C&O Canal Boat, idle in Georgetown, DC

While wandering around Georgetown last Saturday before having lunch with a friend, I spotted this canal boat parked near 31st St NW. The light caught my eye even though I was quite certain the sunlight would "blow out" the white roof completely. I could see editing the image to take care of that and just maybe end up with something quite nice.

My iPhone tutorial posts will follow a general format of showing the starting and ending image at the start of the post, followed by the "expert" recipe. After the "expert" recipe, I'll show the step by step process. Please realize that these tutorials are really not intended to be a "go out and repeat this exactly" recipe but rather a tutorial to show one (sometimes two) possible processing paths for an image. Those of you unfamiliar with iPhone processing of images may not realize yet the HUGE number of apps available for post processing (both iPhone and iPad). My hope is that these tutorials will start you on a path of exploration to discover for yourselves the many possibilities there are for tuning your images into something that you envision when out exploring the world.

The top image (obtained by merging two exposures (shot with the native iP4 camera in HDR mode) using TrueHDR) is the starting point; the middle image is the image obtained from processing as outlined below through Step 6; the bottom image is the result of applying an effect to the Image from Step 2 in the outline below and blending that with the image processed through Step 5. (Note that the above images may be viewed larger size by clicking on any one of them.)

1. The two HDR exposures were merged with TrueHDR.
2. PerfectPhoto was used to sharpen, and de-noise the image (Image A in future steps).
3. The Ancient Canvas effect was applied using PhotoStudio HD and the image saved (Image B in future steps).
4. Blender was used to blend images A and B at 70% Normal Blend.
5. Pic Grunger was used to apply the "Scuffed" Effect at ~40% (Image C in future steps).
6. Image C was signed using A+ Signature.
7. One could stop at this point but I chose to try one other blend.
8. A Moku Hanga effect (will figure out which one at some point, experiment) was applied using a Preset that I saved some time ago and cannot recall exactly how I got it (danger of late night playing); result saved (Image D).
9. Images C and D were blended using the Luminosity Effect in Blender.
10. The result of the blend above was signed using A+ Signature.

I'm showing this because it amazed me to see the difference in the image after sharpening it and also using the Denoise option in PerfectPhoto; left image before sharpen and denoise were applied, right image after sharpen and denoise.

>

Screen Shot of application of Ancient Canvas applied to image; saved image after application of Ancient Canvas.

The top image is the result of blending Image A and Image B using Normal Blend at 70%; masking was used to bring the Ancient Canvas effect onto the blown out white roof and leave the rest of the image relatively untouched; the bottom image is after application of the Scuffed effect (at 40%) to the blended image using Pic Grunger (Image C). (The signed Image C is not shown before continuing with additional post processing steps since it is the middle image in th set of three images at the top of the page.)

The top image is a screen shot of the application of a saved preset in Moku Hanga; the second image is the saved image (Image D) after application of that effect.

The top image is a screen shot of application of the Luminosity blend at 40% to Images C & D in Blender; the bottom image is the saved, blended image. (Again, the signed image is not included here because it is the third of the three images at the top of the page.)

Blue-eyed Grass, Olloclip Macro and post-processing fun

This blog is an ongoing effort in sharing some of what I've learned on my own and some of what I've learned through studying with Teri Lou Dantzler and Harry Sandler as well as following photographers too numerous to mention and studying their images and process.

Experienced iPhone photographers may find the detail unnecessary. Those new to iPhone photography should find these "lessons" helpful. I'm trying to post at least once a week except when traveling and doubt I'll ever post more often than once a week unless I become a more efficient at writing posts!

Today's lesson is an exercise in going from one image to the finished product shown below. Apps used include Bad Camera, Pic Grunger, A+ Signature and any app of your choice (I cannot recall which one I used) to crop a native iPhone camera image into a square format image. I do almost all my editing on an iPad 2 with occasional editing on my iPhone 4. Almost all iPhone apps may be used on the iPad as well by simply clicking 2x in the lower right when the app opens.

Summary of steps for those who know the apps mentioned. Images to illustrate most of the steps will be included below the summary.

1. Take a picture (Blue-eyed Grass flower is about 9-10 mm in diameter) of an item of your choice with the camera of your choice. I used the native iPhone 4 camera, an Olloclip macro lens and a tripod since it's impossible to hold the phone still while taking an image while focusing ~15mm away from the subject.
2. Crop to square format if desired or use as is.
3. Open image in Bad Camera, apply effect 18 and save the image.
4. Now open the image from the above step in Bad Camera and apply the blue "Color" filter and save the image
5. Open the saved image from step 4 in A+ Signature, sign and save.
6. Open the saved image in Pic Grunger and select (from the Effects menu) the Cracked effect.
7. Still in Pic Grunger, use the Strength option to move the slider to approximately 25% and save the image.

The starting point for creation of this image was the same as the image shown below minus the signature (uploaded a signed copy by mistake).

Using Bad Camera to apply effects (steps 3 and 4)...

The Bad Camera app is an iPhone app; the first time you open it on an iPad, it will be 1x size; click the 2x in the lower right corner to have the app fill the screen on your iPad. To open an image, click the camera icon in the lower left of the splash screen (left image above) and select Open from Camera Roll. Note also that square format images will appear "squished" when brought into Bad Camera as seen on the right. This is nothing to worry about as you will see after applying an effect and saving the image.

Click the √234 square icon to bring up the Effects screen shown here and scroll down to select Effect 18 for the image; the Effect will be shown at which point, click the envelope icon and select save to camera roll to get the image shown below.

This image will be loaded back into Bad Camera to apply the next effect.

After loading the previously saved image with Effect 18 applied into Bad Camera, click the slider icon (three straight lines on the main screen for Bad Camera) to get to the next screen where you may choose additional treatments; click Color, choose blue as the filter and save the image (result shown on the right).

Using A+ Signature to sign (step 5)...

The left image shows the screen after bringing an image into A+ Signature; use the gear (next to Help on the lower left) to get to the Preferences screen. The first time you use A+ Signature, the default settings for Preferences have a GIANT SIGNATURE that is white text with a shadow in a text I personally would never use. If you set things up for your signature in a font, style, and color that you like, then you will have that setup as your starting point for all future signatures. I had already set a signature in gray with Zapfino text and no shadow.

The text is difficult to see in the center of the image on the left. (when you click "Text" in the red bar below the image, the default signature text gets added in the middle of the image) Select this text to reveal an "X" in the upper left corner of the text bounding box and a tiny circle symbol surrounded by three directional arrows in the right, middle of the bounding box. The X allows one to delete text boxes entirely; grabbing on the circle surrounded by three arrows and dragging in a direction (up or down) will rotate the text.

Double-click the text box to allow editing; change the text color to white as shown in the color Attributes page and in the image on the right; right image shows text location and size after using two fingers to shrink or expand text size as required.

Image signed in A+ Signature BEFORE applying grunge effect so that all the text (both signature and that from Bad Camera effect) is affected the same by grunge effect.

Using Pic Grunger to apply effects (steps 6 and 7)...

The left image shows application of the Cracked effect in Pic Grunger; the right image shows reduction of the effect strength to about 25%. Documenting the editing that resulted in the finished product took FAR longer than it did to produce the final image.