воскресенье, 22 сентября 2013 г.

Images for the Bhakti-Yoga, dedicated to Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi and how I print them

This month I have decided to renew my Images of Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi. 

I have a Golden Yantra (and the Golden Image of Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi), but I have decided to make one more Altar. 

For this Altar Images, compiled and printed out by me, are being used, as well as Electric Oil Lamp (I love to offer to Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi and to Bhagavan Shree Vishnu as much warming Aroma Oils as I can, because it is rather cold in Moscow in autumn). 

4 Images were selected by me for the new Altar:


1) The Images of Shreemati Ashta Lakshmi-Devi in black colours

2) The Image of Bhagavan Shree Vishnu and Shreemati Ashta Lakshmi-Devi. 

3) The Foot of Bhagavan Shree Rama, which I fell in love with, when saw it. 

4) The Image of Shreemati Ashta Lakshmi-Devi in Red Colour (this is one of my favourite Images)

The Foot of Bhagavan Shree Rama is of special significance, as Shreemati Maha Lakshmi-Devi is in Insane Love with the Foot of Her Beloved Bhagavan Shree Narayana.

And as you know from "Venkatesha-Mahatmyam" Bhagavan Shree Narayana specially carries the Image of Padma (Lotus) on His Feet, because the Padma on His Feet is actually devoted only to Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi. 

Thus, Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi Loves to Sleep not only on the Chest of Bhagavan Shree Narayana, but on His Feet too!!!!!!!!!

HOW I PREPARE IMAGES FOR PRINT: 

As you know most of the images found on the web of rather bad quality (because for quality print you need CMYK-images in 300Dpi and etc.)

One way to handle this problem is to process the Images in Photoshop. I do the following:

Click to enlarge

1) I always test "Auto Tone", "Auto Contrast" and "Auto-Colour" in Photoshop. Usually, only the one of them, not all at simaltenously. Usually "Auto-Colour" is very beneficial.

Smart Sharpen
2) Then I apply "Smart-Sharpen" Filtre (the tab "Filter - Sharpen - Smart Sharpen") and I use Default Photoshop Settings without changing the parametres.

3) Most of the Images in the Internet are of very small size (something like 600X600 pixels, 72DPI). If you print them on A4-list, the result will be very grotesque. Way-out?

Don't print large images. The Images sized 1/3 or 1/2 of A4 are even better for the Altar.

See the printed photo of The Foot of Bhagavan Shree Rama: it is on about 1/6 of A4 list, but it gorgeosly suits to my Altar. 

I print all the Images in IrfanView and when you press "Print" in the programme you will see the following tab (see "CUSTOM" with red square):

Printing in Irfan-View, see "CUSTOM" and change parametres in order to diminish the will-be-printed size of the Image
Then just change the Custom parametre in order to diminish the will-be-printed size of the Image.

4) I use Canon IP-1900 printer and native cartridges for it (the printer and cartridges are very cheap). As for the settings of the printer, I use the "High" settings. 

5) I use GLOSS (yes gloss, not matte) photo-paper. I still own a lot of Lomond Glossy Inkjet paper (160 g/m2, A4) which gives very good result along with Canon IP-1900. 

6) For the print I save only in BMP in Photoshop. 

7) For the Altar, I am writing about, I needed good Collage-Editor, because the Main Altar Image is the Combined Image of Shreemati Ashta-Lakshmi and Two Yantras of Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi. 

 All online Collage-editors turned out to be very bad (because they usually hide the the part of the photo). 

But the Collage.com is very good (in spite of the fact you need to sign in). When your combined Image on collage.com is ready just click on the Image and "Save as Image". Then it would be better to process the Image in the Photoshop. 

See how beatifully the Images of Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi and 2 Yantras had been arranged!


OK, all the Images are printed out by me now, they have been drying up, while I have been writing the article.

What more?

As this article was about the technology, the first Puja will be very in techology key too, because I will offer to Shreemati Lakshmi-Devi and to Bhagavan Shree Vishnu the aroma oil (lemon) in electric oil lamp (the lamp is Oregon Scientific WSII2A).



If you need the processed Images for your Altar too, please don't hesitate to download):

Dropbox

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Cubby

Google

Skydrive

Yandex

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