Tag: Photography

  • A couple of pics from the weekend

    After a massive thunderstorm on Saturday, while we were away in the Underberg, I tried my hand at attempting to “take” an HDR photo. Well, to “take” and HDR photo you actually need to take 3 separate photos. 1 normal, 1 over exposed & 1 under exposed.You then blend them in together in Photoshop. It’s a fairly simple process in Photoshop CS3. A cool tutorial on how it all works at Photoshop Cafe

    This is the result of my first attempt, and I am really happy with how it came out. (click on images for hi res)

    Cloudy Lake

    I also took a few other normal shots as the sky looked awesome after the thunderstorm

    Bliss

    After the storm

    Green skies

    The higher res pictures are on my flickr stream

  • Best Camera iPhone App

    Chase Jarvis is a world renowned photographer, who has one of the most awe inspiring portfolio’s I have ever seen, has released his own iPhone app, aptly called Best Camera (Opens iTunes). Why Best camera ? Cause as Chase says the “Best Camera is the one that’s with you”. At $2.99 on the App store this app is a Steal !!!

    The app has 14 different filters which can be applied to photos you have taken on your iPhone. Some of the cool filters include Warmify, which adds yellow tones, Jewel, a one Touch signature filter which creates rich textual looks. You can also one click crop to square, as well as add frames. Given 14 different filters you can make your photos look absolutely awesome :)

    Once you have finished applying the filters, you can upload to twitter, facebook or the specially developed community site for the app , http://www.thebestcamera.com/

    I have been playing around with it for the last day or so, and am blow away. Below are some of the images I have created using the BestCamera app:

  • Top 5 Photography iPhone apps

    The fact that my second favorite hobby, next to my iPhone :), is my Photography, and given that the iPhone has a built in Camera, which albeit, isn’t the best, there are a couple of fantastic apps that allow you to maximise the capability of the iPhone Camera.

    If you want to see some awesome iPhone photography check out JustWhatISee.comwhich is a site by a guy who goes around taking photos with his iPhone Camera. For all iPhone Photography things also check out iphoneography.com

    I have a whole page dedicated on my iPhone to Photography apps, so I thought I would share my top 5 apps  :)

    Camera Genius (iTunes link)
    Price: $0.99

    The app adds all the missing features of the standard iPhone camera, and allows you to zoom in on your subjects, which is a big plus, and the images come out fairly clear. Another nifty feature is the anti shake, which helps you get the perfect shot. The camera will only take the shot when the camera is perfectly still,eliminating the blurry pictures we all used to. Camera Genius also has Sound Capture, so everyone can scream cheese and the pic is taken, Guides, full screen button, timer, and a few other features.

    All in all a fantastic app that is well worth the asking price. My Rating: 4/5

    ColorSplash (iTunes Link)
    Price: $1.99

    A fantastic tool to make the photos you have taken look extra cool. Color splash is a simple app, which allows you take the color of the image out, or add it back into the image. So the app makes the whole image black and white, and then you simple color out the parts you want to be color again. Something like this below

    Great app, that you can spend hours on dollying up your iPhone pics. My rating: 3.5/5

    Photogene (iTunes Link)
    Price: $2.99

    Well well worth the $2.99 you will be spending on this app. This is like Photoshop on your phone. The app is a photo editing app, that allows you to edit the photos you have taken on your iPhone, and then allows you to save them to your phone. These are just some of the awesome things you can do with Photogene

    – Crop. Fixed aspect ratios are optional.
    – Sharpen
    – Levels histogram. Manually or automatically correct color distribution, improving brightness and contrast at the same time.
    – Gamma correction (midtones)
    – Separate exposure and contrast buttons.
    – RGB balance
    – Saturation. Increase or decrease hues intensity in your picture. B/W effect can be reached.
    – Color temperature. Correct unnatural colors by adding warmth or coolness to the image.
    – Straighten for a tilted image
    – Rotate and mirror
    – Special effects, such as pencil, sepia or heat-map
    – Frame effects: Reflection and Vignette
    – Preset and customized frames in various shapes, widths and colors. Selection of shadows – outer and inner glows, gloss, drops shadow.
    – Text bubbles of different styles, colors and fonts (just drag and place them wherever you like).
    – Multiple Undo-Redo and reset buttons. You can use these features to compare between origin and result.
    – Take photos from with in the application

    Cool hey. Really an awesome app, and like I said, well worth the money. My Rating: 4.5/5

    Pano (iTunes Link)
    Price: $2.99

    This is probably one of my most favorite apps on the iPhone. I have spoken about this app before, and I would buy it 10 times over if I could. The app allows you to take a series of photos which it then stitches together. And it just works. Does a fantastic job. This is one of the photos I took recently using Pano

    If you would like to see more of the pics I have taken with Pano, check out my Pano Flickr Set. My Rating: 5/5

    Flickr (iTunes LInk)
    Price: Free

    I have also written about this fantastic app before, but it seriously a great app. Once you have taken all your pictures using the apps above, you can directly upload them to your Flickr Account. On the Go. You can also browse though your Flickr Contacts photo stream, and comment on them. All in all an essential app for your iPhone to help you store your new iPhone photos quickly and easily. My Rating 4/5

    Well that’s my 5 favorite iPhone Photography apps. If you know of some that I may have missed, please leave a comment, so we can check them out.

  • Worldwide PhotoWalk Durban

    Durban City Pano

    Yesterday we went down to the 2nd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide photowalk at the Durban Harbour. It really was loads of fun, with around 50 photographers, with some even coming as far away as Pietermartizburg. This was our first photowalk, and I will definitely be signing up for next years one, when it comes around again.
    We had a rather early 5:30 am start, which meant we needed to be up at 4 to get the show on the road. The walk was led by Durban photographer  Jone Mackay.
    The weather was perfect, and the harbour in Durban is a real treat at that time of the morning. We managed to get a couple of cool sunrise shots, as well as a couple of the boats in the harbour. At the end of the day, we all gathered around for some well deserved coffee and muffins. A big big thank you to Jone for organising a fantastic day out.

    These are some of the photos I took on the day, for more, check out my Photowalk set on Flickr, and if you would like to see a couple other South African’s shots, be sure to check out the South African Photowalk Flickr Group here

    Shadowed Reflections

    Ulundi

    Yachts in the Harbour

  • Fake Tilt Shift Photography – DIY

    A couple of months ago I wrote a post on how to create your own Fake Tilt Shift photography in Photoshop. Now a website – TiltShiftmaker.com has come up with a SIMPLE way to do it for you. Simply upload your photo that you would like to transform, and choose your settings, and it does the rest of the work…easy kapeese :)

    Here is a cool example of a pic that was made with TiltShiftMaker.com from their Flickr Group