pinterest.

You may have noticed that digital photographic art is all the rage these days.  If you're unfamiliar with this trend, it's where you take photographs, then enhance them digitally to make art out of them.  People have been doing this with software like Adobe Photoshop and Gimp for a long time.  This usually requires uploading your photos from your camera or phone to your computer, then working on them, then re-uploading them to whatever photo-sharing site you're using (Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, etc.).

However, now that so many of us are taking photographs on our mobile phones, applications are being developed to do the digital artwork right on the device, then upload it directly to our photo-sharing site (almost instantly).  A couple of months ago, I highlighted an application called Scalado, which will allow users to remove objects from a photo - I'm still waiting for that one to be available on my Droid.

Another application that has been getting a lot of attention lately is Instagram, which has been available on iPhones for a while, and just became available on the Android devices this week. 

I've tried it out, and I think it's a great option for folks who just want to give their photos a little artistic flare before sharing them on your favorite photo-sharing social network.  Basically, you snap the photo (either using the "advanced" features in the program, or your camera's features), and then run it through one of several "filters" available.  The filters are the equivalent of merging a filter in Gimp or Photoshop, to make your photo look distressed, or like an oil painting, or like an old photograph, or whatever.

Instagram has its own voting system and the most popular photos are available for viewing by the community.  You can use the site to network with your friends who are in your contacts lists on your phone, in Facebook, or in Twitter.  The Instagram blog has tips and tricks for using other available marketplace apps to improve your composition, create collages, or get more creative with your photography and mobile art. 

Flickr has a massive compilation of photos created using Instagram, mostly on iPhones, because the app just became avaiable on Android this week.

Have a Happy and Blessed Easter weekend with friends and family, everyone!

(Updated) This is a great example of a very practical use for satellite technology that will likely be commonplace in the near future.

A company called Scalado created an app called "Remove" uses multiple satellite images of well-known landmarks and helps users erase temporary images (i.e. other tourists, and bird poop) from the photos) from the photos.  The end result is a compiled snapshot that shows only the intended subjects.  The above video demonstrates how it works.

According to the press release:

"...Remove is a technology that automatically highlights and removes any unwanted object from a captured photo. It is the world’s first Object removal software to be released on a mobile device.

"Remove solves common photographic problems with unwanted objects in captured images, such as people getting in the way of our camera shot. Remove detects and selects the unwanted objects which simply can be removed automatically or by touching the selections on the screen or after capturing the image..."

Although the app is demonstrated on and Android device, unfortunately, it's not available on the Android Market, yet.  Hopefully, it will be after it debuts in Barcelona on the 27th. 

Are you looking for a way to inexpensively take your web graphics up a notch?  Or are you interested in learning about graphic arts or graphic design without spending hundreds of dollars on the basic software packages - which you may or may not enjoy using?

There are more and more "open source" software programs available, which offer many of the most popular features of their brand-name counterparts.  Professionals who want to advance in their respective fields of specialty are obviously going to want to invest in professional software that has compatible features to other professionals in the field.  However, hobbyists, or those wanting to "explore" digital photo manipulation, graphic design, desktop publishing, vector graphics, etc.. now have the luxury of doing so for free.  Here are some examples.

Gimp:  Gimp is good for those interested in the basic features available in Adobe Photoshop - photo and image manipulation, layering, digital art, graphic design. Read more about the features HERE.

Inkscape:   Inkscape is great for making those retro swirly graphics and florals as well as 3D graphics, maps and charts.  Its features are similar to the basic features available in Illustrator and CorelIDraw. Read more about Inkscape's capabilities HERE.

Synfig:  Synfig is an open source animation program, useful in creating the two dimensional (cartoon-like) animations seen in many video games and machinima. Find out more, HERE.

DarkTable:  Darktable is a virtual dark room, for digitally enhancing digital photographs.  Unfortunately, it's only available for Linux and Mac users at this time, but if this is you, check out the features HERE.

Scribus: Scribus is a graphic design program for creating print media (brochures, flyers, magazines, etc.)  and professional web pages.  Find out more, HERE. 

I have been considering entering one of my photos that actually turned out rather well (totally by accident, I assure you) in a local contest. Upon reviewing the prospectus for this contest (a "prospectus," I have learned, is a fancy term for a list of the contest rules), I read that I needed to electronically submit a 5x7 copy of my photo, and that the resolution should be 1200 dpi on the longest edge. 

Hmm.  I remembered from my printer-shopping days that "dpi" stands for "dots-per-inch." So, I checked my photo, and the resolution is about  580 ppi (pixels per inch).  I was momentarily confused, and I did what I always do when I'm confused - I Googled it.

As it turns out, there are about as many explanations of "dpi" and "ppi" as there are photographers, and the words are often used interchangeably, but actually mean different  things.  After about two hours of reading, I finally came up with a way to explain this so that even I can understand it:

1) Dots per inch (DPI) when used literally applies to printers and scanners.  1200 DPI is a good minimum standard for most print jobs. 

2) Pixels per inch (PPI) when used literally applies to digital images.  300 PPI is a good minimum standard for most online publishing.

3) Those who are more concerned with the image in PRINT will tend to pay more attention to the "1200" figure, where as those more concerned with the DIGITAL version of the image will tend to pay more attention to the "300I" figure.  In either case, they are likely to use the term "DPI" and "PPI" interchangeably. 

4) Photos that meet one of the minimum standards will meet the minimum standard of the other.  HERE's a great DPI to PPI converter for those who need higher resolutions or want to be more exact.

Well, 'tis the season...for a lot of things, including spending a lot of time inside out of the cold, looking outside through the window.  Not all of us are lucky enough to have gorgeous views out those windows.  It's also the season many of us spend a lot of time in church celebrating various aspects of the Christmas season, and churches have traditionally used beautifully decorated stained-glass windows through the years to let the outdoor light in, while hiding views of the outdoors that might be distracting, or just unattractive.

That stained-glass motif has carried over into many of our holiday decorations and now, you can include the look on your website or blog, too, in just seven easy steps.  Above, I've shown the before and after taken during a winter snowstorm last year from the original to the "stained-glass" look.  Blow, I've shown the progression, along with a second progression of how to do this on a flatter image such as that which you may be using for your website logo. 

First, here are the steps (I'm using Gimp as a photo editor, but this should work in most photo editing software programs.):

1) Use the "neon" filter to create a bold outline of your original. The background will be mostly black with a lighter outline.

2) "Invert" the neon, so that you have a white background with darker lines.

3) Select the lightest color white, and make that area transparent (in Gimp this is called "color to alpha"). You'll end up with an outline of your original image on a gray-checkered background.

4) Add a "bevel" to this image using your photo-editor, and repeat once or twice.  This creates texture.

5) Add a drop shadow to that beveled image.  Do NOT allow re-sizing, especially on smaller images! This is all about creating depth.  Now save the image to your hard drive.  Do NOT save the background color, or the color of the transparent pixels, if your editing software gives you those choices.  Notice that you now have a "neon sign," which can be used as-is.

6) Re-open your original photo, and use the "cartoon" filter, to flatten the image and create the black lines between the panes of "glass".  You may need to play around with the mask radius and the percent of black shown to get the affect you like. 

7) Now, open the other image you saved, that was a beveled outline with a drop shadow and merge the two layers.  For the snow scene below, I used the "soft light" mode of merging the layers, and for the logo, I used the "grain merge."  You may want to play around to see which one works best for your photo.  The "dodge" mode works very well for some.  And voila!  Or should we say "Ho ho ho!" 

Here are the progression photos on these two transformations.  If you end up using this technique on your websites or elsewhere, I'd love to see your work, so be sure to provide a link in the comment section below!

Original Photo

Neon Filter

Inverted Neon

Bevel, and Make Backgound Transparent (Color to Alpha)

Add a Drop-Shadow and Save.  If you just want a neon sign, you can stop right here.

"Cartoon" your original Image

Merge your "Cartoon" image (as the background) with the "neon sign" as the layer, using a soft-light, grain-merge, dodge filter, or similar, and you're done!

Original Photo

Neon Filter

Inverted Neon

Bevel, and Make Backgound Transparent (Color to Alpha)

Add a Drop-Shadow and Save.  If you just want a neon sign, you can stop right here.

"Cartoon" your original Image

Merge your "Cartoon" image (as the background) with the "neon sign" as the layer, using a soft-light, grain-merge, dodge filter, or similar, and you're done!