Desktop Pictures
New York and Washington, D.C.
New York—Part 2
This month, Jens Grabenstein shares his view of New York City with us. The images were shot with a Canon EOS 300 using a 28-80mm zoom lens and 200 ASA 35mm Kodak Gold film. The film was digitalized during development using Kodak Picture CD technology (see review in this issue).
Most of the pictures were taken during a trip to Liberty Island with Daniel Chvatik, who presented his photos from this trip in the November issue of ATPM. Daniel took his photos with an Olympus C-2000Z at the same time and under the same conditions. Therefore, you can compare the images taken with the Olympus and the Canon to see the limitations of the Kodak Picture CD technology.
As you can see, the scanning introduces a strong moiré effect, especially in the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Under sub-optimal light conditions and even under good light conditions the Picture CD images appear pixelated in the blue and white parts of the sky.
Last month’s images of leaves were taken with the same camera under comparable conditions, but scanned with a conventional flatbed scanner. They show none of the mentioned defects. If you compare the pictures of the city and the leaves, you can see that the effects are due to the scanning technology applied by Kodak, not to the quality of the actual pictures taken with the camera.
Washington, D.C.
Assistant Webmaster Lee Bennett offers desktop pictures from Washington, D.C. that he took in the autumn of 2000. The pictures include shots of the Capitol, the White House, the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, the Washington Monument, the Old Post Office, Ford’s Theatre, and artifacts in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum—Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis aircraft and the original U.S.S. Enterprise model from Star Trek.
The photos were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 990. Resampling and retouching were performed with Adobe Photoshop 4.01 for Macintosh.
Previous Months’ Desktop Pictures
If you haven’t seen the rest of the series, it includes: Yellowstone National Park, Drops, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Monaco, Montréal, Bahamas, Clouds, Aerial, Made with Macs, Landscapes, Northwest, Animals, Spring Flora, National Parks, Insects, Konstanz, Mark Montgomery’s Desktop Pictures, Konstanz Part II, British Columbia, New York, France, Northeast, From ATPM Readers, New York II, and Washington, D.C..
Downloading all the Pictures at Once
iCab and Interarchy (formerly Anarchie) can download an entire set of desktop pictures at once. In iCab, use the Download command to download “Get all files in same path.” In Interarchy, use HTTP Mirror feature.
Contributing Your Own Desktop Pictures
If you have a picture, whether a small series or just one fabulous or funny shot, feel free to send it to editor@atpm.com and we’ll publish it in next month’s issue. Have a regular print but no scanner? Don’t worry. E-mail us, and we tell you where to send it so we can scan it for you. Note that we cannot return the original print, so send us a copy.
Placing Desktop Pictures
Mac OS 8.5 and Newer
Go to the Appearance control panel. Click on the “Desktop” tab at the top of the window. Press the “Place Picture…” button in the bottom right corner, then select the desired image. By default, it will show you the images in the “Desktop Pictures” subfolder of your “Appearance” folder in the System Folder, however you can select images from anywhere on your hard disk.
After you select the desired image file and press “Choose,” a preview will appear in the Appearance window. The “Position Automatically” selection is usually fine. You can play with the settings to see if you like the others better. You will see the result in the little preview screen.
Once you are satisfied with the selection, click on “Set Desktop” in the lower right corner of the window. That’s it! Should you ever want to get rid of it, just go to the desktop settings again and press “Remove Picture.”
Mac OS 8.0 and 8.1
Go to the “Desktop Patterns” control panel. Click on “Desktop Pictures” in the list on the left of the window, and follow steps similar to the ones above.
Random Desktop Pictures
If you drag a folder of pictures onto the miniature desktop in the Appearance or Desktop Pictures control panel, your Mac will choose one from the folder at random when it starts up.
Also in This Series
- Parting Shots · May 2012
- Tsavo National Park, Kenya · April 2012
- Rwanda · March 2012
- From ATPM Readers · February 2012
- Easter Island · January 2012
- Disney World · December 2011
- The Netherlands · November 2011
- Easter Island · October 2011
- New York City · September 2011
- Complete Archive
Reader Comments (14)
My name's Everton, I have 16 years old, i wanted to know "New York" this is my dream, to know NeW York.
I would to go the New York.
I live in Brazil, Your picture's very beautiful.
My email is, (ice_man223@hotmail.com) or
(noghturno@hotmail.com)
any opportunity enter in my Emai, and pleas, I need go to the New York.
I live in DRCong/Kinshasa
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