The Transparent Desktop Trick

52 comments

You just take a shot of what's behind your screen and make it your desktop background. And yes, I've tried it, and yes, it's more difficult than it looks to get it just right, especially if you don't have a laptop. It's all about the fold-down screen. Post your own pictures under comments and I'll include them... More pictures Inside!











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52 Comments

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  1. Anonymous kabturek 

    Really nice !
    some seem very really

    nice blog btw ;)
    greets

  2. Anonymous wil 

    i don't understand how the guy who holds the calculator did it.
    i thought for a while and i could be a digital trick. not an illusion

  3. Anonymous jordan 

    the shadow of his hand is clearly part of the picture, and not a real shadow. this means that the entire hand is in the picture. he probably just put his sleeve (with no hand sticking out), up to the screen.

  4. Anonymous Bella 

    Ooh... really interesting! I want to try this.

  5. Anonymous vurdlak 

    The calculator was just lanched in front of the background image of his hand. This was a very clever illusion indeed.

  6. Anonymous millie 

    But his sleeve goes off the bottom of the screen and covers up the border...it's strange but so coool!

  7. Anonymous Tee 

    there cool but they boggle me

  8. Anonymous natakalt 

    cool!, now I will do it!

  9. Anonymous whatchamacallit? 

    they are awesome. but how do you do THAT?

  10. Anonymous Jott ha 

    how do you do that i tried and i couldn't do it

  11. Anonymous dargh 

    rofl... thats the way

  12. Anonymous ihope 

    As jordan said: the hand is part of the wallpaper, but the sleeve isn't.

  13. Anonymous Farted 

    All of these are cool, but the calculator one is definetly the trickiest!

  14. Anonymous jul 

    They are all awesome but just as jordan siad i believe the guy just put a sleeve up to the screen. I believe ill try this now

  15. Anonymous monet 

    neat

  16. Anonymous Andre 

    It's not a calculator - it's an iPod. Surely that was obvious from all the Apple equipment on display.

  17. Anonymous Shannon 

    Andre I think you are looking at the wrong picture.

  18. Anonymous 2 wil 

    That man with a calculator trick is simple. He took a shot of his hand reaching out without the screen there - cropped and done whatever one does to place it on their desktop and moved the REAL calculator app onto the screen and took his photo.

    Hope this helped!!

  19. Anonymous Dunkaz 

    For the calculator...
    How about, take background pic and set as wallpaper.
    Take pic of monitor with new wallpaper and hand reaching out. Set as new wallpaper.
    Start calc app and then take pic of just the screen area!!!!

  20. Anonymous ~*NIQUE*~ 

    THATS FREAKIN GENUIS!!!

  21. Anonymous RaiderX 

    this was a quicky: http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6158/transparentdesktop3pe.jpg

    shades are diff in the screen, but wut the hey

  22. Anonymous Sayeth 

    I think the calc pic is made by takeing a pic of his hand reaching out. Putting it on as your desktop and starting up the calc placed over the hand on the desktop. Then positioning your hand so that your fingers are bent backwards on the screen surface. Adjusting your palm untill the fingers on the desktop line up with your palm. So i think the only real parts of him on the pic are the palm, thumb and arm.

  23. Anonymous Hai 

    i should try this

  24. Anonymous Ash 

    That's neat! I'll have to try it.

  25. Anonymous mason 

    The photo of the older iMac is the trickiest one, the stem is completely visible (as it should be I guess, for the whole transparency thing to fly) How's that one done? Can anybody clarify?
    Is it like, 3-4 separate photos layered, cause the spiny plant would have to be imposed on top of the original photo (with the iMac screen) and then another for the stem....uh oh, I'm getting dizzy.....

  26. Anonymous Niki Pound 

    ...wow. The lava lamp one is especially cool, as is the one with the iMac and the empty base.

  27. Anonymous Ed H. 

    Mason: He took a picture of the iMac from behind (or the side, or whatever,) to get the neck. He also took a picture with the iMac completely not there. He then Photoshopped them together so he had what was visible behind the Mac with just the neck.

  28. Anonymous Rayne 

    I did something like this once, but not the same way this person did it. I took a keyboard from a computer, got a big picture frame, took the back out so it was only glass and put on stickers of things that would be on your desk top. It didn't look nearly as realistic though.

  29. Anonymous loser 

    SWEET!!!!!.....i think they took the picture..put it on the computer...then...made it there back grownd....after that they lined it up just right....corse im just 14 and i go a simple way...not the very confusing way....=^.^=

  30. Anonymous niki 

    amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow!

  31. Anonymous Rayn 

    Wow that is sooooo cool ^__^

  32. Anonymous Video Games 10 Hours ADay 

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    SOOOOOOO NEAT! I'm not gonna try though

  33. Anonymous kid with attitude 

    wow thats well good you see i cant do that sort of thing because i do not have a laptop and anyway i have no space between the wall and my computer

    from a 10 year old with atttitude

  34. Anonymous endboss 

    It's not that hard to do this... not easy either thou...
    You just need a one colored background. Then you take two matching pictures, one with and one without computer and the rest is photoshopping... set the backgroundcolor of your computer on the computer picture as transparent, put the other picture behind it and there it is! ;-)
    That also explains the holding calculator trick.

  35. Anonymous Me 

    The calculator is a lot simpler than everyone is making it. It is clearly photoshopped. What you do is take a snapshot of the calculator app, then just take a picture of your hand reaching out to the screen, then paste the picture of the calculator app overlapping the hand. If you imagine it without the calculator, you can see plain as day that it is his real hand.

    If anyone disagrees with me, please feel free to explain your theory.

  36. Anonymous Great! 

    This illusion is one of my faourites. I especially like the one with the calculator. It got me thinking.

  37. Anonymous Zig 

    WOW that is amazing!

  38. Anonymous Manda 

    i heart my imac
    its way better than microsoft computers
    it even looks cooler
    not to mention that its got way cooler stuff
    and easier programs
    its always dependable
    and in the year that i have had it its never frozen
    not even once
    i heart you imac
    but technically your name is anna hahaha i gotta change that
    one sec

  39. Anonymous Kurt 

    Me--

    how to achieve without photoshop:

    print a screen shot with a calculator on it
    cut that out and hold to take a picture to do the transparent screen thing
    then to get the final, simply put your arm out there with the sleeve pulled past your hand
    then it is an illusion within an illusion.

    that's my guess

    ---

    thought this was the best illusion I've seen on this sight. first time something has inspired me to try it.

    nice submission

  40. Anonymous Tori 

    I hate it when I lose my screen...

  41. Anonymous Anonymous 

    wiiikkkkkkkiiiiiiiiiiiddddddd

  42. Anonymous pirategirl 

    nice!!! i wonder how they did it...

  43. Anonymous mati101 

    kl.
    i would try this but my computer is infront of a window with all seagulls flying past constantly. that would look weird. heck maybe i will after all. hehe.

  44. Anonymous Ryan 

    The calculator one is simpler than using photoshop... no editing is needed for the picture (other than maybe cutting the edges down to size/cropping)
    Jordan got it...
    Remove the screen, take a picture with your arm extended with an open hand like in the picture (and without any sleeve down).
    Then put the picture on your desktop, put your hand inside your sleeve, position the end of your sleeve over the arm in the picture, open the calculator application on the mac, and position that over the picture of the hand... hey presto, you've got that picture.

  45. Anonymous CoNoRrrrrr 

    the calculator one is so easy i did it my self one day when i was bored...
    you take a picture of your hand and wrist reaching out then you import it and set it as your backround.
    you open the calculator and move it into the palm of the picture of your hand.
    finally you take a shirt or jacket and put your arm through one of the sleeves and being careful to not show your actual hand, take a picture.
    its just that simple.

    i don't even have photoshopping software so there goes that theory :]

  46. Anonymous Anonymous 

    WOW (o o) (o o)
    0 0 0 0







    (o o) 0(x x)
    0 0 0

  47. Anonymous Anonymous 

    some of them are funny, but i do not get how the man was "reaching through" the computer screen.

  48. Blogger Harish 

    I would agree with "CoNoRrrrrr said..." and someone else who pretty much said the same thing. If you notice the area behind the sleeve of the sweater, it is swollen as if the fist is inside clenched up.

  49. Blogger Cassie 

    Now that I've figured out how to do it, I want to try it sometime. It looks so cool! It'd be a pain to get it aligned just right, though.

  50. Anonymous Anonymous 

    i think they just took pictures and put them as the desktop.... oh well. neat-o. :)

  51. Blogger badvice 

    great idea! :D

    http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/9256/img6699hk4.jpg

  52. Anonymous Anonymous 

    the one with the hand is hard to get right, but easy to set up. to see how to do it and where the hand stops and the picture starts, look at the very far right of the dudes hand. the shading is different when it comes to the desk. he took a pic of that part of his hand behind the desk, then set as background. the only real part of his hand is the thumb, palm and possibly one finger. i'm still not sure on that part. this is how it was done as far as i can see. its funny how the simmple explantations are the longest to read. sorry about that, but i hope this helped w/ the hand prob.




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