iPhone Apps That Blue Me Away

More collages using DXP, the double exposure app and Brushes where you can also do some cool combining. Here's a blue series that leaves me tickled pink.

Double Explosure

Using DXP, a double exposure program with blend modes, I manipulated these images. I finished them off with FotoMuse.

Creative Block With an iPhone App

Cultivating creative block? You bet! One of my favorite apps is called ReNancyKPH. It creates a woodblock print out of a photo - you can choose the color of "ink" for your print, too. A strong graphic works best, otherwise the art just blocks up, pun intended. Here are a couple of examples:

Meeting The Muse - The Fotomuse That Is

My new favorite app is called Fotomuse. With the right image, it can be evocative, moody, or dreamy. I like the layering effects and the borders. It reminds me of polaroid transfers. Here are my first explorations. (But they won't be my last!)

My Favorite Faux HDR App

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range - an overly simple explanation is that you get detail in the shadows and highlights. (For a more complete understanding of HDR check out "Modern HDR photography, a how-to or Saturday morning relaxation" on a blog called Memoirs On A Rainy Day.)

With the iPhone, we can create a sort of faux HDR effect to recover detail in highlighted area (provided there is some info there to recover) and we can add fill light in our shadow areas (again provided there is some info there.)

Here's a shot near Baldwin Beach at Lake Tahoe one evening. Notice how the foreground is dark, without much detail. The iPhone exposed for the sky.



I used the Photoforge app which has an HDR setting that allows you sliders to open shadows and recover highlights. It's okay, but no matter how I move the sliders, it ends up being low contrast. That can be good in some cases, but I want a little more drama in this scene.



Here I use the iFlashReady app to open up the shadows - it has 3 flash fill settings and only works on adding light to the dark. Voila! Now it has the kind of drama I'm looking for. This is my favorite faux HDR tool so far.

Mardi Gras Magic

Okay, Dewitt Jones (my spouse aka the Digital Dude) was bored and procrastinating today also. He found some old images from New Orleans and Photoshop play culminated in this remarkable image. Gotta love that avoidance stuff - gets the creative juices flowing.

I'm a Fan of the iPhone

I was sitting at my desk, fanning myself, and procrastinating (read avoiding at all costs) doing my work. As I held a fan up toward the light coming through the sliding glass door, I was struck by its transparency. I grabbed my iPhone and took several shots. I chose one and used the burnt paper filter in the app ArtCamera. Artcamera is one of my favorite apps and I keep going back to it. The "old" quality works well with this image.



And I used the Picasso filter in Art Camera to create this look - I like this photo a lot. Sometimes procrastination leads to fascination leads to art.