Friday, April 29, 2011

The Old Shed

This nicely weathered little shed stands in a meadow near the Northern railroad line in Luxembourg, not far from a location called Essen, with an old farm, 3 horses and a lot of milk cows. Since I drive trains on that line often I come along that place in every time of the year, seeing it change with the seasons, so the wish grew in me to go and make photos of it one day. Yesterday that day had come for me. But I will return to make more photos because I was there in late afternoon as the sun was standing behind the shed. Fortunately the sun had been hidden by clouds most of the time so there was no big negative effect on the exposure measuring of the iPhone. But returning in the early morning sure will give all advantages one can have from the rising sun and maybe even some misty meadows.


Camera App: ProHDR


Additional Apps used:


ProHDR - to process the initially made HDR a second time, using it together with the lighter picture taken to produce the initial HDR. I did that because I wasn't satisfied with the outcome of the first HDR.
Filterstorm - for gamma correction.
Dynamic Light - to enhance the HDR effect. I used the normal settings here.
Filterstorm - for noise reduction, slight re-sharpening and desaturation. Then adding a thin white border with 5% width.
Pic Grunger - because I love the old wood for texture. It makes very nice frames. However, despite setting the effect slider to zero and using the Block Party style, there was a very negative effect on the clouds. Part of the sky turned out noisy with ugly brown and black spots while the rest of the picture remained quite untouched by the effect. I didn't like that.
Filterstorm again - to add a 10% white frame to the wooden frame created in Pic Grunger.


I then plaid around with A+ Signature to add a very small watermark for copyright protection but found it very difficult to get it properly aligned. Here, the tiny iPhone screen turns out to be very disadvantageous but since I still have no iPad and there is still no zoom in function in A+ Signature. However the makers of A+ Signature are very cooperative which lets me hope they will add a zoom in function with a future update. I decided to switch over to PhotoShop for doing just that work as well as correcting the frame problem. As for the frame I just cut out the ugly picture from it to insert the original picture I previously used for framing. That way I could use the wooden frame with a clean picture. I then also added my handwritten signature in PhotoShop.


So you iPhoneographers out there please forgive me for not processing this picture on the iPhone only. Placing a tiny signature on a small screen with no zoom in function is really to imprecise to satisfy my needs.


If you got questions or suggestions please feel free to leave your comment. This was my very first HDR done with the iPhone and I'm quite satisfied with the outcome of it. I used my tripod together with a self-build iPhone-to-tripod-adapter. I build that adapter myself because I did not want to wait for a commercial adapter to arrive in a few weeks only since no such adapters can be found in local stores here in Luxembourg.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Gone with the Wind...

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Ina's 1969


Additional Apps used:
Filterstorm 2
Iris PhotoSuite
PhotoSuite
PS Express
ArtistaSketch
Crop 'n Frame
Retouch
A+ Signature


Fascinated by the beauty of the Dandelion blossoms, I had made some photos already as they were in full bloom, but now as the seeds are riping I couldn't resist to try making some more photos of the same plant again with the Hipstamatic. Isn't it astonishing what level of detail and sharpness is possible to achieve even with the low resolution 3.1Mp camera of the iPhone 3Gs? Okay there had been extensive work on this picture with a bunch of other apps, but little had been done to the sharpness of the picture. 

Monday, April 25, 2011

Luxembourg City

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Ina's 1969


Additional Apps used: 
Filterstorm 2
Iris Photo Suite
ArtistaOil
Pic Grunger
A+ Signature


This is the typical view one has to the old city of Luxembourg when entering Luxembourg main station by train, coming in from the North. The rock on the right side is said to be the place where the first castle had been build in 963. The two steeples in the middle of the picture belong to "Notre Dame"cathedral.

Updated the list of my Top 20 image processing and camera apps

I added the apps "A+ Signature" and "photoDECO" to the list of my favorite apps.

"A+ Signature" App Review

Like many other people I used "Impression" to add a watermark to my photos until this day. "Impression" is a handy little tool but what always bothered me was the fact that I only can add printed fonts to my picture. There is no landscape mode and it was quite a bit tricky to place the resized tiny little signature at the correct place in the picture. But I now discovered a nice little app that provides me just what I need to sign my digital artwork with my personal handwritten signature. It's called "A+ Signature". The link provided should bring you directly to the App in the iTunes Appstore. You can test it in a light version which is for free indeed. It convinced me fully so I bought the full version. 


Official description:
A+ Signature is a multi-usage photo annotation tool which allows you to make your marks on any photo.
  • Add a signature, a simple watermark or create a fun photocard. The choice is yours!
  • Annotate pictures of friends reunions, family parties, weddings, classmates or meetings.
  • Add any autograph to your photo.

What convinced me of "A+ Signature" is that it never was easier to handwrite or draw anything you want to add to a picture as well as to turn and resize it easily just the way you want it to. Unlike in "Impression", you don't need to pinch the tiny text between your fingers to resize it. In "A+ Signature" you may pinch anywhere on screen to resize the selected object which makes resizing much easier. Also great is the fact that you may add as many objects as you want. You can turn any object, change its properties to adapt opacity, color or stroke width or add even a shadow to it. And you may also delete any object again indeed.

Conclusion: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Atomic Blue

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Ina's 1969


Additional Apps used:
As far as I remember there was...
Iris Photo Suite
Filterstorm
ArtistaOil
Pro HDR
Pic Grunger
Impression


I presented my finished picture to my 18 year old daughter Anna-Katharina to hear her opinion. First thing she said was that the little Pansy reminded her the Nuclear warn sign (black on yellow). For that reason I gave it the title "Atomic Blue".

Stairway to Hell - Either Way

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Cano Cafenol

Additional Apps used:
Too many! I'm sorry but I didn't record what apps I used. I just worked my way through until I was satisfied with the result.

This is the stairway to the second floor in the old house number 4 in Dondel. It is completely rotten. I bet it will collapse on the first step one would dare to take on it.

Billie

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Kodot XDrizzled


Additional Apps used: 
Auto Painter
Filterstorm
Pic Grunder
Impression


My daughter Anka's beloved Haflinger mare Billie eating the first gras after the Winter season.



Hipstamatic
Lens: Chunky
Film: Alfred Infrared

This entry had been my guest blog at Teri Lou's Blog. You can find it here: 


Additional Apps used
ArtistaHaiku - for the ink. Style: Abstract #5, Paper: the last one on the grid, Settings: all sliders to the full right except but for the ink outline slider set at about 75%.
Paint it! Now - for the first oil. This was just a test to see how the ink picture would look like if overpainted with oil. The result didn't satisfy me completely but I kept it nevertheless.
Iris Photo Suite - to blend the ink layer with the oil layer as well as to adjust the size of the ink layer which was limited to 1000x1000 by Paint it! Now. Method used: Overlay. 
ArtistaOil - for the second oil, Paint Style: Oil Landscape #2, Canvas #5, Texture 0%. I set the texture at 0% because I wanted to apply the burlap texture provided by Pic Grunger.
Pic Grunger - to add the burlap texture. Effect settings at 0%, Canvas at 100%, Style: Block Party, Only with the Block Party style there is no color influence on the rest of the picture, especially the white border.
Filter Storm - to enhance colors and to add two frames, one thin black frame and one larger white frame.
To add my own handwritten signature I used Adobe PhotoShop CS5 because I think it looks better than an ordinary watermark made with Impression.



No More Cooking...







Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Ina's 1969

Additional Apps used:
Iris Photo Suite
Lens Storm
PS Express
Pic Grunger
Impression

The old stove in the kitchen sure saw better times than this. In the kitchen of the old house in Dondel part of the ceiling came down probably because the stones of a collapsed chimney broke through.

Once it was a living room...

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Ina's 1969


Additional Apps used:
Dynamic Light
Paint it! Now
Pic Grunger
Impression


In the former living room of the old house number 4 still a rotten sofa can be found as well as a rotten table and what was left of a kerosene lamp.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

One Lonely Shoe

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Cano Cafenol


Additional Apps used
Dynamic Light
Pic Grunger
Impression


When entering the ruin of old house number 4, this forgotten shoe stands right behind the rotten door.  I did not touch it. Just made a photo and left it where it was.

Old Number 4...

Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Ina's 1969


Additional Apps used: 
Filterstorm
Iris Photo Suite
PS Mobile 
Pic Grunger 
Impression


This is the entry door to the second house ruin in Dondel. Once it was a farm house, aparently abandoned  in the 1970's since I found an old newspaper inside from 1979. Strangely the roof of the main building is still in good shape while the side building with barn and workshop has partially collapsed. It looks like somebody tried to restore that old farm later but gave it up for unknown reason.
Imssion.

Forgotten little House



Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Float


Additional Apps used
Dynamic Light
Inpression


This tiny house, or what is left of it, stands in a meadow not far from the village of Dondel in Luxembourg.  wonder when it was abandoned and why. One cannot get inside because the only door is blocked by big stones and even if it were free to open it would be too dangerous to enter.

Teenie Girl

Hipstamatic
Lens: Lucifer VI
Film: Pistil


Additional App used: Dynamic Light


My daughter Melina, one of my favorite subjects.

Metz Station Hall





iPhone 3GS
Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Kodot XDrizzled.

Another photo that I made during a break I had in Metz before I had to drive the next train back to Luxembourg. While the station hall is comparable to a beehive in the rush hours it is empty and deserted after the many stores closed and the evening rush hour is over. 

Waiting for a train in Metz (France)


iPhone 3GS
Hipstamatic
Lens: Helga Viking
Film: Kodot XDrizzled.


One evening, during a break I had in Metz I walked around to make some Hipstamatic photos before I had to drive the next train back to Luxembourg. I saw these men waiting in the deserted station hall and made a photo.