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Entries in Pictures (3)

Monday
Jul252011

The August Break

WE'VE been MIA for, well, erm, weeks. Mostly since the temps have been above 70 degrees. Which means we probably won't be truly back to the daily slog before those temps dip again and prohibit us from leaving the house for more than mere moments at a time. Until then, we're going to do something different in August and post nothing but pictures for a more interesting break than just letting this little space sit idle...  

So, see you in a week if we don't have anything we feel we have to post before then (note: 99% chance we won't see you 'til the 1st. Seriously. Go outside).

The August Break 2011

Thursday
Feb242011

EXPERT SECRET | Find your best side? There's an App for that

 

SURE, YOU can look in the mirror and try to discern which side of your face is more flattering in pictures. We all have a good and bad side.

Most of us do, at least.

Some won't. Sorry about that. Tis life. And genetics. But, like Wallis Simpson, Willem Defoe or Rosy de Palma, we're sure you'll work whatcha got, right? Do the interesting thing instead of the mainstream attractive thing. 

It's not vain.

Okay, it is.

But it's true.

We want to look good in pictures.  Mostly, I want to look good in pictures so that when I'm old and wrinkly with boobs getting tangled around my knees, I can look at my pictures from younger days and be like "would you look at that, granddaughter/grandson/herd of cats... grandma wasn't half bad in her day. Sure, she had a droopy right eyelid, a nose that was whacked out of line in a hockey match... possibly Rene Zellweger cheeks and a rather short neck but, hell, it all seems to work okay together. In any event, it's hotter than wrinkly grandma is now", or something along those lines.

You surely want the same.

Don't lie.

I know you do, if the number of pictures you post of yourself on Facebook has anything to say about it.

Yes, anyone with pictures numbering in the hundreds on Facebook likes to look at themselves.

Fact.

Anyway, you'll look loads hotter (or interesting, if you lost the genetic lottery) in those pictures if you figure out which is your hot side vs the fugly side. The solution is simple. In fact, dare I say... there's (now) an App for that? Cuz there is.

It's Echoism.org and it let's you snap a pic of your face and then mirrors both halves to create a whole face from each half of your face. Two yous! Sweet. Because one wasn't enough, right.

Why?

Because apparently symmetrical faces are hotter than asymmetrical ones. Mainly it's a good time because it doesn't work correctly. You end up looking more like the reflection in a fun house mirror than exact full-facial glamour shots of your two halves but whatevs. That might even work for the interesting types.

The trick to using it right is actually getting a picture with your god-forsaken iPhone that isn't wobbly, fish-eyed or featuring uneven halves of your face.

Good f-ing luck. 

I had an impossible time of it but see that some people on the site made a better go of it than I did. Might I suggest the webcam on your computer instead?

Also, there should be an option to NOT upload your pics to the website if you don't want to! For now, if you take a pic and decide to keep it, it automatically gets posted to Echoism.org.

For the design savvy, I suggest a DIY version of this. Snap a pic -- or use one of the hundreds on your Facebook profile, open it in Fireworks or some other imaging program, slice it in half, copy the halves and then mirror them to their parent halves. Same thing as Echoism.org but with more accuracy. And private.

Like this (a makeup-free me):

Top pick is just a makeup-free me one fine morning. Below it's bloody Jekyll and Hyde. I'm as asymmetrical as they come. It's two different people but smooshed together they equal me. Personally I dig the evil left me better.

Do you have a best side? Or are you perfect like Denzel? 

Sunday
Jan302011

EXPERT SECRETS | How to take a smokin' picture

via freshness mag

WE LIVE in an era where it’s no longer possible to squirrel away bad photos of yourself. Instead they’re uploaded and tagged across online social platforms for all the world to see.

Forever.

Models and actresses know how to give good photo, but us laypeople are prone to looking smug, drunk, slow or pudgier than we are in real life. Or a horrifying melange of all such things.

Here are our tips on how to take good photos, purloined from years of talking to and reading about photographers, models and magazine editors:

1. Learn Italian: Mainly learn the word Contrapposto, defined on Wikipedia as a stance with “most of the weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs”. Do it and look instantly slimmer.

2. Armed and dangerous: Press arms against against the body and they appear twice as large. Shoulders back and away from your ears, and create a sliver (or more) of air between your body and arms. The hand on hip is also seriously slimming to the arms.

3. Chinny chin chin: Tilt the chin slightly downwards (half an inch) but don’t retract it like a turtle into the neck. Tilt down and pull it forward and away from the body to avoid the double chin and make your face look slimmer.

READ THE FULL LIST OF TIPS on how to LOOK GOOD IN A PICTURE here.