Merry Appsmass and Appy New Year

Thanks to dear friend and Photoshop Guru, Jack Davis, for the great 3 bears iPhone cartoon below:



And fabulous Digital Diva, Robin Robertis, shares her zen holiday tree with us all. (Looks like a little Pic Grunger app involvement.)



Inspired by the season, I used Photo Sketch on a shot of snowy everygreens, then added a fun touch with iPhone app called Confetti.




Meanwhile, Jon Leland shot this gorgeous sunset photo of a labyrinth, which we can see so well thanks to the TrueHDR app.


Appy New Year to all - keep shooting and sharing.

iPhone Tribute to Klimt

One of my favorite Digital Divas, Robin Robertis, has done it again. Check out her latest images.

This first one is her tribute to Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. Here's how she did it:

Taken with timelapse
Tweaked in filterforge With sharpen
Gave it a cool texture
Pulled in fx for color tweak
Colorsplash to take some color out
Took pict of some Klimt plates
Then used iclarity
Combined them in Juxtaposer
Framed by tape in photogene....



This bath shot was taken by timelapse
tweaked in FX and thrown into Pic Grunger....



This bath shot was created the same way minus the Pic Grunger.

Bird of Paradise iPhone Photo Art

I took this photo of a bird of paradise bloom, backlit by the morning sun. The iPhone does a pretty good job. It's not a fabulous photo, though - mottled light on the grass in the background, not too interesting. But thanks to one of my preferred apps, Vihgo, I was able to turn it into a more artistic rendition. Paradise indeed.


This is either pencil or sketch filter in Vihgo. They are similar in effect - I check out both with a photo and pic the most pleasing effect for that particular shot.


I took the shot and applied the Xray filter (which is basically inverting it). It came out dark, so I opened the image in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) and lightened the exposure for a more pleasing image. It doesn't look "real" but those of you that know me by now realize that is hardly a problem. My friend Jack Davis of Photoshop WOW fame would say that "It's a feature, not a bug."

I believe that this is the Impression filter effect in Vihgo. Sigh, sometimes I work so fast and am so lost in the imagery that I do forget how I got to my photo art destination. Mea culpa, mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

Thanks iPhone Style

iPhone diva extraodinaire Robin Robertis created this terrific collage thank you card. She used my favortie double exposure app: dxp after she took a photo of some textured paper. She used Ransom app for the type.



DXP with various blend modes created this collage and Photogene provided the frame.

Digital Photo Art Fest With iPhone and More

We have an embarrassment of riches shared in this post of the Digital Diva - iPhone art and digital photo art.

One of my fave iPhone photo buddies, Robin Robertis. shot this image on a recent trip to Japan. Here's how she did it:
pic is of a canvas bag i saw in tokyo
taken 1st into Perfectly Clear
then Photoforge and sharpened, then simulated HDR
topped off in Photogene for the taped corners ;)


And she took this amazing image - I love it! Here's her best recollection of the process and apps:
a color tweak in photoforge ?
and a frame in Photogene...
and a texture might have been pic grunger.

Lucy Lamkin created this wonderful piece - she wishes she could remember just what apps and how she did it. For now, we'll just enjoy it!

Rik Cooke, a frequent contributor of great art to the Digital Diva shot this photo of the recycling area at his retreat center home. This was NOT shot on the iPhone, but on his big boy camera. HDR and Topaz helped him get this amazing look.

Buddha Full iPhone Photo Art

I found a wooden Buddha on the lanai at Hui Hoolana in Molokai, Hawaii, where Jack Davis and my hubby, Dewitt Jones, taught Photoshop for the Soul this month. Using my favorite collaging apps DXP and Brushes, I combined images for these Buddha full pix.

App Earances May Be Deceiving

One of our contributors and a digital diva in her own right, Robin Robertis has been trying some new apps as well as some old faves. Here is a mini gallery of some of her latest work.

Using Shockmypic and FrameMuse, here's her Halloween/Day of the Dead iPhone photo art pix:




She used tiltshiftgenerator to correct for the architecture in London in these two cool pix.




Lastly, we got to play with apps and Photoshop at our Hawaii class with Jack Davis and Dewitt Jones last week - this photo titled "iPhone Buddha" says it all!

iPhone Apps That Blue Me Away

More collages using DXP, the double exposure app and Brushes where you can also do some cool combining. Here's a blue series that leaves me tickled pink.

Double Explosure

Using DXP, a double exposure program with blend modes, I manipulated these images. I finished them off with FotoMuse.

Creative Block With an iPhone App

Cultivating creative block? You bet! One of my favorite apps is called ReNancyKPH. It creates a woodblock print out of a photo - you can choose the color of "ink" for your print, too. A strong graphic works best, otherwise the art just blocks up, pun intended. Here are a couple of examples:

Meeting The Muse - The Fotomuse That Is

My new favorite app is called Fotomuse. With the right image, it can be evocative, moody, or dreamy. I like the layering effects and the borders. It reminds me of polaroid transfers. Here are my first explorations. (But they won't be my last!)

My Favorite Faux HDR App

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range - an overly simple explanation is that you get detail in the shadows and highlights. (For a more complete understanding of HDR check out "Modern HDR photography, a how-to or Saturday morning relaxation" on a blog called Memoirs On A Rainy Day.)

With the iPhone, we can create a sort of faux HDR effect to recover detail in highlighted area (provided there is some info there to recover) and we can add fill light in our shadow areas (again provided there is some info there.)

Here's a shot near Baldwin Beach at Lake Tahoe one evening. Notice how the foreground is dark, without much detail. The iPhone exposed for the sky.



I used the Photoforge app which has an HDR setting that allows you sliders to open shadows and recover highlights. It's okay, but no matter how I move the sliders, it ends up being low contrast. That can be good in some cases, but I want a little more drama in this scene.



Here I use the iFlashReady app to open up the shadows - it has 3 flash fill settings and only works on adding light to the dark. Voila! Now it has the kind of drama I'm looking for. This is my favorite faux HDR tool so far.

Mardi Gras Magic

Okay, Dewitt Jones (my spouse aka the Digital Dude) was bored and procrastinating today also. He found some old images from New Orleans and Photoshop play culminated in this remarkable image. Gotta love that avoidance stuff - gets the creative juices flowing.

I'm a Fan of the iPhone

I was sitting at my desk, fanning myself, and procrastinating (read avoiding at all costs) doing my work. As I held a fan up toward the light coming through the sliding glass door, I was struck by its transparency. I grabbed my iPhone and took several shots. I chose one and used the burnt paper filter in the app ArtCamera. Artcamera is one of my favorite apps and I keep going back to it. The "old" quality works well with this image.



And I used the Picasso filter in Art Camera to create this look - I like this photo a lot. Sometimes procrastination leads to fascination leads to art.

UnBearably Fun iPhone Art

Photographer Rikki Cooke is known to his students, fellow pros, and friends as the Aloha Bear. (Check out his blog of the same name). He has been having way too much fun with his iPhone as those of you who've been following this blog can attest. And his latest 'art' just knocks me out! Check these out:

This is one of the first panoramic shots he created on his iPhone using Pano app. Pretty good shot as is!


But then he brought it into Photoshop. Here's his processing in his own words: "I put it in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) where I used the graduated neutral density on the sky and the dodging brush to open up the field. Then Topaz Adjust, then Clean2, Simplify ( but not oil paint, as it didn't work for this image.) Then Topaz sharpen to emphasize the lines, then resize to a larger size 10x34 and Nik's Sharpener Pro with extra sharpening and structure and last a pass through Noiseware. Most of the painting effect was adjusted to taste in Topaz Simplify. And remember all of this is from a phone!" Be sure to click on the panos to see them bigger so you can truly appreciate the changes!


And how did he paint Old Blue - the Toyota Land Cruiser that has carried so many photo students out into the wilds of Moloka`i Hawai`i? Here's his photo path. "Full image from iphone 3g from iphoto, then processing (at same size) in Topaz Adjust, Simplify (most painting to taste) a little emphasis in Clean2, line sharpening in Sharpener, then resize to 15x20 and extra sharpening in Nik's and a pass thru Noiseware. After saving all of this, time to experiment in Sepia B&W. Last image, converted in Nik's Color Efex, then processed in Nik's Silver Efex, with added structure and tinting . Again the richness of this moment was recorded because I had my phone in my pocket as a dutiful husband always on call, actually I could have answered the phone while I was photographing, in the rain yet. Boy are we on to something here?"

This shot he calls "Laundry Basket Buddy." Here's how it came about:

"This is the full original image straight from iphoto. The thing that is different here is that I'm working from the whole iphone image that is about 4mgs, in the past I was working from an email from the iphone, that was about 1/3 the size and I had to enlarge to 1000 pixels to process in Topaz. After cropping and minor touching up and vignetting and full painting processing in Topaz, the final image is 15x20 and sharp. Again all thanks to having a phone in my pocket for that moment when the light happened to be perfect on the Buddha. I could have even been on the phone while I was taking the photo, talk about " multi- tasking"."

And finally, "here is an experiment in sepia after conversion in Nik's color Efex , and then processing in Nik's Silver Efex , Sharpener , Noiseware and done."


Seriously, we are beginning to wonder why we ever shoot with our Big Girl and Big Boy cameras anymore!

App Arition - iPhone Style

Robin Robertis does it again using the iPhone and a skillful blend of apps to create this haunting photo.

Here's how she did it:

"Used high con ( 1 of my 1st apps.... i never use... stupid really... i think)
then brought into FotoMuse and ran a layer on it...
opened it again in FotoMuse and ran the same filter.... is there a add
layer in that app ?
then of course back into Photogene for the tape on the edges."