Apps Temporarily FREE!

The following apps are temporarily FREE!

TtV Photo Studio 

 

 

NightCap

 

 

Camera Boost

 

 

Etchings

 

 

Momentsia

 

 

Featured Mobile Artist–Susan Libby

What I love about mobile photography is the ability to create artistic edits using sophisticated apps that are normally priced for around $1-2.  To get the same effect on a computer would require expensive programs like Photoshop or Corel Painter (I do have both but haven’t touched them since I began my mobile art journey).

Susan Libby uses apps expertly to create her beautiful mobile art which features everything from people to landscapes to whimsical fantasy pieces.  Below is my conversation with this app master - @susetoo as she’s known on Instagram and EyeEm.    (Captions for images taken from Susan’s Instagram gallery)

The Three Ladies of Dios de Los Muertos (above)

Across the street (above)

Geri:  Where do you live?
Susan:  Southwestern United States

Another Chicago shot (above)

Geri:  How long have you been on Instagram?
Susan:  Since March 2012

Geri:  Do you have an art background?
Susan:  No, but have been playing with digital photography and editing for the past 7 years and am fascinated with art journaling.

Geri:  When you take your photos, do you have a particular edit in mind, or do you do get inspired when you see your camera roll?

Susan:  Not really... Occasionally I'll do an intentional shoot, lately it's been birds and trees. Once I start editing it all just takes on a life of its own.

And then there was none (above)

Geri:  There are various types of images in your Instagram gallery, from landscapes to fantasy composites - is there a style you prefer?  If so, why?

Susan:  I've always wanted to paint so I love the painterly apps and style. Also love surreal, blurry b&w ,and am drawn to abstract as well. I'm an Aries and we like to change it up LOL.  I'm currently very open to new directions and am exploring right now.  

Another foggy morning shot in Warren, PA (above)

Geri:  What are your favorite apps?

Susan:   PS Express, Glaze, Autopainter 3 (all the auto paint apps), Decim8, Superimpose, Laminar,  Magic Hour, and my go to app is Iris Photo Suite. But I'm an app addict and an app stacker, so there are a lot of apps I might use for even one layer and incorporate that into a long edit process. 

Geri:  Please share a bit about your process.

Susan:  I do my initial crop in PS Express and I also use it for noise reduction when I want to flatten the texture. Then I pump up the color just a bit in Dynamic Light and always create an Orton image here as well. Next is Iris Photo Suite to play with most of their filters. From there I'll use any one of a 6 - 10 apps. I save all Images created in this process and use them for layering and blending in dozens of combinations. I frequently end up with 60 - 80 images before I *see* the final one that can be posted. 

At the Friday morning song fest the choir sang a folksinger medley to the utter delight of the audience of one (above)

Geri:  Have you ever exhibited your work?  If not, any plans to do so in the future?

Susan:  I was fortunate and thrilled to have one of my applifam edits selected for a show in Honfleur, France as part of their ESA community. They have a very active Electronic Social Art community there that quite a few Instagrammers are involved in. And I'm working with another IG artist, Eric Dijkstra, and hopefully a few others, to show our IG work here in Tucson sometime this winter/spring.

Such grace…(above)

Geri:  If you could give advice to any new mobile artists, what would it be?

Susan:  Not to get caught up in the numbers games but to play, play, play. Try it all until you find what you love. Also search out and follow those IG artists you can learn from - there are a lot of them!

Neither here nor there (above)

Geri:  Anything else you'd like to add?

Susan:  I keep asking where the Instagram book is?!  Social networking through art is so much more than any other form of networking. For many of us we get to know and connect with each other through our art which allows us to already know something about one another. And it also encourages us to call each other and ourselves artists - something many of us would never have imagined.

 

Thank you Susan for allowing me to share your work.  Good luck with your exhibition in 2013! 

To purchase Susan’s work view her galleries at

Instaprints.com
instacanv.as.com/susetoo

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Friday Favorites No. 18 and Leaving Instagram

After the uproar caused when Instagram changed their terms, I made the decision to leave Instagram.  Although they have reversed their terms, there is still some wording that has many photographers concerned.  My main beef with Instagram has been the recent SPAM that has increased dramatically during my short time on the site.  In spite of the SPAM nuisance, during the five months since I joined IG, many friendships and connections were made, so I plan to continue to keep my account open to visit friends, but will be posting all of my work on Flickr and EyeEm. 
On to my Friday Favorites!

Shopping Center (above)

App Recipe:  ProCamera and Snapseed

Cows (above)

App Recipe:  ProCamera, Snapseed, Alt Photo

Our Christmas Tree (above)

App Recipe:  Composite (for iPad), Snapseed, Distressed FX, Camera Awesome 

Sharing Cookies (above)

App Recipe:  ProCamera, Snapseed, Dramatic Black and White

Talking to the Birds (above)

App Recipe:  ProCamera, Painteresque, Snapseed, PS Express
And finally a collaboration at the request of Timothy Steffes who asked if I would edit one of his images.  I jumped at the chance and here is the result.  Roll over the image with your mouse to see Tim’s original photo.  You can see more of Tim’s work @timothysteffes on EyeEm and @dinobrasi on IG)

An App that Rotates Your iPhone to take Panoramic Videos!

What will they think of next?  Apparently, that little gadget in your pocket has all sorts of potential, including the ability to rotate and take a panoramic video.  Well, there are a couple of things you’ll need – an iPhone 5 (it works with my iPhone 4s but only on a glass surface) and the Cycloramic app (.99 in iTunes store)

Friday Favorites (A Day Late!) No. 17

This week I’m going to only include one image for my Friday Favorites.  This piece was created for the feature that Instagram’s @mobileartistry ran today.  I thought you may enjoy a more in-depth App Recipe on one image.

Portrait of a Man

App Recipe:  For this image I first cropped it square in Snapseed and then bumped up the detail and tuned it a bit.

Next I used PhotoViva on just the background to get rid of details I didn't like and blended it with the Snapseed version using Sketch Club.

I took the Snapseed edit and did two different versions using Glaze. I combined the two Glaze images with the Snapseed/PhotoViva image blending and erasing sections of the three layers and saved to my camera roll.

The final step was some minor adjustments in Snapseed of the combined image (details bump and white balance).

Thanks to Lanie for the feature (@momma2maxh on Instagram)

The Eclectic World of David Graham aka “Doctor Jazz”

Eclectic is the perfect way to describe the work of David Graham aka @doctorjazz on Instagram.  Many moods and styles are exhibited by this very creative photographer. 
Please grab a cup of Joe and enjoy my conversation with the very interesting David Graham.   (Photo captions from David’s Instagram gallery)

Stop Ahead (above)

Car window parking lot reflections (above)

Geri:  Where do you live?
David:  Wisconsin, USA

Geri:  How long have you been on Instagram?
David:  Sometime in October 2011 was my first Instagram posting.  

A foggy morning.  No edits (above)

Heavy Weather (above)

Geri:  Your work is unique and varied including everything from black and white portraits, to painterly edits and photo collages.  Do you have an art or photography background?  Is there any style that you prefer?

David: I'm a college teacher by trade, and my artistic background is in poetry.  I've published six books of poetry so far, along with many essays and reviews.  As a mobile photographer I'm happy to call myself an increasingly serious amateur.  No formal training, but I have been married for 37 years to a wonderful visual artist, and much of my love for art is inevitably entwined with my love of her.  We really enjoy visiting art museums and galleries together, and for as long as I can remember I've been interested in photography as an art. I only got serious about taking photos of my own, however, when I acquired my first digital camera in I think 2007.  My first iPhone came in 2010, and things have accelerated rapidly since then.  I suppose my stylistic tastes are fairly wide; my whole life I've appreciated many kinds of photography, from documentary through portraiture to surrealist collage.  It's true that in my own work I can't seem to stick with any particular style.  Whether or not that's a weakness or a strength I guess I am not the one to judge.  Maybe I just have a short attention span!

Happy Hour (above)

"May God us keep From Single vision & Newton's sleep." --Wm. Blake (above)

Geri: What inspires your work?

David:  In some ways it's the other way around:  the work inspires me in my life.  Since I've taken to shooting and editing photos daily (thanks, Instagram!), I notice more, and differently, than I ever did before.  The world is more meaningful and full of energy.  As I say in my Instagram profile, I love that Yogi Berra quote:  "You can observe a lot by watching."  But in terms of specific influences, I look to most of the classic photographers, too many to name, as well as a bewildering array of contemporaries, famous and not. If I had to name one favorite it might be Aaron Siskind.  Of course, I'm also greatly engaged by painters and other visual artists, including my wife. 

Special Handling (above)

Geri: What are some of your favorite apps?  Can you tell me a little about your process?

David:  I never tire of taking straight photos, and if a shot works without much editing, I'm very pleased.  (My most-used camera app is 6x6, which is perfect for taking Instagram-ready shots.)  But I do love messing around with apps.  My process in editing is completely improvisational.  I do multiple edits on most shots, most often using three or four apps on each one, all the time looking for something to "click."  Naturally I wind up deleting most.  Often I'll see things I like on Instagram and elsewhere by photographers I admire, and try to see if I can learn from them, and maybe do something parallel.  I love to explore new apps, and get infatuated for a time with certain ones.  Currently I'm having a passionate affair with Glaze.  Before that it was Decim8 and OutColor.  But by far my most-used apps are Hipstamatic, Snapseed (everyone says that, and everyone's right), Juxtaposer, and Image Blender  As visitors to my feed will see, I make a lot of surreal collages, and so Juxtaposer and Image Blender are my mainstays for that work.  Other favorites include ScratchCam FX, Modern Grunge, PhotoToaster, Dramatic Black and White, and PhotoWizard--all of which are in my main photo app folder.  I also return frequently to a few "utility" apps such as AntiCrop, TouchRetouch, Big Photo, Frame Magic, PS Express, and Squaready.  I relish learning about apps, and devour various blogs, tutorials, and other sources whenever I can pick up some tips.

Walter’s greatest fear was that he would be forgotten (above)

Making cold calls (above)

Asphalt Love – tar patches on pavement (above)

Geri:  There is a dog featured in many of your photographs.  Who is he?

David:  The dog's name is Doctor Jazz (yes, I stole his name for my IG handle!).  He's a 9 year old Springer Spaniel, and I guess I've been featuring him more than usual in my photos lately because he was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Trying to enjoy all the time left with him that we have.  And I admit I get tickled when people enjoy photos of him.  He's a lovely goofball.

A Matter of Trust (above)

Whose dog are you? (above)

Beloved (above)

Geri: Have you ever exhibited your work?  If not, any plans for the future?

David: So far I'm a happy amateur.  Instagram is my gallery.  I've had a couple feelers about exhibiting work offline, but am taking things slow.  We shall see. 

Time’s Fool (above)

Follow the leader (above)

Geri: Anything else you'd like to add?

David: For some time now I've hash-tagged all my Instagram photos with the names of the apps used to create them.  This helps me to remember if someone asks later, or if I'm looking to reproduce an effect. I sure wish more IG artists would do this!

Wingback (above)

You can view David’s work on Instagram @doctorjazz where he spends most of his time.  He’s also is on iPhoneArt and on Tadaa (doctorjazz) on a limited basis.  
All images in this feature are copyrighted property of David Graham published on iART CHRONiCLES with the consent of the artist. 

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Get Dramatically Black and White While it’s FREE!!

Not sure how long this will last, but in the U.S. iTunes store, Dramatic Black & White by JixiPix is FREE.  This is a must have app if you’re a lover of black and white photography, and like all JixiPix apps, it allows for a lot of adjustment along with several Presets.