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The making of the new Low End Mac “Lightning” wallpaper

Mark Sokolovsky - 2026.09.29

A while ago I experimented with an iPhone 3Gs and a color diffraction grating, just see what different lights would look like through the filter; no art intended. One experiment led to another, and suddenly a series of photos with an LED flashlight turns into a new Photoshop project.

 

(Above: Also seen on “about lemOS (and Site Changelogs)” page)

 

What you need

  • A color diffraction grating – a small one for testing camera equipment should run $15-20.
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  • An iPhone 3Gs, or any early smartphone camera which has that low-light graininess.
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Time to experiment!

First thing I did was step outside and point the camera at the Sun. After trying out some different angles, I felt like this wouldn’t make for a good art experiment even if it looked rather cool. Before I even knew it, I was already looking for a good picture.

 

 

Next up was a bright yellow Halogen light, which had a full, radiant spectrum through this filter. The series of photos captured from this light source wound up becoming a LEM wallpaper late last year.

 

 

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Trying an LED flashlight

It was all about capturing the right angle. Since it’s a non-moving light source with non-moving effects and since absolutely nothing else is happening, it’s very easy to take stills. With a few angle adjustments (and shutting the lights off in the room), we begin to have something resembling a colorful “bead” of light. A light comet, if you will.

 

 

The rest is essentially done in Photoshop, with no additional filters applied or modifications to colors, image quality, etc. First things first is making sure the shining light orb is completely blank inside, so the Low End Mac logo can be pasted in. Then the logo is skewed to the same angle as the light appears to be traveling in, the edges of the logo smudged the same way as the light streaks, and I also very crudely mirrored the LEM logo below (at like 10%), so it looks like a reflective surface. Lastly, a transparent-to-black gradient is applied to the background to remove background objects from the room (see picture 4 in the above quadrant), and bam!

 

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