iPhone Abstraction: A Guide to the Rabbit Hole

Many of you know that I have disappeared down a giant rabbit hole these past couple of weeks exploring abstraction with the iPhone. I have a feeling that I won't be emerging into the light of day anytime soon, however I promised to show my steps in creating these, so here goes.

I was shopping and noticed the pepper display in the produce section. I thought the colors might make a good base for an abstraction, so I snapped it.

Next I took it into Glaze app and chose a glaze that kept the color but made the photo much less recognizable.

Now that it was pure color, I decided to crop out just a section of the photo to use as my base. I used Snapseed to crop freestyle.

I took it into Matter app and chose one of the styles, expanded it with my fingertips on the base until it looked like I wanted it too. I never know exactly what is going to look good to me in Matter until I do it, so there are many trial and error bits that I do not save. I liked this next one so I saved it.

Now it was getting interesting. It felt "spacelike" to me, like a wormhole. (I have no idea what a wormhole might look like, by the way.) Next, I brightened it in Snapseed.

I felt that I needed a "space" object, so next went into Alien Sky app. I tried some stars, even some galaxies, but I didn't like them. I inserted a Saturn like planet, which I liked very much.

Now, the photo is coming together for me. I then took it into an app called Shift to add some texture. The effect is subtle, but I really liked it.

Next I added another texture and vignette filter from Shift. It was not what I was looking for but interesting enough that I saved it.

Finally, I revisited an old favorite app called Laminar (formerly IRIS) and used the Space texture to add a smattering of stardust. I am happy with the final result. I look forward to seeing what you all do with your own abstractions.

Land of the Midnight Surf

One of my favorite newcomer apps is Color Thief. Basically, you choose a photo and choose another of  your photos (or theirs or a website) and the app "steals" the color palette of that second photo and applies it to the first. Sometimes, it's weird, sometimes wonderful, and sometimes you just get to "see" differently.

I was in Honolulu recently and shot this photo on the beach. I loved that the patterned surfboard tells you exactly where you are. It was a gray, cloudy day just before a storm. I just used Snapseed app for some basic optimizing.

And it is fine, as is. Then I started to flip through the Color Thief using other pix I'd taken the same day.This one was a little brighter from a sunnier photo. I like it as well.

A more monochromatic shot yielded this faded, vintage look. Notice we lost some detail in the clouds, so if I really loved this I would probably go into Blender and paint in clouds from the original after desaturating it so as to match the tone. I wasn't enamored enough of this effect to do that, however.

I actually like this one a great deal. I don't mind the cloud detail being gone - the image is already pretty surreal and it just adds to the strange and moody feeling.

Then I let Color Thief use the heavy blue purple tones from an aquarium shot to almost make a day-to-night effect. I liked it but it needed something to really make it feel like night. Laminar app (formerly called Iris) has a vintage effect called Space - I added it and used a mask so it just showed in the sky and sea area. Voila. Land of The Midnight Surf which is my favorite of the series.

Warning: it is possible (read likely) to use up a lot of time playing with this app. It is just so darn much fun to discover all the ways color can completely change an image. I have to budget the amount of time I play with this or whole days can be lost. It's that addicting.