Zion N.P.: The Perfect iPhoneography Locale

Yesterday afternoon along the Virgin River, surrounded by red rock cathedrals - the iPhone was up to the task and I ignored my big girl camera. Pro HDR, Tiffen Photo FX for enhancing, polarizing, and grad filters. A shout out to John Baker and wife Laurie who are leading a photo tour here - love your work! (See more of their photos and fab photo tours at travelimages.com).

Painteresque: iPhone Diva’s New Fave App

I was asked the other day what might be my favorite iPhone photo art app. That’s hard to answer - because I have lots of favorites - and they change all the time.

It all depends on what I want to convey in an image, and that usually involves a number of apps for each shot. Sometimes I’ve previsualized - taking a shot with a specific app in mind; other times it’s an organic process of just working a photo until it “feels right”.

Occasionally, I run across an app that is a favorite across the board - for almost any image. While I’m usually not a huge fan of “one trick pony” apps, in the case of Painteresque, I’ve made an exception. Because it is simply phenomenal! So I can say that this week, it’s my favorite app.

Here are a few images to give you a taste of what this yummy app can do.

A view of an entryway/garden in Honolulu.

My friends David and Victoria Ruderman (iPhone Diva artist contributors) have puzzles set up in their great room for breaks from work and art play. I loved the play of light on the boards and the repeat of triangles.

A heart shaped leaf on a ginger lei makes a perfect Hawaiian style valentine.

Outrigger canoes at rest on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

New iPhone Photo Gallery

iPhoneographer John Derby contributes a few of his favorite iPhone images to iPhone Diva. To create The Green Bar, he used these Apps: Snapseed, Pro HDR, Simply HDR, Grungetastic HD.

 About Iris #4, John says:  "I used only Pro HDR, and Snapseed (get the joke?) on this flower's pic." Love the selective focus here.

 My favorite: One Suspicious Bull was created with Camera + for clarity. Snapseed for straightening, cropping, and detail. Pro HDR, Simply HDR, and Pic Grunger.This photo "was taken at my Granddaughter's house when we stopped to drop off some milk after our ubiquitous trip to Walmart. We live in the tiny town of Chadwick, Missouri, where the only two businesses are Kay's Country Store and the little one-woman post office. Euba is the name of the Post Mistress, and she is the closest thing we have to a mayor, leading the parade as she does each June for "Railroad Days". The old School Bus serves as the bull's shelter in bad weather."

Photo Sync is The #1 Transfer App

Okay iPhoneographers, yesterday I posted about 2 of my favorite transfer apps. I closed the post with that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. However today is a new day, and I am changing my story, after hearing from the PhotoSync folks that their app also works via Bluetooth. So I tried it and I'm now happy to report that PhotoSync rocks over bluetooth! It is blazing fast and is now my only go-to transfer app. (Sorry, Photo Transfer. It was lovely while it lasted.)

Transferring Photos From iPhone to iPad to Computer

One of the questions I am most often asked is "What's the best app for transferring photos back and forth?" Working on the iPhone itself can be a fast track to eyestrain especially if you are using a painting app, such as my fave Pixel Blend. Ideally, we'd rather "app" our photos on our iPad or optimize them on our computer. So we need a reliable and quick way to transfer our art.

Of all the apps I've tried, (and as an appaholic, I've tried a bunch), the one that gets my overall vote is PhotoSync. For $1.99, you can install it on both your iPhone and iPad. The computer version is free (of course, you have to have it installed on one of your other devices for it to work.)

It is unbelievably fast - I've never had it crash or had any problems with it. I use it everyday. There is only one caveat: you must have wifi access.

And, traveling around to photograph, there may be times - gulp - when there is no access (eg. in the Galapagos, or Yosemite or camping.)

For those situations, I depend on my previous favorite transfer app:  Photo Transfer. ($2.99 in the app store.) Because (drumroll please), it also works with bluetooth. Just turn on bluetooth on both devices, open Photo Transfer on both, and voila, you are on your way. Go have a cup of coffee or chimp on your big boy/big girl camera for a bit, because bluetooth is a lot slower than wifi. But it's still magic.

The above image was transferred to my iPad or I'd never have been able to process it - the iPhone, much as I love it, is just too tiny for accurate brush strokes. This heliconia blossom was "painted" in Ghostbird Software's Photoforge app using the smudge tool, (way harder than Pixel Blend, but it wasn't available when I worked this) then combined with a sketch of the same image from Jixi Pix Artista Sketch app. The combining and blend mode was done using IRIS Photo Suite app.

So iphoneographers, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. The two best and most versatile transfer apps for less than the cost of a latte. You can't afford not to have them!

No iPhone Yet But You Have an iPad? No Problem!

Photographer Carol Robinson has begun the foray into "apping" by bringing her big girl camera pix into her new iPad and the rest, as they say, is history. I predict an iPhone in her future as well - after all, the best camera is..wait for it... the one you have with you!

Apps she has been using so far include Picture Suite for the Star Magnolia,  PhotoArtista Haiku and Blender. Me thinks I see a little pic grunger too.  So no iPhone, only an iPad? No problem.

As Carol says: "Addicted is the word for sure..I feel a lot more free to play with these images.
I like the Artista Haiku [the middle photo] the best of the three.   There are so many Apps , like so many colored pens. Hard to figure out what to do first."

Amen. Creativity to the max!

iPhone Art Around The World: Guest Gallery

Favorite contributor Rik Cooke shares a unique iPhone view of Rodeo Drive during the holidays. Leave it to a National Geographic photographer to put the "best camera" to photojournalistic use.  He used Pro HDR app and cleaned up the images in Lightroom and Snapseed.

And a new artist has offered her fresh and inspiring iPhone artwork: Vye Young.  Like so many of us, she can't remember the apps that she worked on her phone and iPad. We just get carried away sometimes.

Photo 1 is a detail of the George Hotel - Lviv, Ukraine

 About Photo 2, Vye shares: "Here is another app laden photo that turned from drab to pow with iPad apps.  This photo taken at a Park near us on Vancouver Island.  ps that is not snow!"