Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen, 2004

I was the Tour Manager for Van Halen in 2004 - lovingly called Van-Hagar  - and was out on the road for the first 40 shows. Each night I would go into the audience and attempt to capture a classic Van Halen image.  The photograph above, in my mind, is one of those iconic VH images. Frankly I was amazed at how he was able to pull that off - but as you can see he is in great shape...

Yesterday while processing the image on my iPad2 James Ensor's painting, 'Christ's Entry into Brussels' came to mind. Seemed perfect to use this painting as a catalyst for today's post. The first time I saw the actual Ensor painting was at the Getty in Los Angeles several years back. Having only viewed this image in books or online I was stopped in my tracks by the enormity of scale - 99.5 inches by 169.5 inches...

Original image captured with a Nikon D300, 70-200MM lens
Image processed on the iPad2 using:

Photostudio
Filterstorm
Perfect Photo
AutoPainter

I am doing a workshop at Foto Care in New York next Saturday June 4 - see poster below. I wil be covering all aspects of using you iPhone and iPad to create images like the one above. Click here for more information.

Tables and Chairs

Happy Memorial Day....

Captured with prohdr - hand-held
photostudio
iris
filterstorm
autopainter

Boats, Portree, Scotland

Boats, Winter, Portree, Isle of Skye

Iphone4 - proHDR - tripod
Perfect Photo
Iris
Filterstorm
Photostudio

Just a reminder that Blogger is not sending out emails if you are subscribed to iPhone-Antics.blogspot.com.  At the moment the best way to receive this is by signing up for Network Blogs on the left side of the blog page. We are trying to correct this but have not been able to make the appropriate change.

Click here: iPhone/iPad Workshop - see below....

Sammy Hagar

Sammy Hagar 2004

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

Mermaid Parade

The parade is on my mind this morning. This year the parade is June 18. Quite the event if you can make it - perfect for iphone-ography - great color and wacky people....

Canon 5DMKII, 24-105MMlens
Transfered to the iPad
fileterstorm
perfect photo
photo studio
iris

Reflection_Lexington

Sky  - Lexington, KY

Central State

Another image from Central State Asylum. The phone book was from 1992.....Looks like they closed the facility and simply walked out the door. Eerie place frozen in time....

Captured using TrueHDR on a tripod
Perfect Photo
lo-mob
filterstorm
iris
photostudio

Peter Frampton

Peter Frampton, Nassau Coliseum, 1976

I am in the process of revising several music images for use in a gallery show called 'Music and iPhone'. This show will start in Carmel, Indianapolis at the Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery beginning September 9. The show will move to Toledo, Gallery 20, opening on October 9. 

Today's image of Peter Frampton was originally shot on 35MM using a Nikon Series Camera, circa 1976. It was scanned recently and processed using the iPad2. This image will eventually be printed on canvas for the the two shows. 

Applications used to process on the iPad:

Artista Haiku

Iris

Filterstorm 

Perfect Photo 

Photostudio

PS: As some of you may have noticed the blog is not emailing iphone-antics properly if at all. The only fix I can come up with is for you to sign up to receive this blog via 'Networked Blog'. There is a link on the homepage of  iPhone-antics.blogspot.com. Thanks for your understanding of this issue. If fixed I will advise.  

Bicycle - Central State Hospital

Bicycle, Central State Hospital

 After my Apple Store presentation on Saturday a friend got us into Central State Hospital for the Insane. The hospital was first built in 1848 and was abandoned in 1994.

The first building we walk into has this plastic children's bicycle right in the doorway - I am thinking if this is the only image I make today the trip was worth the price of admission. Oh, did i tell you about my attraction to bicycles....seems like they keep appearing at the strangest places and times....might have to do a show just on abandoned bicycles and what they mean to me...

This image was captured using TrueHDR on a tripod. Pretty much used my current workflow for processing:

Perfect Photo
Artista Haiku
Filterstorm
Iris

By the way the Apple Store presentation went very well. The folks working there could not have been any more helpful. Used my iPad23 hooked to a large Apple Monitor and that was a bit easier then the old set-up of camera over iPhone system. The only drawback, if a drawback at all, is that you can not see the stylus making the move on the screen. Other then that the iPad2 is a game changer. One cable to the screen and you are in up and running...

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel, Genesis

This image is part of the Music and iPhone series -  circa 1974 on the Genesis Tour for the double vinyl concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The original photograph was made at Howard Steins Academy of Music on 14th street in New York City.

Original image photographed with a Nikon F Series, 105MM lens, Ektachrome Slide Film

Caddo Lake

This is the dock at Caddo Lake where you meet up with the boat to travel the lake. Angie, our captain, knew the lake, well, like the back of her hand. She was able to show us where a certain alligator got some sun and where the wildflowers were and what time they would open. Basically she and her husband had  a true connection to the lake and had basically lived there since they were children.

The first time I went to the lake the rental boat was not able to travel the really shallow water. This time, Angie's boat, was able to move freely through 6 inches of water and get to some very interesting locations. Simply said there is no place on earth like Caddo Lake - stop by Johnson's Dock and ask for Angie - tell her I sent you....this national treasure is well worth a visit.

Caddo Lake is located in Uncertain, Texas just down the road from Marshall, Texas. There is a nice Hampton Inn in Marshall which is located about 20 miles from the lake.

this image captured and managed using:

prohdr - handheld
fileterstorm
toon paint
iris
photostudio
perfect photo

Spring Flowers

Before leaving on this current road trip I was driving to my dentist when I came upon these springs flowers. Parked in a 'no parking' zone - jumped out and made a few exposures....

I ended up playing with color and brushing techniques in Filterstorm as I am still exploring the power of that application. Also used Iris for the first few blending images.

Captured with the Iphone4 - prohdr - handheld
filterstorm
iris
perfect photo
photo transfer to move images to my iPad

A reminder that I am at the Apple Store at Keystone Crossing this Saturday morning from 8AM - 10AM putting on a Music and iPhone presentation. I will be going over applications and processing as well as hitting on folder structure. There will also be images from my early days in the music business plus some new iPad processed Ektachrome musical images.

Gallery show opens Friday night at The Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery at their fabulous new location. Click on the link above for more information. The show will have 46 images from the John paul Caponigro Alumni Group, Next Step. Some fine images by 23 emerging artists will be on display.

Psychadelic Flower

Not usually a flower dude but could not resist the color in this one. Also figured out a new image inside image workflow but not posting on the blog right now. If you need to know send me a personal email.

Maine

Another image from the April trip to Maine.

Captured with truehdr
filterstorm for image management
perfect photo for sharpening
transferred from iPhone to iPad using Photo Transfer

iPhone Workshop

I am holding an iPhone Workshop in New York City on June 4. The location is foto care at 41 west 22nd street (between 5th and 6th avenue).

You can register at FOTOCARE.com.

Hope to see you there....

On the Road Again

Sunrise - Badwater Basin - Death Valley

Three hundred miles to go today - overslept and not much time to put much on the blog. Had enough time for this fairly straight image of Badwater Basin captured on the last Death Valley Trip....now to pack, get the free breakfast at the Hampton Inn and move on down the road.

iPhone4
truehdr on tripod
Filterstorm for image management

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...

Wedding Dress

 

This is not a white wedding Billy.....Homage to Modigliani

Continuing to work on ways to build color in my iPhone/iPad images. Today's image was processed in the work-flow posted over the past few days except that I used local color and saturation to build the image.

For a start I built several blending layers as follows:

Ultra sharp using Perfect Photo upgrade
Saturated magenta texture
Saturated orange texture layer
Photostudio dark engraving layer
Photostudio pencil paint 2 layer
Artista Haiku layer
Paintmee layer (stopped processing early)

Of course Iris and Filterstorm were the main blending applications.

For the dress Filterstorm was used with the top and bottom of the dress brushed in separately and then tonality, sharpness and depth were added with my finger...IN the end I layered in the tulips from the original image on the mid right side..seemed like a good touch.

Additionally the umbrellas and assorted other parts of the image were processed one by one...It is kind of neat to see what textures appear when you simply play.

Upcoming Events:

May 21: Apple Store, Indianapolis, Indiana - 8AM-10AM Music and iPhone Presentation
September 8-9: Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery - 2 day iPhone Workshop
September 10: 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.

Music and Iphone

John Mellencamp, Los Angeles, 1996

'Forget all about that macho shit and learn how to play guitar'...John Mellencamp 

Still working away on my presentation for the Apple Store in Indianapolis. Today I am taking an Indiana icon and processing an image using the iPad2.

This image was originally captured with a Nikon F series camera using Ektachrome slide film.  It was scanned into the digital world using an Imacon/Hasselblad scanner. And now the fun begins...

I downsized the image to 2500 on the long edge which gave me a final output size of 8x10 at 240DPI. One could make the the image bigger or smaller to taste.

My current work-flow is to create various blend layers using SketchmeeHD, Artista Haiku, Photstudio (2): Pencil Paint 2 and Ancient Canvas plus a sharpened layer using Perfect Photo. If you do not have the new Perfect Photo upgrade note that they have improved the sharpening dramatically - they call it sharpening but it is in reality unsharp mask and it works very very well...You can create these blend layers to taste using many different applications.

Next is the fun part in Iris for iPad for blending and masking combination's of these layers to create the look. I might take a sharp layer and blend with an oil painting soft layer to see the effect the sharp has on the soft...I use pencil paint in various combos to create the outlines in some of my images - being a amateur painter I sometimes do this on canvas to call attention to a particular part of the image. Another part of the work-flow is to convert to black and white and paitn in varios amounts of color which I used in today;s image. Filterstorm does an OK job of this and gives some good control options on your conversion. A screen shot of the dialog box is below.

The final step is local sharpening for effect and to paint back in the ancient canvas layer to the desired color you want.

 

Upcoming Events:

May 21: Apple Store, Indianapolis, Indiana - 8AM-10AM Music and iPhone Presentation
September 8-9: Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery - 2 day iPhone Workshop
September 10: 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.

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.

Roger Daltry

Roger Daltry

'There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all'....John Lennon
  
Next Saturday, May 21, I am making my first presentation at an Apple Store in Indianapolis, Indiana. The presentation is called 'Music and iPhone' and it joins these two parts of my life together. The concept for this presentation being my particular journey through life, coming from a small town, Atlantic City,  working in the music business for 40 years, and, over the past three years pursuing my lifetime avocation - Photography. The iPhone has been a large part of that transition.

As most of my music archives were shot with film I decided to re-process a few of these images in the iPhone and iPad in an attempt to make the transition from music to iPhone. In truth much of the fabric of my life has been songs and photographs. John Lennon, Henri Cartier Bresson, Arnold Newman, Irving Penn, John Prine, Yo Yo Ma, The Byrds to name just a few. I relate to different time periods and moods in my life with lyrics and/or images.

The image today is Roger Daltry, re-processed using the iPad2.

Original captured with a Nikon F series camera on Ektachrome Slide FIlm
scanned into the digital world using an Imacon/Hasselblad 343
sharpened in Photoforge
SketchmeeHD for texture
Dynamic light for underlying Orton effect
Photostudio for pencil paint 2
Artista Haiku for texture
Iris for blending
Filterstorm for mask blending and local tonality

Halloween

Halloween, Carmel, Indiana

With the release of Iris for iPad I find my self going back into the archive to re-process older images in the new technology. Sometime it is not more then a simple resolution upgrade up to a totally different dialog box - the latter usually creating a good deal of work trying to find where the developer has moved often used adjustment tools. All in all they did a great job with the new Iris. The only change I might make is to have the blend icons more visible as that is the main adjustment this application is used for.

I can not remember how I originally processed today's image but I do rmeember that it was processed only on the iPhone4. Today I used the iPad only:

ProHDR - hand held
Dynamic Light for Orton
Photostudio for pencil paint 2
paintmee for blending painterly image
artista haiku for blending image
Iris for blending
filterstorm for local tonality and sharpening

Death Valley Sunset

Dante's Peak, Death Valley

Iphone TrueHDR capture from last January reprocessed on the iPad 2 using:

Dynamic Light
Iris for Ipad
Filterstorm

Gas Pumps

Gas Pump, Jeffersonville, Indiana

Sometimes when adversity strikes you simply have to work your way through it. This morning my iPad froze saying 'bad password' so I had to get through this image using some of the newer applications for the Mac, as follows:

TrueHDR
original rendered using Topaz
blended the original with the Topaz version
put the combo back through topaz
used a lighter version and put through sketchmee
blended the sketchmee with the second blended topaz
sharpened using PK Sharpener

The Rose

Captured and processed in the iPhone4

TrueHDR
Iris for Ipad - blending and creating texture with presets
Photoforge for sharpening
Photostudio for pencil paint 2
Filterstorm for blending and local tonality of final image

Lafayette Graveyard

Stopped by the Garden District to see the Lafayette Graveyard but they had the locks on the fences. Only image I could make was by shooting through the fence...


Iphone4 - Camera+ on tripod
2 exposures blended in True HDR
heavily sharpened in photoforge plus vibrance and saturation
then old photo for black and white look
old photo then sharpened in photoforge
then filterstorm for final blend and sharpening

Arlo Guthrie

'You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant'...Arlo Guthrie


Captured with my iphonecamera set on HDR
Noir
Dynamic Light
Iris for Ipad