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

Posted on May 13, 2014 by sassmuffins

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.

Original 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!

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.

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

Posted on April 20, 2014 by sassmuffins

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 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.

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:

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.

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

Posted on April 11, 2014 by sassmuffins

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-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-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.

App Challenge Image
Eyes in the Sky

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

Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge-Week 5-Light Leaks

Posted on March 17, 2014 by sassmuffins

With apologizes to my hosts for being a little late, I am joining in on Week 5 of the photo challenge. Please be sure to check out host sites of We Live in a Flat and Firebonnet for more great information about light leaks in photos. We Live in a Flat describes them from Widipedia as:

Light Leak, what is it exactly?

A light leak is a hole or gap in the body of a camera where light is able to “leak” into the normally light-tight chamber, exposing the film or sensor with extra light. This light is diffuse, although parts within the camera may cast shadows or reflect it in a particular way. For most purposes this is considered a problem. Within the lomography movement it is seen as a positive effect, giving photos character. – wikipedia

Lomography became popular in the early 1990’s with the use of analog cameras used to create experimental film photography.

Similar to Eastman Kodak’s concept of the “Kodak moment”, the philosophy behind Lomography is summarized in its motto, “Don’t Think, Just Shoot.”This motto is accompanied by The Ten Golden Rules which are supposed to encourage spontaneity and taking photos anywhere, while minimizing considerations of formal technique. Typical Lomography cameras are deliberately low-fidelity and constructed to make sure their mechanics are not too technical. Some cameras make use of multiple lenses and rainbow-colored flashes, or exhibit extreme optical distortions and even light leaks. – wikipedia

So, with this great knowledge and the review of different light leak apps by We Live in a Flat, I decided to give PicsArt a try, since I have never used it before. I have to love PicsArt great motto, “Where Everyone Becomes an Artist”. Yep that app is for me! Here is my original photo, chosen and converted to black and white in Snapseed, so that I could see the obvious results of any light filter applied.

Original App Challenge Image
Across the Bridge

Mobile Device: iPhone 4s
App Used: Snapseed, PicsArt

And here is the “after” result, with the Masks/Lights/Filter 10 in PicsArt applied. I chose this particular light leak filter because I liked the way the yellow light fell onto the main vehicle on the bridge. I don’t always “frame” my photos, but thought in this case the black frame nicely highlighted the framework of the bridge.

Final App Challenge Image

Want to have fun and participate in the photo challenge, or just visit the other entries? Just click on the Snappy H’appy Logo at the top of this post!

Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge-Week 4-Cutouts

Posted on March 7, 2014 by sassmuffins

This Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge is hosted by We Live in A Flat and Firebonnet. Be sure to check out the other challenge photos via their sites.

We are now in week 4 of the Snappy H’appy Challenge. This week we focus on cutouts. As challenge host We Live in a Flat describes, “Cutouts can be decorative, they can also convey a message. The art of juxtaposing a cut out from a photo or picture with another different photo or picture can create some wildly imaginative scenerios, landscapes or portraits.”

I decided to go ahead and work with the reviewed Moldiv app on We Live in a Flat, although I had never tried it before. I have to agree that I really, really like the options for text on this app. However, I found the cutout option a little difficult to get the hang of. I tried to use a stylus and even the eraser on the end of a pencil to make my outline for my cutout, without success. Only using my finger seemed to do the trick, but my cutouts were not very accurate until I learned to look at the small extra floating box provided while outlining my object.

Original App Challenge Image
Get Me Outta Here!

Mobile Device: iPhone 4s
App Used: Snapseed, Moldiv

Then, since this app provided no way to blur the lines between the cutout and the original image on which it was placed, I was forced to be more creative and find a way to handle the hard line between the two. My final decision was to also make a cutout of the soap bubbles, then duplicate and layer it several times at the bottom of my photo to blend the kitty cutout with the washer.

Duplicating the Soap Bubbles

So here is the final result. I do still wish this app had a way to blend the cutout to the background image. Since it did not, I took this photo into Photoshop to blend the cutout better.

Final App Challenge Image

No cats were harmed in the making of this image!

Want to have fun and participate in the photo challenge, or just visit the other entries? Just click on the Snappy H’appy Logo at the top of this post!

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