I've got a word or two To say about the things that you do You're telling all those lies About the good things that we can have If we close our eyes
Do what you want to do And go where you're going to Think for yourself Because I won't be there with you
I left you far behind The ruins of the life that you have in mind And though you still can't see I know your mind's made up You're going to cause more misery
Do what you want to do And go where you're going to Think for yourself Because I won't be there with you
Although your mind's opaque Try thinking more if just for your own sake The future still looks good And you've got time to rectify All the things that you should
Do what you want to do And go where you're going to Think for yourself Because I won't be there with you
Further to my previous tutorial in which I explained how to convert a picture to black and white while preserving the colours of selected parts, here is an alternative way to do essentially the same thing but using a French freeware by the developer of PhotoFiltre. It runs on Windows (also on Wine for Linux) and is a standalone application so you won't need any additional image editing software such as Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, GIMP, etc. Please note however that, in spite its ease of use, many tryouts might be necessary until you get what you want and also that such manipulation won't look good with every pictures. Still you may create interesting effects which might be difficult to get using my previous method.
1. Launch the application and open a copy of the image you wish to desaturate.
2. Click on a colour you wish to preserve to display it in the palette to the left. Repeat the process for each colour to be preserved.
3. Carry out the following adjustments:
- Threshold (Tolérance): specifies the maximum colour difference tolerated to convert or preserve pixels to grayscale. Thus a low threshold value will only convert pixels whose colour is close to those selected in the left palette whereas high threshold values allow for more significant colour differentials.
- Feathering (Contour progressif): creates a gradual transition between coloured areas and grayscale zones.
- Colour Gradient (Dégradé de couleurs): during processing, colour gradients will be taken into account to add intermediate colours while comparing two colours.
- Sepia: used instead of grayscale for desaturated colours.
NOTE: I apologize the above capture is in French but the software is also available in English (in red: “Click to add colour to palette” — in green: “Apply the effect”).
4. Click on the icon as shown above to start processing the picture and see the output. If you're unhappy with it and wish to refine/change some settings, delete or add colours to be preserved, click on the red return arrow (or use Edit > Undo last action menu or CTRL+Z shortkey) to cancel.
5. When you're happy with the result, do not forget to save your picture to your desired file format.
For this last example featuring a baby Mandrake shot by Harry Potter fans, I picked up 5 colours, selected all options, and set the threshold to 55%.
Voilà, hope you this makes you want to give it a try. As always, do not hesitate to experiment. I didn't test it but it's possible to cumulate the effect several times (without cancelling) with different settings.
Nivôse Does not like colours Save for greys Of which he's a great provider.
Nivôse Does not like happiness either Given that He has frozen your heart.
Endnotes
Nivôse (21 December - 21 January) was the fourth month in the French Republican Calendar and the first month of the winter quarter. It was named after the Latin word nivosus, which means snowy.
“Whatever you do, do not forget that to defeat a Boggart, you must point your magic wands and say: 'Ridiculous'!!!”
Shame on me: I have a Pensieve, I've been an accidental early beta-tester for the Muggle's Hogwarts where the Sorting Hat promptly sent me to the illustrious house of the Eagles, and yet I forgot to tell you about Boggarts. This bloody flu certainly is eating my brains away!
Sometimes a picture says it better than any writer could.
“What the hell is a boggart?” may enquire those who haven't read the books nor seen the movies of the most popular literary saga of the early century. As its author rightly twitted, the above picture illustrating the unfortunate developments over the last few days should provide a clue.
A boggart has no existence nor form of its own. Like an egregor it is akin to, this parasitic creature lurks in the shadows and feeds exclusively on our deepest fears of which its takes the shape in great details so as to generate the negative energy it needs to survive and of which we're its primary providers. In Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban, Professor Lupin teaches his students that to overcome a Boggart, all you need is laughter. This means you have to change the mental picture of your fear to force it to take on a comical appearance while you speak out the killer word: “Riddikulus”.
Later, when Lupin asks Harry which shape its Boggart would have taken, much to his surprise he replies that it wouldn't have been Voldemort's as one could easily expect but a Dementor's — creatures who feed on our happiness and end up eating our souls away. Lupin then says: “That suggests that what you fear most of all is — fear. Very wise, Harry.”
A sentence you should reflect on. Fear is the only weapon the Boggarts of this world have against us. To thrive on the outside, it needs to sprout and grow inside. As true keepers of our Garden of Eden, we musn't let the weeds take over.
Genie let out of the bottle, It is now the witching hour. Genie let out of the bottle, It is now the witching hour.
Murderers, you're murderers! We are not the same as you.
Genie let out of the bottle, Funny how, funny how
When the walls bend, when the walls bend With your breathing, with your breathing When the walls bend, when the walls bend With your breathing, with your breathing With your breathing
They will suck you down to the other side To the shadows blue and red, shadows blue and red Your alarm bells, your alarm bells Shadows blue and red, shadows blue and red Your alarm bells, your alarm bells They should be ringing
This is the gloaming And the walls bend, and the walls bend With your breathing, with your breathing And the walls bend, and the walls bend What is he doin' what is he doin'
Let's play cops and robbers ! As I was clearing the clutter in my drawers, I found a couple of old press cuttings from British papers dating back to circa 2000 that I didn't know I still had. So I took it as a sign that I should share these odd reports with you. Please note these are no jokes but GENUINE stories (no joke at Belgian people's expense here since only the French would understand though I know our friends from Belgium do also have their own stories about us silly Gallics so I guess that makes us even).
The Trouble with Mr. Bean
ENGLAND - A policeman knocked himself out after mistaking his reflection in a mirror for a burglar. He was searching a menswear shop after an alarm went off at night when he saw the image. The officer, who has not been named, called for assistance before rugby-tackling the shadowy figure. He hit the full-length mirror head-first and was semi-conscious when fellow officers arrived at the shop in Wirral, Mersey side. He ws treated for his injuries and made a full recovery.
WALES - Six Belgian-trained police dogs, bought by the South Wales force for £2,000 each, must now learn commands in English and Welsh.
Sergeant Schultz
PADERBORN (GERMANY) - A bungling robber who tried to hide his gun in his back pocket when he spotted a cop in a bank in Paderborn, Germany, shot himself in the bum.
MUNICH - Two men who robbed a security van of £35,000 in Munich were arrested after the raid was filmed by 23 camera-crazy Japanese tourists.
The Dukes of Hazzard
SPRINGFIELD (MISSOURI, USA) - Thief Donald Rikker was tracked down by cops after his artificial eye fell out as he was running away from a burglary in Springfield, Missouri, USA.
Unrelated but funny
BRISBANE (AUSTRALIA) - A farmer placed an ad in a lonely hearts column in Brisbane, Australia, pleading: "Farmer seeks lady with own tractor. Please enclose photo of tractor."
Another one has just flashed by. I nearly threw up my hands in shock. Hence the good reason why I won't handle the tough news with kid gloves: 2015 is already on us!
The upside is that it's been a bit more than two years by now we were all supposed to have bitten the dust. More than enough to put everything back into perspective, isn't it ? Now, in order to avoid resorting to the perennial clichés and promises that cannot possibly be kept — usually caused by the temporary euphoria of champagne as well as all the unnecessary glamour some people love to surround themselves with on these special occasions — no pipe dream sort of wishes will be offered here even though deep down inside I sincerely hope each of our individual and combined efforts as human beings will finally succeed in reversing the situation at long last.
On the other hand, I would not want in any way to focus on the doom and gloom so I'll let Jim introduce his bunch of smart lovely penguins to Carrey on the good laugh all year long. Some may not get the picture, but not to worry I got it for you.
FR
