Transparent Monitor Camera Trick

Introduction

Hello Everyone,

First, I would like to thank you for viewing my instructable.
And, if you enjoyed it, please give me a vote!
Thanks....

Have you seen the pictures floating around the internet with the
transparent monitors, ipods, iphones, etc...

Some, have there hands in the monitor.

Well, I'm going to show you how to do them.
These have NO photo-shop involved.
(as in, cut and paste)




We will have to crop the photo, though....
(using Gimp or other image editing software)

This technique will work, with both - the hand in the monitor and transparent monitor!
I did this on a PC running Windows XP, but I am sure it will work on a Mac.

Now onto the instructable...


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Step 1: Items Needed and Taking First Picture

Items needed for the Instructable

Camera (mine is a Canon Powershot A650 IS, nice camera)
Tripod (really don't need one, but helps)
Knowledge of Gimp (it's free) or other image editing software (resize or edit pictures)
http://www.gimp.org/
Patience

1st Step

Take a picture of your hand in front of the monitor.
Make you hand like your holding something.
(suppose you could use your foot/feet too!)

I found out, using the tripod help to stabilize the camera, that way, I did not have to use the flash.
Then, you don't get the glare. (2nd picture above)

Now onto the next step...

Step 2: Cropping the Image to Fit Your Monitor

This is where Gimp comes in

Now, with the picture we took in step 1, we are going to
crop the picture to fit our monitor resolution.

To find out your monitor resolution
On a PC, you would right click on the desktop and select properties and then settings.
You should see your screen resolution in the screen resolution box.
In my case it was 1680 x 1050 pixels.

So, I cropped the picture to 1650 x 1050 pixels. (3rd picture)

Step three next...

Step 3: Make the Image Your Wallpaper

Now, take your cropped picture (from step 2) and make it your desktop wallpaper.
In Windows XP (that is what I use).
Right click on the desktop and pick properties.
Click on the desktop tab.
Hit the Browse button and go to the folder with the cropped picture in it.

After you have your picture as the background your going to want to get rid of ALL your icons.
To do this, you would right click on the desktop,
click on ARRANGE ICONS BY, and uncheckSHOW DESKTOP ICONS.
You will want to get rid of the taskbar also.
Auto-hide the taskbar.

Then you will want to open up the calculator or a browser, or whatever.
Place the item in your hand. You might have to play with it, a bit.
Resizing to fit your hand or foot.
Just to get it convincing looking.

Now you want to take a picture of the monitor with the wallpaper and calculator, browser or whatever is in your hand.
(See picture above) That is the actual picture I cropped.

Onto the final and last step...

Step 4: Cropping the Final Image

Next, we will take the final picture and crop everything outside the monitor.
See picture above.
I used a program called ACDSee Pro 3.
ACDSee Pro 3

Gimp, as mentioned above will crop too!

Then, what you end up is the FINAL picture.

You can use the same technique to do the whole monitor transparent.
Maybe another instructable...

Good luck and have fun with it!
Post any pictures that you make!

Here are a bunch of examples that could be done with this type of effect.
Transparent Screen Examples
More Transparent Screen Examples
Even more Transparent Screen Examples

I hope you enjoyed my instructable!

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