“What are you doing?” Dewitt asked as I sat staring intently at my iPhone. “Painting,” I answer.
Autopainter and Autopainter II are two “crazy good” apps for creating photo art paintings. You choose an image and a style of painting such as chalk or felt tip, click start, sit back and watch it work.
I admit that I feel a little like a dog watching a ceiling fan, but it captivates me as it underpaints, brushes, and details. And that’s not so different from those minutes in the darkroom spent waiting for the image to magically appear in the chemical bath.
It’s a little disconcerting at first to see how great an image it fashions from my photos with little to no effort on my part. Still, the best images require more tweaking and blending with the original. Thankfully, I still have some artistic work to do.
And even with all the advances in apps and equipment, there are still two things I have to do as a photographer; the two most important things: choose what is in the frame and when to click the shutter (tap the screen). Composition and decisive moment.
All the apps in the world won’t save a photo if composition is faulty or the moment is missed. Just sayin’.....
The images in this post were blended with the original in either IRIS app or DXP app. In this photo of the bird's nest, I created a mask and painted the egg back in from the original. Try it for yourself - send me your favorites.
