Wind Farm

Wind Farm near Walla Walla

Passed this scene on the way to Portland, Oregon when leaving the Palouse. Image was made using the Olympus OM-D 4/3 mirror less camera my friend Dan Burkholder made me aware of. I  continue to marvel at the ease which my eye-fi card downloads my images directly to the iPad with no wires attached. Additionally the images come into the iPad at 16MP.

This image was created using snapseed, blender, FXPhotoStudio and Moka Hanga

Indianapolis - The Pyramids

The Pyramids are an Indianapolis Landmark and world-class office park located on the north side of the city. When I stopped by to see these structures a few weeks back it was overcast and raining - made one or two images and never gave it another though until last night....

Original

I was in the man-cave watching the end of the baseball season wondering who the Yankees would be playing on Friday - and it is Detroit...no Red Sox Nation this year - how strange....the curse is back....but I digress...

 I started playing with the original image at the top of this page in various color applications such as Filterstorm, Color Cross, color claw and color leap...then did some blending and color control in Filterstorm and Blender - lots of opacity brushing and masking was involved - the various results of which are posted today.

So many variations on the theme.....

Toon Paint Blend

Leaving for Indiana again on Sunday - moving my Music, iPhone and Other Neighborhoods show to Toledo for the 1Matters.org benefit. Prints from this show are also available on the  'print sales' page which is live on my website, HarrySandler.com.

Claremont Hotel

This one is from one year ago. I was in Oakland, California staying at the Claremont Hotel and Resort in Berkeley, California. The Claremont was built circa 1917 and is a fabulous old place, albeit in need of a renovation.

At any rate there are fabulous views of San Francisco on one side while the other side gives one a look at the architecture of the hotel.  As per my usual I photograph out of my hotel room window at sunrise and caught the image posted today. Of course I applied a bit of iPad image management as per below:

Photographed using the iPhone4
TrueHDR resting on the window sill
Photostudio
SketchmeeHD
Perfect Photo
Iris
Filterstorm

Sammy Hagar

Sammy Hagar 2004

Caught this image of Sammy Hagar during the 2004 Van Halen Tour - so many stories to tell....

White Tulip

Really this was a white tulip. And it was sitting right in the middle of our small town. Tulips come in so many colors it was the perfect subject for my iPad blending spree......still playing around changing colors and textures.

Today it was all pretty much all  Iris on the iPad2....discovered something new, at least for me. Once one hits the check mark to save the image it automatically becomes the base layer for the next blend step - huge time saver in using Iris.

You finish a blend, hit the check mark, and upload another image and continue on...also now liking that you can see an image in a larger size before choosing same as the next step - other applications only let you see the thumbnail.. One thing the app developers might consider is reversing the image order ala the application Transfer to not make you continually scroll down to the bottom of your library to find the latest image that you want to work with. A small thing but saves so much time and obviouisly it can be done - Transfer proves that.

So on this image i used:

Iris for sketch
Dynamic Range
Perfect photo for sharpening
photostudio for pencil paint 2 (one of my favorites)
Filterstorm for blending and local tonality

Starting my drive to Indianapolis this morning. Plan to stop in Williamsport and Toledo on the way. Might even stop and visit a friend in Lexington......

Blending and Brushing

Homage to Van Gogh

I continue to search for new and different ways to blend images using filterstorm and iris. If only someone would devise an application with layers an entire new world would appear. The makers of Photoforge are claiming to have layers with blend modes in their new application being launched in a few weeks - this boy is hoping that is a reality.

Up until now Filterstorm and  Iris have been in the forefront of the blending with opacity, brushes and size. One difference for me is that in Filterstorm you can add another image to blend with just a few strokes of the stylus. Iris takes 8 moves to get to the same place.

Filterstorm's opacity dialog is always accessible and you are able to make changes while not losing the blend ability. With Iris you need to say 'done' and then say yes to the apply mask dialog before brushing. Both have eraser features which is a good thing.

When you complete your blending with Filterstorm you hit the check mark to save that move,  and, you then have the ability to add another image rather easily.  With Iris you need to go through a number of stylus moves to get another image ready to blend.

I use both of these applications on a regualr basis. I like many of the FX in Iris and find myself adding them in quite frequently. Another plus with Iris is that the blend modes readily available as you work through the image.

I would highly recommend trying both of them to see what fits in your work-flow. Me, I am goign to continue to pursue blending and brushing with a few other appications as well as getting deeper into Filterstorm, Iris and the new improved Photoforge (when released).

I am off on a drive to Toledo and Indiana tomorrow. Have a great weekend...

Merry Oldsmobile

I can not stop working on my iPad2. I did have the first version but for some reason I simply never got into it. I was superstitious about changing from processing on the iPhone - why, I have no idea. Hard to change those old habits. Another old habit I got into was using the same applications from day to day and expecting different results -and we all know nothing ever happens using that model.

The past few weeks I have working mostly on blending technique to include double and triple blending using photostudio, photoforge, Iris, Filterstorm and most recently, thanks to my friend and fellow iPhone addict, Teri Lou Dantzler, the Blender Application. And by the way when I just went to her blog to copy the address for this blog I was blown away by her latest iPhone creation...check it out

OK, on to today's image:


Captured with prohdr handheld then it was sharpened in Photoforge. I then made several blending layers: Photostudio for pencil paint 1, and then another using pencil paint 2 (twice). Used Dynamic Light for yet another layer of Relief pushed to the max. Then I made a separate blending layer using color sketch in Iris and yet another using SketchmeeHD. I also made an ancient canvas layer in Photostudio to use to add final texture. Remember to always make a preset wherever possible so you can repeat this if necessary. I also make screen-shots along the way that I file with the original blend layers. In terms of shameless self promotion I teach my folder structure in my iPhone workshops.

After making all these layers I use Iris and Blender to put them together to create what I am after. Sometimes it takes a glass of wine to get there - sometimes it just happens. As a final touch I take the image into Filterstorm and add the texture (ancient canvas in this case) layer underneath the original. Then you paint with your finger at a low opacity and desired brush size to paint in the texture to your desired level. If you paint in too much texture take the eraser at low opacity and lightly rub it out. Filterstorm is very powerful in this respect. There are many ways to do this but I choose Filterstorm simply because it allows the ipad to work in horizontal and vertical mode depending on the image. Iris does not allow this and frankly they should change that in the next upgrade.

Upcoming Events:

May 21: Apple Store, Indianapolis, Indiana - 8AM-10AM Music and iPhone Presentation
September 9-10: Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery - 2 day iPhone Workshop
September 11: Gallery Show opens at Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery, Carmel, Indiana
October 9: gallery Show opens at Gallery 20 in Toledo, Ohio -Benefit for 1Matters.org.