Tag Archives: Afterlight

Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge-Week 12-Mix It Up

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I have certainly missed some weeks of this photo challenge as I have been creating my new Shopify web site, however am delighted to be able to finish the last couple of weeks, and plan on going back and completing the weeks I missed.  The idea for this final post is to “mix it up”, by using at least two out of the 11 different image edit options covered in the last 11 weeks via hosts We Live in a Flat and Fire Bonnet.

Beds-RawOriginal Bed Photo

I went back in time and pulled some of the first product photos I took with my kitties.  All four photos were taken with my DSLR Sony camera.  I decided not to pull them into Photoshop to blend out the white sheet I used as a background, but chose rather to completely edit these with the photo editing apps on my phone.

To start, I edited each of them separately with the photo app Afterlight.  I particularly wanted to use this app because it would easily allow me to “straighten” the photos, as well as apply other more standard editing techniques like brighten, contrast, sharpen, etc.  I then pulled the photo without cats into “Over” to add text, followed by a trip through “PicsArt” to add an artistic effect.  Last but certainly not least I turned to the “Moldiv” app to use the collage effect to pull all four photos together.  This is the finished result.  Hope you like it.  Saying “Here Kitty Kitty” certainly works for my guys!

Here-Kitty-Kitty Final Edited Photo

I want to thank our hosts We Live in a Flat and Fire Bonnet for this super challenge.  Even though I missed some weeks, I feel my editing skills with photo apps have tremendously increased.  And have filled up space on my iPhone and iPad. 🙂

Here is a list of all the photo apps I tried during the past 11 weeks:

Snapseed
Afterlight
Photo Toaster
100 Cameras
PS Express
Toon Camera
Bokeh Lens
Pic Art
LensLight
VSCOcam
Pho.to Lab
TextonPS
easyTITLER
Montager
Phonto
MobileMonet
Waterlogue
Glaze
Moldiv
Split Pic Pro
PicsArt
Mexture
Over
Alien Sky
Fragment
Disco Sketch
DistressedFx

Many of these I tried and did not even touch on during the challenge.  And although I guess this is showing some preference, I think that the one singular app that has me most enthralled me is Mextures, because it lets you create your own filters!  That being said, most of these apps are wonderful and well worth the time to explore.  So try some, and enjoy all that the new digital world has to offer.

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Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge-Week 10-Color Splash

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Welcome to Week 10 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge.  Color Splash, or basically a way to bring out a singular color or splash of color in an otherwise black and white photo – is something I have always wanted to learn how to do.  After reading over all the great advice from hosts We Live in a Flat and Firebonnet, I jumped right into this challenge!

Selective color is a post-processing technique where most of a photo is converted to black and white, but some parts are left in color…  The selective color technique emphasizes parts of the photo and draws more attention to the subject.

After reading the post at We Live in a Flat, I checked out the app PicsArt, and found it very easy to use to apply this effect.  The effect can also be applied via Leonardo, but it uses masking and is a little more difficult to apply.  Here is a short video on color splash in the app Leonardo.

After looking at some other color splash examples, I decided to use a photo of my cat Tyler’s eyes.  but with alterations first, of course!

Original-Tyler-1

Original Photo of Tyler

After basic editing in Afterlight, I pulled three photos (Tyler’s eyes, and two quilt photos) into the app Split Pic Pro.  (Hint:  Photograph fabric, walls, floors, anything with texture to save and use in “combined” photos at a later date.)  This app allows you to quickly select several photos to place in a collage, and then blend together.  The blending level is easily done via a slide bar.  Here are the three photos I used in the app, with blending applied.

Snagit Tyler Photo 1

And another photo after application of filters to each photo, again easily accomplished directly within the screen you are working on.  Just highlight each separate photo, and a selection of filters will be at the bottom of the screen, as seen here:

Snagit Tyler Photo 2

I chose filters that would better highlight my main subject.  Those two quilt photos added some nice texture – abstract art – to my kitty’s face!  Once happy with these additional edits in the Split Pic Pro app, I saved the photo and then pulled it into PicsArt for the final color splash application.  I even tweaked the eye color to make the eyes more blue within the color splash screen.

Final-Tyler-Eyes.1

App Challenge Image
Abstract Cat

Mobile Device: iPhone 4s
Apps Used:  Afterlight, Split Pic Pro, PicsArt

I simply love these photos of my sweet kitty Tyler.  Part cat – part art!!  Meow.

Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge-Week 9-Double Exposures

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This week’s photo challenge will be a difficult one for me, I think.  Welcome back to Week 9 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge hosted by We Live in a Flat and Firebonnet.  This challenge is discovering ways to create double exposures.  We Live in a Flat describes them this way:

If you have a film camera that allows you to expose the same frame twice to different subjects, you will end up with a photo that comprises the two scenes overlapping each other. Photos taken using this method are called double exposures. And in the case where there is more than two times the frame is exposed, the result becomes a multiple exposure.

I love the link to the video tutorial for good double exposures on We Live in a Flat’s site, especially the end of the tutorial that explains how to quickly create a double exposure in Photoshop.  However, since we are focusing on photo apps, I decided to try that same technique in my new app Leonardo, which also allows for double exposures.

It does seem that photos often look better with this technique in black and white; also I’ve noticed that photos where at least one photo is not too “busy” also work well.  So here goes…

I chose to use a photo of the Houston skyline, already adjusted in Afterlight and Mextures.  Then I took a quick photo of my husband’s eyes, again edited in Afterlight and converted to black and white.  As a “half” photo, I also knew the blending would be easier, so cropped the eyes appropriately.   Then I pulled both photos into the Leonardo app.  Here they are:

Leonardo-Eye-12-Snagit

Leonardo-Choose 2 photos to blend

Then, using the “blend” mode offered in the lower right-hand side of the screen, I selected the “burn” mode from the choices given.  This one seemed to blend the two photos best.  Once that was selected I fine-tuned the opacity on the eye photo so that the eyes blended better with the sky.

Leonardo-Eye-11-Snagit

 Leonardo-Adjusting the Opacity Levels

Having the original of the eyes in black and white caused them to be blue like the sky, achieving just the effect I was after!  Success!!  Here is the final photo.

Final-Eye-in-Sky

App Challenge Image
Eyes in the Sky

Mobile Device: iPhone 4s
App Used:  Afterlight, Mextures, Leonardo

Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge-Week 7-Sketch Effects

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Well, as I was very busy building my new Shopify website, I initially missed weeks 7 thru 10 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge.  But I want my photo grid complete with host We Live in a Flat (and co-host Fire Bonnet), so am going ahead and competing entries for these (and back dating so they are archived in order).

Week 7 Photo Challenge:  Art-Sketch Effects

We Live in a Flat gives a more full description of sketching via Wikipedia:

Sketches can be made in any drawing medium. The term is most often applied to graphic work executed in a dry media such as silverpoint,graphite, pencil, charcoal or pastel. But it may also apply to drawings executed in pen and ink, ballpoint pen, water colour and oil paint. The latter two are generally referred to as “water colour sketches” and “oil sketches”. – wikipedia

And yes it is true that we now digitally have the ability to turn our photos into sketches (and watercolors, and oil paints, etc.).  I really like the look of the Camera360 app that she tested, so added it to my growing group of photo apps on my iPhone.  This one was free!

It took me a minute to figure out where the “sketch” effect was in this app.  You have to select the big + button to enter the effects store.  From there they list the different effects offered; all are free.  Once selected the effects you like are installed onto your main effects screen for use.  A total of nine sketch effects are offered.  I liked “surreal”, “years”, “color”, and “light”.  Did not particularly care for the rest.  And, ways to save are a little odd in that you export to your camera roll, and if not careful with your “finger placement” on your phone screen you will just re-save your original.

Here are the final results.  I used a photo taken of Peyton this morning on a neutral background.

Original Photo
Sketch #1-Surreal
Sketch #2-Years
Sketch #3-Color

I think I like sketch #3-Color best.  I think a darker subject would have worked out better for this effect, although there is quite a bit of contrast between Peyton and the almost white background.  The “Years” sketch is also nice, although it really just looks like a b&w photo conversion, rather than a sketch.