Episode 192: Look Down! – A Challenge

There was no show for quite some time – and there will be a gap until the end of summer. I move back to Bremen – and that takes a lot of time and creativity away. But in Bremen I will have nearly 2 hours more time each day, because I can walk to school and don’t need to ride the famous Berlin S-Bahn Ring Line.

In the meantime I have a challenge for you! Present the place where you live to us – but look down on the sidewalk for that! The best results will be published in the GIMP Magazine #5 and of course here on the blog. The exact rules are below.

This Challenge is a perfect rip off from a challenge by Andrés (Twitter) (Website), an illustrator from Buenos Aires, in the now closed forum of Tips from the Top Floor. Make a mosaik of images of the sidewalks in your city and try to transport the atmosphere.
Rolf's Example
This is my take on the Silvio-Meier-Strasse around the corner from my flat in Berlin.
The Rules

Make a mosaic of at least 3×3 images.
All images have to be shot straight down
All images are in the same scale, use the same distance to the ground and the same focal length.
All images have to be linked to each other in their theme by being from one city, one journey …..
Publish your image online and post a link to it before September 1st in the comments to this blog post.
License your image as CC-BY or better and allow this site and the GIMP Magazine to publish your image under CC-BY (here) or CC-BY-SA (GIMP Magazine).
Rules 1 to 4 may be broken, 5, 6 and 7 have to be followed exactly.

You may download the template for my version from above or build your own one. You are free to make other forms than a square – circles or a spiral anyone?

There will be hopefully a discussion in our forum.
The TOC

The video uses chapter marks, you can jump between TOC entrys!

00:00:00 Pause until end of August
00:02:05 A contest for you – introduction
00:03:42 The contest rules
00:04:50 My example
00:06:04 Selecting the images
00:08:00 Scaling down and exporting in Shotwell
00:08:40 Calculating the image size
00:09:30 Create the file
00:10:20 Save as XCF.gz – compressed to save space
00:11:05 Creating a “Contact Sheet” for reference with Imagemagick
00:13:00 Make a movable layer mask with “multiply mode”
00:16:00 Building a stack of layer groups and fill it with images
00:23:00 Filling images into the layer stack
00:26:45 Isolate the layer groups with “lighten only mode”
00:27:55 What do these layer modes do? Blackboard explanation
00:33:08 The last image – a Memory to Edith and Tina Wolff
00:34:30 Fine tuning the mosaic – exchange images
00:36:08 Adjusting contrast between the images with the curves tool
00:39:20 THE CHALLENGE
00:41:05 Variations: Soften the borders between fields
00:43:08 Final words about the Challenge
00:44:15 Exporting and scaling down for publication
00:45:45 End of video