Category Archives: Editing

Editing pictures on the iPhone

Hipstamatic adds Infrared effect filters through Bucktown Hipstapak

Hipstamatic, the film and lens filters app, is making the sharp black-and-white impact of Infrared photography to a new combo Hipstapak. Called “Bucktown“, the pack includes a film and lens which can be mixed with other films and lens you may already have in your Histamatic grab bag for even more impactful photography.

Previously, when a new HipstaPak was introduced, the lens/film would appear in the oggl social app, included at no extra charge above the social service subscription. This appears to no longer be the case. To use the lens/film in oggl, you must purchase in Hipstamatic, then import into oggl.

The lens in the Bucktown bundle is the ‘Scott S’, named after Scott Strazzante. I have not run this lens against other films to see the difference that it makes on a photos, watch for an update here.

The film is the BlacKeys IR film, which is the backbone to the sharp black-and-white results of photos using this film filter.

While called Infrared, most people will see a resulting image and relate it more to a monochrome print of yesteryear.

Quick High Resolution HDR With Editing Through Lightroom Mobile

Adobe has updated their Lightroom Mobile app with a few features that will be improving my workflow:

Authentic HDR taking through the app
Exporting original raw images to camera roll
Improved rating for images
Improved cloud syng

The addition of HDR photography to the app has the customization tuning that I would expect from a Adobe app. Rather than one-size-fits-all, a bit of tuning helps set the app to my HDR style:

A winning feature of using Lightroom Mobile app for HDR is it’s option to have it in the quick apps area of the iPhone. When access is turned on, a HDR snap is just a right swipe on the screen away.

Once a moment is captured, the Lightroom Mobile app takes a little while to save to it’s own editing library. Once there, the HDR photo has all the fine turning options that any photo edited in the app gets:

I enjoy the apps handling of editing a selected area. Most apps let you set a dot or crosshairs where the edit will happen, while Lightroom Mobile uses a circle solution so the editing area is truly known:

Raw image saving is handled via a picker to choose the image between JPG and DNG

The improved rating solution is within the photo detail view… select as many or few stars as the picture deserves.

Walk The Wild Side With A New Film And Lens For Oggl And Hipstamatic

Normally, there is a bit of a time difference between lens/film combos coming out across the Hipstamatic camera and photo sharing products. But, this weekend Madagascar showed up in both! If your a fan of shooting with film and lens effects to get more of a film camera experience, there is the bundle in Hipsamatic iPhone Camera app. If your a fan of the Oggl photography social sharing, you now have the film and lens to mix and match with your other favorites too (Oggl allows for the film/lens combo change after the photo is taken).

In the case of the Hipstamatic app, there is a new camera face to use too. Love the colors!

Here is a shot I just took using the Madagascar combo

Fine Tuning Now For Tiny Planet Creations

If it has been a while since you took a look at Tiny Planet, you may want to update and get in to play a bit. The latest update has brought a slew of new fine tuning options. All of these are considered as ‘Live Editing’ tool as you can see what you will get as you make the changes. The tuning options include: Edge Alignment, Latitude, Longitude, Zoom, Horizontal Offset, Vertical Offset, and Duration of the Video if you choose to share the creating of your Tiny Planet.

Improvements to previously available tools is also included for the Edge Blur and Rotation.

Using either a photo from your iPhone’s library or taking a new, choose if you want the wrap to globe or tunnel effect. You can change your mind if you don’t like the direction a picture is going. During this process is when you can also choose the video options.

Following the globe or tunnel effect application, a row of fine tuning adjustments appear. Each of these can be selected, then a dial like slider is provided below to tune the image.

All of these options allow for a less random final Tiny Planet photo.

The Free iPhone Photo Editor Inside of Google+ App

Google+, the social sharing service from Google, has its lovers and haters. Google has tweaked it from time to time to get it to match a plan they have. While I post there and enjoy viewing many photographers work, it has never caught on as my first social solution when I want to get the word out. That is just me, your milage will vary.

Many updates appear to be to tie Google+ more directly into Google’s other services, and in some cases for enhancements to replace the need of those other services. One area of enhancements has been the improvements to the photo editing features. There is still the ‘quick filters’ for effect, but now there are other enhancements in the area of pinpointing photo turning.

The photo editing features are available on either the iPhone or iPad via the free Google+ app. It does require you have a Google+ account, but you are not forced to ever post any of your images to Google+. That said, inside of Google+ is the feature to auto sync all of your photos to the Google online storage if you would rather use another service than the iCloud/iPhoto builtin option.

Starting off, the app lets you take a photo or edit one you took previously. Across the top is a Cancel (exit without saving any edits), an undo, a mirror flip and ‘Done’. After you complete your edits, the photo can be saved to the iPhone’s photo library or shared for others to see on Google+. Across the bottom of the first screen is Google’s Auto Enhancement too (it does allow a slight bit of control over the amount of ‘auto’ applied), then the Crop and Rotate tools. I’m amazed at how few photo editing apps do not include a ‘rotate’. A quick win for Google+ photo editor.

Swipe across the bottom of the screen’s menu to go to the pre-configured filters.

Choosing a Google+ photo editor effect filter opens to a group of finer detailed options in that area of filters. Generally, these can be selected to fine tune the amount of the effect applied too.

The pinpoint editing option allows for taping a location, adjusting the size of the area to be impacted, then swipe left/right for the amount of the effect. A swipe up/down offers more options for the tuning. The app allows for multiple points to be selected and tuned (individually) without having to exit and return to the photo like other pinpoint solutions do.

Sochi Games Are Over, Do We Still Need The iPhone HipstaPak? Sure!

During the last Winter Olympic Games, the group behind Hipstamatic released a film/lens pak named after the Sochi city. It was interesting but would it live up to staying on the iPhone after the end of the games. As I looked over a few recents shots I took, it would appear it is standing up to time.

If you are a Hipstamatic iPhone camera app user, this is a HipstaPak with a lens and film bundle. Rather than a vintage film look, it produces images that have a feel like new film in a vintage camera (I shoot a lot with new 620 film in my Kodak Hawkeye so I recognized the results pretty quickly).

The photos provided by Hipstamatic show colors are still bright, with a cool light effect.

As usual, here is a couple shots I took with the combo so you can see the Sochi HipstaPak in real life usage:

If your a subscriber to the Oggl photo sharing app/service also provided by the Hipstamatic group. You have access to the lens/film at no additional charge (within Oggl, not the Hipstamatic app). At first, the lens/film bundle on Oggl under the name of Sochi was different than the HipstaPak in the Hipstamatic app. It has been corrected now, but you can see the above shot as it looked via Oggl below.

Clarity Goes Pro In The New Updated Camera+

Camera+ is an app I jump to when I need to do a quick tune of a photo. The app has a large group of filters, that can be layered and each can have their level of application adjusted. As well, there are non filter tuning options, frames and rotate. One of the best known Camera+ enhancements is the Clarify tool. Apply the feature to sharpen colors and brighten dark areas… sort of a clean HDR solution without going full HDR.

The adjusters for filters more descriptive now via icons and colorization in the slider.

In addition to the Scenes, Crops, Filters and Frames in now ‘The Lab’ option. Some of the options Camera+ already had like Rotate are in this group now. Also, is the addition of more Power adjustment. This is where Clarify Pro lives, along with DuoTone, SoftFocus and FilmGrain.

Depending on the enhancement, there are different and possibly multiple sliders to get the impact to the level the user is looking for. As the Camera+ slider is moved, a percentage number appears above the line (disappearing when the slider movement is stopped). Notice the other options in the tuning group are available to jump to via the micro icons along the bottom of the page, no need to go back to the overview screen.

The filter pages still show the different filters applied to the image. The thumbnails look larger and easier to see the photo impact. ‘I heart Analog’ and ‘Hollywood’ are still extra charge filter groups. While Camera+ isn’t a ‘photoshop’ of iPhone, it is an app that adds a bit to any iPhone photo.

Creating Polaroid Like Wall Collages

Major Polaroid fans have rows of Polaroid shots all nicely lined up on their walls. Artist create smaller collages of Polaroid photos put together to make a bigger picture, telling a story. Usually, this is done by scenes that require several photos to cover an area or a subject from different perspectives.

Not having a Polaroid camera in a person’s camera collection doesn’t mean the art can’t be done. One quick solution is to take a photo with the iPhone and split it into sections, sort of a reverse multi image collage. Instead of starting with a bunch of photos and arranging, start with a single image and cut it apart. With the holidays around the corner, snapping a photo of something seasonal will be great to use. Luckily, my wife owns a Antique shop so I have lots to grab quickly. Holiday Store window decorations are another option rather than setting up a shot on your own.

Using nSquare, I import a photo a choose how many parts I want it broken into. The app actually allows for multi photos and resizing a single.

Keep in mind, this app will be breaking the photo into individual images in your iPhone’s camera roll. You can do the process twice, using the same image both times but adjusting a bit so that one square in the pattern of photo parts is slightly off ‘normal’. Think ‘Picasso’

Now that you have your bits, you can use them as they are, printing each. If your going to print your own, you may want to import the photos into the Instant app. Instant is a Polaroid app that will surround the images with the classic Polaroid frame, as well allow for adding a touch of retro finishes. Print, then trim.

If you don’t want to print, trim and cut, there is always the free app Printic. Printic offers a variety of print/mail services, the one I used for my wall art is their standard format which happens to look a lot like a Polaroid framed images.

The individual images can be stuck/pinned on the wall or clipped together and hung as a single large using. Now, looking at the below images arranged, you can see how the borders or resizing of a single image will give a more retro pop to the overall story. Remember, each frame is a separate image that can be tuned, but with nSquare, the individual images are basically cut apart for you.

New Fuzel for iOS7 – Collages, Stamps, Text and More

Fuzel has always been a go-to-app for me when I need to get a collage of my iPhone photos put together quickly. Today there was an update to Fuzel, making both Fuzel and Fuzel Pro a ‘legacy’ app. All of the new features and UX has been put into a iOS7 specific Free app.

What makes Fuzel so quick to get going is the feature of choosing the images, then the app creates a template to use all of the photos. Rather than finding a template, then finding and inserting one picture at a time.

The collage can then be tuned using the options across the bottom of the screen, each opening to offer more options and fine tuning.

Each area has a simple pack of options to use without any extra charges. Frames, backgrounds, stamps and even text. Fuzel is almost more of a iPhone scrapbook app than just a collage creation tool.

When the image is as you like, share or save to a full featured list of options.

Fuzel does offer a wide variety of optional upgrades to all of the feature add-ons. I was a bit surprised by the below text box when I went to the ‘Store’ area. It would appear that purchasing more stamps, backgrounds and other enhancements require I give Fuzel access to my Facebook friends. The app mentions that this is required to recover my purchases later. Others just use my iTunes login, I wonder if there is anything more than Fuzel collecting data on me. Watch out, if you choose ‘Yes, I do”, then refuse when you get to Facebook, you will get locked into a loop of Facebook/Fuzel screens bouncing back and forth. To get out, removing Fuzel and Facebook from the multitask area of iOS7.

The Fuzel options list of add-ons are very nice for anyone wanting to do more enhancements than just adding filters to photos. Like I mentioned, these options can be applied for more of a Scrapbooking creation. Below is a very small example of the long list of purchasable bits to use.

iPhone Photos Become Printed And Shipped Products All Using The iPhone

I have mentioned using Zazzle before as a great way to bring my iPhone photographs into the physical world. Generally, this means photos printed to mousepads, notebooks, iPhone cases and tshirts… the usual. Most, I post up for others to buy, netting me a little unmanaged profit.

Zazzle has moved the creation of the products (and ordering for those not needing to create anything new) and shipping all to the iPhone. Even, drop shipping, meaning a fun gifting option. No one needs to know I created, ~~posted~~, ordered and shipped while sitting in a business lobby waiting for attendees to arrive. All via a wheel picker interface I pointed out earlier that I liked on other apps. The picker’s options are obvious if you have a ‘buyer’ using it in mind.

The free Zazzle app lets a person search for products created by others by buyer type, pricing and product type to quickly narrow in on what you need to buy.

It appears though that I can not create a product via the app to put up on my store. Perhaps that will be added later… or, I could just be missing the option. You can get to Your Products via the left side pull out if you need to order an item you created via the desktop interface.

Today (11/25/2013) only, Zazzle is offering 20% everything using CODE: BLKFRIDAY301

First, the Zazzle app is for people to use to shop what others have created. Secondary is the creation side using your own iPhone photos.

After you upload a photo, sweep through a few options to add the image too, then customize.

Of course, ornaments of a wide variety of designs.

You can even create wrapping paper (several patters available) through the Zazzle app.

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