Apt Design » black and white http://aptdesignonline.com Website Design and Graphic Design from Wenatchee, Washington Mon, 07 May 2012 16:01:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How to Easily Create Your own Stunning Desktop http://aptdesignonline.com/how-to-easily-create-your-own-stunning-desktop http://aptdesignonline.com/how-to-easily-create-your-own-stunning-desktop#comments Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:30:52 +0000 Apt Design http://aptdesignonline.com/?p=773 I’ve recently started cleaning up my Mac.  One thing that I did was to clear out a bunch of my old backgrounds that cycled quickly by on my desktop.  I replaced them with some simple black and white photos like this:

prussikpeak-desktop

It was an easy change that made a pretty great impact.  The new images are peaceful, clean and quiet.  I recommend trying this out on your own computer; here’s a quick tutorial on how to easily create your own stunning desktop.

1. Grab one of your favorite photos that you’ve taken. (Some tips on How to take great photos with your little camera)

2. Crop it to the size of your desktop. (Crop in iPhoto, Picassa, Windows Live Photo Gallery – or do it online!)

3. Turn the image to black & white (iPhoto, Picassa)

4. Up the contrast – this helps the photos pop a little more and keep them from melting away into grey (iPhoto, Picassa)

5. Add it as your desktop background

6. Done!

road-desktop

This technique works with almost any image.  Here are a few before and after pics:

trees-desktop

coffee-desktop

Do you want some of the power of Adobe Photoshop to help with all of this editing?  You can now use some basic Photoshop tools online for free!  Try that out.

If you want some inspiration from some incredible black and white photography check out Nick Brandt.  Then post some links to your new BW desktops, your favorite desktops, or your favorite BW images.

Or, read one of these:

  1. Forgiveness Desktop Wallpaper

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