Ah transparency! It's not just the word du jour at the White House. Transparent screens can be great decorating tools when done correctly. The trick involves taking a photograph of what's exactly behind your computer monitor and then using that image as your desktop wallpaper. The optical illusion can make office spaces feel larger, plus it allows your décor sensibilities to move throughout the room uninterrupted by a big blank screen.
Thanks to Flickr user W00kie, we came upon a gallery forum dedicated to transparent screens. As we flipped through 163 examples of this rad trompe l'oeil, we found 10 that we thought best exemplified the untouched interior design possibilities of the transparent screen.
Have you ever tried a transparent screen?
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i feel that the 4th one of the iBook is a fake (or possibly worked on a bit after the photo). I have that exact iBook, and there is no way my screen would ever look that bright. Most transparents are slightly off in color and that ones looks almost too close. I could be wrong, but my 2 cents.
these are all pretty much the same....except for the 7th one, which took a bit more ingenuity.
What a neat idea! Whether the photos were brightened or are all variations on the theme seems to be missing the point, it's still clever.
So why didn't they just close the laptop?
For desktops...the screensaver would turn on and ruin the effect.
Cute trick. I'm impressed that they got the image the right size.
How much energy does it consume to use these screen savers? I know that sometimes your computer is unable to go into a sleep mode (which uses less energy) because of the screen saver. I'm asking for myself, and because Apartment Therapy seems to favor eco-friendly products and ideas.
Very nice. However the 1st and 4th pictures (same person) on the top left row are fake. You can tell by the lack of differentiality in the lighting in the space and the laptop screen.
It's a simple matter of putting the camera on a tripod, taking the picture with the screen up (with a black or white or any single color background wallpaper) and then flipping the screen down and taking another photo. Then mask and photoshop the laptop background and composite the two photos and you're done. Weak sauce.
I applaud the others for their efforts to at least put the actual background in their computers. All the pictures in the last row are great. I think the last one with the low light orange lamp was pretty hard to compose.