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.

File SIze ~ App Value ~ Your Call!

Resolution 2592 x 2592 6.7mp

I recommended the new App I like called "Glaze" in one of my e-mail newsletters to my mailing list and received back a comment from one client that they were going to buy the app until they read the online reviews, where someone had left a derogatory comment on the web developers site regarding the resolution. They then said it was too small a resolution to buy and small resolution apps should be banned, therefore they were not buying it. OK well that's fine I don't get any money from recommending an app, but in my workflow I often use an app not for the absolute file that app produces but for the effects it might generate for blending. The largest file size that "Glaze" delivers for a rectangular image was detailed in my original post.
The square file size "Glaze" delivers is 2048 x 2048 or 4.1mp.
The image above began as a 6x6 App shot with a file  size of 1936 x1936, so Glaze actually upsized the original file by choosing the save as menu and "Print" as a size choice. (I still shoot with a iP4 5mp cam, anxiously awaiting the iP5 release)
Here is the orignal file image:

Image 1

Image 2

Here is the version of the "Glaze" rendered file I chose to use as the beginning of my "new" image. 

The next step in the process was a run through Modern Grunge which maintained the 2048 x 2048 resolution.

Image 3

Now that I had this file saved I wanted to go back into Modern Grunge and make further adjustments to the image, which are below, maintaining the 2048 x 2048 file size.

Image 4

The next thing I wanted to do before going any further was to remove the black lower right hand corner, so I used the Touch Retouch lasso tool, to add back color into the corner, again maintaining the current file size of 2048 x 2048.

Image 5

My next idea was to minimize the ripped white edge achieved in Modern Grunge so I opened Juxtaposer and masked out and blended down the file with Image 3, maintaining the 2048 x 2048 resolution. 

Image 6

Then I wanted to run it through Snapseed and recolor the image with the Grunge Filter. The image then developed into the one below maintaining the 2048 x 2048 resolution.

Image 7

 Now I was getting where I wanted with the tones of old Asian Paper or Tapestry, but it needed some Chinese letters. So I opened the App "Custom Kanji Wallpapers" and decided to apply the Chinese letters for "Life" "Love" and "Wisdom". Which the downsized my file to 640 x 960, as this app is truly a "SMALL RES" app. But it has Chinese letters! And I only wanted the letters so I rendered files with the letters on them, knowing I was going to blend them back with another APP of larger file size.

Image 8

So now that I had my Chinese letter files to work with I opened up ImageBlender and used image 7 with a resolution of 2048 x 2048 as my base image ( the left hand image selection ) and image 8 as my top image then masked out the top image except for the Chinese Letters, Voila now I had my 2048 x 2048 image file back with the Chinese letters on it.

Image 9

But I wanted more texture and more interest, so I ran this file through "Glaze" and used the file below for texture.

Image 10

Once again I used ImageBlender to blend and mask image 9 with image 10 selectively.

Image 11

But I wanted more......texture color so I went into Pic Grunger...and added texture Pic Grunger has resolution options up to 8mp or 3264 x 2448. So I saved the file at a largest resolution possible delivering a square image file of 3264 x 3264 or 10.6 mp which would make a nice print sized 10" x 10".
I lost file size again when adding the frame on it in Crop'n'Frame for purposes of displaying on the web, but ended with a file sized 2592 x 2592. So don't throw out an app because it has a small file size unless that's all you want is a straight file delivered from the app in which case I would say 3mp is a pretty small file, but its still bigger than the first iPhone camera which started this whole photography ~ art movement! Can you believe this started with a straight shot of a beautiful lotus? ;-) Sign up for one of my iPhone workshops and gain more insight into the art of iPhoneography! I am very excited to be offering a six week course at Johns Hopkins University in the fall. The app I use to check file size through my workflow is called "Photosize" it makes it easy to keep track of whats happening during the process.

Image 12

 

Ireland, Pottery the iPhone and a new App ~ Glaze

Image 1: Original Image Capture: Camera+

Image 2: Processed in SnapSeed for textures and grunge effect, then Processed in Modern Grunge for the 'ripped" area and more texture.

One of the stops we made on the Peter Cox Photography Tour of  "wild" Ireland, was at the Louis Mulcahy Pottery Craftsman shop. Louis Mulcahy designs and makes his own pottery in this workshop on the R559 road to the west of Ballyferriter. This isolated pottery studio stands between the R559 and a minor road just inside the southern edge of this square.
I had been thinking about making a blog post on a few shots I made there with the iPhone when I became aware, as a result of a post by Donnie Fulks, of a new to me app called "Glaze."  It is not a high res app but can be great for blending back with other files in Image Blender where if you choose the highest res file first for the blend the resulting file will be that size. So essentially the file gets upsized by making the blend in Image Blender. I made a shot of one of the large urns in front of the shop and I thought it would be perfect to work with. The shots below were processed in Glaze from the Image 2 file above, that I had already processed in SnapSeed and Modern Grunge. Glaze can be found in the app store.

Image 3: Filtered with app "Glaze"

Image 4: Filtered with app "Glaze"

 

 

Image 5: Filtered with app "Glaze"

This app has 30 filter presets, which all look very nice, and a randomize feature where you roll the dice and see what happens. Resolution options are Low 382 x 512, Regular 764 x 1024 and Print 1528 x 2048.  The app also has a feature where you can combine filters within the app. This app is quickly becoming one of my favorites for its artistic looks and blend options.

Image 6: Filtered with app "Glaze"

I am also excited to announce my iPhone Photography Course at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore this fall. 

For more information and registration: click here.

Ireland~ Textures~ WIndows and Doors~ Snapseed~ ImageBlender~PicGrunger

While continuing to work my way through some iPhone images I made in Ireland........I noticed a common thread of window and doorway images. The little town of Dingle, our first stop, had interesting colorful windows and doorways to capture. In almost every window in Ireland there is some type of lace curtain. I was curious about the origins of this style of window decor and could not find in a quick search, anything on the internet relating to the historical use of lace at windows in Ireland. I did find a little history on Irish lace making on this site. History of Irish Lace. Maybe it has become just a decorating tradition but I also think it serves a purpose other than its beauty. Many windows in the houses I saw had no "screens" maybe the lace acts as screen, although I doubt it would keep the "Midges" out...
I snapped a shot of some lace that adorned a table in Dingle's Benner Hotel where we stayed. Walking the town for about an hour in the afternoon I captured a few shots of doors and windows that interested me for their colors or design. I used the single image of the lace from the hotel as a texture and overlaid it on the straight shots in ImageBlender. Then I used a grunge filter in PicGrunger or SnapSeed to finish off the look I had in my  mind.

 I also loved this window shot straight out of the app ClassicPan, no lace needed!

iPhone Impressions in Ireland~ AutoPainter3~Snapseed~ ImageBlender

Captured with Camera+; Processed with AutoPainter3: Snapseed and ImageBlender

My first impressions of Ireland were on the bus ride from Shannon to Dingle with the photography tour group lead and organized by Peter Cox, John Barclay and Dan Sniffin. I was shooting out the bus window and captured these shots. I processed them as I went along with ImageBlender and AutoPainter3.
The day started out just beautifully with blue skies and high clouds, but quickly became overcast. This I began to know about the Irish weather...If its sunny its going to rain! I can say that one extra benefit of shooting with the iPhone was that it was a good record keeping tool of my locations traveled...I tried to make at least one iPhone shot in each location just for my records...more to come...