Wiscasset, Maine

Wiscasset, Maine, iPhone4

'To live a creative life - we must lose our fear of being wrong'.....Joseph Pearce

Iceland, Black Sand Beach

Black Sand Beach, Vik, Iceland

There are many black sand beaches in Iceland. Today's image is from the town of Vik and the beach sits about 200 yards off the main road, which I might has only two lanes.

This image was made using an iPhone4 and the true-hdr camera application. It wasnot processed on the iPad or iPhone - it was processed on my mac computer using Nik's Color Efx4 and Photoshop CS6.

Did I mention the gas station located just beyond the beach has some of the best hot dogs I have ever tasted. It is always a must-stop on my itinerary when in Iceland. 

'The Last Pixel Show' has 4 spots open for the iPhone/iPad creativity workshop at The Palouse in Washington State. Click on the link above for more information. We will be covering all types of iPhone/iPad processing as well as the last day being spent on printing your images.

Death Valley, Mesquite Dunes

Mesquite Dunes, Death VAlley, iPhone4

'Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair'.....Khalil Gibran


The Last Pixel Show is planning a destination iPhone Photography Workshop in Death Valley next February. We wil be posting information on TheLastPixelShow.org shortly. We are, however, running a workshop next week in Napa, California with a few spots open. 

Caifornia Coast, iPhone4

California Coast, iPhone4

'I am poor and naked but I am the chief of a nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love'......Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux Chief

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...

Coupeville - Rosario Beach

Tree - Rosario Beach

Took the tour of Whidbey Island yesterday scouting locations for The Last-Pixel Show iPhone workshop this weekend. This location is rather spectacular with beaches, ocean, clouds, fog, mountain areas and most of all great places for food.....

Ended up at Rosario Beach for sunset and caught the image above....Used Camera+, Old Photo Pro (even at low res I like this application) and Snapseed....Being a platinum printer I enjoy the vintage look that the iPhone is capable of capturing. Photographers such Edward Steichen and Edward Curtis come to mind.

Ireland - Ring of Kerry

Ireland iPhone4

As mentioned in my other blog, http://hsandler.blogspot.com, this morning I am completely bogged down trying to get out of NY for a month of travel. Going to points west including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Whidbey Island for a workshop and finally Denver.

As I just got my new iPhone 4s this will be an interesting trip doing the test drive...looking forward to seeing old friends and making some power stitches with the new high res camera......

I can not remember very much about today's image other then it was in Ireland on the Ring of Kerry....most likely a pro-hdr image.....I processed in Filterstorm and blender this morning on the iPad2.....

stay tuned to this space for some travel images.......what fun...

PSColorHD

 This application is low resolution but so much fun...give it a try...This was a vintage automobile photographed in Indianapolis a few weeks back...

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.

Touch ReTouch and more......

About a week or so ago I made a comment about a student image on my facebook page. Mostly I was saying that some lighter round artifacts were taking my eye away from the subject. She sent me the original and her finished piece and asked that I show her what I meant.

The original image is above. Her version is below. The three or four lighter round artifacts on the lower left were the artifacts mentioned above. Keep an eye out for these artifacts when processing on the iPhone or iPad.

In the image below touch-retouch was used to take out the artifacts in the lower left but left some in the upper right for reference. I used Filterstorm to  lighten the lower right of the image for detail and sharpened the building to bring it forward in the image.

 

In the end it wa my thinking that the circular artifacts took away form the image by moving my eye to away from the subject. Additionally the sharpened building pops a bit and I like the extra detail in the lower right. I also reduced the saturation a bit....

Mostly I like doing these tutorials to show what is possible with different applications. These are all tools to help the photographer make decisions about the post-processing of their images.

iPhone4 Tip - Camera+ and Clarity

Camera+ is a fantastic application for making images. It allows selective focus and luminosity in a rather straightforward way - but more on this later. Today it is the clarity adjustment in Camera+ that has my attention. Do not confuse this Camera+ with Camera Plus - they are very different applications.

The photograph above was made using the camera that comes with the iPhone4. I had the camera set on 'HDR ON' which creates a light and dark exposure.  Instead of blending in an application like ProHDR  I will copy and paste this image into Camera+. You do this by holding your finger on the image until the 'copy' icon is visible.

You then go into Camera+ and get into the lightbox mode. This is done by a tapping on the black/gray square in the lower left corner. It might happen that you are in light-box mode and no step is necessary.

 You will then see this screen - light-box.. If you have other images they will also show in this screen.

Hit the 'Paste' icon and the image begins importing into the light-box. 

 Once import is finished you will see this screen. Note that if you have several images the new one will show up in the top left corner of the screen, usually with the dialog boxes below. You then tap the edit tab on the left.

 

Once in edit tap the 'clarity' icon.  I am amazed at what this one adjustment can do to save darker images. It does not work on all images - it is simply another tool for your workflow should you need it. Once this is completed - tap the 'Done' icon in the upper right.

Then tap the 'save' icon and the image will move to your camera roll for further processing. If you want to save all the images to your camera roll use the 'save all' tab in the top left corner.

 Below are the two images for comparison.....The only change was adding clarity - no sharpening - nothing else

Before Clarity

After Clarity

Pencil Paint 2 Workflow

I often use Pencil Paint 2 in Photo Studio in my work-flow......here is a short tutorial on PP2 and Filterstorm...the original hipstamatic photograph is above.

Import the original into Photo Studio HD and choose Pencil Paint 2 - used the settings below:

 

Image after saving out of Photo Studio HD

 

Took the original and Photo Studip Pencil Paint 2  version and used Blender in the 'Plus Lighter' Blending Mode to create the image below.........

 

Put the Blender version into Filterstorm - added expposure using the original image and locally painted back in the details I wanted in the final image.....

  

Took the final image into Grungetastic and created a frame - 4th down on the right

  

 Final Image with frame added....

 

Indianapolis Car Show

Old Buick.....

There are quite a few iPhone applications now available on our laptop and desktop computers....Lately I have been processing on my 'macbook' playing using a few of these applications.
Today's image was created by using the application pixel blender and then blending this image back into the original using layers and blending modes in CS5......I am traveling and really tired and will post a tutorial in the next few days showing how this is accomplished...

For now I had fun with an image photographed at the car show Sunday morning at the Indianapolis Raceway.......there must have been 500 cars or more....I posted a few big boy images from this show on the http://hsandler.blogspot.com this morning........stay tuned for more...

Finally getting home today after two weeks on the road....

I fell in love with the the Dodge truck below....Difficult to isolate a vehicle at a show but the owner was kind enough to pull the vehicle out a bit for this iPhone HDR image....this would be a great truck to photograph from.....

Dodge truck

iPhone HDR

iPhone Tip 101:

In the workshop last weekend we talked about differences between ProHDR and TrueHDR. On Sunday morning I made these photographs with the iPhone on a tripod. The True HDR is a bit more saturdated which gives the iamge more contrast. The Pro HDR is more neutral then Pro which makes it a bit softer. Saturation increases contrast and contrast increases saturation. Something to think about when shooting and then making adjustments in your images. The True HDR was set ot the enhanced mode to emphasize the saturation and contrast.

Stay tuned for more iPhone tips in the coming days. 

Pro HDR

Ture HDR

Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery

Gallery framed in Grunge

Fun opening and show in Carmel this weekend. Workshop could not have gone better other then maybe another day or two to cover the material. I am going to start teaching Photoshop and Lightroom next time I am in Carmel. This is very important if you are going to print your iPhone work, not to mention the more traditional files from larger resolution cameras.

Played around with the gallery window today for the posted image.


We are planning an intermediate workshop for November in Carmel - please check Renaissance Fine Art and Design for more information. Should be there in about 10 days.

Carmel iPhone Workshop

Car Detail - Carmel, Indiana

Just finished the first day of the 2 day iPhone workshop in Carmel, Indiana. There are 16 participants in this workshop from as far away as Washington, DC and Asheville,  North Carolina. This is the first of several workshops I am co-teaching with Teri Lou Dantzler, iPhoneopgraphywithTeriLou. The next workshop  is Nov 4-7 at the Pacific Northwest Art School located on Whidbey Island.

Workshop participant

Workshop Participant

We were lucky enough to have an antique car show just outside the workshop location - we stopped early so the participants could photograph the cars and use those images to process in class tomorrow....

Workshop Particpant

Whoops

Saturn 6, Coney Island

 When I left to drive to Carmel, Indiana the other day I inadvertently left my iPad and iPhone hard drive at home....this makes today's post a 'best of' - or in other words the best of what I have with me....a few images from Coney Island.....

Coney Island

Carousel, Coney Island

Green

green door, slicker and shovel, iPhone4

Image photographed in Portree on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, January 2010 - we got caught in the worst snowstorm they have had in the last 40 years...

Carnival

Carnival 2, Bath, Maine

'Memories they can't be boughten
They can't be won at carnivals for free
Well it took me years
To get these souvenirs
And I don;t know how they slipped away from me'.....John Prine

Technique

Church of Ireland -New Technique - iPhone4

Technique: The way in which the fundamentals, as of an artistic work, are handled.

As you learn new image management techniques, go back into the archives and re-process older images. While I do this on a regular basis (both big boy camera and iPhone images) the re-processing of older images is worth the time and effort, not to mention a worthwhile learning experience. Even the most subtle change, as in the image posted today, can be significant. . I would advise giving this exercise some time in your daily work-flow - even if just one image a week...

The image today was simply given a new sharpening and contrast technique I picked up over the past few weeks...subtle as mentioned but works for me....

 Did I mention that an iPhone or iPad is the perfect tool  - Filterstorm works well for this type of exercise.

Church of Ireland - Original Process - iPhone4