October 12, 2003
Bathroom Still

Was messing around with some Photoshop filters this morning. I wanted to figure out how to create an “outline” of objects or people from photographs. You know - just like you see in newspapers or school yearbooks where you see a bunch of people in a photograph - then imediately beneath the photograph is an sillhouetted outline of the people in the photo with numbers on them - and usually a “key” underneath showing who each number corresponds to.

Believe me - it wasn’t easy - but then I an not a die-hard Photoshop user so perhaps there is an easier way of doing it?

Anyway - I started with a random picture. There is a bathroom connected to the main bedroom in my house - actually - it’s a shower room rather than a bathroom. I guess you’d call it the “en-suite” bathroom - because we also have another “main” bathroom elsewhere in the house. The main bathroom is where Ms.Route79 has covered the window sill with her make-up and weird cosmetic stuff - and some months ago she decided to eject all my bathroom stuff to the “en-suite” bathroom. That way she can have the entire bathroom to herself undisturbed for the hours that she spends there every morning - whilst I can use the spare bathroom. This suits me fine - at least I can find what I need in the morning - because my bathroom window sill has got only my stuff on it.

Here is a picture that I had to take in three parts - and manually “stitched together” to create a sort of panorama of my bathroom window sill:

So - in Photoshop Elements I applied the “Find Edges” filter - then I painstakingly used the Eraser tool to carefully erase all the background “noise” that I didn’t want - then I converted to Grayscale - and then use the “Stamp” filter to sort of thicken the outline. And then - in order to create the lines and the numbers I got really frustrated with Photoshop - and switched over to Macromedia Fireworks to do that bit. It took me around 40 minutes in total! Here is the end result:

1. A foldaway triple-sample of Nivea for Men Double Action Facewash, Deep Cleansing Scrub and Revitalising Creme that Ms.Route79 put there. Probably fell out of a magazine she bought. Hiding behind that (which you cannot see) is a 75ml tube of Garnier Synergie Daily Moisturiser with extract of passion flower.
2. 75ml tube of Nivea Soft Intensive Moisturising Creme. (with Jojoba Oil and Vitamin E.)
3. 4-pack of spare Gillette Mach 3 razor blades.
4. 150ml bottle of Boots cucumber Moisturising lotion. (Enriched with vitamins for radiant skin.)
5. Nearly empty 150ml tube of Brylcreem Strong Gel. (Strong hair healthy scalp with panthenol.)
6. Empty 200ml canister of Gillette shaving gel. I haven’t been bothered to throw this away yet.
7. Deodorant spray. Sure Men Active 24 hour intensive.
8. VO5 (Advanced) Mega-Hold styling gel.
9. My toothbrush. (Out of view in the same cup is my Gillette Mach 3 razor)
10. My hairbrush.
11. Gillette Series shaving gel with soothing Aloe.
12. Tube of Colgate Total toothpaste that I started using a few days ago.
13. Finished tube of Colgate Total toothpaste that I have squeezed until there is absolutely no more toothpaste left in it. Haven’t been bothered to throw it away since I finished using it a few days ago.
14. My mirror. Bought it from John Lewis at Brent Cross last year.
15. Calvin Klein Obsession for Men perfume.
16. Old, empty, bottle of the same perfume that I haven’t bothered to throw away yet.
17. Olay Complete Care moisturising fluid. This is the one I’ve been using since the beginning of summer - as it has SPF 15 protection in it - for what it’s worth.

Posted by jag at October 12, 2003 01:27 PM
Comments

Very Bret Easton Ellis ;-)

Posted by: Stu on October 12, 2003 04:52 PM

Very nice work. Should try it myself but haven’t opened PS in months. Do you do one creative job a day?

Posted by: Amrita on October 12, 2003 05:55 PM

Stu: you are a very well read person! I had to Google-surf for “Bret Easton Ellis” - and found out that he is a writer who has obviously written about personal “nuances” in support of how American society has evolved. Thanks for the ref!

Posted by: Jag on October 12, 2003 08:10 PM

Amrita: Thx. I always try to “learn something new” every day!

Posted by: Jag on October 12, 2003 08:10 PM

In Ellis’s American Psycho he devotes four pages to a (very detailed) description by his main character of his morning routine of shaving and moisturizing. A shortened version of this monologue can be seen in the film of the book by Mary Harron. Seeing all those ‘beauty products’ made me think of that scene.

Posted by: Stu on October 12, 2003 08:50 PM

Now I must see the film. (Or read the book!). Cheers Stu.

Posted by: Jag on October 12, 2003 08:52 PM

Very clear photos in your blog. You have almost as many moisturisers as I do! Though I have finally settled on my other half’s Nuetrogena’s “Oil Free Moisture for Sensitive Skin” inspite of at least 6 other varieties of creams and lotions…I might have to take the same route as Ms.Route79 :)

Posted by: Ritu on October 13, 2003 05:31 AM

A good one Jag..

Posted by: Chakra on October 13, 2003 09:26 AM

Thanks Chakra,

Ritu: I go through moisturiser “phases”. The further left on my window sill that the moisturiser gets - the less likely I am to use it. You know: it’s funny you mention going for your other half’s stuff - because that’s exactly what happened in my case: She borrowed my Garnier Synergie cucumber stuff some time ago - and I have never had it back. And she went to the store recently to get some more - they told her that that particular product was being discontinued - so she bought up the whole lot of remaining stock!

I have to admit it’s so much more convenient having my own bathroom! :-)

Posted by: Jag on October 14, 2003 09:30 AM

I wish there was a photoshop made easy course on the net somewhere. Like most people I imagine I got a bootleg copy from someone so no instructions on how to use it.

I’m fine on cropping and resizing and even changing colours, but in terms of outlines and the stuff that Jag has demonstrated here, I’m rubbish.

Nice work Jag and yep I thought of Brett Easton Ellis when I noticed your description of your cosmetics too.

Posted by: Annie Mole on October 14, 2003 11:40 AM

Strangely, I did the same thing last week-end, pix of my bathroom, and was thinking of doing a pix men’s essential and women’s essential (except that I live on my own, therefore don’t have women’s essential, but friends are there for that). I also did it to keep using Photoshop as I don’t use it often enough. Nice panorama, however, you could have used a fade function between the middle pix the right side pix (toothpaste), it’s very easy to do and worth it. I have an example of a panoramic pix (2 normals stitched together) http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/s_oursel/Stockholm03/pages/03-12++.htm
Everybody should get into Photoshop and dreamweaver as they really are the best programs around, and so easy to use, well, almost, once you know how to use them. I would be happy to send to anyone the Level 1-2-3 (13mb in total, pdf)of my training.

Posted by: Stephane on October 14, 2003 12:35 PM

Hi Stephane - Thanks for your comments - and thanks for tip re stitching to create a panorama! Agree with what you say re Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I have been using the whole Macromedia suite (Dream, Flash and Fireworks) for a long time and I cannot use anythign else for web stuff. I’m fairly new to Photoshop though - I got Photoshop Elements bundled in free with my recent film scanner purchase. The more I use it though - the more I begin to understand it’s capabilities.

Can you make your training PDF available for download off a web page? I would be interested in seeing it.

Posted by: Jag on October 14, 2003 12:42 PM

Annie Mole: serves you right for doing bootleg software! :-)

I read everywhere that Photoshop has a very steep learning curve - but in some ways its worth it - you never know - perhaps there is a future career in desktop publishing industry?

I prefer Stephane’s reference to “essentials” rather than “cosmetics”. Moisturiser is more of an essential than a cosmetic. Sadly, many men I know disagree in the name of some sort of manliness …

Posted by: Jag on October 14, 2003 12:51 PM

Regarding cosmetics/essentials, cosmetics for a man sounds gay, nothing wrong with being gay and the rumours has it that I am. So using the words essentials as opposed to gay makes me feels good as I might not be as gay as most people think I am. I must admit, I probably am more gay than most gay people I know. I guess nowadays if you are single, good looking, wealthy, good job and you’re neat that makes you gay. But back to Photoshop, here is the link, I hope it’ll work. I haven’t use the yahoo briefcase for quite sometimes and to my surprise they have raised the uploading, from 3mb to 5mb, mp3’s here I come.
http://f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/jordache_xiii/lst?.dir=/My+Documents

Posted by: stephane on October 14, 2003 02:03 PM

Interesting theorising re “gayness” Stephane. There once was a time when “gay” used to mean “happy” too …

I’ll check out the download later …

Posted by: Jag on October 14, 2003 02:15 PM

Check out

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/G/gayometer/

I was almost the gayest woman in my office - only woman person beat me.

Posted by: Annie Mole on October 17, 2003 02:41 AM

Jesus, that was supposedto read only one woman beat me.

Anyway there is a test for both men and women.

Posted by: Annie Mole on October 17, 2003 02:43 AM

I scored 36% gay!

Posted by: Jag on October 17, 2003 05:50 PM
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