This Blog Is Retroactive

I was browsing through the pages of Nick Campbell’s blog, Greyscale Gorilla, the other day when I came across the iPhone app he created called ShakeItPhoto.  Basically, it takes your iPhone pictures and makes them look like a Polaroid photo.  As a fun little bonus, the app makes a Polaroid sound when you take or make the photo, and the more you shake your phone, the faster the image “develops”.  It was only 99¢ so I thought I’d give it a try.  I really like it.  I took some time to use it on a number of photos I already had on my phone, with some really satisfying results, shown above.  What is it about placing an image inside a white square border coupled with subtle vignetting that instantly makes a badly taken picture look better?  I don’t have the answer, but I like the result.  If you feel like sharing your iPhone Polaroids there’s also a Flickr group and a webpage called PhotoShakeDown.  Thanks Nick!

There are many things that I’m passionate about but visual stimuli, technology, and music are definitely on the short list.  So, when these three things get combined into a brilliantly engineered hand-held device like the Tenori-On, I can hardly contain myself.  What is the heck is a Tenori-On anyway? Is it like a Keepon? No, it’s not, but I do love those things.  The Tenori-On is a 16 x 16 LED button matrix performance instrument with a visual display that allows anyone (hey that’s me!) to play music intuitively.  They have a great website that will tell you all about it.  Check out this demonstration below.

I don’t have a Tenori-On.  I would very much like to have a Tenori-On but I don’t have $1000 to drop on one.  Not to worry, because I’ve found the next best thing.  It’s not as advanced, and it’s not hand held, but it is easy, and lots of fun, and free.  It’s a website with a 16 step sequencer called iNudge.  Now, everyone all over the internet is raving about Andre Michelle’s Tone Matrix, which is cool enough, but iNudge is better and I’ll tell you why.  iNudge has eight different sound layers, including drums and electric organ, and I can embed iNudge in my blog, or send a link of the song I’ve created to my friends.  I’ve spent the better part of my Saturday fiddling around with it and come up with some really entertaining and satisfying results.  Try it out for yourself.

As I said, I’ve been playing around with this thing all afternoon.  Below are a couple iNudges I came up with.  There are quite a few 16 step tone matrix sequencer apps on iTunes as well.  I used the free version of TonePad to compose one of these on my phone in about five minutes.  Then I went to iNudge and popped it in and added a drum beat for a little more depth.  Like I said, this first one was thrown together in a manner of minutes, and is kind of silly and whimsical sounding, but I really like it.  I think it’s a testament to these little tone matrix sequencers that it’s so easy to compose something catchy and melodic so quickly.

This next one sounds a little more dramatic. I was really trying to make it sound like something else, and it didn’t work, so I just decided to try a bunch of other stuff. I’m actually quite pleased with how it turned out. I originally composed it at 120 BPM, and then realized I could slow it down to 72, so I did.

So, if you haven’t already, go here and get your nudge on.  Paste the links to your nudges back in my comments.  I’d love to hear what you come up with!

Mardi Gras from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

I know in the last post I said UNIQLO’s website was the best use of tilt-shift I’ve seen to date but this video by Keith Loutit is a very close second.   What a brilliant way to capture all the fun and craziness of a Mardi Gras parade!  My friend Reed directed me to another of Keith’s Vimeo videos yesterday.   I saw this one there and I had to share it.  I know it’s seven months old but it’s new to me.  Thanks Reed!

The picture you see above may look like a tiny, scale model of a shipping company truck yard, but it’s not.  It is in actuality a photo of a real, life-size truck yard in Tokyo, Japan.  This photo was created using a technique called Tilt-Shift, first pioneered by Italian photographer, Olivo Barbieri.  Tilt-Shift, or more precisely, Tilt-Shift Miniature Faking, is a process that allows you to make a photo of a life-size location or object look like a photo of a miniature scale model by simulating the very shallow depth of field normally associated with macro focus.

Tilt is when the camera lens is tilted in relation to the image plane. The image plane is where the image is captured at the back of the camera with film or a digital sensor. The lens and the image plane are typically parallel. Tilting the lens will create a blurring effect at the top and bottom of the image, thus simulating a shallow depth of field.

Shift refers to the camera’s movement up or down in order to minimize the appearance of perspective. This is important in tilt shift photography because the less perspective you have the more your image will resemble a scale miniature. Perspective is only apparent with great distances, but with close ups of miniature scale models there’s virtually no perspective at all because the distance is so small.

The tilt-shift effect can be achieved with traditional photographic methods using a special camera lens, or with Photoshop using a gradient mask and the Lens Blur effect. Unless you’re a professional photographer I doubt you’ll want to invest the time or money it takes to create these images using traditional methods. I prefer using Photoshop fakery. The end result is just as good and I think it’s an approach that almost anyone can master. You just have to make sure and start with the right kind of image.

Below are a few I’ve created myself.

Photos taken from high above your subject work best.  In addition to using the Lens Blur filter, you’ll probably want to increase the color saturation and contrast, to simulate the bright paint often found on scale models.

Below you’ll see a tiny example of hands-down the best use of the tilt-shift effect I’ve seen anywhere.  I saw this on Pink Tentacle.  It’s an interactive online calendar for a clothing company called UNIQLO.  They’ve taken tilt-shift into the fourth dimension, using dozens of carefully crafted time lapse videos.  Click on the calendar to see the webpage full size.  Genius.

Tilt-shift is a relatively simple process that nonetheless results in images that are both delightful and fascinating. I think the reason I like it so much is that these images remind me of the beginning of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, a show I wager many of us enjoyed as little kids.  You guys remember that don’t you, with the little trolley?

See some more great examples of tilt shift photos here and here, and here.

Go here for instructions on how to make your own!

LG, makers of chintzy, gimicky pieces of crap for years now have finally come up with a mobile device that I really, really want.  The geeky teenager that sleeps on the couch in my subconscious will always be a sucker for futuristic techno-gadgetry and the LG-GD910 is par for the course.  It’s a freaking two way wrist communicator, okay, with video phone capability.  It’s just like on Venture Bros! If I had this watch phone I could finally talk into my wrist without looking like a crazy person.   Also, if it has a calculator function, I could finally get rid of my Casio CA53W.   According to CNET all you have to do is live in the U.K. and pony up £500 (about $825) and you too could be the proud owner of the LG-GD9610 watch phone.  The future is here folks.  If this is any indication of what’s to come, flying cars, rocket boots and pizza re-hydrators should be just around the corner.  I’m going to start saving my pounds sterling today!

Until I have enough to buy one from LG, the watch phone I fabricated last night will just have to do.