iPhone in the Palouse

Capture Camera+ Processing Snapseed

I enjoyed my two weeks in the Palouse, one scouting, the other leading a tour group through the amazing land of Eastern Washington State. I must admit I had to really concentrate on getting my iPhone out to shoot as I was moving fast on my scout and often just wanted to get a shot with the big camera, but every so often the iPhone came out too! Sometimes the shot needed minimal processing and other times my vision was for heavier processing.

Hipstamatic Capture and  OGGL processing

In the end, I enjoyed using Hipstamatic as a quick default shooting app using the Jane Lens and Inas 1969 film. Sometimes I ran that captured image back into OGGL for further filtering with Hipstamatic options.

Walking through the town of Colfax one day I noticed this architectural detail and Hipstamatic was again my app of choice.
I will be reviewing how to set up and shoot with your Camera + and Hipstamatic Apps and more in my "Getting Started in iPhone Photography" workshop this Sunday August 24 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
For more information and registration Click Here

Color or Black and White? ~ Camera+ ~ Snapseed ~ AltPhoto

For the last two weeks I have been grounded pretty much at the house as I have a complete bathroom remodel underway (ugg) with construction starting at 8 until 4. So,  I have been out in the garden earlier than I normally would have been or been at all, as in the past years, at this time, I am usually enjoying the beach landscape in Delaware, before the rental season begins.
In the morning I have been capturing a few iPhone images as the garden unfolds in spring. I love color but for some reason I have been leaning to processing these images in black and white. While pondering why I liked the images in black and white, I looked at these two images I made this morning, and decided that the black and white images distilled the morning light. While the color of the bloom is beautiful I liked the black and white file. The black and white image tended to draw me into the flower, I did not get the same visual intrigue with the color file. Do you have a preference?
If you always work in color give black and white a try. AltPhoto and Snapseed are all you need to make some great conversions.
My upcoming iPhone classes are posted on the Capital Photography Center website as well as The Horizon Photography website. Hope you can join me!

Cafe Paris~ Inspiration! Camera+ ~ Artista Oil~ Artista Sketch ~ Glaze ~ ImageBlender ~ Snapseed

Last week I had the great pleasure of working with a client who wanted to master GLAZE and do some iPhone work. Their home is like a large studio with white walls, soft white sheer curtains and beautiful windows with lots of natural light. As I worked with my client my eyes were just seeing small still life vignettes everywhere! So we used the natural light and set up a few stills to process on the iPhone. This was one of them. The beautiful china cream pitcher with Cafe Paris on it by Bernardaud and the blue checkered breakfast napkin, just begged to be photographed, so I arranged a little comp by the window with the soft drape of curtain behind it.We placed a white foam core board behind the curtain to balance the interior light.
Staring with Camera+ and choosing an appropriate exposure using the lock exposure feature we made a few comps. I liked this one.

1. Original capture using Camera+

                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. To begin the processing, I brightened it a bit and used a warmer  White Balance in Snapseed. Then I wanted to add a bit of color to the edges. I used Artista Oil to accomplish this by reducing all the slider effects except the border and then toned  the border to work with the blue in the napkin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Next I wanted to add a bit of color to the comp.

I used Artista Sketch to accomplish this, by choosing a sketch look I liked and changed the sketch color to yellow which I thought would work nicely with the blue of the napkin and china.

4. To the original image #1, I blended in ImageBlender image #2 to soften the effect of the blue border toning.

5. Next I blended image #3 with #4 in ImageBlender choosing an appropriate blend mode to achieve the look I had in mind. Then I ran that blended image through Glaze and achieved the look in this image.

6. To finish off the image I used Snapseed and boosted saturation and sharpness as well as applied the border. I used Impression to add my copyright and toned it blue to match the image.

 Check out my full list of classes on the Capital Photography Center site click here for more information and registration.

Whats your Muse? Apps~Hipstamatic ~ Glaze ~ BracketMode ~HDR Pro~ Leonardo ~ Snapseed

Often, I ponder what it is that moves me to see and then create an image......waxing introspectively....
On my recent workshop at The National Gallery of Art, men inspired me, doing what they do in this beautiful environment...as I was working with the group explaining BracketMode and HDR Pro I spotted this gentleman with his camera. I was curious about this older man walking around the gallery putting his camera to his eye and shooting images...at any age photography is a gift and a camera a good companion! I quickly grabbed a BracketMode shot while he stood still looking at the tree with his camera to his face. BracketMode allowed  me to capture the light inside with detail on the wall, as well as the beautiful light falling on the outside building wall. I wondered what image he made....

Captured: BracketMode Processed:HDRPro, Snapseed

After the workshop was over I found him in another section of the gallery and made this image. Waiting until I found just the right composition which allowed me to fit him in between the two paintings hanging on the wall. He was alone with his camera, his thoughts and marvelous art!

Captured: Hipstamatic, Jane lens Inas 1969 film Processed: Glaze, ImageBlender, Leonardo, Impression

The same day one of my young students, who I was terribly impressed with....captured my "Yes" when I saw him holding his iPhone up to capture the condensation of the perpetual condensation display....and once again...the joy of photography came to mind...from the very young with his iPhone to the older gentleman with his DSLR. Amazing....how we see so differently through the lens!!! any lens! and the joy it brings.

Captured: Hipstamatic, Jane Lens Inas 1969 film Processing: None

While showing a workshop student a composition using Hipstamatic, of a man seated, seemingly as part of the stone building structure, an art object himself, we got down low and and made this composition. He never knew we were there.

Captured: Hipstamatic Processed: Glaze, ArtistaSketch, ImageBlender, Snapseed, Leonardo

And after the workshop I strayed into the West wing and captured the Gallery Guard as he was directing traffic and warning people to put their beverage bottles away, again, waiting to catch him in a position separated from the escalator so that he was in a good position to offset his person against the wall in front of him, and waiting for that crossed hand behind the back stance that caught my eye initially.
It is always fun to shoot with the iPhone, then app it up! I have only two spots left for my all day workshop sponsored by Capital Photography Center on May 4th. Hope someone can join me there. For more info Click Here. My next "Getting Started" class is June 1 at the National Portrait Gallery for more info click here.

Captured: Hipsatmatic Jane Lens Inas 1969 film Processed: Glaze, ImageBlender, Snapseed, Leonardo, Impression

Amour - Camera+, Phonto , Snapseed ~ Processing tutorial

Spring has finally arrived in the Mid-Atlantic. The Hellebores in my garden are lifting their blooms out of the soil. I love these early spring beauties. I cut on the other day and decided to make an iPhone image or two. I put just one stem in a small vase and used some Lowel Lights to light the flower and vase and made and exposure that would be great for the flower, then I decided to back light and blow it out a bit choosing another exposure in Camera+

Processing began in Snapseed for a little vignette and toning.

Next in Snapseed I applied, selective brightening to the center of the flower,  texture, selective focus with the tilt shift filter, border and further toned.

Then I ran the image through VSCO Cam and added a slightly different toning.

Lastly I ran the image through Phonto for text and graphics.

New Painterly App ~ Brushstroke

Capture: Camera+ Processed: Brushstrokes, Leonardo, ImageBlender

From the developers of "ToonCamera" comes Brushstroke! I like it! It has the ability to deliver a high resolution file with a nice group of filter options and editing options, with texture, as well as an option to actually add your personalized signature, not script, your hand written signature. Fun! The app filters are varied and the signature option is easy to use. For $2.99 I think it is definitely worth adding to your App portfolio. It will also be a great app to use for blending back with other files using ImageBlender.

Capture: Camera+ Processed: Mextures, Brushstroke, Leonardo

A few notes of info that I wanted to share about some of my favorite Apps, ImageBlender updated today and if you have been loving it for its past ability to uprez files while blending, using the background image as the largest file, check out the new settings as the default came in using the foreground image to scale the blended image. If you want to revert to the prior workflow then you will need to change it in the settings in the ImageBlender App.

Accidental discovery Ha...maybe I am very late to discover this one!!! But I accidentally figured out how to resize the borders within the Snapseed App. Having been a long time user, of Snapseed and loving their borders, when the App updated after Google purchased Nik, it seemed as though the adjust border option went away or did not function, but this week I was "pinching the screen" when the border filter was open and guess what, it changed the size of the border...so... as with many cool features in apps sometimes the features are not so obvious! Just thought I would share...silly me! Now I will be enjoying using their borders again! My next "Getting Started" in iPhone Photography is this Saturday March 8 at the National Building Museum. For more information and registration click here!

Capture: Camera+ Processed: Brushstrokes, Leonardo

A Little Whimsey ~ BracketMode ~ ProHDR ~ Portrait Painter ~ Snapseed~ ImageBlender ~Leonardo

Before the recent snowfalls I wandered around Druid Hill Park one day with my iPhone. It is a fabulous old park in Baltimore with good walking paths, Victorian pavilion structures and magnificent old trees. I made a couple compositions before landing on this one. I just loved how the old trees seemed to embrace the little pavilion in the woods. Below is a series of images with notes on how I arrived at this process. On a humorous note, I was also dubbed a "Master App Stacker", by Gilles Dezeustre of the 11er's by Glaze when he re-tweeted the previous post I made using one of his superb apps Glaze! That gave me a chuckle!! I have been called many things in my lifetime but that's a new title! I guess this post is a good example of App Stacking!! Thanks Gilles! A link to his app can be found here! Glaze... 
Happy to say my Spring 2014 iPhone Photography Class starts tonight at Johns Hopkins and the class is full with a wait list! amazing!! If you are interested in learning more about iPhone photography....Check out the sidebar of this blog for more info on my upcoming iPhone Workshops and classes.
I am also honored to have been invited to Present a Session on iPhone Photography at Nature Visions, in Virgnia this fall. Also happy to have sold a framed iPhone print and a few more ceramic iPhone image magnets at More Than Fine Framing in Baltimore.

Finished processed image copyright added with Impression

BracketMode Image no 1 Captured for highlights

BracketMode Image no 2 Captured for dark areas

Processed image no 3 BracketMode images 1 and 2 in ProHDR

Snapseed image no 4 sharpened and converted to monochrome

Snapseed image no 5 Retrolux Filter

ImageBlender image no 6 : Image no 3 and image no 5 combined

Image no 7 processed image no 6 in Portrait Painter by JixiPix
and enhanced color and saturation in Leonardo

Controlling or manipulating White Blance in Your iPhone Images Camera+ ~ Snapseed ~ Hipstamatic

Well when it snows all colors of snow images appear on social media, as folks post snaps. It kind of makes me crazy when I see dingy grey snow or blue snow in pics ....... as snow is white! So how do you get your iPhone pics in snow to look white??? Easy!! Post process your Camera+ images in Snapseed or choose a Lens/Film combo in Hipstamatic.

Image 1: Camera+ shot using the square format option unprocessed. (Notice the the blue color cast to the snow?) That is a result of the algorithms in the app and the environmental light.

Image :2 Camera+ shot using Snapseed "Tune Image" filter adjusting the  "Warmth" slider then using the black and white filter.

 

 

So here are a few screen shots showing the adjustment menus in Snapseed.

Image 3: Color Screen shot of Camera+ (Image 1) being processed in Snapseed using the "Tune Image" filter and adjusting the warmth slider to +37, which will vary depending on your taste and the tone of the original image. Substantially different then the first image Titled Image 1. (the blue cast is gone by adding warmth, which is yellow color balancing)

Image 4: Screen shot of "Warmth Adjusted" image now converted to monochrome in Snapseed using the filter "Black and White"

Another way is to choose a combination of filters in Hipstamatic which will brighten snow and whiten your image while delivering a Monochrome image.
The shot below was made using the Hipstamatic App and the lens choice of Lucas AB2 and BlacKeys Extra Fine film.
When I teach "Getting Started" in iPhone Photography students often ask why I would use Hipstamatic...well here is an example of why. I like the square format, I like white snow and I like black and white imagery! And no further processing was needed.

Hipstamatic unprocessed shot.

My next "Getting Started" in iPhone Photography is March 8 in Washington, DC at the Renwick Gallery and DAR. Hope to see some of you there! Please feel free to comment or ask questions!
As with all digital photography there are many other Apps you can use to color correct!

Beach Pines~ You can never duplicate the exact image unless you write it all down!

This is an image I posted on Facebook over the weekend. One Facebook friend said they hoped I would write a tutorial on my blog for this processing. Well...... I can tell you what I shot it with and maybe a few steps along the way. However to duplicate the exact same image after the fact, with a process one could share, without writing down the original process, is almost impossible. I am not one to write down my processes with exacting steps. In this tutorial I have tried to recreate the image to some degree here. Hopefully these steps will be a starting point for a creative process you might want to try.

Original Image Capture: Hipstamatic Oggl ~ Lowry Lens Kodot XGrizzled Film
The reason I chose Oggl is because you can control exposure. Using the reticles in Oggl I wanted to open up the deep shady areas of the pines. I didn't care if the sky blew out because it was gray and overcast anyway. I did want a hint of horizon line from the ocean. SO controlling capture is important to me as well as processing. I knew I wanted to add textures to the sky area when I shot this image.

Original Capture

Processing:
A. Open the Hipstamatic image in Mextures then choose
 1. Grunge Filter Painterly
                                           Choose Blend Mode Multiply

Screen shot of Mextures Grunge interface

Then Adjust texture to 50% Check and continue to add filters in Mextures.

Screen shot of Mextures Vintage User interface

   2. Then add new filter in Mextures
       Landscape enhance "Vignette" at 20 %  Blend mode overlay (not shown) Check and continue  to  add filter in Mextures.
   3. Then add new filter in Mextures
          Vintage "Polaroid" at 20% Blend mode Hard Light 
Save file to Photo Library

B. Open the saved Mextures file in AutoPainter and apply Benson filter and save.

AutoPainter file

C. Open the last saved Mextures file (not the AutoPainter file) in Leonardo and apply the Clarity slider as shown in screenshot and save to Photo Library.

Screen shot Leonard Clarity interface

D. Open AutoPainter saved image in Snapseed and add ambience and warmth in the Tune Image Command and save file.

Screen shot Snapseed

E. Open Image Blender and open The last saved Mextures file from Leonardo first, with the last saved AutoPainter file from Snapseed and blend with Lighten mode at about 45% and save.

Screen shot ImageBlender interface

F. Open the saved ImageBlender file in distressed fx and use filters to adjust color save.

Screen shot distressed fx interface

G. Lastly to the saved distressed fx file add a vignette in Mextures and save. This is close but not exact in tone and shading however, I hope the tutorial will give you some ideas for future processing of your images.

Check out my next all day iPhone Sessions in DC on November 24 sponsored by Capital Photography Center (click here for more info) and in Chestertown, Md on November 23 sponsored by The Chestertown River Arts (click here for more info on Chestertown.)

Final image

Beach Color Palettes ~ iOs7 ~ Hipstamatic ~ Glaze ~ Snapseed ~ Leonardo

Dunes: Processed Snapseed, Glaze, ImageBlender, Leonardo, Impression (signature)

This morning I took the big camera out to shoot my last sunrise at the beach for a couple weeks. It was a bland sunrise so to speak, no clouds...or drama in the sky. I had my iPhone with me using it to time the long exposures pre-dawn for the big camera shots. I also made a couple shots with the iPhone after I was done with the big camera. I must admit walking around with the big camera on my back, tripod collapsed and iPhone in hand was a bit more fun! Call me crazy it just is: Something about the flexibility of moving the iPhone any which way you want so easily to get the shot. I am sure if you are an iPhone shooter you can relate!
iOs7~ Is now live and I am waiting for the apps to catch up before updating my iP5 to the new system. A few Apps posted updates this morning. It sure makes an iPhone educators job difficult when Apple updates their iOs and the App developers have to scurry to update...so I wait....instead of risking incompatibility of my favorite shooting and processing Apps. I just issued a note to students who have enrolled in fall courses not to update until the courses are over due to uncertain compatibility! Geez! OK, now back to the fun stuff!
Beach Color Palettes~ Daytime: Turquoise and yellow
I am loving the Square Format right now so I have enjoyed using the Brighton Hipsta Pak which is the Doris lens and Sussex film in bright afternoon and daytime light at the beach. It adds to the yellow blue palette already at the beach with a twist of turquoise and a touch of the nostalgic feel of vintage hand colored postcards.
The three images below and the opening image were made using the Brighton Hipsta Pak.

Surf : Processed Snapseed, Glaze

Beachscape: Processed Snapseed, Glaze

Landscape Color Block : Processed Snapseed, Glaze

Beach Color Palettes: Sunset: Purples, pinks and blues
For this color palette I like Hipstamatic Jane Lens and Inas 1969 film.

Tidepools: Processed Snapseed, Glaze, Leonardp

Sundown Tide Pool: Processed Snapseed,  Glaze, Leonardo

Beach Tide Pool Walker: Processed Snapseed ~ Straighten, and framed, Glaze

Beach Color Palettes: Sunrise: Gold and Blue
I have no idea what I am going to do with all these little beach pictures, but I have had fun making them...and I think thats what it should be about anyway!! 

Sunrise Surf: Processed Snapseed, Glaze, Leonardo

Sunrise Tide pool: Processed Snapseed, Glaze, Leonardo