Sunday, October 21, 2012

Vintage Toy


Camera App used: 645pro

Additional apps used for post processing:
Snapseed - for a little drama effect with de-saturation.
Portrait HD - JixiPix new app is meant to create beautifully painted portraits, but it's also well suited for any other kind of picture. I had no portrait picture at hand so I tested it on this one.
Blender - to blend the Snapseed version with the Portrait version. Reason was, I wanted to restore some detail on the camera lens which had been lost due to the painting effect. So I erased that part from the Portrait layer and lend it with the Snapseed layer at 88% in normal blending mode. I chose 88% because I wanted to keep part of the canvas texture still shining through on the lens.
Snapseed again - to add a little bit of drama again as well as some fine tuning of light and colors.
PhotoToaster - for the frame
A+Signature - for the copyright watermark.

A few days ago I was finally holding my latest toy in my hands, a genuine Kodak Retina IIIc vintage rage finder camera from the early 1950s that I auctioned on eBay. It came with its original manual as well as with its Certificate of Import and Ownership. Doing a little research I found out it must be a pre-1956 build after it's serial number. The camera is is great condition. The body shows only little traces of wear, all mechanical parts work smoothly and the selenium light meter reacts vividly to light changes. Today I rode out on my bike to do some first shots with the camera. Now I'm curious to bring the film to the photo store for development.
The camera is all mechanical and that's great! It's massive metal body feels great in my hands.

Below is another photo that I took with the 645pro. It's unedited. 


Looks like I'm on my best way to become an addicted vintage camera collector....

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Saturday, October 6, 2012

How to: correct the iPhone lens distortion...


Camera App: 645pro with F4 b/w film and 645 format.
Location: Luxembourg Main Station, the new sidearm with the modern glass roof in front of the old station building. I took this photo late in the evening, as the station was deserted.

Additional apps used for post processing:
Frontview: to correct the lens distortion. The photos below show you how I did it.
Photo fx Ultra: for cropping and contrast.
PhotoForge2: for a slight re-sharpening.
Pixlromatic: for the frame.
A+Signature: for the copytight watermarks.




This is the original photo as taken with the 645pro. You can see clearly that even if you align one side to the camera grid (left) the lines on the other side are oblique. To correct this I used a neat little app called "Frontview".


This is the Frontview screen after loading my picture....



The first reference point is set....


Second reference point top left...


Third reference point down right....


Fourth reference point set top right. Note that the points follow the lines that shall be straight after processing.


Now tap the arrow to process the picture...



Done!

After this operation completed, I saved my picture and I opened it in Photo fx Ultra for cropping and enhancing. Then I opened the newly saved version in PhotoForge2 for a slight re-sharpening, added the frame in Pixlromatic and the copyright watermark in A+Signature.

I hate it when I photograph a building and some lines appear oblique, no matter what I do. The happier I was as I discovered "Frontview". You cannot only take photos with it and correct them, you can also load photos made with other apps to be corrected.

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