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June 22, 2006
New Favorite Photoshop Effect
Diffuse Glow (0 grain) + 50% boost in saturation.
It's an interesting look.
Incidentally, if it seems like I'm posting pictures more than writing anything of any consequence over the last couple of days, that's because that's basically what I'm doing. I'm in an unaccountably foul mood over the last few days, and I'm largely avoiding posting anything that requires me to say anything longer than a paragraph because if I don't it's likely to slide into incoherent ranting about how 90% of humanity must be taking jackass pills or something. Yes, I know it's fun to see me when I'm in a mood, in that "ha, ha, let's watch the drunken dancing monkey" way. But I'm not in a mood about anything in particular; it's more of a free floating exasperation with the universe. And that's not particularly interesting (at least it's not that interesting to me). It'll pass. In the meantime: look, pictures.
Posted by john at June 22, 2006 09:40 PM
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Comments
Chang | June 22, 2006 10:13 PM
Damn. I hate when people take jackass pills. Sucks.
Nce pictures of the kid. Mine scowls at me alot.
Actually I am hin=ding in my basement spo i don't have to sit through Contact and get teary when they show pictures of her and the dad. That kills me.
JonathanMoeller | June 22, 2006 10:16 PM
Hell, the drunken dancing monkey thing worked for Steve Ballmer, didn't it?
claire | June 22, 2006 11:05 PM
scalzi, the cat is delicious. more pitchers of the cat, pls.
Soni | June 22, 2006 11:28 PM
Crap. Guess it wasn't the best time to send you a 'help me' email, eh? Oh well, you win some, you lose some. :-D
Mark Ensley | June 23, 2006 01:41 AM
I'm right there with you on the jackass nature of reality this week. Both my wife and I have been in especially ugly moods this week, and have taken to living in different rooms until today for the sake of not snarling ugly regrettables at each other. We seem to be marginally better today, and each apologised to the other.
Cool pictures, by the way. I'll have to try that.
RONW | June 23, 2006 04:46 AM
Classic....simply, classic.
Rhiannon_s | June 23, 2006 07:46 AM
Frankly I'm amazed that you think the proportion of people on jackass pills is as low as 90%. But then I work customer service, we get extra cynicism pills.
John Scalzi | June 23, 2006 08:24 AM
Well, I was being charitable.
Tripp | June 23, 2006 10:43 AM
Aw geez, I go and take a friendly jab at you when your mood is down. Sorry. I didn't know.
John Scalzi | June 23, 2006 10:45 AM
Tripp:
Huh? I didn't notice any jab. Which may suggest my recent state of mind.
Anne C. | June 23, 2006 10:55 AM
No dancing drunken monkeys? Dang, there goes my day.
Hope you feel better soon.
Jonathan Arnold | June 23, 2006 11:34 AM
Speaking of jackasses, you might want to watch the Daily Show clip where Jon Stewart skewers the House of Representatives, saying it "is filled with insane jackasses.", vis-a-vis their grandstanding the "violence in videogames" issue:
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/headlines/index.jhtml
This is definitely the way to watch the Daily Show, as I find it has far too many commercials on live TV.
Gus | June 23, 2006 11:37 AM
Interesting effect. Hadn't occurred to me to go to zero grain, since I kinda like grain. I generally like the pastel nature of the DG filter, but I'll try increasing saturation.on a few pics. Nice stuff.
Tripp | June 23, 2006 03:22 PM
John,
Over in the big-head comment section I wrote:
staying up late late late to finish a magazine article
Once you learn to read without moving your lips it goes much faster!
John Scalzi | June 23, 2006 03:39 PM
Tripp:
Ah. Don't worry about it. I thought that was kind of funny. Kind of.
Bob Devney | June 23, 2006 04:48 PM
John,
The art director at the little ad agency where I work quite liked your photos. Said to really evaluate how useful the effect might be, though, she'd also want to see the "before" set.
Any chance of diving once more into, ah, the digital developing tank?
Buck | June 23, 2006 06:54 PM
I'm with you- I've been in a general misanthropic foul mood the last few days. And ironically, some dunderhead in Wales has decided that today, as the first Friday of summer, is the happiest day of the year.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/23/happy-day060623.html
Pewari | June 25, 2006 09:33 AM
That *is* a lovely effect - must try that myself :)
Stephanie | July 11, 2006 04:54 PM
I was just turning this into a Photoshop action when I discovered that the background color has a lot to do with how Diffuse Glow turns out. Try it with something other than white! (I had a dark maroon chosen, which turned out... less than good.)
Kate Nepveu | June 22, 2006 10:08 PM
Nice pictures. I particularly like the cat one.
When I was in that mood recently, I started the LotR re-read project. Possibly giving myself more work to do was not the best idea, but it did seem to help.
(Usually I read Pratchett, but for some reason I didn't want to this time.)
Good luck shedding it.