Snapseed new feature " Face" rocks!

Snapseed "Face" adjustments made and monochrome conversion.

Labor Day was a great day in South Bethany, De. Just being at the beach again is enough! But I also enjoyed a super beach picnic dinner with neighbors Don and Elayne and their children Matt and Michele. Don grilled awesome chicken, Elayne cooked corn on the cob and prepared some fabulous pasta shells stuffed with manicotti cheese...and we sat outside on the picnic table.
Now that's an American Labor Day!
After dinner, as the evening was coming on Elayne asked if I would take a family pic as Matt is now living in San Francisco, Snowy their family dog is now 14 years old, and they have their beach house on the market: it may be the last time they are all together at the beach. So I obliged, actually I was honored! I used their iPhone but I also wanted to use mine as no picture is ever done when you take it, it needs processing, even an iPhone pic benefits from some aesthetic tweaks!
So...I was excited to try a new feature in my favorite processing App, Snapseed. Google just added a new feature called "Face" in the artistic filter section of the iPhone app.
I decided to give it a try on the one pic I thought was best of their family. Well I was blown away by its ability to do the work. It has three adjustment features: Face Spotlight: Eye Clarity and Skin Smoothing. I applied differing degrees of each and was pleased with the result.
Below are the before and after images.
I also enjoyed making a Monochrome file and a vintage file of the same image with the "Face" adjustments already applied. I think it works great in the monochrome conversion as well.
Join me on my next iPhone class September 18 in Washington DC. Sponsored by Capital Photography Center!
Or in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus this fall..one session is full and one has a few spaces so hurry!

After "Face" adjustment in Snapseed. Subtle but different. Zoom in for details.

Before

And then as we sat in the chairs in conversation, watching day fade into night, this happened in the sky!

Tips for creating "Sharp" iPhone images~

Often I am asked how I get such "sharp" iPhone images...so I thought I would share a few tips which often help my students.

1. Protect your lens!!! I know this device is so easy to "throw" in a handbag with car keys and wallets, or for the men in pockets with change and keys, but I often say..."would you treat a $1500.00 DSLR lens that way? Of course not, it gets a lens cap then into a camera bag....so even though the mobile device is not a $1500.00 DSLR lens, if you want "sharp" images you must treat it so!
Protect it!
How?
a. Use a Mophie Battery pack! It keeps the lens recessed due to the packs design, so if you lay it on a table the lens will not be vulnerable to scratches.
and
b. Put it into a protective cloth (I love my Vera Bradley Cross Body Pouch) or neoprene pouch before putting it in your pocket or handbag!

2. Clean your lens: I always use a micro fiber lens cloth to wipe the lens off each day I use it to capture images. I keep it in the pouch where I keep my phone stored.

3. Capture technique matters:    
a. Don't use the volume button to trigger the shutter, when you push on the button you inherently shake the camera (or phone).
b. Shoot with an app that allows you to use a focus point on screen like Camera+ for maximum sharpness, and remember to use it.
c. Tap gently on the shutter button in the shooting app. There is no need to push hard on the screen on any shutter button: just a real soft gentle touch and release and it will fire.
d. Camera holding technique, I use a rock steady grip on my iPhone cradling it in both hands for maximum stability when I shoot, as if I was hand holding and shooting with my big camera, I also stabilize my body.

4. Processing technique: 
a. I use Snapseed on every image I create on my iPhone sharpening them up to about 25% (no more). The sharpening feature can be found under the details filter menu in Snapseed. In addition every image gets a little bit of Structure, anywhere from 10-20%, also under the details menu in Snapseed.

I hope these few tips, help you improve the sharpness of your mobile phone images.

iPhone Photo Essay? ~ Yes! The pictures tell the story....

It has been a while since I wrote a post but now that summer is over and fall almost gone, I have a few minutes to compose an iPhone blog.
So ~ What is a Photo Essay? Wikipedia says:  A photo essay is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. OK, so last week I wanted to get in a long walk on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Md. I did not know how far exactly my objective of walking from one end to the other was but it turned out to be four miles. I did not want to carry my big camera gear for an unknown, health walk, so I took my iPhone and restricted myself to shooting with the INMACUS Wide Angle attachment and Camera+ only. I do this sometimes with my big camera forcing  myself to "see" only through one fixed focal length lens and make images. It is a great exercise in creativity. 

As I began my walk it was obvious to me that the story I would tell through the images I made that day was one of a resort town after the season. As I walked I poked the lens of the iPhone through wrought iron bars that restricted access to pool areas closed for the season. I could never have done that with my big camera, I was able to get shots because of the lens attachment and the size of my iPhone. The pool series evolved:

As I walked on the boardwalk I saw other images that spoke to the idea of a closed summer resort town, such as the empty restaurant seating and shuttered storefronts.

Further on the boardwalk there were more signs of a past summer season.
All the images here were processed with Snapseed and converted to monchrome in Snapseed.

 Broken signs, empty signs, became a series...

 

The normally crowded boardwalk  had the infrequent bicyclist or kids on skateboards and the usually crowded to overflowing parking lots of the old motels were absolutely empty.

And so until next year when the crowds, the summer sun, and I return the resort town will look like this.

NEWS........

Next summer I will be presenting on iPhone Photography at the NECC Conference in Amherst, Mass.  July Friday 15, Saturday 16, and Sunday 17. If you live in the area or are a part of the Council, I hope to see you there.