Carriage and Flag, Seymour, Indiana

iPhone Image, Seymour, Indiana

On the way to French Lick, Indiana last week I stopped to make a few images with Eric DiBlasi in Seymour, Indiana. I had seen an image he had made of an old barn and wanted to check it out.Being a fan of Americana specifically the American Flag I was happy to see one on the barn. Found an old carriage upstairs - must have been circa 1950 - and carried it down to it's place in today's image....someone said it was a bit scary......not sure....

Waiting for Coffee....

Waiting for Coffee....

Seems like the coffee shop in Bloomington, Indiana opens an hour later on Sunday. I was sitting in my car when I noticed what I thought was a perfect composition of daily life.......Made this image with Pro645, Dynamic Light Orton blended back with the original in Blender - then a bit of Nik Snapseed and finished it off in Photoshop for local changes and sharpening.....

Ireland, Abandoned House

Abandoned House, Yellow Door and Window, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

It seems that I am always drawn to bits and pieces of color on abandoned buildings. This image is one in a number from my several trips to Ireland. Spotted this one buried back off the road....basically in a sea of mud....hardly was able to get the car in and turned around to get out...Wonder if it is a fixer upper...

For the next few weeks I will be posting every other day.....I am trying to catch up on my printing which has fallen way behind...One day it will be this blog and the next my big boy camera blog...

Did I mention how cold it is in New York........GO GIANTS.......

Zion National Park

Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah

Looks like a week of going back in the iPhone archives...

This image from a few years ago at Zion National Park...Tripped on to a wonderful sunrise location behind what I think was some sort of library or museum located just inside the Springdale, Utah entrance....

Ireland, Ring of Kerry

Stream, Ring of Kerry, Ireland

This image is from the last touring day in Ireland. I remembered this spot on The Ring of Kerry from the trip before when the weather simply had not cooperated. The conditions were pretty much the same this times around - something about touring Ireland in December and January just might be part of the problem - you get what you get. I was hell bent on getting an image of this stream and decided just to do it with my iPhone -  it becomes difficult to get any image with rain on one's lens.

As I was trying to use minimal applications on this trip the first adjustments were minimal - just filterstorm and NIK Snapseed. Then last night as I was watching the NY Football Giants beat the Atlanta Falcons (note the subtle sarcasm in that statement) I started blending textures back into the image in Filterstorm using the 'double exposure' - and ended up blending the original image with the textured one in Iris....then it was local adjustments in Filterstorm to taste.

The blended image (a 12 image stitch) is at the top of this page and the original image is below. It usually takes me a few days living with an image until I decide whether to pursue a workflow a bit more. Personally I am leaning toward the more painterly version on this image.

Stream, Ring of Kerry, Ireland

Ireland, View of Dingle Peninsula

Dingle Peninsula from County Kerry

On this Ireland trip I got into making panoramic landscape images using my iPhone4s and either ProHDR, TrueHDR and sometimes stitching Clear Cam images. The goal was to use as few applications as possible, and, for the most part kept it to Filterstorm, Snapseed and occasionally Blender and Iris.As mentioned previously the weather conditions were less then hoped and I attempted to stay true to the image as I remembered it.

This particular image is the view of the Dingle Peninsula from the Ring of Kerry....there are many many places one can drop down to the water from the ring with little or no 'private property' signs - albeit some of the access roads are hardly wider the car....

Ireland, Giant's Causeway

Giant's Casueway

Quite the place. This was one place I was looking forward to seeing...located on the Scenic Causeway Coastal Road in Northern Ireland approximately three miles northeast of Bushmill. Giant's is a World Heritage Site and a National Nature Reserve.......Wikipedia says the fourth natural wonder in the United Kingdom...

Mostly this area is basalt columns stemming from an ancient volcano eruption - some as tall as 12 meters. According to Wikipedia the Irish warrior Fin McCool built the causeway so he could walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart....maybe yes maybe no......At any rate a must see if you are in Northern Ireland.....that and the murals in Belfast should be high on your list...

As it was off the charts windy this particular day, 70 mile an hours wind and pelting sleet I was only able to manage a few images...This one is an iPhone4s image....

Zion National Park

Zion National Park

I arrived into Chicago today where I am shooting over the next three days. I was looking for something to put in my iPhone blog and came across this image from Zion National Park. Must be from about November 2009 - I did a bit of re-processing mostly with Snapseed (structure) and then oversharpened a bit in Filterstorm...Zion can be an amazing location in the winter - actually I have never been there at any other time...

Bryant Park, New York City

Bryant Park - New York City - Ice Skating

It is that time of year again. The tree at Rockefeller Center is lit and the ice is up and running in Bryant Park. It is truly a fun time skating under the Empire State Building.....Only in New York Kids - Only in New York...Time to break out the Christmas Music...

Whidbey Island, Photo Forge

Whidbey Island Lighthouse

This is a slightly different version of the Photo Forge workflow talked about on the Pixel-Show page yesterday. The basics are still the same in Photo Forge but the after treatment and sharpening are slightly different...I have worked up the basic treatment below - this was done on the old photo forge - I find that dialog a bit easier to get around and the results, at least for me, are better:

1, Once your image is loaded hit the funnel (yes the funnel) which will expose the Unsharp Mask icon.

 

2. Tap the unsharp mask icon to reveal the USM dialog:

 

3. There are several ways to use this USM. You can run the amount all the way up and then use the radius to your liking or you can do the reverse - radius up and amount down. They will effect the image in different ways - this is actually a sharpening method that comes from using phototshop and you should navigate your own way to what you might like. Lately I have changed to using the set-up below. When this was first introduced there were very few choices as to how to get this look - now there are several new apps that do a better job - but start here and play a bit.

 

4. The alternative way using forge is to just use the sharpen slider - USM if not done correctly will add artifacts into the image and depending on the image sharpen works just as well. I usualy start with the strength below.....

 

5. Once sharpened navigate (scroll down) and find the oil painting and watercolor sliders. You can use one or both - yo can use one - resharpen and then use the other - it is all trail and error depending on the look you are after.  As Teri Lou says PLAY PLAY PLAY

 

6. At 100% opacity the image will look something like this:

 

7. Adjust the slider to your taste.....

 

8. A combo of both watercolor and oil paint.....

 

9. Combo with adjusted opacity....

 

10. My starting point for the image above.....

At this point it is completely up to your creativity as to what happens next. I always like to have some clarity in the image so the subject stands out....I use Dynamic Light, Filterstorm, Snapseed and Blender to work up the final look. I even used Iris on the image posted today....

Take a Last-Pixel Show Workshop and learn more creative choices for your iPhone imagery - not to mention printing techniques and much more....If you can't make a workshop then take one of Teri Lou's online courses - they are perfect for learning basics and much more....

 

 

Coney Island Pier

Coney Island, Pier

I have processed this image several times and even posted it once but was never satisfied with the final outcome - was looking for a bit more ambient color to give the effect of waves rolling over the rocks. This morning it was Snapseed Structure that finally made it work for me. That and oversaturating in Filterstorm then brushing in the result locally.

Learn something new, go back and re-process - you never know what will happen.

The original image was made with ProHDR, Filterstorm, Dynamic Light, Rays and Photoforge.

Artistic Block

Fonthill - Bucks County

For the past 6 or 7 weeks I have been in a creative dark hole - nothing seemed to interest me....Maybe it was that I was back in my old touring world working on a one time project to make some money to support my image addiction toys....Yup just maybe that was it....takes one's head back to the left side of the brain....

The cure - A ROAD TRIP...... First stop was Seattle where I met old friends - facebook friends - Teri Lou Dantzler, Scooter Lowrimore and Charles 'Dick' Maclauchlan. I have known Dick and Scooter only on FB for the last year....have watched their images pass my screen but had never met them until a few days ago.  We broke some bread and had a great time shooting - both in Seattle and up in Olympic National Park.

Fonthill Original.....

I decided the cure for getting my head back into my iPhone work was to re-process older images using the new technology for the iPhone. Today's image is from last year at Fonthill in Bucks County......a 28 image Autostitch panoramic processed in Photo Studio, Perfect Photo, Snapseed and Filterstorm. I started right from the beginning of the process by re-doing the Autostitch....

Teri Lou Dantzler and I are teaching an iPhone creativity class on Whidbey Island starting on Friday at 1PM....there are still a few places open.....here is the link to The Pacific Northwest Art School...

Olympic - Hurricane Ridge

Olympic National Park - Hurricane Ridge

Had to re-post this one....Tried the blogger application yesterday and it posted in what seemed like very low resolution....might need a bit of practice with Blogger before doing that again.

At any rate I went old school using Photoforge, Classic Pan and Snapseed for Structure....

Graffiti

Iceland, Graffiti Kiss....

Found this image on a wall at a farm we were shooting at in Iceland....Of course I could not resist making a few changes....

Iceland - Small Cottage

Iceland, Svinafell, Cottage

This image was made in or near Svinafell, Iceland during the drive back to Reykjavik last Friday. Simply could not resist this small cottage which I was told was a summer home....Love the face just under the peak of the roof.

According to an online source Svinafell, during the early settlements of Iceland, was considered a place of great nobility...apparently Svinafell has been around since the 9th or 10th century - located near the Oraefajokull Glacier, one of the most active volcanoes in Iceland....

For applications used see labels below....additionally I used blender to add two textures to this image.

Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier, California

Posting two images every day on two separate blogs has been very educational. I have learned so much over the past 18 months - many new ways to manage an image and applying the new skill across many many platforms...

Today is one of those transitional images for me - I have processed the Santa Monica Pier (one of my all time favorites) several ways but today is a more slightly grungy saturated version. Can't wait to see where this work-flow will lead...after all as my friend Teri Lou Dantzler always says......play play play....

Image Management:

Phase P65+
Mamiya 645DF - 47MM Lens
Transfer to move to iPad2
FIlterstorm
Snapseed
Iris
perfect Photo

Power Nap

On the flight from London to Manchester yesterday I caught a friend taking a power nap and thought I would play around with Camera+ in telephoto mode....A bit soft and grainy but seemed to capture the moment....

Image Management:

Camera+ fully extended telephoto - hand held
Camera Plus for frame
NIK Snapseed for sepia and some sharpening

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.

Lewes Beach

Still playing with the new NIK Snapseed application - I was resistant at first but after seeing work by Dan Burkholder and Teri Lou Dantzler I have changed my mind. This is a very powerful application with so much to offer in the way of image management - frames, grunge, black and white and so much more. Worth giving it a look....

Image made with iPhone4 - prohdr - handheld
Snapseed
Iris
Filterstorm

Only in New York Kids

Was driving in the city and caught this one out the window of the car......really liking the new NIK Snapseed and photoforge 2 - also noticed in forge2 you can use blue-tooth and move an image to another device....

Image Management:

iPhone camera - no hdr
converted to black and white in Photoforge 2
image adjustments and frame in Snapseep

New website is live and finished. Has links to my two blogs and some new work. Finally have a website where I can make my own changes from anywhere in the world.


http://harrysandler.com is the address.....feel free to use the email link in the footer -