Ten Reasons To Make The iPhone Your Main Camera

1. The best camera is the one you have with you. The shots that I used to miss when I left my big girl camera at home or in the trunk of my car remain embedded in my brain. And while neurochromes (as photo wizard John Barclay refers to mind-only pictures) make for wonderful memories, I sure wouldn’t mind having a few of the ones that got away. My iPhone is always with me.

2. The iPhone is completely non-threatening for people photography. Sure, you still ask for permission, but hardly anyone will say no to a tiny little phone. And you can email them the photo so that they have it before they get home. How cool is that?

3. The learning curve is blessedly flat. If you can download an app (or someone can download it for you), you can optimize or artify your photos I swear that with every new version of Photoshop, I feel like I’m going back to college for a new advanced degree. I love it, but it is daunting. The iPhone apps are so intuitive that I can just jump right in.

4. You don’t need to carry around a computer, card reader or cords, extra batteries and cards, lenses, etc. etc etc. (Although an iPad is very handy for working your images in a size that you can actually SEE.) There are apps where you can share photos between these devices in moments using wifi or bluetooth.

5. It weighs NOTHING!

6. You can share photos almost instantly via email, Facebook, Twitter, and more - usually directly from within the app you are working in.

7. The apps are so cheap you can’t afford not to have them. And so many of them are FREE! I have over 150 camera apps - I’ve spent less than 1/10 the amount it costs to purchase Photoshop on them. That’s without plugins!

8. You can make art in the moment. And you need never be irritated or upset again about having to wait in line at Costco or at the doctor’s office. I now see these little inconveniences as art breaks and actually look forward to them. No joke.

9. New ideas are stimulated about things you can do with photos in Photoshop, should you be unable to give up your DSLR or Point and Shoot. As my handsome photographer hubby, Dewitt Jones, says, “The iPhone is a great visual sketchpad.” (Watch for his new ebook on iPhone photography coming very soon to all major ebook stores.) Personally, I’d still ditch the big girl / big boy cameras. You know you have enough photo files to work on til the end of time.

10. You can do more than you dreamed of with the apps and more are flooding into the app store everyday. I foolishly tried to catalog all my photo apps with corresponding images to organize visually what they all do. It was a fool’s errand, as everything changed again in a week. Live and learn. I swear that my iPhone can do more than my CS5 with all my Photoshop Wow presets, Nik software, onOne software, Topaz plugins, Imagenomic, and so on. (Though I love them all dearly.)

11. You can work on an image and talk on the phone at the same time. Artistically, however, I do not recommend this. In fact, it irritates me when my camera rings. Don’t they know I’m making art? I turn off my ringer so as not to break my concentration.

Okay that’s 11, but close enough. I’ll see you all out on the photographic trail. I’ll be the one with a teeny, tiny camera bag - it once doubled as my eyeglass case. Actually, it WAS my eyeglass case.

Content Aware Fill - There's An App For That

Yep. iPhone Diva has a new look. Every once in awhile, we all need a makeover, and this site was due. I hope you like it.

I have been on the fast track of learning in iPhoneography this past few months, thanks to an incredible group of iPhone fanatics who share their best with grace and humor. (Lots of humor). Expect to see lots of new apps and arty permutations in the upcoming months.

Some posts will be highlighting apps and what they do. Some may just be sharings of some cool iPhone photos. Some will illuminate some iPhoneography "pros" and how you can learn more from them.

This blog post concerns a terrific app called TouchRetouch. Adobe Photoshop CS5 users will be familiar with content aware fill. Basically, it takes out unwanted stuff like telephone wires and intelligently creates a 'fill' to keep the coherence of the photo.

Okay, photos are better than words. Check out the first image. Dewitt and I were hiking and came upon an old car, or rather the last remnants of a car. No roof, no seats or doors, hard to tell it was even an automobile, except for the gas gauge and instrument panel open to the elements.

I snapped a shot, but as you can see there's a huge white blob in the upper left and an annoying wire coming across the left of the gauge. Still, I loved the colors and textures of the rusted metal.


I selected the offending areas in TouchRetouch with the lasso tool and then asked it to work. The result below is amazing. I actually think it is magic.
To finish the photo, I sharpened it in Perfect Photo (my fave for sharpening and a whole lot more) and added PicGrunger for an antique look.
The grunge turned out to be a little too much for my taste; after all it's already grungy and old. So I backed it off and I like the rendition below best.

Flying High With the iPhone

My pal, surfing instructor, and renowned Photoshop guru Jack Davis was flying high with his iPhone the other day and sent these terrific captures. He used apps
Instagram and ProHDR.

He calls this little portfolio: "What to do when you can't get a window view - steal someone else's!"