Union Station Last iPhone Workshop of 2013

Capture: Camera+ Processed: Glaze, Leonardo, Frame -Crop'n'Frame, Text: Title FX

The iPhone just keeps getting better and the apps for creating images are amazing. Yesterday I conducted my last iPhone workshop for 2013. Looking back over the year, I worked with 145 iPhone Photography students, either participating in workshops sponsored by Capital Photography Center, Horizon Photography Workshops, Johns Hopkins University Odyssey Program or through private tutoring: AMAZING! In addition I made iPhone presentations to members of local Camera Clubs and Art Collectives. I am thankful for all the students who attended my workshop sessions! I will continue to work with Capital Photography Center and Horizon Photography Workshops in 2014 so if you are interested in a workshop keep you eyes on their site as offerings are posted this year. My next iPhone workshop will be fun at The National Building Museum on January 19, 2014. I love Washington, DC and the architecture in the city is just beautiful. The Natonal Building Museum is grand, if you have never been there its worth the trip! If you don't want to miss one of my updates the scan the QR code on the top right of my blog and join my e-mail list.

Captured: BracketMode Processed: ProHDR, Portrait Painter, ImageBlender

Yesterday, Union Station was dressed for Christmas! People were bustling through and the temperature was 70! It was a fun day! Thanks to the folks at Le Pain Quotidien for hosting the meeting part of our workshop! I was asked by a student; When do you choose to shoot with one app over another?" I made this shot below to demonstrate why I would choose a Hipsta Combo for food as an example. Hispta has a great "Foodie Snap Pac" combo of Loftus lens and DC film that is made for food photography. Knowing what apps to choose for your subject is very important to the final result. I love Hipstamatic for shooting. Now Camera+ has added a feature to shoot square with all the same great features it has always had.  Hipstamatic and Camera+ get my vote for the best shooting apps this year! My favorite processing app of 2013 has to be GLAZE! It is a fabulous painterly app with lots of unique creative customizable effects! Make lots of pictures! Have fun and share!
Wishing everyone a very Happy Holiday and a Super new year! Hope to see you in 2014!

Capture: Hipstamatic Processing: None

Hipstamatic Oggl ~ Winter at the Beach

Watts Lens and BlacKeys Supergrain Film

This is my last week at the beach before closing the house for the winter. It was very cold last night as a Canadian blast of cold air came through. The beach in winter, and it does feel like winter, is ghost like. People abandon it and return it to the wind, the birds and the sea. As the WWII watch towers now stand guard over the abandoned picnic tables, winter is coming on. All these images were shot using the Hipstamatic Oggl app. The coolest thing about Oggl is the ability to control exposure and then to choose the combination of Lens and Film after the shot is made. It was a bold blue sky day when I made all these images and I like to think in Black and white on those kind of days. Processing all the images here in Oggl I chose several Lens and Film combos to achieve the results.

Watts Lens Blackeys Supergrain Film

 The dune fences give way to the wind and the sand.

Watts Lens and Rock BW-11 Film

Shells are tossed to shore and nestled into windblown sand.

Foxy Lens and BlacKeys Supergrain Film

Beach pines filter the harsh afternoon sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

G2 Lens and BlacKeys Supergrain Film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beach grass struggles to keep rooted in the shifting windblown sands. The ice lockers are locked and the refreshment stands are shuttered. The bath house benches are empty. Winter is here!

Lucas Lens BlacKeys XF Film

Lucas Lens D-Type Plate Film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loftus Lens BlacKeys XF Film

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

Trees: Hipstamatic Classic: Glaze: Leonardo: ImageBlender

It has been a beautiful fall week with the trees really showing their colors. I have been gathering a collection of colorful tree images from my iPhone. While working with Glaze in workshop mode I have developed a filter that I like for trees...it reminds me of a style of painting called Pointillism made popular by Georges Seurat...and yes it is a form of Impressionism which I love so much!
I also updated to iOs7 and I definitely see a purple tint in some images. The update went well after sorting off 2000 images from my iPhone and backing up the computer...updating all the apps that needed updating, then updating to iOs7. If you are one of the 30% that have not yet updated, click here for some tips before updating.
After updating, I had to change the home screen background and found that using a burgundy background allowed me to readily see the names of my app folders, which I found hard to do with the new design of the app folders. Then I immediately followed tips on saving battery power that were published...click here for a good list. Then I started to find the new features...Click here for a list of what you can now do with the updates.
Now heres a few more trees! I love fall! I hope you have been enjoying it where ever you are!
My  next "Getting Started" in iPhone photography workshop sponsored by Capital Photography Center is November 17 in Baltimore, click here for more information.
Also I will be doing an all day iPhone photography workshop "Working with Apps in Depth" in Washington, DC on November 24. Click here for more info and registration.
And.....I will be in Chestertown, Maryland on Saturday November 23 at the Chestertown River Arts for an all day iPhone photography workshop "Working With Apps in Depth"..click here for more info and registration.

Hipstamatic Oggl~ Now you can create an HDR with your favorite Hipsta Combo!

Image Capture: Hipstamatic Oggle Processing: Pro HDR, Glaze, Leonardo, ImageBlender

When the folks at Hipstamatic launched Hipstamatic Oggl in May of this year, I passed it by; thinking, Why would I want to pay for a subscription on an iPhone app? (It is only $9.99 a year) But now it has been through several version updates, with the most recent one on October 17 and it is packed with goodies! You can import all your existing Lenses and Films from Hipstamatic Classic, you can control exposure, you can swap filters, you can share with the Oggl community, you can import images from your camera roll and apply Hipstamatic filters and now you can create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) Hipsta image with a little creativity and a tripod mount. (If you are a classic Hipsta shooter, how many times did you wish for control over exposure? Well Oggl delivers it now.)  As far as a tripod mount: Kirk makes a cool tripod mount that fits its regular tripod plate here is a link for it: Click here: but there are others, its just really important to keep the iPhone still and in the same position when making the two bracketed images.
Here is how I created a Hipstamatic Oggl HDR image...I was playing with Oggl, with my iPhone mounted on my tripod at Longwood Gardens on Saturday. It was a bright, windy, sunny, contrasty but beautiful fall day. I wanted to capture the sky and shady areas in the landscape. So, I thought, now that you can choose an exposure point in Hipstamatic Oggl, I did and made an exposure for the sky, which of course threw the ground and shady areas into almost complete darkness. Then I made an exposure for the ground and shady areas which blew out the sky! Perfect! Now I had the two Hipstamatic images I wanted to blend together in Pro HDR by eyeApps LLC (ProHDR has not done an update for iOs7 but seems to work fine)...It worked!!! here's the proof! So now I would recommend purchasing Hipstamatic Oggl! Its Hipsta Classic on Steroids!
Here are the files I used to achieve the opening image. For both sets of image files I used Ina's 1969 film and the Jane lens.

 

Exposure made on tripod and created to capture details in the shady area, which blew out the sky.

Exposure made on tripod and created to capture the sky color, which threw the areas in the shade into darkness.

Combined image in Pro HDR

So because I could I made another image in the same way. Here is the finished "Glazed" image and the shots I used to get to the final image.

Captured for detail in the shady areas, sky blows out.

Captured for the color of the sky, shady areas go almost black.

 

 

Combined previous two images in Pro HDR

Processed in Glaze and enhanced in Leonardo for final image.

Hot Rods and the iPhone ~ Hipstamatic ~ Glaze ~ Day Long iPhone Workshop Announced on Marylands Eastern Shore.

I just really enjoy old cars! These shots I made with my iPhone and processed on my iPhone with the app Glaze using the workshop feature in the app, creating customized effects for each image. I looked for great colors and interesting designs that worked with a square format shooting the images with the app Hipstamatic. 
If you live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland here's your chance to attend my day long iPhone Photography Workshop at the Chestertown River Arts on November 23rd from 10am-4:30pm. For more information and registration click here.
I will also be leading a "Getting Started" iPhone field shoot on October 27 at The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Click here for more info. Hope to see you soon!

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

Image Composites ~ Hipstamatic ~ Glaze ~ Leonardo

Image 1

It's been a beautiful 10 days at the beach and I will soon be missing the wonderful people and color palette of the summer beach. Sometimes as a photographer waiting for that special moment you hope will happen just doesn't so you have to stretch it a bit. I was watching this lovely young family play by the sea the other day. Mom was pregnant and demure in her black swimsuit and large brim black hat. I loved the style she had created and hoped that I could get a shot of her isolated, but after several hours of enjoying the seaside activities, that did not happen, however, I did snap some shots as she watched her family. In my mind I was seeing a different scene. (Her alone isolated and just the sea and sky.) When she raised her hand to her hat brim and looked out to sea I grabbed it regardless of what was around her.
Today I worked my idea or vision, out with the apps, ImageBlender,  Leonardo and Glaze.
First objective was to find another image to work with the one I shot of her.
So here are the two shots I began with. They were both captured the same day just at different times.

Captured: Hipstamatic Lens~ Jane, Film ~ Inas 1969

Captured: Hipstamatic Lens~ Jane, Film ~ Inas 1969

Then I went to work blending the two images in ImageBlender. I just love the easy user interface in ImageBlender for composite work. Heres the result of the blended, masked, arranged image...

Image result of the two blended images, in ImageBlender, masked, arranged, and re-sized overlay image.
Color enhanced in Leonardo.

Not bad...but it certainly wouldn't pass for a perfect image as is...but I didn't care about that because I was going to then "Glaze" the image for an artistic painterly look.
Glaze is a super App for painterly effects with great texture, which allows you to create and save unique looks....here are a few of the images that I saved as possible keepers. Which one do you like best? Or none at all...leave your vote in comments if you like!
I hope you have some fun trying your hand at ImageBlender and Glaze...or join me on November 24 for an all day iPhone workshop and see how I use these apps.
Here's the link for more information and registration click here.

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Now its time to hit the beach to enjoy the last days of summer by the sea!