I would love to see the actual negative and the other shots he took at that location.
Velvia is a color slide film. There is no negative to see.
Bliss (Photograph)
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Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m a bit confused about the claim that the image was altered. Sometimes skies look like that and grass looks like that and (the right) film is more than capable of capturing that with the appropriate saturation. Especially Velvia. Velvia is probably even cranking up the saturation, to levels you would not see like that with the naked eye. Here is a landscape photographer showing their own favorite Velvia photographs…
https://archive.is/D0FOH "Microsoft did admit to darkening the green hill" in the caption for image 1 (Bliss). Based on the borders of the image shown being extended from the actual wallpaper file (take a close look at the top and left) it was probably cropped as well. It's entirely possible the color was edited by mistake (i.e. converted poorly) - IIRC the color profile on the tiff was not sRGB.
It is interesting to consider what we talk about when we talk about whether an image was photoshopped because I do actually think that is a fuzzy line and different people may think of different things.
I always assumed this discussion was about exceedingly crass color shifts, the removal or creation of elements not in the original image, not some dodging and cropping.
Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#43Windows XP was released when I was in college, and I remember discussing this picture with my friends guessing where it could've been taken. Never thought about California back then, let alone moving there.
A little bit less than twenty years later, few years after moving to the US, my family and I were driving somewhere near Sonoma, CA, enjoying the views, and someone in the car said something like that this looks like that Windows background. Quick check with Google, and sure enough, we were less than a mile away. We didn't stop, but surely got some photos.
The actual place is a vineyard now.
Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#44I'm pretty sure Age of Empires II uses Bliss as the background for the Watch Tower icon. You can see the rolling green hills in the back.
Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#45High-res version for your modern desktop: https://archive.org/details/bliss-600dpi
I never realized there is a bird present in front of a cloud, neat.
Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buttocks aside, it's a nice picture - maybe more elegant then Bliss. But it's a lot less bright and happy. I'm glad they went with Bliss in the end, for whatever reason.
Red Moon Dessert would've clashed with the clown colours XP had going on
Also the moon would be hidden between the icons, which always aligned on the left side by default.
Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#47For the curious, here is Red Moon Desert which, according to TFA, was almost used instead of Bliss but was rejected for looking too much like buttocks: https://windowswallpaper.miraheze.org/wiki/Red_moon_desert
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Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#48How much did Bill Gates pay for Bliss? ChatGPT: “Microsoft paid photographer Charles O’Rear a confidential amount for the Windows XP wallpaper “Bliss,” but it is widely reported to have been in the “low six figures,” meaning over $100,000.” Charles should have asked for MS stock instead. “In 2005, Facebook offered David Choe about $60,000 to paint murals at its office. Instead of cash, he chose Facebook stock. When M…
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Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#49Windows XP was released when I was in college, and I remember discussing this picture with my friends guessing where it could've been taken. Never thought about California back then, let alone moving there. A little bit less than twenty years later, few years after moving to the US, my family and I were driving somewhere near Sonoma, CA, enjoying the views, and someone in the car said something like that this looks l…
> The actual place is a vineyard now.
It was just prior to photo being taken.
Re: Bliss (Photograph)
#50I went to that exact spot a while ago, here is my photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnniewalker/7870318918