Featured Instagrammer Stephen Cooper

This week (on the sidebar), I’ll be featuring the feed of Instagrammer @stevecooper92.  His abstract portraits grabbed my attention.  If any of you followed my previous art blog, you may be aware that I LOVE faces and have been sketching them since I was a teen. 
Steve started posting on Instagram about a year ago and for his first image the only thing he added was one of the apps built-in filters.  Now, Steve packs quite a lot in his “camera bag”.  Some of his favorites include Iris Photo Suite, Image Blender, Decim8, Snapseed, ArtStudio and Picfx.  In his words, “I seem to like filters that will add some kind of distortion to the image!  I tinker around for a bit saving many stepping stones till the final image appears.” 
Below are some of those brilliant final images:

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Apps for Beginners

The app store can be overwhelming – so many photography apps and the descriptions all sound wonderful!  Confused?  Where do you begin?
I am just a babe myself in the world of iphoneography, but I’ve already noticed there are several apps I go to again and again.
As mentioned before, I use the Procamera app for shooting my photos for 3 reasons

• You can set the exposure and focus points separately
• Rapid fire Mode for continuous shots
• Tap anywhere on the screen to take photo

SlowShutter is another camera app that gives great results. 

Photo below taken with SlowShutter

For my second choice it’s a tie between Snapseed and PerfectPhoto for basic editing functions like cropping, rotating, exposure, color balance, sharpen, etc.  One more app in this category (FREE as of this post date) is Easy Photo Editor Pro which has a great user interface.

For adding filters and effects, FX Photo Studio makes it easy to switch from one application to the next with a simple swipe.  There are a few corny effects like adding cupids and hearts to your photo, but you can hide them from your choice list.  PhotoCopier allows you to capture the look of the coloring/lighting of movies, paintings, photos and processes.  There’s a lot to work with in this app and I’ve only begun to tap into it’s capabilities.  If you’d like to blend one image with another, Image Blender is simple to use and does the job well.  If you already have an app that allows you to add layers and change blend modes like , you won’t need a separate image blending app. 

I have 3 favorite Painterly effects apps (at least at the moment – that could change when I discover the next amazing one!)  Glaze is a new discovery that is quickly become an app I use often.  Painteresque, a one-trick pony that does what it does very well.  Foolproof Art Studio has so much potential - I just downloaded it but my first try had me hooked!

Photo edited with Glaze

Same photo edited in Painteresque


and finally in Foolproof

For adding light to your photo, Lenslight is my favorite app.

Here’s the Foolproof image with some rays added from Lenslight

One app that has made my life easier is the Photo Transfer App which allows me to easily transfer selected photos from my iPhone to my iPad and even to my PC (also possible to transfer to a MAC).  I find it easier to work on the photos with my iPad than to strain my eyes with my phone.

This is just a glimpse into the wonderful world of creative apps.  I’m sure you have your favorites and go-to apps.  Please join in the conversation by leaving a comment with a few of your top choices not mentioned here.  I’m sure readers will enjoy seeing your picks!

Abstract

Below shows the step by step progression
Original photo

After Tiny Planets

After Moku HD

After AutoPainter II

After Percolator

After Popsicolor

After Image Blender (Blending AutoPainter Image with Popsicolor)

After Perfect Photo (increase saturation and sharpen)

After Crop’n’Frame


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My iPhoneographic Journey Begins

Just what I need...another blog!  iART CHRONiCLES features photos of my world as seen through my iPhone.  With the innovative, creative apps on the market today (and many FREE ones too!), iPhoneography has become an art form of its own and my new addiction!

My inspiration is Karen L. Messick.  I have viewed other powerful iPhone images, but Karen's work captured me because of its painterly look and the way she combines various applications to get unique results.

Dark blog backgrounds aren't normally my first choice, but they do compliment the photographs well which is another reason I'm giving this work a place of its own.  Here are a few of my first attempts.