Artista Impresso-an app review

by Linda

 

 



 

 

Navigating the app store can be a daunting task when you are looking for something to give your phone pictures a little something extra. The Apple store has over 200 photography apps to choose from! Google play is rapidly closing in on that number! The problem with so many apps is knowing which ones will give you that something extra AND have developers that stand behind them to update them and correct problems when needed.

Ever have an app on your phone that you love but haven't used in a while, so you want to use it again so you open it, and it crashes. Try again, same thing. That's because the developer has probably moved on to other things and your favorite app isn't one of them. I know apps are mere pennies but who needs that kind of aggravation? right?

hello? is this thing on?

Today I have a mini-review and tutorial for an app called Artista Impresso. This is a new app by the developer Jixi-Pix. Jixi-Pix has been around a while and has some other very good apps. 2 that live on my phone are Aquarella and Portrait Painter. Jixi-Pix apps are mostly designed to make your pictures look like a painting. Portrait Painter is excellent. I have been impressed by Artista Impresso so far. Like many of the Jixi Pix apps, it is also available for download to your Mac or Windows computer. Artista Impresso has a plug-in for Photoshop, PSE and Lightroom which I think is so good. The plug-in is only available for Lightroom on a Mac. Hopefully it will come to Windows soon.

My picture up top happened because I was driving down a country road and these cows were close to the fence and they looked at me! I mean, who can resist those big brown eyes! So of course, I pull over, grab the phone and click! (key word there is "pull over" no driving with your knees while taking a shot, anymore I mean, who does that anyway?)

This is my picture SOOP (straight out of phone) a little crooked (which I find is a common problem with ALL my pictures! lol!) and too much road!

Into Snapseed for cropping, straightening and HDR. When I apply HDR to my pictures, I always use "smoothing" at 100% before I apply the effect. This helps with the black pixels HDR can add to a photo.

I have finished editing in Snapseed and am ready to move to Artista Impresso to paint my picture. Snapseed allows you to open your picture in another app without having to save it first. Tap on "save" to save your picture to your camera roll, or tap on "share" to get other options including opening the picture in another app.  I usually save my picture before moving on to another app, mostly because I want a record of where I was, sometimes it's possible to get lost in an app and not know what to do or where you started, which may or may not have happened to me often occasionally.

Artista Impresso has many different looks you can apply to your picture and many different adjustments you can do to each different look. Here is a quick look at how I edited my cows. I selected "artistic touch" under "Alla Prima".  I wanted a little more "canvas" look to the picture so I tapped on the square icon with the frame and increased the canvas strength a little, linen is also a choice. Then to square icon that looks like it has a paper folding up for a little "artistic finish", here you can adjust the strength if you like. Tapping the oval will allow you to add detail to any area in the picture you choose, the oval will appear on your picture and you can move it around, make it bigger or smaller, this is useful for giving more detail to faces, or even the pretty brown eyes of my cow!

Finally, I tapped on the brush icon. I don't like the frame that they put on every picture so I wanted to remove it, I did that by sliding the "painted edge" slider all the way to the left. Done. Now to save, tap on the "house" icon and you get the save option.

Really a simple and quick edit, there is so much more you can do in this app. I downloaded it to my computer too and look forward to using it on some of the pictures from my DSLR.

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Share your favorite app or edit with us in our flickr galleries! We'd love to see it!

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A Phoneography Recipe

by Linda

"You too, my mother, read my rhymes

For love of unforgotten times,

And you may chance to hear once more

The little feet along the floor."

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Last summer, I signed up for a very good online Phoneography course, "iPhoneography with Bob Weil". It has good tips and instructions for creating mobile art on your iPhone, Andriod device, iPad or Android tablet. I learned a lot, found some new apps and gained some new motivation. Click here for more information.

I have always enjoyed walking along the beach while on vacation, taking candid shots of people on the beach and editing them on my phone. I find the possibilities are endless of what you can do with some of these apps and since I am not taking portraits of people, and they will be unrecognizable in my pictures there is no need to obtain a model release. I do try to take the pictures as stealthily as possible and have only had a few where the person was actually looking at me but even in that shot, they will be unrecognizable once I have run it through a few apps.

This picture above is one of my favorites and I thought I would share my recipe, from my original picture to the finished picture.

 This is the original picture I took with my iPhone 4S, using its native camera. I was walking along the beach and passed an adorable young family playing in the water, I knew I wanted to take a picture of them. You can see they are pretty far away.

  

First, the picture went to Snapseed for a major crop then into "tune" for increased contrast, a little more saturation and a little warmth, saved this to the camera roll. The major crop left this picture very pixelated, a little more apping will take care of that!

 Next, the picture went into iColorama where I selected "style" and under "style" selected "simplify". "Simplify smoothed out all that pixilation I had. Still in iColorama, under "tone" I selected "pastel". There are many presets to choose from here, I selected the first one and did not make any adjustments to opacity.

  

Still in iColorama, and still under "style", I selected "sketch". Then under "effects" I selected "blend" here I added another layer-the picture as it was just after Snapseed edits and applied it using "soft light".

 Since I was posting it to Instagram, I needed to make it square so I put it into Squareready and selected the view that puts a frame around all 4 sides of the picture then went into the frame color picker and selected "hard" to get the color of the picture extended onto the frame.

This is the same picture as the one on top, just framed to make it square.

done

This was a fairly easy recipe and I think the results are pretty dramatic. There is so much more that can be done in Snapseed and iColorama and if you are not familiar with them I encourage you to add them to your arsenal!

What are your favorite apps? Share a picture and recipe in our Phoneography gallery on flickr or on Instagram!

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Focus on Phoneography

A perfect way to end October with this final mosaic of twilight.

Top row - @lostasock @saurand
Bottom row - @javavenus @prairiegirlstudio

Thank you for sharing your pictures with us!

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Go Fish

By Cathy

We have all been writing about and shooting simplicity this month. It all sounds so simple right? Scale back, eat closer to your food source, notice more, use less, identify what is truly important and learn to say no.  I have found the older I get the easier it is for us to live simply and I think this is due in part because I am responsible for less. It is not always so easy when your home is full of children and jobs and meals and play-dates and bills and the business of life.  

I have been reminded of this personally the last few weeks. Our oldest son and his girlfriend and her eight year old son have moved in with us for a while as they look for a place big enough for the three of them to live. Suddenly my time is not just about me. Having an eight year old in the house again is full of magic, but also a bit time consuming and by nightfall I am worn out!

He has warmed up to my camera, in fact the other day he said to me, "Run and get your camera because this is a camera worthy moment!" Seriously! But I have been using my phone more and more lately to capture our simple moments. It is a bit more discreet and does not break the mood of what is going on. It has made me a bit envious of the young mothers today who have the ability to capture these everyday moments with their children right at their fingertips 24/7, so simple, so good. 

My phone photos are not always as good as the ones I get from my big-girl camera, but there are times it is more about capturing the moment rather than perfection. 

Go Fish! What have you been capturing on your phone lately?? Be sure to share them with us on Instagram, hashtagging them #focuscingonlife. 

Now head out there and capture summer! xoox

Travel Phoneography

by Carol H.

 
As most of you know, I have recently returned from a week in London. The trip was delightful, though too darn short. Brian & I are already talking about the “next time we go to London…”

Being that I hadn’t been there for over 15 years, I made sure I had camera gear with me to take many, many pictures. The gear I packed included:

Nikon D600 DSLR camera body
Nikkor 35 mm f/1.4 lens
Nikkor 50 mm f/1.4 lens
Lensbaby Scout w/ soft optic

And of course, my iPhone. This kind of trip included lots and lots of walking as well as riding the tube. Rather than lugging my whole camera bag, each day I would choose a lens to shoot with and sling my camera across my shoulder. As I took pictures with my big girl camera, I also included pictures with my iPhone.

At the end of the day I would go back to the hotel, look through my big girl images on my camera, deleting those I didn’t care for and delighted to see several I would be processing WHEN I GOT HOME!

Then I would go through my iPhone images, deleting the not so great, processing the ones I loved, and sharing some of those on IG, Facebook, and Flickr. DONE!

  
For those of you who are already phone photographer addicts, I’m sure at this point you are smiling and nodding your head! The wonderful thing about phoneography is that the equipment is always with you, is lightweight, less obtrusive to the bystander on the street, and with the wonderful apps, many processing options are available and can be done right there while you are still in the experience.

Another thing I noticed about the pictures I took with my iPhone vs my Nikon is that the images have a more spontaneous, playful feel about them, which I am particularly drawn to.

It also seems that I give myself permission more often to manipulate the phone image to my liking, rather than sticking with a realistic view. This also feeds my playful nature. After all, it’s supposed to be fun, right? I learned a lot about my photographic style on this trip and have to say that I am pleased with the results from my iPhone and expect to be taking more and more photographs with it.

On the subject of phoneography, have you had a chance to check out Focusing on Life’s new Flickr group “Focus on Phoneography”? If not, please check out the link HERE.

Have you recently traveled with your DSLR and your smart phone and taken pictures with both? Do you see any differences in the style of your work between the two devices? We’d love to see your images! Load up those lovelies to our phoneography Flickr group or Instagram and use the hashtag #focusingonlife.

Cheers!

   

 
 

Grand Canyon Impressions

by Linda

The Grand Canyon is truly a natural wonder that should not be missed. Last month, trophy husband and I spent several days there at the south rim. I want to share a few tips and tricks I learned about the National Park and about photographing it.

The center of Grand Canyon National Park is called "The Village". It really is! There are many lodges, restaurants, shops, a grocery store, a train station, a bank and a post office. If you would like to stay in the village, reservations are recommended at least 3 months in advance. Camping and RV hook-ups are also available in the National Park.

About 10 miles from the entrance of the park is a little town called Tusayan. It is set up to accommodate Grand Canyon visitors. It has many hotels, restaurants, gas stations and a National Geographic I-Max theater. Everything is in walking distance.  Grand Canyon National Park has a shuttle that makes 4 stops in Tusayan to take you to and from the park. You must show your park pass to ride but if you purchase it in Tusayan with the intention of riding the shuttle in and out of the park, your park pass is a couple of dollars cheaper and you don't have to wait in the car line at the entrance to the park! Consider Tusayan if you can't or don't want to stay in the park.

The biggest and most important thing is bring a water bottle. This is the desert and even when the temperatures are not high, you can become dehydrated very quickly. They do not sell bottled water in the park. There are spring water taps located throughout the entire park for you to refill your bottle. Use them. Drink lots of water. If you forget your bottle, you can purchase a refillable bottle at the visitor center.

The National Park service has created a fantastic experience at the Grand Canyon. The south rim area has a paved walking path from the farthest eastern point (Yaki Point) to the farthest western point (Hermits Rest), a distance of about 12 miles. The observation points are about a mile apart. Each one is named and provide information for any interesting views or history at that point. Some have restrooms and spring water spouts to refill your bottle.

The trail goes right along the rim almost the entire way, veering away only briefly before coming back to the breath taking views of the canyon. If you don't want to walk the rim trail (and most people don't) you can ride air conditioned shuttle buses that will take you from one observation point to the next and back again. The shuttle buses run like clockwork. We never had to wait very long for one.

There are 4 trails you can take to hike down from the rim to the river. They are rugged and require from moderate to advanced hiking skills and lots of water. There is lots of information about the trails and hiking them alone or with a guide or navigating them by burro.

This is Bright Angel Trail shot from the rim trail. This is only about half of it.

Lots of people come from all over the world to visit the Grand Canyon. Everybody wants pictures of it. Many people used their phones. I saw a few tablets being used for pictures too. I used my DSLR and my phone. I had my widest angle, telephoto and macro lenses for my DSLR and my Olloclip for my phone. As I approached the rim for my first view of the canyon, my first thought was "I'm gonna need a wider lens!"

The canyon can be tricky to photograph. A high, full sun flattens out the canyon, taking away the perspective of the depth of it. Shadows are needed to define and accentuate the edges of the canyon.  Early morning, late evening, when the sun is lower in the sky will make a difference.

The Grand Canyon is a good choice for HDR photography. The multiple exposures required for HDR photography will capture all the light and shadows in the canyon and make some beautiful pictures. When I used my phone it was usually with an HDR app called ProHDR. I was pleased with the results of those shots.

Because the canyon is so vast, happily snapping away can sometimes be disappointing when the shots just don't do the view justice because so much is missing. I mostly used my widest lens but I also used the panorama feature of my phone. I did use the wide angle lens of my olloclip but it distorted the horizon (bowed it upward) and it wasn't much wider than the lens of the phone without it.

Of course, everyone wants a sunrise/sunset picture. Plan to arrive at least an hour before sunrise/sunset to claim your spot and get ready, the most popular spots get crowded. The National Park service knows this and begins running shuttles at 4:30 am for those wanting to capture a sunrise, and they run extra shuttles just after sunset from the most popular sunset spot-Hopi Point.

Walking along the south rim trail not only gives you the beautiful views of the canyon, it gives you a look at native trees, bushes, flowers and wildlife. Our daily 2-3 mile walks always seemed to take a bit longer than we expected because of all the stops I had to make to take pictures along the way!

This is just the tip of the iceberg! There is so much more! Helicopter or airplane rides over the canyon, pink jeep tours of the canyon, bicycle rentals, guided hikes, rafting the river, hiking from one rim to the other with a night in a lodge at the bottom by the river! 

So much to do! So much to see! So little time!

Apache Plume



 I hope to go back soon!

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Have you taken a vacation? We'd love to see your pictures! Share your tips and tricks with us!

Stop by the flickr gallery to see all the summer fun!