Hmm what can I say about Rachel? Well first, she somehow got even prettier since the last time I shot with her. Also, she brought a killer wardrobe–seriously, could that black dress work any better with her shape? We had a blast again, this time solely focusing on studio shots. The main reason I wanted to work with her was to work on a series I’m creating for my AP art portfolio. It involves super sized portraits and landscapes. I’ll post those as a complete series when it is finished, as I have only finished three of twelve images. After nailing the composite shots on white for that project we moved on to a few different set ups. In only a couple hours, we made some pretty awesome stuff. So without anymore blabbering, here are the new pictures.Oh wait, that’s Blaise standing in, let’s try this again…
On Saturday the 21st which was err..about three and a half weeks ago, I started my 4×6 wall mosaic. It is not a mosaic in a traditional sense, neither is it a collage but as you can see above, its pretty damn cool. I followed the tutorial from the very first few pages in Photojojo’s freaking awesome craft book (buy here or here.)
Since the tutorial is already so fabulously written by Photojojo, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel by writing my own here. Just buy the book, or steal my copy. Besides, you can always follow this super unnecessary helpful stop-motion video of my process.
For the last few months I have been printing old pictures, and trying to keep up with new ones for the purpose of this wall art. I was going to save all the 4×6’s for my basement studio, but since it is still at least a couple weeks from being finished, I figured what the hell, I can always move it. Overall, I am pleased with the finished product. And most importantly it is easy to add onto the pattern as I print more and more pictures. If you want to make something similar, which I fully recommend, here are some things to keep in mind.
DO:
***Use clear packaging tape: This tape proved to be the best fit for the project because it is wide enough to cover most of the seams and strong enough to hold a whole bunch of heavy photos together as they are tossed around. (I wasn’t very gentle with the strips and blocks of photos once taped.)
***Use Scots removable adhesive strips: These are great because with a razor or sharp knife you can cut the strips into pieces. Trim to size depending on how big/heavy your pictures are.
***Level and mark your wall area: With such a big piece, its important to level before you put it up. Not only will it look a little crooked, but with the weight of all the pictures there will be too much stress on one side, making the entire thing less secure.***Keep in mind the flip: I didn’t notice this until I had most of my pictures taped. Maybe I’m a little slow. Anyway, if you look at the video, you can see how when I flipped the pictures it reversed the order. I didn’t mind because I was working with a random order anyway. If your being exacting however, think about this before taping.
***Clean your working surface: I was constantly wiping sand off of the floor I was working on. Luckily the my photo paper had a thick gloss to it which protected the prints from most abrasions. A big table is ideal, plus then you don’t have to break your back.
DON’T:
***Drop the photos:
***Try to estimate the amount of time this will take: I thought this project would be a breeze. It ended up taking about three hours. But I was also taking pictures and making the short video at the same time. I’m also anal about straight lines and such. Bottom line, give yourself some time.
***Use different photo papers (if possible): I had all but two or three of my 4×6’s printed on a thick Kodak paper with the others on a thin Fujifilm. The Fujifilm paper was a few millimeters smaller in each direction and bent easily. Not the end of the world but it throws off the edges of the rows. If I add to the mural I’ll have to fill the gaps from underneath with extra photo paper.
I finally broke down, surrendering myself to the glitchy, super-saturated tumblr platform. Yup, another blog, one just isn’t enough. So here is JackPopeMobile.com.
I chose to power it through tumblr because with a $9.99 charge to my GoDaddy account, a free theme, and a few new colors, I’m done. It is a super simple site for a super simple purpose. Everyday (mostly) I open the tumblr app on my phone, attach photo and a brief caption. Upload. Party. Tumblr provides the ease of use necessary for me to make this a daily routine. Hope y’all enjoy and stay tuned.
The Facebook Timeline update is probably the first UI upgrade in their history that hasn’t been met with barbaric uproar across the internets. It is pretty slick, after all. The flow of information is much cleaner and more importantly, the photos displayed on the Timeline are now much bigger. They almost rival G+, almost. One of the new features that I really like is the Cover Photo. The way it is placed, overlapped by the Profile Picture, makes for some pretty interesting options.
It is not too difficult to take some screen shots of the Cover Photo layout and figure out the dimensions and crops needed to make an integrated Cover/Profile art. But I already figure it out when I did my own, so I might as well share. Click to download a Photoshop Action folder to create yours.
The file above will download as a group of actions. There are actually two separate actions. The first creates a PSD with the dimensions that you will need. After you add your own photo, the next action will create the two separate images that you will need. If you have never used Photoshop actions, check out this tutorial on how to load and use them.
Once you have the “Facebook Timeline” folder loaded into the actions panel just follow these steps:
1. Play the “FB TIMELINE CANVAS” action.
This action will create a canvas with the necessary dimensions for the next steps. The size of 1704 by 704 pixels is double the resolution I lifted off of a screen shot I took of a Facebook profile. I doubled the size of the canvas simply to insure enough resolution. It is still a small enough file, so the workflow and upload online shouldn’t stress your computer or your Facebook profile at all.
2. Open your the photo you want to use in another Photoshop window and drag it into your new canvas. You can also copy and paste an image or use any other method of inserting your picture.
A note on the photo you choose: Keep in mind the wideness of the composition. It is way wider than anything I am used to working with. When I used my wake boarding photo I had to use Content Aware Scale to stretch the photo a bit so it would fit right. Also, remember where the profile picture will be located. The actions however make it simple enough for you to make multiple versions with different crops of your photos. Make a bunch and decide what works the best.
3. Once you have your photo positioned how you want it, play the “FB TIMELINE CROP” action.
Woohoo! Check out that automation! If all goes well, you now have two separate images. A square Profile Picture and the rectangular Cover Photo. The action does not save either file, so that is up to you. If you want to save them for a later edit save them first as PSD’s. If not, just save them as full quality jpegs.
4. Upload each picture to its proper place on your Facebook Profile.
All done! Go brag to all your friends because you have the coolest Facebook Profile!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,200 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Oh wait, that’s Blaise standing in, let’s try this again…
