benjamin franck

Créez votre propre mini planète (polar panorama)

Pas mal de gens m’ont demandé comment on faisait pour obtenir ce genre d’images:

From dusk til dawn

C’est en fait assez simple d’y arriver !
Tout ce dont vous avez besoin c’est une photo panoramique, sur laquelle les deux bords (gauche et droit) sont similaires (l’horizon est au même niveau, et ce qui s’y trouve est semblable)

Une fois que vous avez ouvert votre photo dans photoshop, il faut tout d’abord changer la taille de l’image (image > taille de l’image).
Décochez l’option “garder les proportions”, et rentrez la même valeur en hauteur que celle qui est indiquée pour la largeur: vous devriez vous retrouver avec une image au format carré.
Faite une rotation de 180° (Edition > transformation > rotation 180°).

Une fois l’image redimensionée et retournée, il ne reste plus qu’une opération pour avoir une petite planète:
Appliquez le filtre coordonnées polaires sur l’image (filtre > distorsion > coordonnées polaires).
Lorsque vous avez le panneau du filtre ouvert, choisissez l’option rectangulaire à polaire (voir ci-dessous)

polar coordinates panel

Et voilà !! Le tour est joué !
Vous avez votre propre petite planète !

Il ne reste plus qu’à effectuer une ou deux petites retouches pour obtenir un résultat sympa, et qui sort de l’ordinaire !
Plutôt simple pas vrai ?

N’hésitez pas à joindre des groupes sur flickr pour partager vos créations !
Voici quelques propositions du groupe Create your own planets:

Create your own mini planet (polar panorama tutorial)

Hi there ! !
I’ve been told that many people were wondering how to achieve this kind of pictures:

From dusk til dawn

This is a pretty easy thing to do !!
What you need is a panorama picture, where both sides (left and right) are similar (horizon level has to be more or less at the same level).

Once you have your picture opened in photoshop, first change the size of the image (image > image size).
Unselect the constrain proportions option, and set the same height as the width of the picture: you should get a square image.
Make a 180° rotation of the image (edit > transform > rotate 180°).

Once this is done, one more step and we’ll get something looking like a planet:
You need to apply the polar coordinates filter (filter > distort > polar coordinates).
Once you have the window opened, choose the rectangular to polar option (see below)

polar coordinates panel

That’s it !!
You should have a nice planet now !!

Next and final step is to make some retouching to get a nice, clean, and awesome result !
That was easy wasn’t it ?

Feel free to join groups on flickr to share your creations !
Here are some of the submissions to the group Create your own planets:

Have fun with your facebook profile picture

Some weeks ago, I saw a profile on facebook that had something original: the profile picture was edited in a way that you just couldn’t say when facebook interface was ending and where the the profile picture started.

Here is the result I got after only 30 minutes of editing:

My facebook Profile

So how can you make one of these ?
Very easy !!

1st step: find a picture of you with a white/light background.

Here, I used a picture with a light background, if I had one with a white background/time to shoot one, it would have been better/easier.
So here, you’ll need some editing to get your background white, and keeping nice levels on your face.
Use masks, levels, saturation tools to get your head on a white background.

2nd step: insert your head on the facebook ‘interface’

Some useful info:

• width of the profile picture: 200px
• height is not important
• grey background goes for 67px and is #edeff4 (more or less)
• darker grey line is 1px high and is #d8dfea (more or less)
• font I used is Tahoma 11pt (this seems to be the one IE, FF, Chrome take into account in the css) and is #3b5998 (more or less)
• height between typos and separation lines is 20px
• typo starts at 8px from the left border

- Start putting the grey background, and use masks to hide the white background around your face.
- Then draw the darker line at exactly 68px from top.
- Write your fake menu items, separate them with a ‘dark grey’ line

3rd step: export, upload, and enjoy !

Some things I found out:

I first wanted to make the pic twice the size (400px width, 2px for the dark grey lines etc…) to have it bigger when people click on it.
But then I found out that the resizing of the profile picture to fit it at 200px wide is causing some blur on the lines. I thought about it, but wanted to try it anyway. Don’t waste your time, as you’ll have to redo everything at 1/1 size.

Also, putting a grey stroke around the ‘profile’ pic, gives more consistency to it, you avoid this ‘cut’ body effect.

Do not hesitate to take the pic above to use it as a base for your editing.
If you want to, I can also include a link to the psd, just ask.

I listened to The Trashmen – Surfin’ Birds and other nice things of this period of rock’n'roll while editing my facebook profile picture.

Have fun !!

(version française à venir)