Will It Go Round In Circles?

My friend Jennifer Bracewell has just asked how to make circle-shaped images so I thought I'd put together a quick tutorial. Amazingly for me, we're going to use just two apps ( I know, please don't faint!)


First, you'll need a square-cropped photograph. I've recently become addicted to Instagram and this has led me to take a lot of square-format photographs with apps such as Hipstamatic, Format 126 and Lomora 2. For this tutorial, I'm going to be working with such a photograph, that has already been through the processing mill, so you'll need to imagine its rectangulariness!


So, first we're going to import this ahem, imaginary rectangular photograph into a cropping app. There are lots that do this but my weapon of choice is still Photogene


After importing our photograph, it will open in this screen...



Choose the scissor (crop) icon and select 1:1
Grab one if the little corner dots and pull out to enlarge the cropping area. Move the highlighted square around to determine the precise area of the crop.




When you're happy with the crop, select the tick button at the bottom left hand corner of the screen




In the DONE window, save your cropped photograph.

Next, Import the square format photo into Tiffen's PhotoFX


Select LENS FX from the menu at the bottom of the screen


Select VIGNETTE...


Here, I've selected BLACK CIRCLE from the Vignette menu...



Photo FX automatically presents a preview of the photo vignetted with a 50 percent blurred edge: pretty, but not quite the desired effect. Moving the SOFTNESS slider to the far left gives the the hard-edged look we're after...


Of course, because I like to play, I can't resist trying another option, so let's hit the UNDO button(bottom far left) to return to the VIGNETTE menu. Select WHITE CIRCLE...


I'm thinking frosty-edged Christmas cards here!
Here's how it looks with a harder edge:


There you go Jen, Have fun!
And here are two more versions of this image, recently posted to my Flickr stream...



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iPhoneography at the London Apple Store

The London iPhoneography Group have invited me to be a guest presenter at an event taking place this Saturday evening, at the Apple Store, Regent Street, London. We'll each be giving a short presentation of our work and talking about some of our creative processes. If you're in the area, pop in and say "hello"!

What: iPhoneography, with Alvaro Arrequi, Nettie Edwards, Matt Brock, Daniel Holland, Robson Santos, Andrew Chapman, Gordon Fraser and Kevin Thornhill

When: Saturday 12th November @ 3.00 PM

Where: The Apple Store, Regent Street, London

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Saturday Night Diva (Aldgate East)

Shot iPhone 3GS, processed iPhone/iPad

I met this gorgeous young woman on the platform at Aldgate East tube station. She and her friend were on their way to a friend's party, and they were finishing applying their glittery make-up as they waited for their train. They looked so fabulous and were having so much fun, I had to ask if I could take a couple of photographs. There was hardly any time and I was in such a rush to get on my train, so sadly, I forgot to ask her name, but she did say I could post her photo on my blog.

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