glossyart.net - Blog

glossyart.net Revamped

2009-07-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

For some time already I've had the impression that our page was a little too plain and pale. That's why I changed the design to something grungy, which also fits my favorite picture of Anthony in the decayed restroom (the cigarette in his hand has now been censored).

In order to complete the revamp process, we also designed a new logo.

Oh, and in case you want to show your affection to us you can now become a fan on Facebook ;)

Mike

Better Black and White Photos with Channels

2009-07-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best things are already there, waiting to be discovered ;)

In this tutorial I will demonstrate how you can use Photoshop to extract a channel from a picture for better black and white conversion.

This is my original shot:

The first thing you have to do is open the channels window by clicking on the 'Channels' tab (next to the 'Layers' tab in the layers window or Window > Channels). As you can see, in an RGB image we have the red, green, and blue channel:

All you have to do now is choose the one you like the most (in my case I prefer the green channel) and click on it.

Next, convert the image to grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale), otherwise you won't be able to save it as a black-and-white image.

Finally, you might want to increase the contrast a little. You can do so by duplicating the layer (click on the 'Layers' tab or Window > Layers, right-click on the background layer > duplicate layer) and choosing the 'soft light' blending mode from the drop-down menu:

If the contrast is now too much, you can gradually decrease the opacity of the duplicated layer until you get the desired effect. My final result looks now like this:

Now it's your turn--see the world in black and white!

How to Take Great Cat Photos

2009-07-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

Cats are known for their laziness. However, this very treat poses a great challenge for a photographer--how can you take an interesting shot of such a lazy subject? And how can you capture the cat's cuteness without making the picture look like a random snapshot? In short, how can you create something special? Let's find out.

1. First rule: Do not place the cat in the center of the image. Or positive: Place the main object off-center. Since cats are usually lazy and still objects, placing it in the center like in the example image on the left makes the picture look static and boring. (Other flaws in this image: the shadows in the cat's face are distracting. Moreover, the cat's eyes are almost closed and the background doesn't look artsy either.)
However, you can place the cat in the center if you want to accentuate symmetry.

Just to see the difference, here's a shot where the cat's head is placed off-center:

2. Make it special by capturing something special. Although it may look cute, a sleeping cat is nothing special. However, with the right surroundings, props and lighting you can make it even look mystical:

Additionally, it pays off to watch out for reflections:

3. Go down to the cat's eye level. Most cat pictures are taken from the perspective of the human eye, which looks boring. It's better to take the picture from the cat's eye level--or from the prey's perspective, as you can see here (although it's still not perfect because the cat is slightly blurry while the background is sharp):

4. Choose the right depth of field (i.e. the area that's sharp). The picture above has a wide depth of field, which means that everything from the cat to the background is sharp--but this also means that the picture includes a lot of distracting surroundings. In contrast to that, take a look at these examples of a narrow depth of field:

All these images focus solely on the cat by blurring the background and foreground, thus leaving out unnecessary distractions while including just the right amount of surroundings. You can narrow the depth of field by using a low f-stop number (i.e. open up the aperture) and/or a large zoom factor.

5. Focus on details. Similar to portraits of human beings, taking a detailed shot can spice things up, as you can see here:

6. Try black and white. Black and white colors make a photo of a kitten appear more intimate and emotive:

7. Catch the cat in action. Even the laziest cat will jump once in a while (if not, a popping balloon will help). If it does, be ready to catch the action.

Read more about action photography here (under "The Right Timing").

8. Take the photo with a special camera. This one is certainly special (and this last tip not to be taken too seriously):

Photo Enhancement: Sunsets

2009-06-29T02:29:00.000-07:00

I'm about to start a new series in my blog called "Photo Enhancement", which is designed to give you tips and tricks how to make your photos look better and how to avoid common pitfalls. I'll focus on the common subjects first, and today we'll take a look at sunset shots.

The picture on the left is my sample image (found at sxc.hu; feel free to download it and try out the steps below with the actual photo).

One major flaw is the crooked horizon, which can be found in many sunset photos (and landscape photos in general). However, it's easy to correct. In Photoshop, click on Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary and rotate it 0.8 degrees counter-clockwise (CCW). After the rotation process you'll see the white canvas at the edges, so we also have to crop the image a bit. According to the eye-pleasing golden mean, the best crop ratio is 1.6:1, which means the longer side should be 1.6 times the shorter side. Therefore, I cropped it like this:

Cropping the image like this has another advantage, which again is due to the golden mean: The horizon is not in the center (a 50:50 ratio of sky and ocean looks static and boring) but it divides the line from top to bottom roughly in the ratio of 1 (sky) : 1.6 (ocean). A mathematically and aesthetically perfect composition.

So, we've solved the first problem of the crooked horizon. Another flaw of the image is the washed out colors. In order to fix this, I added a vibrance adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Vibrance) and increased the vibrance to +100. The result looks like this:

However, the contrast remains dull and the colors are still not vivid enough. Thus, I added a curve adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) and modified the curves like this:

Simply grab the curve in the middle and drag it down until you get the desired effect.
The picture now looks like this:

Not bad, but in order to make it perfect we also have to reduce the noise (this is especially important for low-level shots at high ISO speeds). I used the NoiseNinja plug-in to do the job, which also sharpens the image a little more to give it that professional finish:

Finally, you might like to remove the distracting branches on the right side of the image. This is easily done with the clone stamp tool (hotkey: S) and the spot healing brush tool (J), so that the enhanced image looks like this:

Home for the Elderly

2009-06-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

What associations do you have with the word 'home'?

I took this picture today at a home for the elderly in Bangkok. An old woman, apathetic despite the presence of the camera, sitting on a thin plastic mattress in a dark cell, which is not larger than maybe two square meters, looking through the net into the other empty cell, shielded from the light of a bright sunny day, grunts of other people and the smell of warm urine in the air. The floor is relatively clean, but this is an old building, the decayed walls tell. It looks cold although it is thirty-one degrees; there is no air-conditioner. The heavy sliding door is open, but the woman won't come out and take a walk, or just talk. All she does is clap and sing the Thai national anthem with a smile on her face, over and over again. The woman is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and will spend the rest of her life in this cell, because there is no family to take care of her. She was put into the hands of strangers, and what's even more striking: She doesn't even realize because of her disease. Maybe that's the reason why the inmates in this ward receive only minimal attention.

The woman once had a family. She worked. She was someone. She lived. Now the circle of life closes, she needs care like a baby because she can't do anything herself, just like all the other elderly in this department. Her whole life is now restricted to two square meters. Eating, sleeping, washing, defecating, all in this cell. Her home.

Not only is this picture iconic for the way our society changes. The younger generation loses their connection with the senior members of our society. What's almost the norm in Western countries becomes more and more apparent in Asia as well, which therefore sees the stereotype of a caring extended family being weakened.

This image is also look into your future, which makes you think once you leave the state of speechlessness. Anyone could end up like her. There is no guarantee that someone will take care of you later. And what have you done?

Website Changes

2009-06-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

We've simplified our home page and focused on what's important--by getting rid of the ads and cutting the text into half. Now you can see at a glance what we do and what the site has to offer.

We also added some new wallpapers to our wallpaper section.

Enjoy :)

Breakdance and Popping Contest at Siam Center, Bangkok

2009-05-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Breakdance and popping competition in front of the Siam Center, Bangkok, on 30 May 2009 (2 on 2 B-Boy battles).

glossyart.net Joins Forces with Amazon

2009-05-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

As a special service in our tutorial section we've now included links to products sold by amazon.com so that you can start creating breathtaking images even faster in case you don't have a necessary accessory yet. For example, if you've read our infrared tutorial but you don't have an IR filter yet you can just click on the link and buy one at amazon.com, wait one or two days and you're ready to go :)

Tutorials Revamped

2009-05-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Our tutorials section has been revamped. Now when you click on "Tutorials" in the top menu bar you're taken to the tutorials home page, where you can choose to either walk through the photo enhancement wizard or click on an item on the index list to go directly to the tutorial section you're interested in.

Tsunami on 22 July 2009 and we're all going to die!

2009-05-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, from the exaggerating title you have probably deduced already that I find this whole paranoid forwarding of e-mails stating that a tsunami will hit Southeast Asia simply ridiculous.

In these e-mails or forums you can read that a tsunami will be spawned in the Pacific east of Japan on 22 July 2009, hitting Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, hey wait--aren't the Maldives in the Indian ocean and can't be hit by a tsunami from the Pacific? Whatever, we shouldn't question this, everyone's going to die!!

Oh wait, there's Internet rule number one: We should--no, we MUST question everything we read on the Internet. Do some research before you freak out and spam a forum or your friends' email accounts.

First of all, even with the latest technology it's not possible to predict an earthquake a couple of months in advance. It's hard enough to predict an earthquake a couple of days in advance!

Second, even if there's an underwater earthquake in the Pacific that doesn't automatically mean it will cause a tsunami. And not all tsunamis are lethal.

Third, most of these emails say that the earthquake will be caused by a long solar eclipse. Duh, earthquakes happen because of tectonics, not because of some miraculous stellar or lunar constellations. By the way, the fact that some people freak out when the moon covers the sun might explain why lunar and lunatic are almost the same words...

So in general don't freak out when you get an email like this one. Don't believe things easily, and look things up on reliable websites when you're in doubt before you decide to forward emails. Anyone can create a hoax like this one. And don't you think that the authorities would warn the public with an official press release in the news rather than starting a mass email that easily gets out of control?

Anyway, even if there's the biggest tsunami of all time and you happen to be around, check out our tutorials about how to take better photos. These tips might come in handy when you want to sell your images to the media ;) And good luck!

You can also check out this topic at snopes.com.

Feel free to question this article ;)

Photos from the Maldives

2009-05-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

View all photos from our honeymoon on the Maldives at adiabraun.com.

Meng To about Shadowness 8

2009-05-02T19:10:00.001-07:00

Meng aka 7shadows, the Shadowness guy, gave me the chance to check out the design of the all-new Shadowness 8. In return he forced me to interview him and post the interview uncensored. Let's take a look behind the scenes and discover the concept, the technology, what's new and how Meng's brain is wired.

In a nutshell

"The idea of followers is very essential to the new version. You follow because you subscribe, and you build your fan base which is the most important thing for an artist."

"The new concept is an open and promotional-driven portfolio community. Everything will be by the power of the users."

"We offer micro blogging for artists; collections will serve as a platform to gather resources and post as a blog or microblogs. RSS-driven. Users will be able to submit updates across websites: multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook, RSS."

"I just want to offer the best and easiest to use tools and anticipate ways to promote as much as possible. The biggest deployment is to open it to Twitter and have a language/format that bloggers, Facebook and Twitter understand, making it easier for artists to share their posts."

"The beauty of the new Shadowness is that you don't have to post images. You can post links, and credit to other people's work, create a collection for yourself. You don't have to be talented to be interesting."

The site will go live "hopefully in a month."

Click here to read the full interview.

New Domain and More!

2009-05-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

Dear visitors,

Due to inaccessibility of our old server at glossyart.com we've just moved to glossyart.net, so make sure to update your bookmarks ;)

We've changed some things around the site, with the most prominent change being the revamped tutorial section. Now you get tons of helpful tips during your workflow.

There are also a couple of new wallpapers in the wallpaper section, and we've updated our gallery as well. Got a couple of killer shots from a photo shoot with friends at an abandoned building in Bangkok!

On the home page you can now follow our twitter microblog for the latest quick updates.

Finally, our contact e-mail has changed. You can now reach us at mike@glossyart.net or adia@glossyart.net. We'd love to hear from you :)

Thanks for sticking with us!

Mike and Adia
glossyart.net

New Wallpapers

2009-01-30T03:45:00.000-08:00

We just added some new infrared wallpapers to our collection. The images were taken on Koh Kood, Thailand. We also tweaked the code and reduced the file size of the thumbnails, so the page should load a lot faster now.

As always, feel free to use the wallpapers for your desktop but remember that they are not public domain so any other use is strictly prohibited. Read more about our copyright policy

glossyart.com auf deutsch

2008-12-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

Zuerst einmal möchten wir allen deutschen Besuchern unserer Internetpräsenz ein frohes Weihnachtsfest und ein glückliches neues Jahr wünschen :)

Pünktlich zum Fest ist nun auch die deutsche Seite online, mit den wichtigsten Informationen über uns auf einen Blick. Sie kann mit einem Klick auf das Flaggenicon oben rechts aufgerufen werden.

Sollten Sie tote Links oder sonstige Bugs entdecken (oder auch Lob loswerden wollen), lassen Sie uns bitte eine Nachricht im dafür vorgesehenen Kontaktformular zukommen.

glossyart.com is now available in German. Simply click on the German flag icon in the top right corner or click this link to beam to the German site. Should you discover any bugs or broken links please let us know. We hope you enjoy your visit and wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

fotocommunity.de Contest "Wintergeschichten" (Winter Stories)

2008-12-17T02:18:00.000-08:00

After the jury voting at fotocommunity.de my image "Balance" (large image on the left) is ranked second out of 1397 submissions. The prize: 10,000 copies of the image will be distributed by photodose.de as a free giveaway with a link to glossyart.com. That should bring some more traffic to our site ;)

Moreover, "Lake of Tranquility" (small image on the right) also made it in the top 100 (but didn't win a prize).

Take a look at the top 100 here.

You can also download wallpaper editions of the photos here.

Got Some Questions for the PAD

2008-09-09T04:29:00.000-07:00

When you talk to the people who besiege the government house in Bangkok you hear a lot of interesting things. I want to share some of them with you and ask some questions.

My first question is, how can the PAD, a lobby, not even a party, think they have the right to take politics in their own hands the way they do? They did not question the election in 2007, and now they fight against Samak with road blocks, government house, TV station and airport raids, thus harming not only the economy (scaring away foreign investors and tourists) but also the unity of the Thai people. As far as I know, the definition of democracy is that the majority of people decide what's happening (and when I talk about people I mean all Thai people, not just the Bangkok population). It does not imply that if a minority of people is not satisfied with the government they have the right to throw them out with measures that are far from the political stage. As I pointed out in a blog entry earlier, its behavior leads to the conclusion that PAD is actually an acronym for People Against Democracy. Now I add: The PAD is on a huge and irresponsible ego-trip, not thinking about the consequences of their actions.

The PAD's goal is actually noble. "We want to root out corruption entirely, and not just get rid of Samak but of all corrupt politicians" is what one protester told me. Good idea, and good luck. My question to the PAD is: But who would you put in charge then? And what exactly is your plan?

One man told me that the pro-government protesters got 1,500 Baht to come to the rally at Sanam Luang. I'm wondering if there's any difference to the PAD giving food, water, and ice away for free at the government house compound.

A retired navy officer told me that it costs the PAD between two and three million Baht (around USD 60,000-90,000 or EUR 40,000-60,000) to keep things going. But who's paying for the supplies? It appears that one key financier is the CEO of TPI POLENE, Prachai Leophairatana, who, according to insider information, donated 250 million Baht to the PAD about two weeks ago. But did he do that to save democracy, root out corruption, or for some other noble reason? Of course not. It's all about personal gain. During Thaksin's rule he lost major parts of his company TPI. Now he only owns the concrete branch--but with Thaksin/Samak's party being cut off and Prachai-friendly people in power there would be a real chance to get his whole company back (by the way, that was also the reason why he enstablished his own party just before the election in 2007).

Another thing that makes me worried is this: The PAD says they want to protest peacefully. Indeed, if you want to enter the government building compound, your bags are searched for weapons. But how come there are people running around with golf clubs? How come roads are blocked with tires?

However, what's even worse is the fact that the government is not really better. No clear line on both sides can't be good for Thailand.

Copyright FAQ

2008-09-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Please note: This article is based on U.S. copyright law. If you upload pictures to U.S.-based websites such as deviantART, flickr, myspace etc. this law applies to you, even if you do not live in the United States.

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>> FIRST OF ALL: IS THERE AN EASY RULE HOW I CAN MAKE SURE THAT I DON’T GET INTO TROUBLE BECAUSE OF THE COPYRIGHT?

Yes! Be original and create everything yourself. And if you use stock material or material that is free for use, always cite the source where you got the material from. If possible, provide a direct link to the material (such as stock images or brushes), not just top-level domains. It’s just like writing a paper where you have to cite your sources in detail, too. Then you should be safe.

>> OK, BEFORE I READ WHAT IS FORBIDDEN—WHAT IS ACTUALLY ALLOWED?

Basically, a lot of things are allowed if you keep them private. For example, you can download any picture you want from the Internet and play around with it, alter it, practice manipulating and drawing techniques with it, copy it and so on—as long as you do it for your personal and private use only. However, it's a whole different matter if you go public and publish the original or modified picture on the Internet. If the material you copied from the net is not free to use, you will get into trouble because of copyright infringement. “Going public” refers to everything that is done outside your home (or hard disk!).

You can, however, copy and manipulate material for public use if you got them from the public domain such as a stock photo site or if the material is really declared as free to use. BUT: Always make sure that you read the copyright notices of those websites because you can only use their material if you comply with their terms and conditions. It may be that they offer their material for non-commercial use only or that you may only use the material if you do not manipulate it, for example.

>> WHAT CAN ACTUALLY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?

“Copyright protects ‘original works of authorship’ that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device” (copyright.gov). This means that any material including pictures stored on a hard disk, CD, film etc. is protected immediately after creation. A special choreography, for example, is not protected until being filmed, for example. Other things that cannot be protected are “themes, ideas, most titles, names, catch-phrases and other short-word combinations of no real substance“ (CIPO).

>> WHEN IS MY WORK PROTECTED? DO I HAVE TO REGISTER SOMEWHERE TO PROTECT MY WORK?

No. As soon as you have created a piece, you're the owner of it and thus the owner of the copyright. In over 140 countries of the world it is not necessary to register your work in order to assert the copyright. “The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright“ (copyright.gov). Note that it depends on your country how the copyright is handled.

>> DO I HAVE TO ADD A CERTAIN SIGNATURE WHATSOEVER TO MY PICTURES TO SHOW THAT I'M THE OWNER OF THE COPYRIGHT?

In most countries, no. Usually, it’s not necessary to add a formal signature whatsoever to your pictures. However, it is recommended that you clearly show your ownership, for example by adding a (c) followed by your name and the date in a corner of your picture.
The U.S. Copyright Office: “A copyright notice is an identifier placed on copies of the work to inform the world of copyright ownership that generally consists of the symbol or word ‘copyright (or copr.),’ the name of the copyright owner, and the year of first publication, e.g., ©2003 John Doe. While use of a copyright notice was once required as a condition of copyright protection, it is now optional.”

>> PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DOMAIN WTF—ISN’T THE INTERNET A PUBLIC DOMAIN WHICH MEANS I CAN COPY ANY PICTURE I WANT?

No. If you leave the front door open, people are still not allowed to steal anything from inside your house even if they could access it easily, right? The same applies to the Internet: even if billions of people can access the Internet, the material it contains is not automatically placed in public domain. Public domain means that the material is everyone’s property. “Material found on the web may be copied freely only if the information is created by the federal government, if the copyright has expired or the copyright has been abandoned by the holder” (whatiscopyright.org). Read the copyright notices of the websites where you want to copy the picture from to make sure that you are really allowed to use it for publishing at another public website such as deviantART.com.

>> SO I CAN’T USE THE PICTURES FROM A PICTURE SEARCH ENGINE?

Right. Although picture search engines are really convenient, you are most likely to violate the copyright when you take material from them because all they do is link to other peoples’ websites and thus other peoples’ property.

>> IF I GET THE PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR TO USE HIS/HER WORK, CAN I THEN CLAIM THE COPYRIGHT FOR THIS MATERIAL?

No. The permission to use material provided by others does not make you the owner of it. Still, you have to cite the original source or the author’s name and give proper credits. Make sure you tell the public that the material you used is owned by someone else. In fact, “if you failed to properly protect someone else’s work that you are using and it turns out that someone else swiped it due to your misuse or negligence you may be subjecting yourself to a claim” (whatiscopyright.org). So, you can only claim the copyright for material that you really created yourself. For example, you take a photo and add some brushwork with brushes you downloaded from someone’s personal website. You can then add a “© 2006 Your Name” because you created the photo but you also have to add a “Brushes © Other Name” because you did not create the brushes.

>> TALKING ABOUT BRUSHES AND OTHER DOWNLOADABLES THAT ARE PROVIDED ON SOME PERSONAL WEBSITES: ARE THERE ANY RESTRICTIONS? AFTER ALL, THE STUFF IS CLEARLY PROVIDED FOR FREE DOWNLOAD.

Depends. You should refer to the copyright notices and terms and conditions of the website you downloaded the material from. For example, you may use Photoshop brushes provided at an artist’s personal portfolio website but frequently the creators of the brushes demand that you give them the credits for their material. Otherwise you are not allowed to use them in public. For commercial use, you often have to pay a fee. So even if you may download material from a website, make sure that you comply with the conditions of using it later.

>> IF I MANIPULATE THE PICTURE OF SOMEONE ELSE SO THAT IT CHANGES COMPLETELY, DO I THEN HAVE THE COPYRIGHT FOR THIS PICTURE, WHICH IS MY WORK AFTER ALL?

No. You've already violated the copyright by copying the original picture, and by changing it you've violated the copyright one more time. Additionally, the new picture is not completely your work--obviously, the copied picture was your basis. And if you claim the new picture to be your own, you violate the copyright again, because you steal someone else's property.

In any case, if you want to use someone else's work which is protected by the copyright, you should ask the owner of the copyright for a written permission to use his work.

It's completely different with stock pictures or pictures which are explicitly marked as "free for use". Then manipulating etc. is legal, but make sure they are really free.

>>IS IT ALLOWED TO PUBLISH A DRAWING OR PAINTING WHEN ANOTHER ARTWORK HAS BEEN USED AS REFERENCE?

Similar to fan art, it depends if you use a copyrighted image as a reference. If you do, you may not publish your drawing in public. If you used a stock picture (i.e. a picture that is public domain) or a picture that you have taken yourself (i.e. you have the copyright), you can do whatever you want with your painting. Again, even if the reference picture is not your property, asking the author of the original work can enable you to use it in public if the author gives you permission. However, in such cases you still have to cite the source and give proper credits.

>> IS IT AT LEAST ALLOWED TO COPY A SMALL PART OF A PICTURE--FOR EXAMPLE THE SKY OR A TREE?

In most countries, copying small parts of images does not violate the copyright. However, since you chose this small part and consider it special, someone could indeed sue you for copyright infringement. If you want to be on the safe side, choose a free source.

>> WHAT ABOUT TAKING A PICTURE OF A MCDONALD'S SIGN--AM I VIOLATING THE LAW THERE?

Theoretically, yes. Logos and unique shapes are protected by the copyright, including that McDonald's sign, cars like a Rolls Royce, the French TGV, certain toys, Disney dolls and even the cypress on Pebble Beach or the Eiffel Tower (taken at night when its lights are on). If you then publish the picture or sell it (i.e. exploit it commercially), you're most likely to violate the law. If you want to take pictures of this kind of objects, you should at least be familiar with the laws of your country. Ask an expert.

>>DO I HAVE TO CONSIDER ANYTHING WHEN SUBMITTING FAN ART?

Indeed. Signature creation and fan art are probably the most common kinds of art that don't care about the copyright at all--simply because people believe that if everyone does it, it must be legal. However, this is wrong. Fan art by definition violates the copyright because it uses copyrighted characters as models. You may do some fan art for practice at home, for example, but as soon as you want to publish it in public, you violate the copyright. If you really want to publish your work, make sure that you have the explicit permission of the author of the characters that your work is based on. If you get the permission, you still cannot claim the characters to be your property because getting the permission to use material doesn't make you the owner of it. Therefore, you have to credit the original artist or cite the source. If you do not have the permission to use the copyrighted characters, you may not publish your picture in the Internet, sell it, enter a contest with it, or use it for any other purpose in public. Read more about this issue here.

>> WE ALWAYS TALK ABOUT PICTURES. WHAT ABOUT JOURNALS AND THEIR HEADERS/OTHER GRAPHICS/CSS CODES?

Similar to using material for your picture, you must not use protected works for your profile site either. This includes protected codes as well as graphics. But of course, the page design and the graphics you created are copyrighted, too. If you want to use parts of other people's profile pages that they created themselves you have to get their permission first.

>> OK, BUT DIGITAL DATA IS TOO INSECURE AND CAN BE COPIED TOO EASILY. I REALLY WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT MY WORK IS PROTECTED.

It’s true that digital data can be copied easily, and in fact, if you have to people with the same picture it’s really hard to prove who the real creator of the picture is. Time is the key here—so who publishes the work first is also the owner of the copyright. If you think that image metadata is too insecure (after all, metadata can easily changed with a hex editor), you can burn your work on a CD, put it in an envelope, seal it and send it to yourself by postal mail. Thus, you have an official timestamp on a tangible form of your work and can prove you’re really the one who created the piece first.

Or you do it the safe way, as the Canadian Copyright Office suggests: “Since you obtain copyright automatically, you are automatically protected by law. However, it is still a good idea to register your copyright and to indicate notice of copyright on your works“ and „registration gives you a certificate that states you are the copyright owner. You can use this certificate in court to establish ownership. (The onus is on your opponent to prove that you do not own the copyright.)“ So if you really want to be safe, you can register your work at the copyright authority of your country.

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>> CAN I ASSERT THE COPYRIGHT FOR IMAGES PUBLISHED IN THE INTERNET?

Not directly, because you cannot check who has access to your website. In any case, read the policies of the webspace provider if you use free webspace, because it could be that you accept giving the copyright away.

>> CAN I BE PUNISHED IF I UPLOAD PICTURES ON THE WEB?

Yes. If your pictures violate the laws--because they're pornographic, for example--and you're bound to these laws (by submitting a picture at devaiantART, you’re bound to the laws of the U.S.), you can be sentenced. At least, the webspace provider can remove the pictures.

>> WHAT ARE ROYALTY-FREE IMAGES?

If you want to use royalty-free images, you pay a fee once and then you can use the pictures for your own--even commercial--purposes.

>> AND WHAT ABOUT STOCK IMAGES?

Stock pictures are usually free for private use. You can download them and do whatever you like with them. If you want to use stock images commercially, you frequently have to pay a fee. In any case, refer to the terms and conditions of the stock image website to check if there are any restrictions for using the stock.

>> IN THIS ARTICLE YOU QUOTED EXTERNAL SOURCES. SO YOU VIOLATED THE COPYRIGHT, RIGHT?

Not necessarily. The answer gives another quote: “The Copyright Act provides that any ’fair dealing’ with a work for purposes of private study or research, or for criticism, review or news reporting is not infringement. However, in the case of criticism, review, or news reporting, the user is required to give the source and the author’s, performer’s, sound recording maker’s or broadcaster’s name, if known“ (CIPO).

Sources and Further Information:

Canadian Intellectual Property Office: [link]

U.S. Copyright Office: [link]

What Is Copyright: [link]

Too Late for Thailand?

2008-08-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

People are camping in front of the government building, TV stations are stormed, airports are closed. What's happening in Thailand right now is pure chaos, and nobody knows what will happen next. But it reveals that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is anything but a strong leader, mainly because his hands are tied because of his very own past.

First of all, after the coup d'etat in September 2006 an election was held one year later. Samak won and became prime minister. This is called democracy, and nobody ever questioned the election. But Samak doesn't act as a strong leader or even as a prime minister who had been elected by the majority of Thais. If he would, he would have taken measures against the PAD (People's Allicance for Democracy) rally right from the start.

Since I'm a German citizen I always compare the situation in Thailand with Germany. If a group of people started a demonstration without permission by blocking roads in Berlin for several days the government would not think twice. The police would disperse the crowd (with water cannons, if necessary), and arrest the leaders of the group. After all, national security is at stake.

Now if Samak had done the same in Bangkok he would have prevented a lot of trouble. Of course, for a couple of days there would have been a clash between the protesters and the police, and maybe some people would have been injured. But Samak would have avoided the unpleasant situation the country is in now. The equation is as follows:

A couple of protesters and policemen injured (if any)
The PAD leaders and other hardcore protesters arrested
Possibly unrest for some days

against

Roads in downtown Bangkok blocked for months, thus causing unimaginable traffic jams
Schools around the government district closed for several days
The economy and stock market going down after foreign investors became too scared and sold their shares worth hundreds of millions of US dollars
A TV station hijacked (NBT)
Airports closed, thus pissing off thousands of tourists in Krabi and Phuket, causing massive damage to the country's tourism image, scaring potential tourists, which causes significant financial damage because tourism is one of Thailand's most important sources of income
Train traffic stopped due to a strike of train workers, thus pissing off even more tourists and causing even more financial damage
The government building made useless after it was taken over by the protesters
A general unstable situation where nobody knows what's actually going on or what will happen next, with people fearing bloody violence and another coup d'etat
A country basically split into half (government supporters and PAD supporters)

But why is Samak not doing anything against the PAD protests? The answer lies in his blood-dripping past. In 1976 he played a major role during the coup d'etat:

"Although in 2008 interviews with CNN and al-Jazeera Samak denied involvement in the 6 October 1976 massacre that left officially at least 46 dead, Samak insists only 1 person was left dead. Accounts from witnesses, documents and published reports clearly identify Samak as chief operator of the "Armoured Car" radio programme, an ultra-right wing broadcast that constantly expounded anti-communist and pro-right propaganda. Samak used this programme to stir up hatred against Thammasat University students, and intentionally disobeyed the Prime Minister's orders at the time to "stop creating divisiveness." In defending the return of 1973-ousted Field Marshal Praphat over the radio, Samak told listeners that students demonstrating against the dictator's return were committing suicide." (wikipedia.org)

If he sends the police and/or military in (after all, he's also defense minister) to fight the PAD, this would bring back the memories of 1976, escalate the situation and almost inevitably lead to a blood bath. So I think what he's doing now is trying to turn the public against the PAD by pointing the finger at the PAD and their actions, thus making them responsible for the country's downfall--at least that's what it looks like. He hopes that (given enough time) the problem will solve itself. And indeed, seeing how harmful its actions are to the country, it is no surprise that the PAD is losing support by the public. Indeed, it has shot itself in the foot. Maybe Samak thinks that the half that's not supporting the PAD will be able to convince the half that supports the PAD to stop their protest and go back to actual democratic measures. But that might not be so easy--after all, the PAD is not even a party; it's more like a lobby consisting mainly of members of the Thai elite who are fed up with Samak's politics and who think he's just a puppet of the old (and corrupt) PM Thaksin. Taking the issue in their own hands is therefore not democratic but anarchic.

Nevertheless, the government's passive stance is very dangerous because it divides the country into two parties. But as I said, this difficult situation could have been avoided by tackling the People Against Democracy a long time ago. Now it seems too late.

Split Toning Tutorial - The Making of "Dog Tag"

2008-08-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial I want to show you how I used split tones to create this picture:

For taking the shot I used a Canon EOS 40D with a Canon 24-105mm 1:4 L IS USM lens, a large softbox, and a small spotlight (same set-up as for "Touch"). The softbox was placed right next to me and raised to about 1.80m above the ground, while the small spotlight was placed about 50cm above the ground and used to brighten up parts of the black background, thus making it dark gray. You can see the exact arrangement here:

I used the following settings:

RAW mode
Focal length: 40mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter speed: 1/250s
ISO: 100
White balance: 5900K

And this is the photo I took (by the way, the models are Andrea and Tara from J.I.M. Modelling Agency, Bangkok):

The best thing about this technique is that it's extremely fast and easy. The first step is double-clicking on the original raw file. By default, the Photoshop component "Camera Raw" will open the image and you'll see this screen:

The first tab, which is selected by default when you open Camera Raw, is "Basic". I changed the settings as follows:

Tint: -1
Brightness: +50
Contrast: +25

The next one is "Tone Curve":

In "paramteric" mode, I boosted the contrast with these settings:

Highlights: +43
Lights: +10
Darks: -24
Shadows: -57

In the "Detail" tab I changed the sharpening settings as follows:

Amount: +47 (all the other settings are default settings)

The next step is the actual split-toning process. I selected the "Split Toning" tab and chose a green hue for the highlights and a blue hue for the shadows. All I had to do was changing the parameters to these:

Highlights:

Hue: 101
Saturation: 58

Shadows:

Hue: 219
Saturation: 35

That's it! This is how the photo looked after processing it with Camera Raw:

The only thing I did afterward was removing the noise, smoothing the skin, and increasing the sharpness and contrast a little. All of this can be done in just one step using the Photoshop plug-in NoiseNinja. I case you don't have it yet I strongly recommend you get this plug-in because it will significantly increase the quality of your images.

After all these steps, my picture looks like this now:

Much better than the original, don't you think? ;)

Psst... check out another way of processing this image: http://www.glossyart.com/blog/2008/08/making-of-touch.html

Making of "Touch"

2008-08-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

This article is actually a combination of two tutorials--how to set up basic lighting in the studio and how to give a portrait the glossy magazine look.

For taking the shot I used a Canon EOS 40D with a Canon 24-105mm 1:4 L IS USM lens, a large softbox, and a small spotlight (same set-up as for "Dog Tag"). The softbox was placed right next to me and raised to about 1.80m above the ground, while the small spotlight was placed about 50cm above the ground and used to brighten up parts of the black background, thus making it dark gray. You can see the exact arrangement here:

I used the following settings:

RAW mode
Focal length: 55mm
Aperture: f/5
Shutter speed: 1/250s
ISO: 100
White balance: 5900K

And this is the photo I took (by the way, the models are Andrea and Tara from J.I.M. Modelling Agency, Bangkok):

Now let's get rid of the faithful skin color and change it to cool white!

The first step is to open the raw photo in Photoshop. I use Photoshop CS3 because only CameraRaw 4.5 (which works only with CS3) supports RAW files from the 40D and I don't want to disturb my workflow by converting my RAW files with the DNG converter. Anyway, doubleclicking on the RAW file will open a screen that looks like this:

(Click to enlarge)

As you can see, the colors are different from the original shot because I changed the parameters already. The image above shows how I set the parameters in the "basic" section:

Tint: -1
Blacks: +5
Brightness: +50
Contrast: +25

After that I moved on to the tone curve and changed its parameters to these:

The next step is changing the red primary and green primary parameters in the "camera calibration" section. Reducing the saturation of red and green is the secret key to shiny skin colors:

I didn't change anything else, so I just clicked on "open image" to -- well, open the image in Photoshop and do some final touch-ups. Here's the shot after applying the RAW settings:

To make it even shinier, I had Photoshop auto-adjust the levels by pressing Shift+Command+L (Windows users use Shift+Ctrl+L):

Then I removed the birthmarks and cleaned up minor skin irregularities with the spot healing brush tool (press J to activate this tool). Now the image looked like this:

The final step is using NoiseNinja for removing the noise, smoothing the skin, and increasing sharpness and contrast a bit more. All these things can be achieved by opening the NoiseNinja plugin (Filter -> PictureCode -> Noise Ninja), clicking on "profile image", and change the settings in the "filter" tab to these:

Smoothness: 14
Contrast: 15

(Click to enlarge)

If you don't have NoiseNinja I strongly recommend you get it because it will significantly increase the quality of your images, as you can see here:

That's it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial :)

Psst... check out another way of processing this image: http://www.glossyart.com/blog/2008/08/split-toning-tutorial-making-of-dog-tag.html

Thailand Graduate Fashion Week 2008

2008-07-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

Click here to jump to the photo gallery.

Awe-inspiring ideas are among the significant factors to move the vivacious non-stop fashion industry. In order to discover the striking and unique designs of aspiring fashion students, the Thailand Graduate Fashion Week 2008 (TGFW) was initiated. The event is held at CentralWorld, Bangkok, to offer an opportunity and a stage to countrywide BA fashion design students who graduated in 2007. Students from over 20 universities present their talent and work, e.g. Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Silpakorn, Srinakarinwirot, Kasetsart, Burapa, Rangsit, and Bangkok University (just to name a few).

The event includes the following (locations in brackets):

TGFW Academic Catwalk Shows (Theatre A and B)
Fashion Academic Showcase: Exhibition showcasing outstanding designs selected by nationwide fashion students (Atrium)
TGFW Fashion Talks: Seminars and talks by fashion veterans
Education Days: In small booths, nationwide fashion institutes present their curriculum and students' works (Eden)
TGFW 2008 Awards for the most talented students
College Flea Market (outdoor area)

Here are some impressions from the Thailand Graduate Fashion Week 2008. Click an image to open it in full view:

Education Days in the Eden area: Each university presents itself in a small booth.

Tourists enjoying a live concert. Live bands and the MET107 DJs are rocking the crowd at the Central Court zone.

Click here to view all images.

PicLens: Browse Images with Style

2008-07-16T03:44:00.000-07:00

The PicLens browser plugin is for those of you who want to browse images with style: It presents images on a shiny, endless 3D-wall, providing an immersive full-screen experience for viewing photos and videos on the supported sites and on sites that support Media RSS.

For example, you can use PicLens for amazon, Youtube, deviantART, Picasa, flickr, Photobucket, Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, hi5, all major image search engines, and many more websites.

Gone are the times when you had to hit the "next" button to go to the next page of images because PicLens loads images from the next pages automatically. You just keep on walking along the wall.

If you feel like exploring recent events PicLens with its "Discover" button slaps the latest news, sports, fashion, entertainment, and other images as well as videos, movie trailers etc. on your screen. With style, of course.

I just realized that my blog entry sounds like a praise--but there you can see how much I like this plugin! I give you an example: Google image search only displays 18 images, then I have to click the arrow button to see the next batch, which takes time. With PicLens, I basically have just one wall of images, which I can move quickly to scroll through the search results.

It also looks quite cool on deviantART when you can scroll through the masses of images with ease but unfortunately the drag and drop function (that's used for faving an image) gets lost.

Anyway, if you like images and shiny interfaces you should definitely give it a try. On their website http://www.piclens.com you will find the free plugin as well as a program to create PicLens-friendly photo galleries.

glossyart.com Wallpaper Collection

2008-07-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

All our wallpapers in one place!

Feel free to download the wallpapers and put them on your desktop but please remember that everything except private use is copyright infringement (e.g. resubmitting the images on the Internet, selling the images).

More to be added soon!

TinEye: Image Search Engine and Art Theft Detector

2008-07-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

TinEye should be interesting for people who want a powerful tool against art theft and copyright infringement because by uploading your original image or entering the URL of the image you can instantly see who has stolen your image (which some people say is also a good indicator of how famous you really are ;)).

According to the official FAQ, TinEye seems to be really promising. These are only excerpts:

What does TinEye do?

TinEye does for images what Google does for text.

Just as you are familiar with entering text in Google to find web pages that contain that text, using TinEye, you enter an image to find pages where that particular image (and modified versions of it) appears.

Can TinEye find alterations of a query image?

Yes. As long as they are alterations of the same query image, TinEye can find them and include them in your search results.

Note that search results are ordered by ‘relevance’ (i.e. how well the result images match your query image), so image alterations are typically found at the end of your search results.

What sorts of image alterations can TinEye find?

It depends upon the image, but TinEye frequently returns image results with colour adjustments, added or removed text, crops, and slight rotations. TinEye can also detect images that are part of a collage or have been blended with another image.

(Check out the whole FAQ at http://tineye.com/faq)

The only downside of this project is that it's still in beta. This means that the number of images in their database is to be expanded (although it can search 580 million images by now), and you need an invitation to sign up and use it. However, on the TinEye home page you can enter your e-mail address to request an invitation and roughly after one day you'll get one.