This months shot was taken at Park Güell here in Barcelona. Its my last few days here in Barcelona and I´m trying to spend my time wisely by catching up with and saying goodbye to friends and doing things I´ve not done enough of over the last few years of living here. One of those things is visiting Park Güell – I´ve been several times but its one of those places that I don´t think its possible to visit too much, every visit reveals hidden secrets, in fact I´m going back again tomorrow.

If you ever find yourself in Barcelona it´s a must visit place, to be honest it could be worth coming to Barcelona just for the park.

Download this months desktop wallpaper here.

Free April 2011 desktop wallpaper - 1024×768

Free April 2011 desktop wallpaper - 1440×900

Free April 2011 desktop wallpaper - 1680×1050

Free April 2011 desktop wallpaper - 2560×1600

Right click the image and save as desktop wallpaper, easy-peasy.

For anyone interested in creating there own monthly wallpapers but are not sure how to go about it check out my post ´How to create monthly wallpapers´ that will show you the simple steps needed to create the right files, there´s also a downloadable .Psd file to get you going.

So here we go take your pick.

Free October 2010 desktop wallpaper - 1024×768

Free October 2010 desktop wallpaper - 1440×900

Free October 2010 desktop wallpaper - 2560×1600

This month I´m feeling generous so I´ve got 2 desktop wallpapers for you to choose from. The first is a pretty standard simple composition for a wallpaper and shows a small plant growing on the sandy banks of the river Ganges.

To make the above image your wallpaper

Click the link below that matches your screen resolution then right click the image and click ‘Set as desktop background’ or ‘Use Image as Desktop Picture” on the Mac. If you want different sizes just let me know.

1024×768 | 1280×800| 1280×853 | 1440×900 | 2560×1600

The second photo was shot in a steel works and for me is a much stronger image although not something I´d normally choose as a wallpaper.

To make this image your wallpaper, follow the same steps as above but use these links

1024×768 | 1280×800| 1280×853 | 1440×900 | 2560×1600

Well it’s all created in photoshop and uses just 2 files. The first is the photograph, but not every image works well as a desktop wallpaper, I often find myself shooting specifically for the wallpaper. When I do Im looking for a particular composition, I’m looking for clean, uncluttered, simple, bold images that have space not only for the calendar details but also for the desktop shortcuts (of which I have way too many). You’ll need to crop and resize it to fit your screen resolution.

The other file you’ll need will be a .psd file that will contain the actual calendar info (month name, days of the week etc.)

in this file you’ll need several layers:

- One with text for the month and year name (ie ‘Feb 2010′).
- One with text for each of the days of the week (Mon – Sun).
- One with text for each of the numbers between 1 and 31.
- A shape layer which I use as the calendar background and have set the opacity to about 60%. You may wish to add some other effects, such as a shadow or bevel & emboss.
- One with text for a copyright notice layer.
- A Transparant background layer.

If I’ve done my maths right thats a total of 42 layers. Arrange the layers nicely and it should look something like this.

Confussed??, Lost?? or lazy?? just download mine from here. Feel free to change it as much as you wish.

Now every month you’ll have to rearange the numbers so they match the days for that month. ie. when the 1st
of the month is on a Monday, Tuesday, Wed…etc. But you’ll only need to do this 7 times, one for each day of the week. Save each file as a seperate .psd, and eventually you should end up with files that are named something like this Calendar_Week_Begin_Mon.psd, Calendar_Week_Begin_Tues.psd, Calendar_Week_Begin_Wed.psd …etc.

Now when you create your monthly wallpaper all you have to do is check whcih day of the week the 1st is and open the correct file (you many also need to hide the number 31 for some months and the numbers 29, 30 and 31 for February)
.

If you’re still with me you should have 2 files open in Photoshop.

In the Calendar_Week_Begin_xxx.psd file change the month name and year to match the current month.

Now it should be a simple case of dragging and dropping all the layers from the Calendar_Week_Begin_xxx.psd file into your photo file, I keep them all grouped together to make this easier. Flatten it and save this as a .jpg. Browse you hard disk until you find where you saved it (you did save it somewhere sensible, no??) right click and select ‘Set As Desktop Background’

As if by magic, you’ve just created your desktop wallpaper.

So how do I put this image on my desktop ??:

Click the link below that matches your screen resolution then right click the image and click ‘Set as desktop background’ or ‘Use Image as Desktop Picture” on the Mac. If you want different sizes just let me know.

1024×768 | 1280×800| 1280×853 | 1440×900 | 2560×1600

Instructions for use:

Click the link below that matches your screen resolution then right click the image and click ‘Set as desktop background’ or ‘Use Image as Desktop Picture” on the Mac. Ive added a new size to match the screen size of 1280×800, as I recieved a special request, if you’d like a different size that I’ve not included, just ask.

800×600 |1024×768 | 1280×800 | 1280×853 |1440×900 | 2560×1600

]]> http://tombourdon.co.uk/index.php/2009/09/october-09-wallpaper/feed/ 1 http://tombourdon.co.uk/index.php/2009/06/playing-with-water-july-wallpaper/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=playing-with-water-july-wallpaper http://tombourdon.co.uk/index.php/2009/06/playing-with-water-july-wallpaper/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:28:01 +0000 Tom Bourdon http://tombourdon.co.uk/?p=758

I’ve actually had this as my desktop wallpaper for the last few weeks, I guess its one of the privileges of my job, I get to try out the wallpapers first!

I’ve seen shots like this many times its nothing new but it certainly is fascinating to see the different shapes made every time a drop of water hits a puddle and it really was fun shooting it too.

If your wandering how I shot it I’ll give you a brief explanation now.

Firstly I set up a large bowl of water (in my case it was actually a frying pan, but any similar sized container will do). Next I filled a plastic carrier bag with water and tied it about 2 foot directly above my bowl. I made a tiny whole in the bag to get the drips flowing, I then, with my camera on a tripod, I manually focused on the exact spot where the drips were landing and set my shutter speed to 1/250 sec which gave me an aperture of f/8. I then fired of over a hundred shots with my flash bouncing off a nearby wall.

Its a very hit and miss activity trying to judge the exact split second that the water will make the exact shape you require is near impossible with out some really high tech gear (but where’s the fun in that). A slight tweak in Adobe Lightroom with the colour temperature and contrast and this is what I ended up with.

As always just click the link below that matches your screen resolution then right click the image and click ‘Set as desktop background’ or what ever the mac equivalent is (I really really really must find out, if anyknows please let me know as I dont have acces to a Mac ).

800×600 | 1024×768 | 1280×853 | 1440×900 | 2560×1600