Stone Harbor, South Jersey Shore ~ embiggenable • iPhone
Stone Harbor, South Jersey Shore ~ embiggenable • iPhone
Stone Harbor, South Jersey Shore ~ embiggenable • iPhone
These picture windows pictures were made with the iPhone and processed on the iPhone with the Snapseed app.
In this case, the intent of the processing was to create pictures for Instagram. Since the Snapseed app preserves the original file, upon my return home I will be processing the original files on my desktop machine using Photoshop. The intent of that processing will be to create pictures in the manner of my "serious" picture windows work.
In addition, all of the pictures made on my Stone Harbor visit will be converted/processed into The New Snapshot format for inclusion in a new sanpshot album/book.
civilized ku # 5249 ~ waiting in line
drive thru ~ Peru, NY (embiggenable) • µ4/3
Robert Adams, in his book BEAUTY IN PHOTOGRAPHY, WROTE:
I think the success of a work of art can be measured not only by its freshness and the diversity of the elements it reconciles, but also by the apparent ease of its exxecution. An artwork should not appear to have been hard work ... only pictures that look as if they were easily made can convincingly suggest that Beauty is commonplace.
That idea, for me, has been the driving force in all of my picture making inasmuch as Adams also wrote:
... how do we judge art? Basically, I think by whether it reveals to us Form that we ourselves have experienced but to which we have not paid adequate attention. Successful art rediscovers Beauty for us.
civilized ku # 5233-37 ~ in practice it's really simple
all pictures ~ San Diego (and surrounding region), California - (embiggenable) • iPhone
On yesterday's entry John Linn asked: ...what is your workflow with the iPhone? What is your current favorite editor?
my answer: My workflow is very simple. After making sure the glass over the lens is completely clean, I set camera module control to HDR-be certain to set the camera to retain the both the original (non-HDR) file and the HDR file-and then frame my referent and its environs. Then I tap the screen to select focus after which I use the lighter/darker slider (next to the focus square) to adjust for exposure.
FYI, when using HDR setting, set exposure for the middle tones even if the highlights look to be blown out on the screen. The HDR setting does well at protecting highlights. That written, you can view the picture immediately and, if needed, re-picture the scene after making new exposure adjustment. And, don't worry if the shadows look a bit blocked up - there is an amazing amount of detail in the file that can be brought out-with no ill processing effects-in processing.
re: image processing: my editor of choice is Snapseed. It is amazingly comprehensive in its range of tools and capabilities. I use the LENS BLUR and VIGNETTE tools to achieve the corner vignette look I create in Photoshop. The TUNE IMAGE tool has simple sliders for multiple image adjustments but there is also a CURVES tool with all of the funtionality of curves in PS.
I also use the SELECTIVE tool to isolate areas of a file in order to perform local adjustments - tap on an area and use the 2-finger pinch to expand or contract the selected area as indicted by the red overlay. On ocassion I use the ROTATE and PERSPECTIVE tools to correct level and perspective issues.
And then there is the absolute killer capability - as you process an image, the software records-in the STACKS function-every edit you have done. At any time, you can go into the stacks and select a processing step and undo or modify it. In doing so, all of your other edits remain intact. Nothing is lost. AND, when your processing is complete, the file can be saved with the STACKS info which makes it possible to return to the file at any time in the future and make further adjustments if needed. Of course, the original un-edited file is left untouched.
SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND. The processing performed on the iPhone will look great on the iPhone screen. As it should be inasmuch as most users will share their pictures with other phone users and/or on social media. Consequently, the pictures I process to completion on my iPhone are intented primarily for sharing or Instagram / Facebook placement.
If, on the other hand like the pictures in this entry, my intention is to create a "serious" picture for print making, I perform only light processing on the phone. Then I download the picture from iCloud and perform my standard "serious" picture processing in Photoshop ...
IMPORTANT. Before I begin processing in PS, I resize-NOT resample-the file to 300dpi, convert to 16 Bits color and convert the file to my standard color profile-AdobeRGB 1998-from the iPhone color profile-DP3-that is attached to the file. I end up with a 11"x11"/16 bit/300dpi/AdobeRGB 1998 file, ready for PS processing.
WARNING Once you settle into a easy iPhone picture making M.O., it is apt to become quite addictive. Even to the point of turning your "real" camera(s) into a paperweight.
civilized ku # 5221-23 ~ Bada bing, bada boom
embiggenable • iPhone / Portrait mode
embiggenable • iPhone / Portrait mode
embiggenable • iPhone / Portrait mode
The more I make pictures with my iPhone 7+ camera module, the more I like it. And the more I use Snapseed to process the pictures on the iPhone the more I like it.
The 3 pictures presented in this entry were each made and processed in a grand total of 10 minutes (max, maybe less). The entire picture making process is uncannily quick and easy. It is so quick and easy that I feel like I am "cheating".
That written, I do feel that I have attained, as was my intention, a picture making M.O. which harkens back to Kodak's early advertising theme, "You push the button, we do the rest." While it's true that I am "do(ing) the rest", it all seems so effortless and fast that it seems very much like my SX-70 Polaroid days. Bada bing, bada boom / slam, bam, thank you ma'am.
FYI, I made these pictures using the HDR setting and the Portrait mode (for the narrow DOF look). Using Snapseed I added perimeter soft focus, vignette, grain, selective burn / dodge / saturation, curves for individual color channel adjustments and, finally, a border. All the while sipping a bourbon.
civilized ku # 5190-93 (kitchen life) ~ taking the ferry across the lake
embiggenable ~ µ4/3
embiggenable ~ iPhone
embiggenable ~ iPhone
embiggenable ~ iPhone
I've been making pictures in the kitchen over past week or so. Other than life in the Adirondacks itself, my kitchen is probably my most fertile place for making pictures - an ever-changing tableau of stuff.
Off to Burlington today for my ablation - scarring the interior walls of my heart with the intention of permanently interupting the electric signals which cause my irregular heart beat (better known as afib).
civilizedku # 5176 ~ vantage point / learning to see
tomatoes in strainer ~ in the Adirondack PARK (embiggenable) • iPhone
Excerpted from Szarkowski's quote, re: Vantage Point (as presented in yesterday's entry) ...
From his photographs, he learned that the appearance of the world was richer and less simple than his mind would have guessed.
As should be obvious to "serious" picture makers, there are many impressions / lessons to be gleaned from his/her pictures and, just as important, from pictures made by other picture makers. However, if one wishes to move beyond discerning the mere technical / technique properties to be noticed in a picture, one must develop and cultivate the capability to look beyond those properties and beyond whatever the picture depicts in order to see the print as an object in and of itself.
Garry Winogrand stated,"Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed." And, of course, the print is the evidence of how a "thing looks photographed".
The "thing" itself is experienced by the picture maker in a 3D world. In turn, the 3D "thing" itself is reduced to a 2D representation of that "thing" on the flat surface of a print. That 2D representation can then viewed as a collection of shapes, forms, lines, colors and tones-indepent of the depicted referent-which work/play together, within the frame imposed by the picture maker, to create what I refer to as a field of visual energy*.
iMo, it is the field of visual energy to be seen / experienced in a picture which stirs / stimulates the mind and soul / intellect and emotion of a viewer and it does so in a sensuous subconcsious / thoughtless manner ...
... Susan Sontage wrote that interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. That interpretation-an overabundance of importance placed upon the content or meaning of an artwork-interferes with (or even negates) a viewer's ability to be keenly alert to the sensuous aspects of a given work.
All of that written, in my experience I have found that most "serious" picture makers' first impression upon viewing a picture (their own and those made by others) are focused upon: 1.) the referent, and 2.) the technical qualities of the picture's presentation. For the most part, they have never learned how to see the sensorial beauty that lies beyond the depicted obvious.
More's the pity inasmuch as, if a picture maker is oblivous to the unthought known hidden beneath the surface of a picture, he/she will never be able to let go of the intellect employed in the making of their own pictures and learn how to "feel it" when making / viewing pictures. Consequently, they will make pictures using the "rules" of composition in mind rather than finding a vantage point from which they can "arrange"-more by "feel" than thought-the visual elements of their 3D referent into a 2D sensual field of visual energy.
To close, 2 ideas expressed by Garry Winogrand:
A photograph is not what was photographed, it’s something else. and The photograph should be more interesting or more beautiful than what was photographed.*that field of visual energy can induce in a viewer a sense of serenity or, conversely, discordance.
WORK ~ new galleries
Hugo ? Nat'l Aquarium ~ Baltimore, MD. (embiggenable) • µ4/3 - from WORK/Water
bakery window ~ Woodstock, VT. (embiggenable) • iPhone - from WORK/iPhone Made
bowl on kitchen table ~ in the Adirondack PARK (embiggenable) • µ4/3 - from WORK/Quotidian
Spent most of last week dealing with (non-life-threatening) heart issue. Fortunately, I was able to devote some time to selecting/editing pictures for 3 new WORK galleries ...
Check them out. Comments appreciated.
civilized ku # 5145 / diptych # 222 (the new snapshot # 199-200) ~ ugh
mantle ~ Pittsburgh, PA (embiggenable) • iPhone
same sculpture / 2 views ~ Natl Gallery of Canada - Ottawa, CA (embiggenable) • iPhone
I'm wallowing / caught in a mid-winter picture making doldrum. An endless succession of overcast days combined with an increasingly typical weather cycle of snow, then rain, then ice make for less than aesthetically inspiring picture making conditions.
So, I'm spending time catching up on some picture printing and continuing work on creating pictures for my Adirondack Snapshot Project). That work requires sorting through thousands of my pictures of Adirondack scenes / events / people / places / et al in order to identify somewhere between 200-300 pictures which will then be converted to my the new snapshot format / presentation style. The work is both enjoyable and tedious.