Create a Botanical Illustration with Apps

In this tutorial, I will explain my workflow for taking this photo:

and turning it into this one that has the quality of a botanical illustration:

Step 1 - Diptic

Insert the original image in both the upper and lower frames of a Diptic 2-photo square layout. (This step is optional - I did this to make my image look like a circle of flowers)

Next, flip the bottom image so it creates a mirror image of the top one and then decrease the white borders. Save results. (This could also be done by using any of the apps that produce mirror images)

Step 2 - Snapseed

Open Image 2 in Snapseed and adjust Tuning Brightness -10, Ambiance +20, Warmth +25.  Apply changes and adjust Details: Structure +50. Apply changes and save.

Step 3 - Tangled FX

Open image 3 in Tangled FX and adjust to your liking (to view one of my customized Tangled FX formulas, check out this post). Save changes.

Step 4 - Painteresque

Open Image 4 in Painteresque and use Painteresque2 Style - Save changes.

Step 5 - Tangled FX 

Open Image 5 and run it through Tangled FX one more time.  Save changes.

Step 6 - Snapseed

If needed make final adjustments to Tuning: Brightness -10, Ambiance +20, Saturation -10, Warmth +20. Apply. Finally apply a Center Focus and adjust Blur Strength +40, Outer Brightness -60 and Inner Brightness +35. Save Final Changes

Here are a couple more samples using basically the same technique. If you find your edited image is too strong, you can always tone it down by combining it with one of the earlier stages using a blender app like Image Blender.

Anatomy of an Edit

Earlier this week @mobileartistry on Instagram featured one of my painterly images. I'm posting it here because it included a detailed walkthrough of the editing process.

© Geri Centonze

What I love most about creating artwork from images is that you can take almost anything mundane and make it into something more interesting. This image started off as a woman walking through a beauty salon dressed in black jeans and a shirt. It was a really boring photo. 

• First I brought the image into Sketch Club where I augmented her wardrobe and added to the volume of her hair. I also evened out her skin tone, enhanced her eyes and lips and painted over the background (version 1). 
• Next I ran the original image through Glaze (version 2). 
• I then blended versions 1 and 2 in Sketch Club (version 3). 
• On to AntiCrop where I added in more background to version 3 by expanding the image. This would allow an off center crop at the end (version 4). 
• Next I took version 4 into Waterlogue to produce a watercolor effect (version 5). 
• I then combined versions 4 and 5 in Sketch Club (version 6). 
• Next I took version 6 into DeforMe and nipped in her waistline a bit (version 7). 
• Version 7 was adjusted in Snapseed to increase saturation (version 8). 
• Version 8 was opened in Auto Sky FX HD where I added the misty cloud surrounding the figure and the crescent moon (version 9). 
• Finally back into Snapseed with version 9 for final crop, tune image and adjust detail (bump up Structure). 

It's interesting to me that I often don't have an end in mind and the piece evolves as I go. I'm not sure how I determine what comes next, it all just seems to flow with a mind of its own! 

Here's the Before and After

Apps Mentioned:

Sketch Club

Glaze

AntiCrop

Waterlogue

DeforMe

Snapseed

Auto Sky FX HD

Preparing a Photo with Inspire Pro

I recently posted this image on Instagram.

Part of the editing process involved readying the photo before I added the shattered effect using iColorama. I liked the profile of a woman that I had captured but wanted to even out her skin, block out the background and enhance the lips and eyes. Below is a quick video of the editing process using Inspire Pro which I recently downloaded for FREE (regular price $4.99)! Inspire Pro includes a video playback feature showing your brushstrokes, so I'm able to share it with you in under 15 seconds!




After I painted over the photo with Inspire Pro, I used Luminance to filter the image to black and white. Then I used a Shatter brush in iColorama to distort the black and white image and combined that with the "unshattered" image using Sketch Club. Final adjustments and cropping were done in Snapseed.

Creative iPhone Editing by Michael Clawson

Use this wonderful presentation by iPhone photographer Michael Clawson to get those creative juices flowing. I love the before and after shots. It's always interesting to see the starting point - image can be taken in so many different directions and we are only limited by our imaginations!

You can find more of Michael's work by following him on Instagram @bigfish or visiting his website,
Big Fish Creations.

 

Creative iPhone Editing from Big Fish Creations

Customizing Tangled FX - Sharing One of My Secret Formulas!

Tangled FX is an interesting app that I use a lot. Several people have asked me about the settings I use. This post will show you the exact settings of one of my custom styles.

First of all it's important to note that when you load a photo into Tangled FX, your photo is shown in a "Preview" Size. To view how the actual finished photo will look you need to tap the Preview button at the top of the app and it will then switch to show the full resolution image with the style applied.

If you use the built-in preset styles you can take an image and get various results - a few are shown below:

Fibers Harsh

Brush Strokes

Swirls

Cartoon

I prefer a more refined look so I have created several customized styles.

Below is one of my favorites:

Geri's Custom 10

To change the settings on Tangled FX to duplicate this style, simply tap the TUNE button in the lower right hand corner and a menu will pop up. Set each slider to match the values as shown below:

In case you are unable to read the values, they are listed below:

Effect scale factor 0.25
Pre sharpen size 7%
and amount 7%
Strokes size 0%
and style Light
Sharpen size 18%
and amount 1%
Smudge size 80%
Post sharpen size 2%
and amount 10%
Color boost -16%
Contrast 3%
Gamma -4%
Hue shift 0%

Tap "Render" to apply the style. To save this as your own custom style simply tap the blue "Save" button and you will be prompted to select a name for your new preset. Play with all of the sliders and save your favorites to create your own custom library of preset styles.

Happy Rendering!

New Photo App of the Week Video Series by Emil Pakarklis

Emil Pakarklis over at iphonephotographyschool.com has just released the first in a weekly series called Photo App of the Week. Do you have so many photo apps that you never used because you just haven't got a clue how they work or haven't mastered them yet? I fall into that category - just check out My Apps to see just how many I have on my iPad right now!

Emil not only gives excellent instruction, he provides the photo he's working on for you to download so you can follow along with the tutorials! And it's all FREE!

Here's a teaser from his first in the series on Snapseed (there are a total of five videos in this series).

tadaa and tadaa 3D - Revolutionary Masking Tool

tadaa is a photo app as well as a social network for photographers. Today tadaa boasts over 3.5 million users.  Even if you're happy with your current social sharing site, tadaa's amazing masking tool for selective editing makes this an app worth having in your "camera bag". You may want to take note that one of the features of tadaa, emphasized in the app description, "YOU KEEP THE COPYRIGHTS TO YOUR PHOTOS!"  



Here's how the developers describe tadda's Edge Detection feature:

Using tadaa’s new Edge Detection feature, users can create images with real depth of field. It turns a users iPhone into a professional SLR camera – photos will look as realistic and stunning as if they had used a real lens. Using their fingertips, users can roughly draw around an object in an image. The app’s technology automatically detects the image they want to focus on. This is highlighted and users can then make adjustments to elements such as brightness, contrast and saturation, as well as adding finishing touches by adding filter effects to the background. With this latest addition to its already impressive feature set, tadaa takes photo editing on mobile to new levels of creativity.

I gave the Edge Detection feature a try. Using both the Mask and Erase tools, I went back and forth between them until I had masked the llama precisely. Below you can see a video demo as well as Before and After photos. After masking, I blurred the background and applied one of the filters. It was done very quickly in spite of the complexity of the outline.


Tadaa Masking Demo from Geri Centonze on Vimeo.

But there's MORE!! There is also a new release -  tadaa 3D. Using the patent pending Object Detection Tool the user is able to mask an image and then apply a 3D effect that is visible when the device is moved. I've embedded an image created below in tadaa 3D. (Note:  If you're viewing this blog on a mobile device you may not be able to see the image below. Try viewing on your Mac or PC.)





Here's more information from the official press release.

Hamburg, Germany, 22nd August 2013 – Fed up of the same old photo editing tools? Looking to add a whole new dimension to your photos? 
Enter tadaa 3D, a new iOS app launching globally today that brings photos to life in 3D. Using the popular Object Detection tool (patent pending), users are able to select a subject in an image and create an incredible 3D effect that shows different dimensions of the photo as the screen is tilted. These images then animate automatically when shared across the web.  Available to download for iPhone, tadaa 3D is aimed at anyone seeking new ways to enhance their photos in a fun and creative way. 
“tadaa's filters and HD features are great and we know just how much our users love to be able to put their own stamp on their photos,” said Nikolas Schoppmeier, CEO & co-founder, tadaa 3D. “What tadaa 3D does is take this one step further and allow people to add a totally new dimension to their photos. When we saw the first results we were surprised at how well it worked – our beta testers and us have been playing around with it for a while now and we just wanted everyone to have fun with it. It’s really quite unique.”
After snapping an image or uploading from the camera roll, users can roughly draw around an object in an image with their fingertips. The app’s Object Detection then gets to work, automatically detecting the subject the user wants to focus on. Users can then make adjustments to elements such as brightness, contrast and saturation, as well as adding finishing touches by adding filter effects and add tadaa’s signature depth-of-field effect.
Creating an awesome 3D effect couldn’t be easier:

• Take a photo

• Paint roughly to define the subject

• Share or save to your tadaa profile

And tadaa 3D isn’t just an editing app; there’s a social community side wrapped around it also. Users are able to set up their own profile and share their images. They can like, comment and repost the images they like. Images can also be shared to Facebook, Twitter and more. 
The team behind tadaa 3D is just as impressive as the app. tadaa now has a community of over 3 million iPhoneographers with its users sharing millions of photos every day. The app is widely recognized as Instagram’s number one competitor.  

tadaa 3D is available to download for at the introductory price of $3.99 / € 3.59 / £2.49 from the App Store. For more information about tadaa 3D, please visit www.tadaa.net/3d .  

Summing it Up
tadaa and tadaa 3D have incredible masking tools which I hope the developer will use eventually as an extraction feature. If you could mask part of an image and then save it as a "stamp" to combine in composite images, tadaa would have an even wider appeal. Also on my wish list would be a feathering feature to soften the edge between the image that is masked and the background.

If you've had a chance to try these apps, I would love to hear your opinions.  Just leave a comment below.

Repix App Tutorial and Review by Epic Tutorials

No need to reinvent the wheel.  This is an excellent tutorial for the Repix app.  It explains in detail how to use each of the features. This tutorial was created before the update on July 2, 2013 which includes the addition of new live brushes, new frames and an update of the Master Collection which now includes all the brushes, filters, frames and future updates.




Below is another tutorial showing a more painterly editing style with the Sensu Brush.  I haven't ordered a Sensu Brush yet.  Do you have one?  If so, how do you like it?

iPhoneLife - Create Your Own Photo Filter Library Using Hipstamatic

Please check out this recent post I wrote for iPhoneLife and find out how to create your own digital filter library using Hipstamatic!  Click on the image below to read the full article.

A Video is Worth 1000 Pictures - Single Image HDR Tutorial

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then what is a video worth?  I find written tutorials hard to follow but when I see something demonstrated, my mind can grasp it better.  I put together a tutorial for creating an HDR effect using a single image.  You can make the effect as subtle or dramatic as you like.

If you have any questions, please be sure to leave them in the comments.

Apps Used
Adobe Photoshop Express
Pro HDR
Filterstorm
Snapseed
Photo FX Ultra 



Single Image HDR by Geri Centonze from Geri Centonze on Vimeo.

Before

After

Before image by Seemann at MorgueFile (thanks for sharing this fabulous image!)

Create an HDR Effect Using One Image

I have been promising a tutorial on achieving an HDR effect using only one image – here it is!  For normal HDR processing, you need to capture an underexposed and overexposed photo of the same subject preferably using a tripod or other stabilizing device and then combine them using an HDR app or software on your computer.
The method shown here, although it involves a few steps, requires only one photo.
I started out with the great photo on the left of a a vintage truck by morgueFile photographer Mary Vogt.  If you haven’t visited morgueFile there are 1000’s of photos with terms listed on how they can be used.  The image on the right (below) is the “after” photograph.

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Step 1
Open your image in Photoforge (I sure hope you already have this great app because it is no longer available in the USA App Store since it was purchased by Yahoo!)   Choose Exposure adjustment and lighten the image to about +1.50 and Save it to your Camera Roll.  The actual amount of adjustment will vary with individual photos.

Step 2
Using the History button (looks like a clock) on the bottom tool menu go back to the original image and adjust the Exposure again.  This time decrease the exposure to about –1.90 (this will vary with individual images).  Basically what you’re trying to do is get the details that were blown out in the original by purposely reducing the exposure.  Save this version to your camera roll.

Step 3
Open up iCamera HDR app (I see this app is no longer available in the USA App Store – not sure what’s up!) Tap Load a Photo and pick the overexposed version that you saved to your camera roll.  The app will then give you a choice between HDR photo or Single Photo.  Select HDR.  You will then be prompted to Please select another photo.  Choose the darker version.  iCamera HDR will then align the images and process them.

Step 4
When the two images are combined into one image, select Tone Enhancer on the bottom menu and slide the Strength to about 80.  Leave the Fill Light set to 0.  Proceed to Step 5.

Step 5
On the menu to the right of your image, select Brightness and adjust to –30.

Step 6
Adjust Contrast between 2-10

Step 7
Under White Balance, adjust the Temp slider to 10 to slightly “warm” the image.

Step 8
Adjust Saturation up between 3-10

Step 9
Adjust Blur/Sharpening up to about 10

Step 10
Save the iCamera HDR adjusted image to your camera roll

Step 11
Open the iCamera HDR version in Filterstorm and under Filters select Vignette.  Make sure Circular Vignette is chosen.  Adjust the Vignette Radius to 0 (the whole image will turn black).  Then bump the Vignette Brightness slightly to –60 (if you want a darker finished image you can leave the Brightness at –70). Click the checkmark at the bottom of the Vignette adjustment to apply changes.

Step 12
Back to the Filters menu in Filterstorm and this time select Curves.  Adjust the Curves up until the image is brighter without losing the contrast.  There is no exact setting for this – you just have to eyeball it.  Rather than tapping the checkmark, this time we are going to mask the brightness into the image so tap Mask instead.

Step 13
To Mask in the brightness, select the paintbrush icon on the right and a menu will pop up at the bottom left.  Adjust the brush settings.  I used a Diameter of about 150, Softness 100% and Opacity around 28%.  Start to brush in where you want the highlights.  I brushed several areas on the truck, the clouds and a few in the grass.  Click the checkmark to apply changes.

Step 14
Save the Filterstorm edited version to your camera roll.

Step 15
Open the Filterstorm version in PS Express and make an adjustment to Reduce Noise (setting to about 40) and tap the checkmark to apply changes.  Then Sharpen to about 20 and tap the checkmark to apply changes.  Reducing the noise and then sharpening sounds like a contradiction, but it works.  Save this to your camera roll.

Step 16
Open the PS Express version in Snapseed and adjust Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Structure to your liking.  Resulting image shown below.

Step 17
Still in Snapseed I used the Selective Adjust Tool and added points where shown to adjust the Brightness, Contrast and Saturation to really make the truck “pop”.

Step 18
The final step in Snapseed was to apply Style 2 of the Vintage filters.  It’s only fitting for this vintage truck, right?! 

Below is the final edited image.  If you try this tutorial and post your results to Instagram or EyeEm, please tag me on them so I can see your results.  My username on both venues is @gericentonze.  I hope to see your work!


The images below were processed using similar steps

A Tutorial by Dan Marcolina Using the aremaC App

Below is a sample of the great tutorials you can get in Dan Marcolina’s App Alchemy – an interactive book for iPad.  This one uses aremaC ($1.99 in the App Store).  I had deleted this app, but after watching Dan’s tutorial, I’ve reinstalled it and can’t wait to experiment!

Talking to Myself & Bonus Hipstamatic Tutorial!

I am kind of in a bind this week – there are some artist interviews in the works, but I’m waiting to receive them, so rather than scramble to put something together, I decided to “interview myself”.  There are perks to having your own blog!  It’s probably not the first time I was caught talking to myself.  Hopefully next week I’ll be back on track with my regular artist interviews.

Portrait of a Man (above)

What is your name and where do you live?
Geri:  My name is Geri Centonze and I live in Southern California about an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, but if you know our freeways that hour can quickly become two and a half hours in peak traffic!  For 22 years I lived in the Cayman Islands and both of my sons were born there.  I mention that because living there had a big impact on my life.  I was exposed to a different way of life and got to know people from so many countries since the Caymans  attract people from all across the globe.

The Realtor (above)

Portrait of a Man Reading (above)

At the Mall (above)

Do you have a traditional photography or art background?
Geri:  I was never trained in either but have always loved both.  I purchased my first 35mm camera when I was a teenager back in the 1970’s (okay do the math and you’ll figure out that I’m no longer a teenager!).  It was a Konica and it took me a year to pay it off with monthly payments to J.C. Penney’s.  I would often go on shooting adventures down to the beach or convince one of my friends to be my model for the afternoon so I could experiment.  But in those days, photography was a very expensive hobby due to film and developing costs, so that limited the number of photos I could take.  My camera ended up on the shelf taken out only for special occasions and family outings.
On the art side of things, I loved drawing since I picked up my first crayon.  I thought of pursuing a career as a commercial artist but my father discouraged it as he thought my science and math aptitude could be used in a better way.  Although I worked in an art gallery in the Cayman Islands, it wasn’t until 2008 when, encouraged by my stepdaughter, I started creating sketch cards and selling them on eBay.  Sketch cards are collectible 2.5” x 3.5” original works usually Sci-Fi or comic themed.  Selling on eBay led to doing official sets for a few trading card companies. I also dabbled in mixed media pieces and in the four years I was creating original works, I sold more than 1300 pieces on eBay.

Benihana Chef (above)

Butterball (above)

 How did you get started in mobile photography?
Geri: After four years of drawing sketch cards, my passion was waning.  I had begun to use my iPad create original art using an app called Sketch Club.  These were all original pieces that were not image based.  My sister kept telling me how much fun she was having on Instagram so I joined.  I mainly saw a lot of photos of meals, shoes and teenagers.  I figured it wasn’t the venue for me until I stumbled upon the galleries of artists like Alain Vincent @alainvincent and Richard aka @thelongsilence.  These were two of the first feeds I viewed that opened my mind to the possibility of creating art with a mobile device.  At about the same time I discovered the blog of Karen L. Messick and her painterly images captivated me.  So I started shooting everything in sight and poured through the app store looking for ways to enhance my images.  When I started getting feedback on Instagram, I was hooked!  I decided to abandon my sketching career to pursue this new and evolving art form.

Man with a Red Hat (above)

Mall Shopper (above)

How did the blogging begin?

Geri:  When I was selling my original art, several people who had purchased my work wanted to know if I had a blog or website, so I started blogging.  When I began creating mobile art, I thought it was a good time to start a new blog and that’s when iART CHRONiCLES was born.  It’s almost a year old now.

I’ll Watch Over You (above)

The Venetian (above)

Do you use the native camera app or another specialty app?
Geri:  For quite a while I used ProCamera because of the ability to lock in exposure and focus separately.  Now,in addition I use Camera Awesome.  I also like Slow Shutter Cam. There are I rarely use the native camera on my iPhone 4S.
Who or what inspires your work?
Geri:  I am inspired by faces.  I loved drawing them and now I love capturing them in photos and doing painterly edits.  I also secretly long to be a street photographer like Dilshad Corleone @italianbrother, brave enough to capture images of everyday people, but living in the suburbs limits that endeavor.  I could walk for a mile in either direction of my home and not pass a single person!  Mobile artists like Sarah Jarrett also inspire me – her work is brilliant!  I also marvel at the work of artists like Dan Burkholder and Davide Capponi.  Their heavily textured images remind me of old world paintings.

Dusting off the Sand (above)

Westin Lobby (above)

Do you plan your shoots or is your work created out of random shots on your camera roll?
Geri:  I don’t plan.  Much to the chagrin of my husband, I take my iPhone everywhere and I am continually pausing to snap an image of someone or something I find interesting.  I love swiping through my camera roll looking for a face or a scene that I find edit worthy.  I often use an app called Real Spy Camera that randomly captures images every few seconds.  Using an iPhone clip case that I purchased for $6 on eBay, I attach it to my purse or pocket when I’m on a busy street.  I never know what I’ve captured until I look at my camera roll.  

  Shot with Real Spy Camera (above)

Easter Ranunculus (above)

Your work is eclectic with portraits, street photography, abstract work, black and white, color.  Do you have a preference?
Geri:  I love it all and will try most anything, but most enjoy painterly edits.  Collaborating with other artists really interests me as well and I recently edited images by Patrick St. Hilaire and Ketty @LadyKTY that were received well on Instagram and EyeEm.

My edit of an image by Patrick St. Hilaire (above)

My edit of an image by @Ladykty (above)

Please share some of your favorite apps and a bit about your process.

Geri:  I shoot everything with my iPhone and do all editing on my iPad.  I normally begin each edit in Snapseed where I do my cropping and make adjustments to exposure, ambiance, contrast and often use the “Structure” adjustment that is unique to Snapseed.  Then depending on what I’m doing, for painterly edits I take the image into PhotoViva or Artist’s Touch where I will do a rough painterly edit.  I will also make various edits of the original image in apps like Glaze, Shockmypic, Painteresque or Portrait Painter and then combine all of the various versions using Sketch Club.  Sketch Club is an app I purchased when I was doing a lot of original digital painting and I just got used to working with the layers in the app, but I really need to get more familiar with Filterstorm which allows for masking as well as combining layers.  I have more than 300 editing apps on my iPad so I consider myself appdicted!  Other favorites include iColorama, Laminar Pro,
Photo FX, PhotoStamps (for adding a signature), Monovu, Deco Sketch, Picfx, Alt Photo, Pic Grunger all the apps by JixiPix, and Portray.  One of the newest apps I enjoy experimenting with is Repix. 
Is there an area that you’d like to explore more?
Geri:  I definitely want to look into compositing images and also using apps in unconventional ways.  For example the app Perspective Correct I’d like to use to distort images and some of the novelty apps that skew faces are great for distorting figures.  Recently I tried something different with Hipstamatic.  I really like the effects of Hipstamatic but you can’t pull an image in that you’ve taken with another app.  I’ve found a workaround for that.  I shot a blank white page using the D-Type Black and White film and the GSquad lens and here’s what I got.

Hipstamatic “texture” (above)

I wanted to use it to apply to an image that I had already run through Snapseed (below)

After Snapseed I ran the image through Old Photo Pro (below)

Here is the image with the Hipstamatic texture applied over it using a Hard Light blend (I used Sketch Club to blend the layers (below).

Anything you’d like to add?
Geri:   Yes, mobile photography and the community that embraces it have really added to my life.  I believe we can all create something and it’s inherent in our nature – whether it’s a poem, a drawing, a photograph, a song…through this medium I’ve been able to explore various genres and techniques at a fairly low cost (I do have a lot of apps!)  I want to thank all of those who encouraged and inspired me over the past year. 

All images in this feature are copyrighted property of Geri Centonze with the exception of the collaborations.
JUXT / EyeEm / Instagram / Twitter / Pinterest

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