Hawaii en Focuso - Whole Vaction... Nothing but Out-of-Focus!

Posted on Flickr are about 80 shots of the few hundred taken in Hawaii on vacation. I took all shots out of focus for the purpose of Focuso. Drop on by, check out the slideshow and let me know if you like some more than others ;-)

I was looking for the quintessential beach photo and got some pretty cool ones of sand and umbrella... girl looking out to sea... palms and ocean, surfers in sunset... it was fun!

Focuso Photographs of City of Toronto

Recent pictures from the city of Toronto - some nice concrete work...

Focuso - Out of Focus Photographic Art Status

Here is how Focuso has grown so far. This link gives an alternative view into the Flickr world.

http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/focuso

And a recent desktop - a shot of RoseAnne on a winter walk:

Dan Zen Gives Pecha Kucha Talk on Focuso at FITO, Toronto Flash User Group

Inventor, Dan Zen gave a Pecha Kucha talk Nov 28th, 2007 at FITO the Toronto Flash user group, largest of its kind in the world: http://www.flashinto.com. The event was packed and was held at the Pixel Gallery in Kensington Market, Toronto - (Element156 - Digital Media Center, 156 Augusta Avenue Just North of Dundas, Just West of Spadina - a great gallery to check out!)

Pecha Kucha, apparently Japanese for chit-chat involves showing 20 slides for 20 seconds each, traditionally with a format of no speaking or sound - however, we have westernized it to include speaking and sound. The gist of Dan Zen's Pecha Kucha is as follows:

Focuso Pecha Kucha Talk

http://www.danzen.com/focusotalk/

As interactive designers and developers, we often build features with a foreground and a background where the content for the foreground is created by the user. We design the background or the environment.

If the foreground is considered in focus, the background might be considered out of focus. It is the context for the content.

Focuso is the art and philosophical aspect of out of focus or Focus out - Focuso. In particular, it can be demonstrated by photographs that are purposely out of focus for artistic reason.

This Pecha Kucha talk shows how Focuso has been used in a number of Dan Zen features, often as background, yet it stands alone as an art form as the pictures to the right attest.

It is hoped that the samples will encourage designers and developers to think about focus as a way to handle background much like we drop opacity. These days, with the blur filter in Flash, it is very easy to do - but of course, there is always the camera!

Dan Zen

http://www.danzen.com
mad inventor
meets Internet
finds peace

Professor & Industry Liaison,
Sheridan Interactive Multimedia
http://imm.sheridanc.on.ca
Canadian New Media Awards Programmer of the Year 2002

Focuso.org
Dan Zen Flickr

Focuso Artistic Desktop Backgrounds

I have been shooting photographs that are out of focus on purpose as artistic expression. This allows us to concentrate on form, composition, color, mood and avoid some of the everyday details that can make a picture too complex. Often these pictures take on the look of a painting because the blur is similar to a paint stroke. The genre is called Focuso. Focus Out.

I have put together a site which makes it easy for you to save Focuso pictures for your desktop background. Thanks Amy for the suggestion.

http://www.focuso.org/desktops/

Focuso Paintings - Out of Focus Pictures as Art

This series of photos in the woods have a painterly feel. Some find them a bit more accessible than the abstract at night shots.

It can take a little adjustment to appreciate focuso. After you get used to the focus issue, you start to appreciate the composition and color. A good way to do this is to set a piece to your desktop picture. Go to the big picture (click on this picture then select the all sizes link above the flickr picture and choose a bigger size) and right click to save as desktop - you can probably chose stretch for most cases. I will set up a site specifically for focuso that would be good for the desktop.

Focuso People - Out of Focus Photographic Portraits

Above are four examples of focuso portraits - photographic portraits taken out of focus on purpose for artistic reasons. In some many cases, the person can be made unrecognizable and abstracted. Hunt through the flickr pics in the focuso group and you can find examples. In other cases the character's features are there but blurred to posterized type effect.

In lightest focuso, it might be said that there is only a softening. I have been blending focuso over an in-focus photo and applying effect. It works to blend the features and is quite beautiful. See the models set.

Have fun with this - take a few shots in focuso along with your regular shots and see if you can capture the essense the aura of a subject. The picture at the bottom is one of my favourite pics ever. It is of course, shot out of focus on purpose.

Please leave a message below if you give this a try and let us see the results!