St Malo Summer

St Malo Summer
Shot iPhone 3GS processed iPad

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" fast became the motto of our recent French holiday as, following just one morning of glorious, cloudless sunshine, the weather went decidedly "English" on us: although you might well enquire what else we should have expected, given that we had only travelled to the other side of the Channel. Thundering rain and high tides pounding against a sea defence wall may not be the best of conditions for sun bathing, but they do provide some dramatic photo-opportunities. So, undeterred, we zipped up our pak-a-macs and set out to brave the elements. Dodging 18-foot high waves turned out to be lots of fun and for our acts of daring-do, we were rewarded with some rather atmospheric shots.

A little of the texture in the above image was created with a new iPhone app that I've been playing with: TtV Studio Pro. It features a set of five preset filters that emulate Through the Viewfinder photography. The presets can be modified with sliders but, in my opinion, the app could be improved if it were possible to modify viewfinder frames and grunge by means of separate sliders: possibly an update feature for the developers to consider?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

French Leave

St Malo Gothic
Shot iPhone 3GS, processed iPad


Can it really have been as long ago as May when I last posted on my blog? Things have got to change around here! To get the ball rolling, here are two iPhone images from my recent holiday in St Malo, France. The one above was mostly processed with Snapseed. The one below began with a Hipstamatic shot. Both have been processed on my iPad 2 but with apps that are available for both iPhone and iPad.







Water Gate, St Malo
Shot iPhone 3GS, processed iPad

While I'm here, I'd like to welcome new followers to my blog and wave to old friends. Back soon, with lots of news, I promise!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Solace

SOLACE

Shot iPhone 3GS, processed iPhone and iPad


Finally, we have had some rain. Not enough to top-up the pond, but enough to kiss the leaves and petals of grateful roses. We have planted one over our dear little cat, who finally slipped away, early one morning, a few weeks ago. She's buried under the beautiful Elder, next to my studio, so I can keep an eye on her and she'll always be close, which is just how she would have liked it.

Still Living

LAID TO REST

FEATHERSEED

ANGELIC APPARATUS


Shot iPhone 3GS, processed iPad
Museum In The Park: Stratford Park, Stroud, Gloucestershire

HUNTED

HUNTER


Shot and processed iPhone 3GS
Doncaster Museum, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

Objects displayed in museum cabinets or tableaux, still and silent.
Returning home, I contemplate other possibilities...

Offerings

FLOWER OF MONTPARNASSE

LOYASSE: FLOWERS OF MICHEL BRACCO'S FAMILY

LOYASSE: FLOWERS OF JOSEPH, AMELIE AND FRANCISQUE BABEY 01

LOYASSE: FLOWERS OF JOSEPH, AMELIE AND FRANCISQUE BABEY 02

LOYASSE: FLOWERS OF FRANCIS NAILLOT WHO DIED IN THE CATASTROPHE DE ST. JEAN 13th NOVEMBER 1930

LOYASSE POPPIES





LOYASSE: WEEDS ON THE GRAVE OF A FAMILY WHOSE NAME CANNOT BE READ, ON A PLOT WITH AN EXPIRED LEASE





LOYASSE: PRESENCE AT THE DOOR



These images are a selection from an on-going series of explorations.
Flower Of Montparnasse: photographic montage incorporating page from 1930s hairdressing manual and flowers on a grave in Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris. All other images: Loyasse Cemetery, Lyon.
Shot iPhone 3GS. Processed iPhone 3GS and iPad 1

iPhone Tutorial 02: Little Fishy Collages

GETTING LOST IS JUST PART OF THE PROCESS

iPhone 3GS collage

Power-users beware! What follows is a very simple introduction to the art of creating collages with an iPhone. In this tutorial I'm going to demonstrate how to:
1. Create an interesting background with just one click of an app
2. Extract an element from a photograph and collage it onto another
3. Work with blur to blend two photographs together

First, a word about "kit": I spent a year making iPhone collages before a very kind friend gave me a stylus. As I'd taken about the same amount of time using a track pad to make digital collages and scrapbook layouts before I got around to buying a graphics tablet, I'm pretty nifty and precise with my index finger tip, but a stylus certainly makes tasks such as erasing large areas from photographs (which you do a lot of when making iPhone collages) much easier and you don't strain your hand and arm quite so much. there are several models on the market now and everyone has their favourite but I'm still using my Pogo Sketch.

OK...here we go!

The image above began life as the following two photographs shot at my local aquarium supplies store...

These were "fast and dirty" shots: there are some odd colours, noise, blur, and a couple of undesirable elements but that's fine, we're going to work with them "as is" without any correction. Feel free to download them for use as you walk through the tutorial but please remember that they are for this purpose only and that the originals or work made with them still retain my copyright.

These are the apps we'll be playing with...




STEP1. TINY PLANETS: create an abstract background

Import the skull into the app, hit the Tiny Planet icon at the bottom of the screen, left hand side and...



wheeeeeeeee...



Our skull comes out of the blender looking like a piece of modern sculpture. So what does the Tiny Tube button do? Try it!



Marvelous! We're going to work with this second version so save it to camera roll.

STEP 2. JUXTAPOSER: Extract fish from photograph and collage onto the background created with Tiny Planets

Following the on-screen prompts, import both photographs into Juxtaposer. Your screen should look like something like this:



Now Select Erase. The icon at the top right hand side of the screen, next to the undo icon, is the brush modification button. We're going to erase a large portion of the photograph so to begin with, choose a largish, opaque, hard brush...


Use Pan & zoom to get closer in...


As you get closer to the fish's body, make the brush smaller, softer and more transparent to give the fish a soft edge that will blend into the background.

You may wish to use the Move Top Image tool to move the fish into the blue area where it's easier to distinguish her from the background.



If you nibble in too far, you can always select the Unerase tool and paint some of the photograph back into the image.

Once you're satisfied with the fish, reposition and re-size her. at this point, it's also a good idea to save the fish as a "Stamp", in case you want to use it again: to find this option, select the icon in the top left hand corner > Save > Save masked top image as stamp.
Whilst in this menu, select Save Image: this will merge fish and background, and save to camera roll. Here's a close up of the little fish in her final position:




Good work! However, I am picky and despite using a soft brush to extract fishy from her original background, she still looks just a little too hard-edged and "stuck on" for my liking. So on to...

STEP 3. BLUR FX: add blur

Select Gaussian blur and use the slider to modify the strength of the effect.



By switching the mask on and off, you can see how much of the blur you're removing or applying...


...and what the effect looks like. In this instance, we're using the CLEAN brush to erase almost all of the blur effect, just leaving a soft edge at the back of the fish to blend her with the background and give a sense of movement...


As in Juxtaposer, the brushes in Blur FX can be modified for work in smaller areas and tight corners.

When you have erased most of the red mask from around and inside the fish, turn off the mask to check how it looks. If you've gone to far with the cleaning job, you can always select the BLUR tool and brush the effect back to the image where required.



Just to remind you, here's what the final collage looks like...



I am in love with this intrepid little fish. Here's a companion piece created with the Tiny Planets mash of the skull...

SWIMMING OUT OF THE SKULL

Finally, here's a collage created using just BLUR FX and JUXTAPOSER...



THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
iPhone 3GS collage

I hope you've found this tutorial useful and fun. I'd love to see your collage creations so please do share links!

Digital collages with iPad and iPhone

THE FIXED POINT

iPad collage

Then I first acquired my iPhone in November 2009, I made nothing but collages with it and my camera roll fast became a rag-tag repository for photographs of rather odd objects and textures that I'd later cut, paste and blend into miniature mash-ups. Eventually, I became frustrated with the practical limitations and resolution output of most of the apps I'd been using. Also, being a flighty, creative type, I wanted to experiment with other camera apps and techniques. So, as you do, I moved on, but the lure of virtual scissors and glue is strong and I've recently returned to collage, but this time on I'm also working with my iPad. It's still a fiddly process, but as the screen is larger, it's slightly less of a strain on the eyes.
The collage above is the latest one I've done but for the sake of those of you who have only recently discovered my blog, here are some I made earlier, with my iPhone...

TIME FLUTTERS BY

A WISH

JAMIE'S BIRD


SUMMER SISTERS


A BOY'S OWN STORY



FRAGMENT 01

I'm preparing a simple tutorial that features two recent iPhone collages. It's almost ready and will be posted here later on today or tomorrow.
See you later!