Etchings~ Bohemia Ave...

Stumbled upon a new High Resolution App that has interesting possibilities, originally launced in August 2012. Here are a few samples of what it can do straight out of the app. But first a few notes about it's function. When I first opened the app I got a Square crop box to move and scale, and at first I was disappointed because I thought, bummer, all I can get is square, even though the "about info" in the app store said I could get otherwise.  Also when I first saved an image to the camera roll I immediately tested the resolution of the file, with the app ImageSIze, and was disappointed to see it was smaller than expected. So I e-mailed the developer and within a very short period of time got a response! Super. So yes, you can get a high res image file and you can get something other than a square format. When Saving, You have to go into the advanced tab and and make the settings choice.
As I found out later, after an e-mail response to my questions, when you go to save the image you needed to tab on the ADVANCED EXPORT tab to access the menu for high resolution and a 2x3 format image. When you tab on the ADVANCED EXPORT tab another screen appears and you will need to turn off the "Square Crop" button and then tab on the Save to Camera Roll to get the high resolution image into your camera roll. Even if you opened the app with the square crop, when you turn it off before saving, it will deliver the original formatted image.

I like to layer several images when processing and I think this will be a great App to work with in layering. Here are a few more out of the App images...no layers no processing just App results which are fun.

Right now in the app you can adjust, brightness~darkness, line strength and select from several FX. You can also buy in app another set of FX. I would like one more contol and that would be a color picker to adjust the color of the rendered effect. This is not a complete assortment of what the app can do but will give you an idea.

And here is the original shot.

Still Lifes ~ Glaze~ Image Blender~Snapseed~Flypaper Textures

 

The Chair in the Corner (After)

 I love still life images. They represent snippets of life in a certain era. When visiting the Hampton Mansion this past weekend I made a few shots in the kitchen area where there was ample light and a few interesting subjects with uncluttered backgrounds. I am posting the before and after shots as one viewer commented that they enjoyed seeing the difference. The "Chair in the Corner" above was processed using several iterations in an app called Glaze, now a Full Resolution App!!! Yeah! I also used a texture from Flypaper Textures to add some dimension and interest to the image in a very subtle but important way and then I blended the images (original and several versions) in ImageBlender and adjusted the final image with Snapseed.
(Note: In order to use the Flypaper Textures I re-sized the texture first in Photoshop to 72 DPI and matched the resolution of the original image, 2448 x 3264 then transferred the file to my iPhone using PhotoSync.) Also.....Snapseed is now free and available for Android too! Thanks to Google.

I also found the old kitchen ceiling light interesting and representative of colonial times. I processed this in the same manner as the chair.

Kitchen Light (After)

 

 

This image of paper whites was on a shelf in the kitchen and beautifully side lit by the window light. I processed it in the same manner using Glaze, Flypaper Textures, ImageBlender and Snapseed.

After

Before

My next iPhone Photography class is January 5 in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. sponsored by Capital Photography Center. Click here for more info and registration. Hope to see you there!

Desperate for my New iPhone! A few iPad shots and processing in between

Good news my new iPhone is on its way! I can tell you being without one has revealed a few insights for me into me! I love making images, and I love making images on the fly! I can't tell you how many times in the past few weeks I have seen something cool and then had the idea that if only I had my iPhone I would have come back with a shot. I really don't carry that big DSLR with me everywhere like I do, or did, the iPhone! So, hopefully, I will soon get back to posting regularly with new work, new ideas and new apps from the iP5. In the between time, I have conducted a few iPhone classes since losing my iPhone. For the classes, I have been working with my iPad for instructional purposes, but last Saturday, I just had to take a few shots with it too! I usually use many apps in the process of creating an image which is uniquely mine, so it does not look like a one filter app image and so it meets my vision for the image. The shot below was what moved me to make a pic with the iPad. I love the trees which are planted aside the building of the Baltimore Museum of Art. They are textured and well pruned into gracefully arching branches overhead. What I love about them is the way they stand out against the background of the neutral tone stone blocks of the building and the way the light illuminates their trunks and casts soft shadows against the wall of the museum. So... I made this shot below with Classic Pan which is straight out of the iPad2.  Loaded in ClassicPan was the film Classic BW asa 1600, I set the exposure to center. I think it was a good place to start, but I wanted more.

I also made this shot of some fallen leaves on the marble steps.

I wanted to add some interest to the negative space in the shot of the tree trunk image and decided to use this image. I opened the leaves image in Painteresque. The developer of Painteresque has added some awesome adjustment features to the original one trick pony app and has expanded the opportunity for more creative adjustments to color. In addition to new presents there is a "Fine Tune" option, so as I do I started moving sliders to see how it would affect my image and settled on this one. I liked it for the color shift I had achieved as I thought the colors would work well in the grey tone original image.

So I went to work blending these images with both ImageBlender and Juxtaposer. But before I did I also worked on the original image for tone and contrast, using selective adjustments in Snapseed and global adjustments as well.

After I made the image blend masking out and adjusting blends I ran it through Glaze for texturing and painterly effects.

I then blended this version back with the original and made a few more fine tune adjustments to arrive at the finished file and finally added a frame in Snapseed.

I hope you can join me at one of my all day iPhone workshops for image capture, processing and workflow.
I will be in Chesapeake City, Md. on Dec 8 at Horizon Photography Workshops and in Gaithersburg, Md on November 16 at Mac Business Solutions sponsored by Capital Photography Center.

Lost Phone...and some of my final shots from it...

ClassicPan~capture:Processing~ ImageBlender, PicGrunger

Judging by my past post a month ago, seems I am only getting to update my iPhone blog monthly. These are a few images I have made over the last couple weeks, BEFORE I LOST MY iPhone...yes that's right, I lost it last Thursday, and now have the iP5 on order, but I can tell you being without it is interesting. I feel as if I have gone back in time! So now I am waiting patiently for my new one to arrive. Until then no iPhone pics from me. I am still teaching using the iPad which is just fine for that and for processing. These images were all rescued from the cloud. Check out my iPhone classes and workshops with Horizon Photography Workshops or Capital Photography Center.

Camera+ ~ Capture: Processing~ Snapseed for crop...AutoPainter3..ImageBlender

 

And here are a few from my New Mexico Workshop in September. 

Beta Testing "AltPhoto"

B&W Vintage with Old Studio Border

Wow, its been almost a month since I posted in my iPhone blog! Sorry about that, but its been a busy month! The good news is there will be a new Photo App in town shortly, delivering a high resolution file that is OS6 friendly named "AltPhoto." It will be one of my favorite software developers, Alien Skin's, entry into the photo App market. (I am looking forward to their success so they can continue App development and make an App like Snap Art 3 for the iPhone)
For a couple weeks I have been getting the app updates from the developer and and providing feedback. That's a lot of fun, testing out a new app putting it through some exercises to see how it will function and making suggestions. The good news is, the App should be out in October. It is designed to be an easy to use filter App with some fun border options and sharing capabilities with FB,Twitter, InstaGram, Flicker or Mail. The price should be very reasonable! ;)
So with the permission of the developer; here are a few of the results I have gotten from AltPhoto.
There are six categories of filter looks: From Color Film to B&W Vintage looks with six filters in each category and 17 border options at this time. The images here are combinations of filters and borders all processed in AltPhoto. Much good luck to Alien Skin when AltPhoto launches!

Color Film_Creamy Highlights Border_ Grungy White

Vintage Color_AgfaColor Neu_ Border_Grungy Thick Black

Toy Camera_Sensia_ Border_Old Kodachrome

B&W Film_TechPan_Border_Grungy White Tabbed

B&W Print_Fuji Neopan 1600_Border Wet Plate

The image used here was shot on my recent photo tour in New Mexico at the Eaves Movie Ranch. I will be going back to New Mexico on tour in 2013. If you would like to join me and for more info on the tour click here.

Seaview House Hotel - Apps- Glaze-Laminar

These images have been percolating on my iPhone since I was in Ireland this past June on tour with Peter Cox, John Barclay and Dan Sniffin, among other professional photographers such as Dan McGeorge. I had fun helping Dan McGeorge with his iPhone, showing him different apps I use.
 The Seaview House Hotel was one of those hotels that has a rich family history as well as a charming decor. One morning after breakfast I made a quick run around the public spaces to capture a few iPhone pics of the beautiful interior decor.
After running these images through Glaze and getting several versions I was going to use for blending, I chose Laminar to process these on my iPad. I must admit I have not really explored Laminar to any great degree, even though it has been in the App store for some time now.  I mostly process on my iPhone and Laminar is an iPad processing app which had some bugs when it launched. The developer updated it on August 3 this year so I thought I would give it another try. There is a feature in it I liked very much...in the FX menu there is a filter called Lighting Engine....which allows you choose some interesting lighting options. I also liked the burn and dodge tool in the brush menu as well as the ability to add layers and mask.
I did have the app crash after a few layers and many adjustments but was able to open it and restore the edit.
Here are a few before and after images:

 

I will be going back to Ireland next year with my own photo tour in partnership with Peter Cox....so if you would like to join my Magical Ireland Photo Tour June 2-June 11 here's the link for more info!

http://blog.karenlmessickphotography.com/p/magical-ireland-photo-tour-june-2-june.html

Also if you live in Baltimore, I will be instructing this fall at Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus, on using your iPhone for photography. Click Here for more info and registration.

Dew Tour Ocean City, Md and the iPhone~ App~Camera+~ Noir

This past weekend I had the pleasure of having my niece and grand niece visit me at the beach. Morganne my grand niece had a list of weekend to do's...one of them was hit the boardwalk in Ocean City, Md. So last night we did. The Dew Tour was in town over the weekend and we wanted to get there but just never made it. Tonight was our lucky night. When we arrived it had just stopped raining and I decided to leave the big camera in the car in case it started again. The Mega 2.0 skateboard event was postponed in the afternoon due to rain, so when we were walking the boardwalk a few of the organizers were announcing to passersby that the last event was about to take place at 7:45. Rain clouds were still in the area but the ramps had been dried enough to host the last event. Yeah! We were lucky so we headed down the walk to the beach to watch the event. I had to give the iPhone a try at capturing images. Sports, fast action and night photography have always  been categories of photography, most photographers including my self feel the iPhone fails a bit......but I was thrilled with the shots I got last night. I was using the App Camera+ to capture the images due to its ability to select exposure and focus separately...and because the lights were extreme. I was also taking advantage of its zoom feature. After the sun went down it was a real challenge with the extremely bright event lights, but I worked with them and loved the way they cast shadows on the ramps. The zoom feature added grain as I expected but hey its just an iPhone image! If I didn't have my iPhone with me I wouldn't have these images to share with you!

Markree Castle, Ireland ~ App ~ Vintage Scene

Capture: Camera+  Processed: Vintage Scene

During my Ireland tour with Peter Cox, John Barclay and Dan Sniffin, I was making iPhone images as well as "Big Girl" camera images. It was really quite fun helping other professional photographers on tour with their iPhones. They were downloading new apps and as we drove from town to town I was demonstrating how to use the apps. After the tour was over I spent ten more days road tripping through Ireland. One of the high lights of my trip was my stay in the Markree Castle. I had intended to do some photography here with the Nikon camera but the rain never stopped for the days I was here. The morning I was leaving I did walk around the grounds in my rain slicker and made a few images with my iPhone. The age of the castle and the rain led me to choose an app that creates a look of old photos, with many options for adjustments, from color to texture and borders. Its not a new app but it is one of my favorite apps.

Capture: 6x7 Processed: Vintage Scene

I loved the architectural details of the windows with climbing roses.

Capture: ClassicPan Processed: Vintage Scene

Capture: BracketMode Processed: ProHDR: Vintage Scene

This is a shot of the bathroom window in my room that overlooked the gardens...it was a great place!
I am offering the same Ireland tour June 2 - June 11, 2013 with Peter Cox of Ireland. To date there are six photographers registered with space for 8 more, so if you are interested in the South-west Ireland tour with myself and Peter Cox: click here for more info and registration.
This fall in Baltimore, in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University Odyssey program I am happy to be offering a six week iPhone class. For more information and registration click here.