Hipstamatic Portraits

Hobby Horse, Copenhagen

My main use for the Hipstamatic Camera is for portrait and still life work. I use only one lens and one film type most of the time - JohnS and Kodot Grizzled.. I like the edges and resolution so I stick to it. Of course I do experiment from time to time but usually go back to that combination.

This image is from 2010 on a visit to Copenhagen....

Hipstamatic

Mermaid Parade Portrait

A couple of older hipstamatic images I came across this morning. Hoping for a quiet Sunday around the house.......Have fun today...

Hobby Horse, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

View from Hotel, Copenhagen

Photographed from my hotel room in Copenhagen.....

Image Management:

iPhone4
True HDR with the iPhone held up against the window
Perfect Photo for sharpening
Filterstorm for local adjustments

Perception

Still Life, Christiania, Copenhagen

There are several ways to take a viewer through an image, be it a high resolution image from a traditional camera or an image made using an alternative camera such as the iPhone. This morning I applied what I call a light-dark technique to the image posted today. I learned this in several workshops taken over the past few years with Dan Burkholder and John Paul Caponigro. Basically it is using light and painting light and dark areas to create a path for the viewer to see the image, and, to highlight what John Paul calls the 'main actor in the play'. There are several other platforms to make this move but for today I concentrated on the light-dark using the application Filterstorm.

One way is to simply adjust the luminance in Filterstorm and 'apply with mask', meaning you paint in the light and dark areas using a brush with varying opacity and size. Another way is to make separate light and dark images to taste and then use the 'add exposure' dialog in Filterstorm to add the images then selectively paint in light or dark to taste using the brushes and opacity dialog. One can also selectively paint in texture using this same technique. And yes, there are other ways to make this move and whatever works for you is the right answer....

Of course this is not for every image but most definitely worth taking some time to explore what is can do for your images.

Image Management:

photo made using ProHDR handheld
photo transfer
Photostudio for texture
Perfect Photo for sharpening
Filterstrom for local adjustments

The Red Door

I just keep going back to Christiania and noticing something that I missed on the last visit. Still obsessed with the fact that this location actually exists at all in 2011. The more I go back the more it reminds me of San Francisco in the mid to late sixties....it would seem they have found a way to make the counter culture work in a major city setting.

At any rate I had dinner there last night and on the way out noticed the red door which I believe was a restaurant open only during the day. There is definitely something that draws one into a red door.....IN Ireland last January it was a blue door.....

Image management:

iPhone standard camera set to HDR
Perfect Photo for sharpening
SketchmeeHD for line drawing
Snapseed for black and white conversion, frame and adding grain
Iris and Blender
Filterstorm for local adjustments and masking


I AM STILL NOT ABLE TO SEPARATE MY IPHONE BLOG FROM MY TRADITIONAL CAMERA BLOG.  TO THAT END IF YOU HAVE SIGNED UP FOR THE IPHONE BLOG NOTE THAT IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS I WILL BE MOVING THE IPHONE BLOG TO WORDPRESS. STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS.

Boats - Christiania

Boats, Christiania, Copenhagen

 
I came across these two boats while walking Christiania yesterday. Would have posted them earlier today but the blogspot was not uploading properly...

I have been trying to achieve sort of a cloisonne look with water - getting closer I think but not quite there.

Image managed with:

TrueHDR on Tripod
Perfect Photo
Filterstorm
Iris
Photostudio
Blender

Christiania

Yesterday was my first day in Copenhagen. Met a friend, Claus, and he showed my the center of Copenhagen. I have been here before but always passing through so never really got the opportunity to truly see the city.

One of our stops was Christiania which is an autonomous neighborhood of 850 residents on 85 acres in the center of the city. Basically this place reminds me of San Francisco in the mid-60's and the authoirites in Copenhagen regard it a a very large commune.

The photograph above is the son of one of the inhabitants of Christiania that Claus knew. I was completely taken by his eyes - possibly the poster child for this area.... It is a straight Hipstamatic image with some local corrections made in Filterstorm. Lately I have been totally immersed in portrait work using the Hipsta application.

I am going back to make more images over the next few days and will post as many as possible. 

The info below is from Wikipedia:

Also known as Freetown the area consists of former military barracks and parts of the city ramparts. The National Heritage Agency has protected many of the ancietn buildings, some go back as far as 1617.  Best I can tel is that in 1971 fences were torn down and the settlers took over the old compound to use as a payground for their children.

A journalist, Jacob Ludvigsen wrote in 1971:

Christiania is the land of the settlers. It is, so far, the biggest opportunity to buidl up a society from scratch while using the remaining constructions. They have their own electricity, a bath house, a giant athletics building where all seekers of peace could have their grand meditation and yoga center. Buldings for the stoners who are too paranoid and weak to aprticipate in the race...Yes for those who feel the beating of the pioneer heart there can be no doubt as to the purpose of Christiania. It is part of the city which has been kept secret to us - but no more.

The people of Christiania have developed their own set of rules, independent of the Danish Government. The rules forbid stealing, violence, knives, bulletproof vests, hard drugs and biker colors.

The main drag, known as Pusher Dtreet, where hash and skunk weed are sold openly in stands since 2004. The has commerce is controversial, but since the rules require a consnsus they cannot be removed unless everyone agrees. Legalizing cannabis is one of the ideas of many of the citizens of Christiania. This accord was reached with the Danish Government defense ministry (who still own the land) in 1995.

There is more information online at Wikipedia....Very interesting area...had I not seen it with my own eyes it might be difficult to understand hwo a culture like this can still exist in this day and age...but then again why not.....