Ashutosh Nilkanth's Blog

Note to myself:

Conditions are never just perfect. People who delay action until all factors are favorable are the kind who do nothing.

The wishbone can never replace the backbone.

Update (9 Jan 2009): TiltShiftMaker gives your photos that delightful tilt-shift look (via Boing Boing). After some playing around, I think that the manual effect in Photoshop or Gimp gives better results.

Couple of weeks back, I saw a sample video which had an impressive mix of time-lapse and tilt-shift effects. The tilt-shift technique allows to depict a very shallow depth of field. It creates an illusion of a miniature model. Here’s an example of a photo with tilt-shift (from 50 Amazing Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography):

While its been raining out here today, I thought I’ll play around with tilt-shift faking in Gimp. Based on some nice tutorials ([1], [2]), here’s what I came up with a photo that I took on a trip to Dalhousie:

Btw, here’s the original photo for the photo I processed above. Not too bad eh? I guess this technique works best with aerial photos/videos.

Briefly, here’s what I did in Gimp to achieve the tilt-shift:

1. Play with the photo’s color curves, brightness and contrast
2. Activate Quick Mask
3. Reset colors in toolbox with the ‘d’ key (so that FG = black and BG = white)
4. Select Blend (Gradient) tool
5. Set Gradient to FG to BG (RGB)
6. Set Shape to Bi-linear
7. Think of a focal point in the photo (i.e. where the key subject is based)
8. Use the Blend tool from your focal point on the Quick Mask (you’ll have to play around with this a bit to get the right size/shape)
9. Deactivate Quick Mask (you’ll see the selection outline now)
10. Apply Gaussian Blur (or Focus Blur for an even better outcome)
11. Invert the selection
12. Sharpen (Enhance) the inverted selection

I’d like to try out this technique on a video sample as well, but for that I’ll need the right tools (or an expensive lens).

Half of world’s population has a mobile phone, yet, only 21% of the world’s population uses the Internet.

On my last visit to India, I was not so astounded to see the milk-man or the rickshaw driver to have a mobile phone. What I was astounded with was a lack of a “value-added” mobile phone application in such a widespread market.

Try counting (on your fingers if you may) the applications/websites you use on the Internet, and then count the ‘applications’ you use on your mobile (including stuff like SMS, MMS, Mobile Cam, MP3 player etc.). Considering the average person doesn’t use a Blackberry or an iPhone, I bet your computer-driven Web usage will win over your mobile phone-driven Web usage.

So, even though, there are more mobile phone users than Web users, the applications on/for the mobile phone are too limited for the common man. Of course you can browse the Web on your mobile phone. Heck, my sister even checks her Gmail and Facebook profile on her mobile phone. But what else? Maybe manage some simple things like a synchronized (across devices and computers) to-do list, or reading news, or say, writing a short letter? An average mobile phone today has everything to manage such simple things, which can increase our productivity and even entertain us a bit. Still, in general, not many of us use any of those applications.

Technically, the mobile web has taken off in a big way. But, for the common man, the mobile phone is still primarily a mode of verbal communication. What I’m waiting for is the killer mobile phone application (Facebook? Wikipedia?), that will change the way we use a mobile phone. Twitter, for one, has made a difference to the conventional trend by allowing anyone to post short updates from their mobile-phone. And Netbooks are already being seen as a consumer-level gadget. Maybe its the assimilation of the netbook and a mobile phone that will drive the future of mobile applications.