Viewing a blog

Yesterday I spent some time updating my personal details and security on a number of online sites I frequent. I made these changes using the PC not my cellphone.

I had also decided to do minor aesthetic changes to my WordPress site also as I like to do so at least annually. You know, a change is as good as a holiday, or at least I think so. I’d almost forgotten how to do it as it’s been so long and all my postings in 2017 have been made using my phone. I’m glad I made this decision. There have been a few changes in the backend and it was interesting to see what they were. A very pleasant surprise and lesson. I made the admin. changes, all smooth sailing with my Win10 PC. Emphasis on smooth, yeah baby! 😍 Of course, as I suspected a while ago, Google has stuck its big moosh in here too. Whatever. Matt’s gotta make a buck.

When it came to the blogsite itself, the only change made was to the background image, which is now just a shade of grey. Yet, I was unable to change the actual main background colour. Don’t know why. That’s okay, I still like it. It all blends in nicely.

In the Customizer, as I was looking at the site in Desktop, Tablet and Smartphone layout, I asked myself the question: Why can’t we disable a particular layout? My work looks crap, let’s be honest about it, when viewed in full desktop mode; I tend to upload full size images and the post layout makes use of that. I advise my viewers, via the About page, to view the blog on a smartphone. And I saw that the Tablet layout also looks reasonable. My blog theme, Twenty Sixteen, is mobile-friendly and looks very good on my phone.

So, I would like to be able to disable the Desktop layout. WordPress engineers, this is something to consider, please!

 

AdobePhotoshopExpress_6414d0586ff3414a90d1954fb6bd468c
Seedpods. Various software.

5feb update: In the comments below, I mention I had reached three conclusions (as to why all my images appear washed out on my HP laptop). The actual cause — I had forgotten that one needs to choose the colour profile in Color Management and set that as the standard. Now done, all okay.

Now I see the latest Win10 update has stripped the few image editing programs used on my phone, eg Adobe Photo Express etc that I had installed on the PC, being programs also usable on a PC and allowable. And, now, any images processed using them appear in the Photos app as a grey placeholder and give a message that it seems I don’t have permission to access them. What?!

11feb: I did some major PC maintenance today. HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (all good there thank goodness). Privacy and security settings, especially network, the background apps, as well as just working my way through all the settings and re-configuring more appropriate choices now that I’ve had the PC for a while. Part of this was updating the apps I use the most, including Photos. Well, that solved the placeholders issue. My thinking just quietly had been the possibility of missing links, and that was it! I had recently copied over all the info from my old external hard drive to the new 2Tb Seagate Slim extHD. The new version of the Photos app has taken care of the greying-out issue by adding the new location in front of the old filepath. Sweet! I also decided to copy over to the Seagate all the image folders on my smartphone memory card, the Seagate being where I import photos to via the Photos app. Doubling up, but can live with it. Now, I’ll see if I can install one or two of the image editing softwares from Microsoft Store, if they’re still available, at least updated versions for the PC.

Security issues with email also being looked at, and have posted a discussion in the Outlook Microsoft Community today.

Anything else? Lol.

 

2017 #892

Fantasia Painting - Copy (2)

The final testing playaround using the Smudge tool in Fantasia Painter.

This image is just another of the many still lifes set up on the top of the breast-height bookshelf in my living room (I’m 170cm, or 5ft 7in tall). The back end always forms a hard line in any photo, as there is an approx. two inch gap between that edge and the wall. This has always been an annoyance, especially when I’m aiming for a softer look.

The vase is six inches tall, clear glass, with the bowl having a textured engraving of the map of the world. This texture gives a natural softening which I like.

As you can see, I used the Smudge tool in default mode to soften that hard line. It was my first attempt. It’s okay, but could be improved. Smudge was also used on the bowl to remove the bottom part of the seedpod stem.

I obtained this mono sketch look using PicSketch, then refined it further in Adobe Photo Express, and finally added the sepia tint at 50% overall mask in FP. There will be another attempt. 😁