Street Photography using the iphone

Hi all, took a trip to London again yesterday for some street photography using just my iphone4 and iphone5. Had mixed results! I started off at the Barbican Centre on the overhead walkway and managed to get some atmospheric images using the hipstamatic app with the Lowy lens/Blackeys supergrain combo. I handheld all the shots and because it was quite dark there under cover some of the shots had blurring! I need to either rest the phone on a wall or other solid structure or make a conscious effort to keep my hands steady!! Anyway here are some of the better shots firstly from the barbican centre..

The first image is an overview of the Barbican centre, taken from one of the walkways. The second image is of one of the stairways leading down to a restaurant/leisure area.

These two images were taken on the walkways where it was quite dark. The day being overcast didn’t help either!

Two more “grab” shots from the walkways themselves.

From the Barbican I took a leisurely walk to Brick lane via Leadenhall and Aldgate. Stopped off at old Spitalfields market before heading home..

Two images from Brick Lane..

 Old Spitalfields Market…

Finally the Underground back home. All these were Taken on the iphone which I would not have attempted 18 months ago, and although I had some blurring issues and exposure problems these can be overcome and with patience and practice the images will get better ( at least the quality, if not the content!!). So  take the plunge go somewhere with just your smartphone and see what can be achieved! thanks for reading and as usual please comment..Bye

 

Iphone Manipulations

Hi all, I thought I’d share some of my iphone images today. These are all part of a series of images that I have created on the iphone5 using the phone as the camera and editing tool. I haven’t named the series yet although I have toyed with a couple of titles ie Echoes, Memory. They are all set in hallways or corridors and have people in them walking away from the camera as ghostly figures or memories of what the hallway itself would remember if it had the ability!!

 These were the first three that I created using the iphone and where the idea first sprang to life. I was fascinated by the concept of buildings having memory and what events or stories they have silently witnessed over their lifetime. Especially school corridors where countless generations of children have been left by their parents on the first day and of the emotional responses that involved.

All these images were taken on the iphone and blended using an app called superimpose where you can have a background image and paste onto that other images and effects. I then developed the image further by using Snapseed primarily and other apps like scratchcam, icolorama and distreesed fx for finishing touches.

As you can see most of my models are repeated in the final images as they were saved in superimpose as already edited and they suited the overall theme well. This is an ongoing project that I have no idea where it heading or if it will change or evolve in some way. I will hopefully keep you posted as and when it does. Thanks for looking and please comment if you have any input. 

Hipstamatic image editing and sharing in Oggl.

Decided to have a day trip to Portland, Dorset yesterday and get some more images just using the Hipstamatic app and the Yoona-blanko bl4 combo. First of all headed to Chesil beach which is a famous shingle barrier beach which is part of Dorset’s Jurassic coastline. Took Loads of images and selected a few to share on Oggl after minor editing using the Snapseed app. Moved further up the beach towards the Portland end for some more image making after that. I will show you some of my images as well as a work though of my Snapseed editing process in the next few pictures starting with two images of the beach…

Then some street images from along the Beach front….

This next image was taken with hipstamatic and edited with snapseed and i’ve added some pictures of my workflow with it..

  Original image brought into snapseed.. My first task was to straighten and crop….

  Then I sharpened and tuned the image for the effect I wanted…

 I added a very subtle HDR effect. It’s really useful that you can dial down the strength of all the effects to get the right feel for your images.. 

 Finally I added a slight blur around the image and a white grunge border to finish off..

   Here’s my final image along with another slightly different effect.. 

Finally I shared all my finished Images on the Oggl and Instagram photosharing sites…Thanks for reading and please leave any comments below…..

 

Cat in red coat, iphone edit using snapseed, superimpose and disressed fx.

 Hi, I wanted to share one of my workflow edits on this site. I called this Cat in a red coat and used five images all taken on my iphone5 and joined together to make this final image. First of all a background image….  This was of a garage door, I used a Filter in distressed fx and adjusted there to get the blend I required. I then imported it to Superimpose as a background image. Then I imported my second image into superimpose which was for the red coat.

 Using a combination of the mask and Transform tools I deleted everything  but the red coat and handbag. I positioned this on the bottom left hand side and used the normal blending mode to attain the look/effect I wanted. I then saved and merged and bought in my third image as a foreground, the cat.

 I basically followed the same procedure as with the coat, using the mask and transform tool to erase and position as required. As I did with my forth image the clock!

 I used the overlay blending mask on this and rotated it upside down before positioning it in the top left hand corner.

 The tree was imported and blended into the bottom right hand side and the birds were used from a distressed fx texture. Finally I tweaked the whole image in snapseed and added a frame to complete the look, Cat in a red coat!

Hipstamatic capture and iphone editing.

]  I’ve been out early this morning in my garden playing around with two apps. One is Hipstamatic, probably my favourite camera replacement app, just for it’s fun factor and it’s amazing analogue results. This image was taken using the Tinto1884 lens and D-type plate film. I love the effects this combo gives and it’s great for portraits as well! I edited in snapseed first of all, maionly using fine tune and detail presets. I then used distressed FX to apply the charm Texture which I adjusted to suit using the sliders there. Then over into Mextures to apply a grunge Texture again adjusted down slightly and finally into snapseed again to tweak and add a border. The next images were processed similarly.

 This image was taken last winter on my Panasonic GF2. I transferred it over onto my iphone 5 and processed it there. Again I used Snapseed to initially tweak using fine tune, detail and the black and white presets, then transferred it over to Distressed FX and mextures to fine tune the Textures. I nearly always import back to Snapseed to do the final adjustments and add a border. 

I’ve been trying to master the  Superimpose app recently with mixed results. This is a fantastic app that lets you add two images into it’s program and then merge them after working on each image, so it’s great for adding people to landscapes or a ship to a stormy sea or just making an image more pleasing/interesting! The next image shows a tree landscape with a spinning girl added to the right hand side, then converted to mono and tweaked in Snapseed. The original image was processed in Snapseed, distressed fx and mextures from an older overexposed winter shot!!

 Finally a street scene taken on my iphone through the window of my van on a wet, foggy day. I processed in snapseed converting to mono and adjusting the contrast, then added a texture in distressed fx before finally adding the scratched and slightly damaged look in scratchcam, another great texture app which you can try for free before you buy!

Iphone editing workflows

 I have been experimenting some more with the fantastic selection of photographic apps available through the apple store. These tree images taken in a snowy field in St Albans England on my Nikon D90 and were severely underexposed. I converted using Lightroom and CS4 adjusting exposure and converting to mono. I then decided to  import to my iphone and run the images through some apps. Firstly into snapseed my favourite exding app to crop and tidy up a bit. Then into distressed FX, which has some amazing textures in it. I choose the charm texture and tweaked the controls for the effects I wanted. Then into Mextures another great texture app where you can layer effects on top of each other. The processing was pretty much the same for both images and goes to show that you can get some great finishes to an image no matter what format your using. Here are some more images that followed the same processes. I’ve included before and after pics.

  The Birds were added using Distressed FX as well. Another good app for adding effects is Lenslight although you might be restricted to a lower resolution. It’s worth remembering to check the size that each app saves your files always go for the maximum settings available. I hope to post some more images soon, please feel free to ask any questions on these edited images.

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Hipstamatic Processing

  Thought I’d show some portraits for a change. All these shot were originally taken with my Nikon D90 DSLR camera. I then retook them using my Iphone and the Hipstamatic app. I like the old worn effect which goes especially well with B&W portraiture.It’s great you can muck about like this with just a phone and some time.

 Another couple of images using the same processing. I love the way you can experiment with the iphone, it may not have loads of megapixels or any controls for shutter speed and aperture or even super sharp varieties of lenses but you don’t need them all the time. With an iphone or any other smartphone you do have lots of fun taking and then processing your images. You can create works of art or just snapshots of the family, you can use zero apps or 30 and some of the stuff that’s out there is amazing. I’ve set myself a challenge this year. I’m a member of the local photographic society and have decided to enter at least 50% of my images taken on the iphone in digital format and print! I’m interested in how it will be received and judged, and if anyone will be able to tell the difference anyway! Wish me luck and I’ll let you know how I get on…

 Just for a change of subject thought I’d post a couple of more heavily processed images. The First image was taken on the iphone, and is actually about 8 images stitched using autostitch. Pfrocessed in Snapseed, Filterstorm, Distressed FX , Mextures and Lenslight. The Second Image is a single Iphone image taken with Procamera and processed with Snapseed, Distressed FX, Mextures and Lenslight… Thanks for  looking….

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West Pier Brighton

  

 

   Visited Brighton Today and took some pictures of the old west Pier that lies burnt out and abandoned to the sea. It was built in 1866 and was used up until about 1975 and was due to be renovated before suffering from two fires. All these images were taken on my iphone 4 using procamera for the first image and bracket mode for the second and third images. Basic editing in Snapseed..brightness, sharpening and a drama filter, then exported to Distressed FX and mextures for the texture effects. Finally into Snapseed again for some blurring and the frames. Quite pleased with the results as it was and overcast and dreary day, the subject matter was strong and I think this helped with the overall strength of the images. It would be interesting if anyone agrees/disagrees with this!

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Capture and editing with my Iphone

 Hi, thought i’d share some more iphone images and post processing using just the iphone and some different apps. This image was taken at Buckingshire golf course in Denham, Bucks very early one morning using Bracket mode and pro HDR to get the desired exposure you can see the steam rising off the lake in the background!!. . After capture I did some basic adjustments using Snapseed, including a crop and sharpening. Then I added a moon using Lenslight and then some different textures using Distressed FX and Mextures. Finally into suoerimpose to apply a mask and some gentle blurring to get the finished image.

Very similar treatment for this next image taken on the same day. Bracket mode ans pro HDR for capture, Snapseed, lenslight, distreesed FX and mextures for processing before using superimpose for some blur and back to Snapseed for a frame. The great thing about these apps is you can adjust the level at which you want to apply the treatment, so you can be as subtle or over the top as you want.

 This last image was taken near the South Bank in London early evening. Using snapseed I cropped to a square frame  and made some basic adjustments. Using an app called Perspective I changed the position of the building slightly before using Distressed FX and mextures to create the texture I wished. All This is very easy to achieve using just the Iphone and the only real limits are your imagination so why not give it a go, it really is great fun!

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London Southbank Stroll.

Took a walk along the South Bank earlier this month, it was a glorious sunny  evening and fortunately I had my Iphone with me! All these shots were taken at sunset on the beach just past Waterloo bridge. They were all taken with an app called Bracket mode which basically takes two images one for highlights and one for shadows, then I transfer them into an app callded ProHDR which merges both images together. As seems to be the norm for me now I processed them all on the Iphone using three editing apps. The first port of call is always Snapseed  for cropping, adjustments and sharpening, then it’s off to Distressed FX for some arty effects ( including Birds!! ). Finally it’s over to Mextures for some grungy textures. Thanks for looking…..

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