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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Tiny Aliens

Camera Apps: Hipstamatic, CCD,
Extras: Ollo Clip 3in1 Lens System, Macro Lens

Additional Apps used for post processing:
PhotoForge2 - for the usual High Pass versions needed for re-sharpening the photos.
PhotoWizard - for the Emboss effect needed to work out the structure in the main picture. I was blending the embossed version 4x with the previous version in Blender to get the structure effect that you can see in the main picture (top)
Photo fx Ultra - for various enhancements and cropping operations. but especially for the Day for Night effect.
Blender - for many blending operations.
ArtistaSketch HD - for clean sketches of the photos needed to blend in Blender to bring out details in the picture. Pencil sketches are very useful to enhance the outlining in pictures. I usually blend them in either Multiply mode or Overlay mode. You must play around with it and see for yourself what works for your picture. I cannot provide you a basic recipe here. What works for one picture does not necessarily work for another picture as well. That's the experience I made.
TouchRetouch HD - for touch-ups. Strangely there had been some ugly spots left on the drawings created with ArtistaSketch so I removed them before using the sketch version in Blender.
Laminar - for it's great light system used in the picture where the mother plant deploys an egg from one of the cocoons.
iPhoto - for local softening. I love iPhoto for it's "brushes" that can be used locally in pictures. If you want to apply an effect on the whole picture you can choose that option in the brush settings.
LensFlare HD - for the light effects in the blue pictures. Sadly, working with LensFlare is a pain in the ass because it has no undo function which is very annoying to me, but in the end I managed to obtain some useful results nevertheless.
Pixlromatic - for some of the frames.
A+Signature - for the copyright watermarks

Well.... two days ago I looked at one of my wife's flower pots purely by chance which let me discover a beautiful miniature "forest" of some strange little plant I never saw before. So I decided to photograph it. I made over 200 photos, but only few had been really useful. First I shot with the 645pro - the camera app that currently provides you the very best picture quality available on the iPhone. But the 645pro pissed me off once more because it ruined a countless number of really good shots as it crashed again and again. It might provide the best picture quality, but that's useless if the app is crashing that often. So I switched to CCD, which is the other app that saves dRAWs in TIFF format. It's a pure and rather simple camera app without all the fancy camera-simulator-wannabe-pro stuff that comes with the 645pro, but at least it works reliably. It never crashed.

The night scene of that little jungle of alien plants... I really love that miniature world in that flower pot! The night effect had been created with the "Day for Night" effect in Photo fx Ultra. The rays of light had been added with LensFlare HD. The frame was added in Pixlromatic.

Alien Mother deploys an egg from one of the cocoons... Donno what strange little plant that is but isn't it fascinating how it grows in sort of a miniature jungle and how it multiplies itself? Other plants use the wind to distribute their seeds in the world, or use even living animals to carry the seeds to a location far from the mother plant. But this little plant deploys the seeds from cocoons it carries underneath. I only discovered this as I did some shots with the macro lens of the Ollo Clip. Here the iPhone plaid out it's big advantage of being slim and small, compared to other cameras, because there was only little space left in the flower pot to put the camera down enough for shooting from the ant view low over ground. The light effects had been created with Laminar first, then with LensFlare HD.

Hipstamatic shot of the tiny jungle. Combo used was John S lens with Ina's 1982 film

Another Hipstamatic shot made with the Ollo Clip Macro Lens. Combo John S / Ina's 1982.

The original CCD photo used to create the main picture on this page. I cropped it to 1:1 format using Squaready.

The flower pot, where that tiny little alien plant grows... Photo made with CCD, cropped and framed with Pixlromatic.

I'm sorry for not being able to provide you in depth step-by-step instructions about the making of of the pictures on this page but I really plaid around a lot with many different apps until I obtained satisfying results. But don't hesitate to contact me in case you got questions. I'll be happy to assist you with anything you want to know.

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Steam Radio

Camera Apps used:
645pro - for the main picture on this page (above) as well as the b/w version of it (below).
Hipstamatic and Hipstamatic D-Series - for all other pictures.


Accessories: Ollo Clip 3in1 lens system, Macro lens.

Additional apps used for post processing:
PhotoForge2 - for the usual High Pass filter
ArtistaSketch - for a clean sketch to enhance the outlines in the picture a bit.
Blender - to blend High Pass version with the original photo for smart sharpening. Later, Blender was used again to blend in the sketch version to enhance the outlines. Setting was very low to avoid overdoing the effect.
SimplyHDR - for a slight HDR effect with a smooth result.
Photo fx Ultra - to enhance the picture further. Filters used: Polarizer and Fog.
Pixlromatic - for the Janine film effect and later for the Dim frame.
Photo fx Ultra - I loaded the picture again to apply the Day for Night filter. I used only slight settings to tone down the colors a bit with a dark blue overlay.
PhotoToaster - for the vignetting. I love PhotoToaster for vignetting because it allows precise control of the effect.
TouchRetouch - for some minor touchups plus removing the actual date stamp in two of the Hipstamatic photos made with the BlacKeys B+W film.
A+Signature - for the usual copyright watermarks plus insertion of new dates in the previously mentioned Hipstamatic photos.


The main picture of this article shows four of the glass tubes that work in an old radio. It's a Loewe Opta Venus-Stereo Type 4771W build from 1959-1960. My set is still working fine, although its case would need some good restoration work to be done because it's in quite a bad condition. But the electrics still work fine. I thoroughly cleaned the interior before snapping my photos and I was amazed of the brilliant sound quality once more as I switched the radio on again after such a long time - WOW!

You can get additional information about this radio type at the RADIO MUSEUM.

This is the original manual, photographed with the Hipstamatic on top of the radio.

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I enjoy experimenting and I love the Hipstamatic so I tried a lot of combos and D-Series types. But I made the main picture with the 645pro attached to my tripod because I used it in low light condition to get the light effect from the glowing tubes and the light bulbs inside of the radio. I was setting the 645pro to night mode and I used the timer to avoid touching the iPhone. You can see some more Hipstamatic pictures below:

This is the version that I shared on Instagram. No post processing. Just a straight Hipstamatic shot.

Combo: MattyALN+BigUp

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Hipstamatic D-Series, Dreamy. 

The transformer is behind the tubes.

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Hipstamatic D-Series, Dreamy. 

The turn-able ferrit antenna was used to eliminate disturbing parasite noises when listening to long wave and .medium wave stations.

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Hipstamatic D-Series, Dreamy. 

The electric current selector. You had to set the tension manually by loosening the screw and moving the little metal arm to the correct position. The circuit was protected by a little melting fuse of  0.6 Ampere also shown in this picture. The big tube partly visible on the far left reads "Made in Germany". Sadly, in our modern times everything's made in China, or other Asian countries now. The tubes had been manufactured by Telefunken in Germany.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

This picture show one of the resistors. This one has a value of 2 Kilo-Ohm with a tolerance of 10% up and down.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

The external antenna connector, slightly damaged.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

Detail of the ferrit antenna. Copper winding around an iron core.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

Detail of another resistor above some diodes.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

The top of one of the tubes.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

Detail of the middle part of one of the tubes, glowing.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

Detail of the lower part of one of the tubes.

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Hipstamatic with Loftus/DC combo + Ollo Clip macro lens.

Another detail shot of a tube.

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Hipstamatic D-Series BlacKeys44.

I love that camera!

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Hipstamatic D-Series BlacKeys44.

Details of the wires on top of the transformer.

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Hipstamatic D-Series BlacKeys44.

A b/w shot of the complete ferrit antenna unit. Note the strings running on pulleys to turn the antenna when you turn on the radio knob.

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Hipstamatic D-Series BlacKeys44.

The tubes with the transformer and one of the stereo speakers.

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Hipstamatic D-Series BlacKeys44.

Tubes, ferrit antenna and the connectors for an external antenna (left) as well as for a tape recorder (right).

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645pro for the original photo, but the b/w version was made from the finished color version using Pixlromatic. I applied two b/w effects here: Agatha and Joyce. Used the Clip frame.

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If you got questions about my pictures please don't hesitate to contact me. Additionally you may find me on Facebook as well as on Instagram. Just search for "quaffit" :o).

Buttercup Bud

Camera App: 645pro
Extras: Ollo Clip 3in1 Lens System, Macro Lens

Additional Apps used for post processing:

PhotoForge2 - for a High Pass filter version
Blender - to re-sharpen the photo a bit by blending the High Pass version with the original photo in Overlay mode
ArtistaSketch - for a clean pencil sketch version
Blender - to blend the pencil version with the previous version to enhance sharpness, contrast and colors
MokuHD - to see what result Moku will give me...
AristaOil - to see that my picture will look like in oil...
Blender - to see what the result will be when blending the Moku version with the Oil version - and I liked the outcome a lot!
Blender and Blender again - to blend that version with the Sketch version again, then with the Oil version again, then with the original photo again to enhance details...
Camera+ - for the beautiful vintage paper frame
Pixlromatic - for the Perga frame. I love the Camera+ frame a lot but I wanted to make it look a bit different on  this picture.
A+Signature - for the copyright watermark handwritten signature as well as the markings on the composition of the steps I took to make this picture.

Sometimes it pays to put your work aside and let it sleep for a while if you aren't completely satisfied with it. In this case I was playing around with some apps for a while but I wasn't satisfied with the outcome of my picture so I dropped it, but I didn't delete the files. That was about two weeks ago. Now I had a different idea. I created an Artista Moku version as well as an Artista Oil version and I liked the outcome a lot. Then I was blending both versions in Blender and I was blown away by the beautiful result I got. Playing around with Blender a bit more I finally created a picture that I really loved. What about you? Do you like it?

The composition above show you some of the steps I took to create this picture. If you got questions about techniques used please feel free to leave your comment. You may also find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/quaffit. Add me as your friend and we may discuss iPhoneography in detail if you like.

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Cleaning the Roof... (and other Macro photos made with the iPhone)

Camera App: 645 pro + Ollo Clip Macro Lens (for this picture as well as for all the other)

Additional Apps used (for the main picture):
Photo fx Ultra - for slight cropping.
iPhoto - for sharpening of the snail's eye.
Photo fx Ultra again - for manually re-drawing lines to add sharpness to the eye's outlines.
TouchRetouch HD - for some touchups
PhotoForge2 - for slight sharpening + a high pass effect which had been saved as a new picture.
Blender - to blend the high pass version with the previous version to enhance sharpness and contrast. Setting was 100%
ArtistaSketch - to create a pencil drawn sketch with nice outlines because outlining is important to improve sharpness as well as to add the drawing effect.
Blender again - to blend the previous version with the Artista version in Overlay mode, which made it a very nice drawing. Setting 50/50.
TouchRetouch HD again - because I discovered some more spots that I wanted to remove from the picture.
Blender again - to blend the last version with the ArtistaSketch version again, but this time I set the slider only to 20%. You gotta play around with the slider. Stop where you like the effect the most. Move back an forth to see the differences of the effect.
Camera+ - for the Vintage frame. I love the old paper frame for Macro photos!
A+Signature - for the hand signature.

Since the new 645pro App became available I became even more fascinated of macro photography because the image quality of this app is really outstanding, compared to other apps. The 645pro had been made for Pro's they say, or for ambitious hobby photographers. It's a bit more complicated to handle than simple point and click apps but it rewards its user with an image quality not matched by other apps. You can save your photos in lossless JPG (wich lets your files grow up to 12Mb) and you can save them in RAW format, or to be more correct, you can save them in dRAW TIFF format, which means "developed RAWs" are saved in lossless TIFF format. But the TIFFs are saved in a dedicated memory space which is only accessible via iTunes. If you want to process your TIFFs you gotta transfer them to your computer first, then re-transfer them to your iPhone or iPad for processing. This might be a bit annoying, but it's worth the effort.

Even after the latest update, working with the 645pro is very energy consuming so I highly recommend you to have an external battery pack at your disposal or you'll soon run out of power. I use a Mophie Juice pack with 2000mAh, but there are others available with even more power.

The Ollo Clip is one of the greatest accessories ever made for the iPhone. With an outstanding app like the 645pro this outstanding accessory becomes even better. I really enjoy doing macro photos with the 645pro + Ollo Clip. Here are some more examples of my latest pictures:

Dandelion, after the morning rain...

Honey Bee...

Grrrrr...

Diggin' for Gold?

Beware! (an angry little crab spider in defensive position)

Hey bro, did you eat my greenfly?

Tomatoe...

Zipper...

Old Sparky

The Instagram versions (1:1 square format) of my pictures can now be purchased from my gallery at Instacanv.as, printed on real canvas!

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The Beauty of Destruction, part 8

Camera App: ClearCam


Additional Apps used:
BigLens - to separate the background from the foreground.
TiltShiftGen - for additional blurring in the foreground.
FilterStorm4 - for a simple b/w version.
Blender - to blend the b/w version with the color version to obtain more harmonic colors because especially the background had been much over-saturated with reddish tones.
FilterStorm4 - for saturating the foreground and a mask to keep the background desaturated.
PhotoForge2 - for a High Pass version.
Blender - to add a little more sharpness to the machine. At the same time this had the nice side effect to add a little structure to the blurred background.
TouchRetouch - for minor touchups.
Pixlromantic - for the frame.
A+Signature - for the copyright watermark.


November 21, 2011 @ 03.11pm - Demolition work at Luxembourg Railroad Yard continues. Gates had already been removed from Roundhouse #1. Turning table #1 also cut into pieces and removed, this machine now hammers the turning table pitch apart with a huge jackhammer.

The Beauty of Destruction, part 6 - Torch Cut

Camera App: BracketMode

Additional Apps used for post processing:

ProHDR - for an HDR picture made from one single photo. Reason: Because I had no tripod at hand I unfortunately moved a bit too much for ProHDR to align the two photos correctly, which resulted in an unsharp HDR picture. So I did an HDR from a single photo, choosing the darker one for it because the contrast and details had been much better on the molten metal surface than it was on the overexposed photo where that surface was almost white. White pixels contain no information thus they are useless for further processing but underexposed pictures may still be corrected for as long as there aren't too many black pixels included.
I saved two versions from ProHDR - one with low contrast but lighter and one with strong contrast but darker. Then I created an HDR picture again from these two versions in ProHDR. The result was a much better HDR picture than the first one. I also tried SimplyHDR, but no matter what settings I tried I wasn't satisfied with the outcome.
MonoPhix - to create a b/w version of my HDR picture. I prefer MonoPhix for this job because it allows to use color filters. I used a Yellow filter on the rusty surface to obtain a maximum of details. Blue is the complementary color of red, which means that a picture containing much red will turn very dark if you apply a blue filter. On the other hand a red filter applied on a red picture will let all red surfaces appear almost white while a red filter applied on a blue surface will let this one look almost black. Green is a more neutral filter so in most cases a green filter gives nice contrasts to a b/w picture. I was choosing a yellow filter because it gave me a lighter picture than the green filter gave me but still the picture had nice contrast and was rich on details. Don't believe me? Try it out and see yourself ;o)!
Blender - to blend the b/w version with the HDR version in normal mode. This de-saturated the picture a lot because I gave it only 27% of the HDR version.
ArtistaHaiku - for an outlined ink version, almost no color.
FilterStorm4 - one of the most powerful apps available for picture editing on iPhone and iPad recently had an update which motivated me to work with it and test the new version. I loved FilterStorm since I used it the first time because of it's well thought and ergonomic design. Beginners might feel a bit helpless at first because of the many features it offers but once you're used to it you don't want to miss it anymore. I opened the version created in Blender and I added the Ink version as a second exposure. Then I applied a Gradient mask, placing the big circle in the middle of the lower half on the right edge and pulling the small circle over to the the middle of the upper half on the left edge. This revealed the Ink layer partially, with a soft transition from right to left into the de-saturated HDR layer. But like the transition was soft and straight I saved this result and I reloaded it as a second exposure again to the de-satureated HDR version. I did this to apply a mask because I wanted the torch cut piece of steel standing out sharp from the Ink background. I loved the outcome of this and now I needed a suitable frame.
KingCamera - I loaded my picture into KingCamera because this app comes with some very nice frames and structures. The one that I liked is 9th from left in the line of frames. It has no specific name.
PicGrunger - for a slight Grunge look. I chose Aged effect, Strength set to about 25%. Style: Palooza, Texture: Original.
Perfectly Clear - After transferring my picture to my laptop computer I found that it could use a little more contrast which I changed in  Perfectly Clear. Usually this really cool app tends to brighten a picture up so I set Exposure to full left, Contrast and Vibrancy to full right plus I gave it a little more Sharpness.
A+Signature - after I was done with my picture all I needed was to add my copyright watermark but this time I wanted to give it an extra touch of my handwritten initials. A+Signature is just perfect for that job. You may add any handwritten or drawn markings to your pictures, scale them, turn them and place them wherever you want. To use the same stuff again and again you can even store your creations in the app catalog.

My new picture shows a steel part that was once holding one of the huge electric motors of old electric locomotive 3609, now cut apart with a powerful torch as the old lady got wrecked.

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