mobile tutorial

August 6, 2013 by Kat

Summer Oak (A Mobile Tutorial)

I feel as if something has broken free inside, and I can create new work again. I’m not sure why… Maybe it’s getting through the drought of July, or maybe it’s completing the materials for my Smartphone Art workshop next weekend. Maybe it’s settling in to my new job at work, or maybe it’s playing with some new apps. Whatever the reason, it feels like some sort of release or relief — and I’m creating again.

My attention has turned back to the trees in recent days. In spite of the leaves, I find myself entranced with them. I feel like I’m learning to see them with their leaves, or maybe through their leaves. I look to see the real tree inside.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a mobile tutorial, so I thought today I would step you through the creation of this image, Summer Oak. Captured last week on a hike, I edited it this weekend and liked how it conveys both the delicacy and strength of the tree. Isn’t that the essence of a tree? A fleeting, transitory crown of leaves, but a strong core that survives.

*Sigh.* I love trees.

OK, enough tree philosophy for one day… On to the edit! We start with original image, captured using ProCamera and exposed for the sky. The tree and leaves end up in silhouette.

The first step is using Snapseed. I converted to black and white and increased brightness. I wanted to pull out the dimension in the trunk, and allow the leaves to blend into the sky a bit, giving that ephemeral quality to them.

Next, I played with the black and white version in Distressed FX. This first output becomes the base of the edited image.

This second Distressed FX version is used to blend with the first…

… and here is the output after blending in Image Blender. Along with the subtle texture, I like how the color shifts from a strong gold to a warm tan.

Side Note: My apologies, I don’t ever remember my blending modes a day or two later! I barely remember them 15 minutes later. Because of that, my smartphone art ends up being a truly unique creation in the moment, which is part of what I love about it. So you’ll have to live without the detail of blending modes, and experiment for yourself!

Next, I took the original gold output from Distressed FX and ran it through Autopainter II chalk filter.

This was then blended with the image-in-progress. It’s a very subtle blend. I was not looking to eliminate the photographic nature of the image, but to add some depth of color.

Next is an edit of the black and white version in Portray. You can create some wonderful looks in this app, like this delicate ink.

The portray output was blended onto the image-in-progress. I wanted to use the Portray version to make the original more soft and subtle, but I couldn’t get the right blend. Here’s and intermediate blend which was saved…

…and then blended back onto the version three images above. This was what I was going for with the original Portray blend. Sometimes you have to take a couple of intermediate steps to get the effect you want.

Here’s where a new app comes in! I’ve been playing with SketchMee, an app that creates pencil drawing effects. There are a lot of control settings with this app so it’s fun to play with the different variations and see where it might take your image. This app slightly resizes the image, to give it the edgy border you can see.

I discovered a cool effect from the resized SketchMee image when you get into blending: double exposure. I played around with the sizing further using the Arrange function in Image Blender, to get the double exposure effect that worked best. This was the last step, so here’s the final Summer Oak image again:

Summer, tree, art… it’s all good, isn’t it?

May 16, 2013 by Kat

A Simple Outline

I’ve been enjoying getting out on my spring hikes the last couple of weeks, and it’s given me a whole new supply of images to edit. So much fun! I thought for Paint Party Friday this week I would share the super simple editing technique I used to create this bright and cheery piece.

I started with this image, captured with the ProCamera app:

Next I processed it in a new app I’ve been playing with, Tangled FX. It has all sorts of different ways to process your images and lots of tuning controls.

Finally, I ran it through the Glaze app. As always, I played with the different options in Glaze to see which one would work the best. I liked the “outline” effect the combination of the two apps created, the bright colors and the very loose brushstroke feel at this point – so I called it done!

See? Super easy. Try it out!

If you’re in Oregon and you want to learn more about creating art like this, check out my Smartphone Art class scheduled in Corvallis on August 10th.

February 15, 2013 by Kat

Adding Bokeh Blur

How’s it going with the post-processed Artistic Blur? Let’s check in on this month’s Exploring with a Camera, and see what you all have going on.

I must admit, I haven’t done a whole lot this week! I’ve been working on taxes. Ugh. My Mom arrives for a weeklong visit this morning, so I’m trying to finish it all up and remove these various piles of documents I have sitting around the house. My eyes have gone blurry, even if my photographs haven’t…

I did get a chance to play a little bit with adding background blur in post-processing apps this week. There are quite a few apps out there that add bokeh or blur effects. I have to admit, I’ve always thought adding bokeh blur after the fact to simulate depth of field can be kind of creepy. My eye has been trained to know what real depth of field should look like, and often the post-processed effects don’t match up with reality. Do you find the same?

With the depth of field limitations of the iPhone camera though, it’s nice to understand where I might be able to affect things, so I played around with the Bokeh Lens app, which I had downloaded free a couple of weeks ago. After trying it on a few images, I realized that in order to add this kind of blur in post-processing you need a situation where the distinction of sharp vs blurry would be obvious even in camera. A single object significantly in front of a distant background would work the best.

Enter this image, from a hike last Sunday. I love the “eyes” of the tree but realized my focus was off, with the sharpest thing being the tree behind the face tree. It’s a reminder that while the iPhone camera does not allow for a lot of depth of field, it does have SOME and you still need to get the focus in the right spot. In addition to focus, the contrast and relative isolation of that second tree kept pulling my eyes away from what I wanted as the focal point tree, the one in front.

Next step, blur the background in the Bokeh Lens app. The way this app works, you set the amount of blur you want, and the whole image is blurred that amount. You then mask off the area you want sharp, so I painted the mask on the foreground tree with the face. Not bad so far, huh?

After using any new app, I check the resolution using PhotoSize, to see if it saves full resolution files. You can’t tell just be looking at an iPhone or iPad screen whether it’s a high resolution image or not. Unfortunately, this app does not save full resolution or even medium resolution. It’s very low resolution, with no settings to change it. To get a decent resolution file for later use, I needed to blend the blurred image back with the original image to get an image. Blending the blurred image back with the original image gave some dreamy effects in the background, which I liked. I find the dreamlike quality of the background adds to the feeling of the forest watching you provided by the face in the tree. With a bit of color editing to add to the dreamy feel, here’s the final result:

The Watcher in the Forest

After doing all of this, I realized I could have saved myself a lot of this work if I had used my dSLR with a shallow depth of field to take the photograph. 🙂 But the end result, with that dream-like background, would have never have happened with shallow depth of field alone, so it turns out well I went through the processing. Not only that, I learned about when to apply bokeh blur and when not to, as well as learning I need to find a full resolution blur app! BlurFX is looking pretty good to me right now…

How about you? What post-processed Artistic Blur is working for you? Share it with us, by linking in below.

February 14, 2013 by Kat

Building on Backgrounds

I’ve started playing with creating digital pieces in a new way – building the final image onto a separate background rather than creating the background as a texture added to the photograph. I’m finding the background to be a versatile element, which can be used again and again.

For my Paint Party Friday post this week, I thought I would share how easy it is to create a painterly background with mobile apps, along with a few of the pieces created from the background.

To start a background, you need some sort of images that is mostly blank but has some texture or variation. I have started looking for these types of simple images in my daily photography… brick, stone, concrete, bark. All would have interesting texture.

For this example, I started with a Kim Klassen texture, Felicity, copied over to my iPad from my computer:

My first step was to use the Glaze app, to make it more painterly AND to increase the resolution. I love that you can save higher resolution than the original out of this app!

The output still felt a bit digital to me, so I ran the image through the Artista Oil app to add some more variation. I like this app for all of its options, both in painting styles and variation of strokes, etc.

Finally, the blending. Starting with the Glaze output as the base, to give the highest resolution file, I blended the output from Artista Oil in Image Blender to get the final background below:

Now I have a nice, painterly background with high resolution (4096×4096) to use for future creating. So far, I’ve used this background for four different pieces.

First, the original piece the background was created for. This is one of those pieces I mentioned earlier in the week that I liked when I shared it but a couple of days later I didn’t like it anymore. What I was trying to create originally didn’t work out, but I discovered this whole background idea so it was worth the time invested!

Next came one of my recent favorites, called Vanishing:

The third piece was another attempt with some of the same elements as the first one. I like this one better:

And finally, this last one, entitled “The earth’s secrets are held within a seed,” is another recent favorite:

While the color is similar between these pieces, due to the starting background, you probably wouldn’t notice they were all built on the same background layer if I hadn’t told you. As you build up and blend the other layers, the background changes and shifts from where it started. I could also easily shift the color of this background, and create a whole new look for the next piece.

I’ve created a couple of different backgrounds now and will continue to create and use them. They are proving to be a versatile element that adds a new dimension to my creative process. That’s the power of playing around: In the process of creating what might turn out to be a mess, you discover new ways of doing things.

February 7, 2013 by Kat

Liberate your Art 2013 & Watercolory Goodness

It’s time! It’s time! If you haven’t heard the news yet, it’s time to sign up for the Liberate Your Art 2013 postcard swap. The postcard receipt deadline is April 6 so you have plenty of time to create your postcards and get them mailed. Visit the swap page and sign up to get all of the details and helpful resources via email.

We are going to have a fantastic time this year! There are already 232 artists signed up. Yay! If the previous year’s participation rate holds true, I’m going to need more than 350 signed up to meet my goal of beating last year. I could use your help! Join us, and help me get the word out. Blog it, share the Facebook event, whatever the best way to contact your creative peeps.

For my Paint Party Friday post this week, I wanted to share a bit about a new app I’ve been playing with the last couple of weeks: Aquarella HD. This is a very cool watercolor app and I’m loving it!

First off, here’s a quick example of what the app can do… Original photo at left, painted version at right:

This app has lots of options. You can “paint” with the colors of your photo, or you can use two-tone effects as I’ve used for this one. It is amazingly customizable… you can change the colors used in the tones, the intensity of the color and the watercolor edge effects, the paper texture, the wash and background bloom. I love all of that control, as it allows me to create something I really love.

As always, I’ve been experimenting with combining it with other layers and apps to create an original piece. I’ve found I use the Aquarella HD app slightly differently than the other painting apps I have. For most other apps, I shift colors prior to adding the painterly effects. For this app, I’ve been creating the layers without worrying about color, because I’ll pick colors in the Aquarella HD app itself at the end.

Let me show you what I mean, with this finished piece, Moonrise:

I started with a photograph from several weeks ago, captured on a foggy morning:

I wanted the evergreen tree alone, so I used TouchRetouch to remove the tree and ground to the right:

I was also playing with the ArcMachines app last week, which is free app that creates circular geometric patterns. I had captured a couple of different images off of that:

Next, I played around with blending the circles with the tree image in Image Blender. When you are blending black and white images, the blending modes do interesting things. In this case, I think I was using either the Difference or Exclusion blending modes, which I don’t use with color. I moved the arrangement of the circle layer around until I liked where the circles were in relation to the tree:

The three circles weren’t packing the visual punch I wanted, so I added the large circle over the top one in Image Blender. I will note that for both of these steps, I needed to mask out the branches of the tree, so that the circles would appear to be behind the tree branches:

I played around with painting this version in Aquarella HD for a while, and while I got the colors and effect I liked painting-wise, the composition was not working out. So I went back to Image Blender and played with enlarging the layers. After several tries, I got a composition I liked:

Since I already had the painting effects set in Aquarella HD from my previous experimentation, I pulled this image in and processed it. As long as you don’t close out the app, your settings will stay the same when you pull in a new image. Very nice!

I named the piece “Moonrise” because my husband said it looked like the moon rising behind the tree with a couple of extra moons along for the ride.

Moonrise

My favorite thing about this painting is the light-in-dark effect happening within the circles. The watercolor edges really make that contrast pop. I’ve also discovered, or maybe rediscovered, that I really like combining geometric shapes with natural shapes like this, and this new app has created all sorts of possibilities. You can see a few more in my Flickr photostream.

It’s great to add one more painting app to my toolbox, and Aquarella HD is chock full of watercolory goodness. I just love creating art this way!

January 25, 2013 by Kat

A Serendipitous Mess

Ah, the joy of creating Artistic Blur in camera! Have you tried it yet for Exploring with a Camera this month? If not, you are missing out on lots of fun. There is something incredibly freeing about creating with in-camera blur effects. A lot of time it’s a complete mess but, ah, when it turns out! It can be perfection. Messy perfection.

I had a serendipitous find in my iPhone this week along the lines of in-camera blur and messy perfection. I went for a walk in the forest on Wednesday, hoping to capture the freezing fog we’ve been having. As I walked up the road, I took a couple of photographs and left my camera on as I held it in my hand, hanging down at my side. When I stopped to take my next photograph and pulled the camera up to get ready, I saw this on the screen:

Whoa! I didn’t intend to take that. It was captured by accident, as I was walking along, with the ProHDR app open. Let me explain on this app works… ProHDR takes two exposures of the same scene, one for the highlights and one for the shadows, and combines them to give an image greater dynamic range. To use the app, you frame up your photograph and then tap the screen to start the process. You have to hold still for a while (it seems like forever) while the camera analyzes the scene and then takes the two images of the scene. After that, it combines the two and allows you to save or cancel. I must have accidentally tapped the screen as I was walking along, and the app analyzed the scene and took the two shots, automatically combining them. So I got this cool double-exposure-plus-motion effect in the final combined image, and, the best part, I accidentally discovered I could use this app for in-camera artistic blur effects!

My goal of photographs of the freezing fog went out the window as I explored this new creative possibility. I tried all sorts of different things as I moved the camera between the first and second exposure on the app to see how it would combine them together. Like any of the artistic blur techniques, a lot of experimentation is needed to get anything that looks good. After all of my play, I was never able to recreate the twisting effect of that accidental shot. (I have no idea what I was doing to get that. I must have been seriously swinging my arms around!) I did learn a couple of things though: The best images were those with quite a bit of light area in each exposure, so that when the two exposures overlapped you can see detail of both, and the second image seemed to be more dominant in the final image, because of the way ProHDR exposes and combines the two images.

Here are my favorite ones:

I’ve shifted color on all of these final images through other app filters, because I liked how the different colors highlighted different parts of the image and enhanced the feel. I played with a lot of filters and color options to choose the final image. I’ll also note on the second image, I had to do some cropping. My finger got in the frame so I cropped that out along with some other distracting elements. I don’t think you can expect to get a perfectly framed final image out of these types of techniques, so cropping is going to be your friend. Here’s the original to compare the difference:

This was all so. much. fun. I was filled with excitement and joy after this photo session, and later too, when I had time to play with editing. That’s what photography is all about for me – the joy I get from the process!

How is your exploration going with creating in-camera Artistic Blur? Have you tried it yet? If not, I encourage you to get out there and play! Find your own serendipitous mess. Kind of like fingerpainting, there is a joy to be found in the freedom of creating this way. Also, don’t miss the guest post from Jack Larson earlier in the week. He shared some other Artistic Blur effects and some wonderful images. You still have time, the link up is open through the end of the month.

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