Cell Phones, HDR and Panoramas

Hi Folks:

This started out as an idea for a blog post, evolved into a one-hour presentation for our local camera group, and now I’ll try to compress that into a blog post. We’ll see how it goes.

There are several questions to begin with, the first of which is… why do this? The answer is to extend or expand the capabilities of your camera, no matter the camera. There are at least five different reasons that I know of to combine multiple exposures into one image. These are two of them. The second question is, why cell phones? This post doesn’t only involve cell phones, but cell phones are ubiquitous. Some people only make images with their phones, despite the technical challenges, but the bottom line is that it depends on how you’re planning to use your images.

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Creative Photography Work

Hi Folks:

Originally wrote this as an e-mail to a friend but thought we should post this as well. Our friend has mentioned that she has been in a bit of a creative slump with her photography recently, so when I came across this article, I thought of her: Explore Photoshop Mix and Fix with Visual Artist Amr Elshamy.

I do pretty much all of my cell phone processing using Snapseed, but I also have Photoshop Express, Ps Fix, Ps Mix, Prisma and some other apps installed. They’re all free. Prisma does offer an annual subscription plan but if you’re not interested you can ignore that. Prisma is pretty much a one-trick pony, but the one thing you can do is to swipe left/right to vary the amount of effect from the filter you’ve chosen. For any given image most of the filters will look terrible, but there are usually one or two that look good.

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Lightroom 1.4 for Android

Hi Folks:

When Lightroom Mobile (Apple only) was first introduced you needed a CC subscription to use it. Adobe eventually introduced Lr for Android, and with Lr Mobile 2.0 for iOS in October they dropped the requirement that you have a subscription. Lr 1.4 for Android was introduced today and it also has the same lifted restriction. If you have a CC account you can link your device and your Lr catalogue on your computer, but it’s not necessary.

Lr for Android 1.4 is available for free from the Google Play store so I downloaded it and tried it out. Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – September

Hi Folks:

It took a while to pick a photo of the month for September as both Marcia and I did some interesting work last month. I finally decided on the following image, which I call ‘Ascension’. It’s actually a bunch of sea oats I came across, but I used the mirror function on one of my cell phone apps to create the base image, then pushed it around a little bit in Lightroom. I trust you enjoy it too!

Now go out and make some pictures!

Hugs,
M&M

Ascension

Ascension

Uploading Phone/ Tablet Images to Lightroom

Hi Folks:

This post arose out of an answer I tapped out on my phone this morning in response to a question from another Twitter user.  When I got to 2800 characters I thought maybe I should post it here as well.  The question was, “What’s the easiest/simplest way to upload images from my phone to Lightroom?”  I should start by saying I have an Android phone and a Windows computer, but I’m reasonably certain Macs work about the same way.

I’ve found the easiest way to move images from my phone to Lightroom is to use a cloud service.  There are several, but the two with which I’m familiar are Copy and Dropbox.  I mostly use Copy; Marcia uses Dropbox.  What you do is this:
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Greeting Cards

Hi Folks:

As often happens with our posts, this one begins with a seemingly unrelated mish-mash of ideas that will hopefully find some confluence by the time I’m finished writing (and Marcia’s had a a chance to proofread it).  We’ll see!

To start with, today is Marcia’s Dad’s birthday.  He’s 90 years young today, and although he may not be quite as spry as he was in 1933 for example, he’s still quite vivacious and certainly not done with life!

The next thread in this post is our friend Bob.  Bob is an photographer.  An analog photographer.  Yes, that means he uses film.  He’s not adverse to digital and he does scan his work when required, but he’s in love with printing, with the feel of a photographic print.  While 99% or more of images today are seen on some form of electronic device, Bob maintains that there’s there’s something lacking in not being able to hold a print in your hands, feel the texture of the paper, to hold something ‘real’.  I don’t print much of my work, but I agree with him.  I read a post recently about another photographer, David Duchemin, who makes prints of some of his recent work and then leaves them for others to find.  He leaves them in coffee shops, on benches, wherever, and he has no knowledge or control of what happens to them after he walks away.  That, however, is the whole point, and I like the idea so much I’ve been giving serious thought to adopting it. Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – Oncoming Storm

Hi Folks:

This image was made on April 7, down at Clover Point and looking back toward Victoria.  I was out for a walk that day without my camera, but the wind was really blowing and the clouds were just incredible so I made a number of images using my cell phone camera.  It was blowing so hard I had to lean against lamp posts and the like to hold the camera steady, but I think the results in this image at least were worth it.  This is a six-image panorama, stitched together in Autopano Pro and pushed around some in Lightroom.  This is the first image I’ve posted that was processed in Lightroom 5 Beta (some great new features, BTW – can hardly wait for the final product!).

Oncoming Storm

Oncoming Storm

Okay, that’s it.  Now go out and make some photographs!!

Hugs,
M&M

P.S. You can find more of our posts on photography and Lightroom tutorials here, and you can find links to over 200 other sites that have Lightroom tips, tutorials and videos here.

Photo of the Month – February

Hi Folks:

Here we are, with the first week of March come and gone already and we have yet to do a ‘Photo of the Month’ post for February!  Egads!!  I do have something to share with you, but it has less to do with a particular photograph and more to do with the way it was processed.  The image below is one I captured using my cell phone camera – nothing new there – but it was also processed in the phone using ‘Photoshop Touch‘ software for Android phones.  There are iPhone/iPad versions of the software as well as a version for Android tablets, but since my Samsung phone is what I have and use, I figured it was worth the $5 to give it a try. Continue Reading →

Snapseed for Cell Phone Photography

Hi Folks:

There’s a saying among photographers that the best camera is the one you have with you in the moment.  To that end, both Marcia and I prize our Android-based cell phones, and Marcia especially has a certain notoriety among our photo group for her landscape and macro cell phone photography.  We’re not personally fans of the ‘retro’ look offered by programs like Instagram, and although we do use Camera360 Ultimate on both of our phones, most of the time we shoot the images as ‘unprocessed’ as possible and do post-processing work in Lightroom.  There are times, however, when one simply wants to be able to make and share an image without having to run it through a computer first.  Enter ‘Snapseed‘, from Nik Software. Continue Reading →