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!