PhotoViva is available for free right now. I did review it a while back here. In a nutshell, I’d say its a fun app thats worth checking out…especially for free.
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Alright. Its been a while since I’ve done something more creative on the iPhone. After coming across Gravitarium2 yesterday, I thought it had some potential for more creative uses with other apps.
Here is a photo I took this morning. Nothing special, but I had an idea in mind.
Here are some images I made with Gravitarium2 yesterday. We’ll be using them with the light bulb to make something cooler.
I used ImageBlender to combine the images, but there are others out there that will allow you to do the same thing.
How are we suppose to blend these with the bulb if theres a black background? Won’t it look obviously fake? Not if you use certain blending modes. You can try Screen, Color Dodge, Color, and Plus Lighter. Some other blending modes that might look interesting, but won’t completely remove the black are Overlay and Soft Light. I’d also suggest playing with opacity in any blending mode just to see what looks best to you.
Now for some of the results:
I believe this was a soft light blending mode that I roughly masked in. Notice you can still see the black.
I think the last one was set to overlay or something because its darker. If I wanted it to pop more I’d take it into Snapseed and make some more adjustments, but I’m a little lazy right now.
Why am I promoting this app? Its not a photo app, but if you download it now, while its free, I’ll try to make a post tomorrow showing you something cool. It involves taking the beautiful things you create with Gravitarium2 and blending them with your photos using other apps.
This photo is one of the simpler things you can create with this app alone.
RainyDaze is another cool app from JixiPix. Its free right now in the app store and could be fun to play with when you want a gloomy style for your photo. I’m definitely ready for summer to be over, so this app is right up my alley. Give me some cool storm clouds to shoot already.
This shot was taken during the daytime with a clear blue sky. RainyDaze added clouds and rain. I also used the app to remove the saturation because it wouldn’t look natural if the ground still looked like it was sunny out. I also added a slight vignette and a dark, purplish tone. I don’t know if I like the dreamy look to it. That was from the romantic strength slider. I’ll have to be more careful with that next time.
This scene already had the storm clouds in it, but no rain. RainyDaze took care of that.
Go check out RainyDaze while its free.
And the winners of the Hueless promo codes are…
AngelineM
DarkAnd
Santackas416
Edith Levy
Brandie
Congratulations guys! To collect your promo code, you can email me at d.pasillas@yahoo.com or contact me through kik messenger where my id is d.pasillas.
If you’re a fan of Hueless, you can go like their facebook page here.
This was shot on the California side of the OR-CA border. Behind me was the amazing view of Mt. Shasta and the valley, but it was really hazy and the sun wasn’t in a good position. This view wasn’t bad, but didn’t compare to the shot behind me.
Shot with camera+. Edited with Snapseed, ShockMyPic, and ImageBlender. After using ShockMyPic, I used ImageBlender to lower the opacity of the shocked version on top of the Snapseed version, making for a slightly more subtle shock.
If you missed the post yesterday about Hueless and the free promo code giveaway, go look now!
Lets get straight to the part you’re probably most interested in. The developer of Hueless was kind enough to give me 5 promo codes to give away. That means if you didn’t buy the app already, you can get it for everyone’s favorite price…FREE!
All you have to do is like David Pasillas Photography on Facebook, if you haven’t already, and leave a comment on the wall there. If you don’t have facebook, you can always just comment below. The winners will be announced by 10am pacific time on Monday.
Now lets talk about the update…
Hopefully you took the time to read my review of Hueless the other day and thought it was a pretty sweet black and white camera. Well, it was just updated with 3 more features that the users requested, including:
- Square shooting: switch back and forth between full-frame and square aspects by pinching in and out on the live viewfinder preview.
- Rest & Release shutter: Some photogs like to rest their finger on the shutter button and lift when they want to capture. Hueless, as you know, will cycle between regular and expanded shutter buttons if you keep your finger on the button. Hueless now has a preference that will disable the button modes and allow photogs to rest their finger on the shutter button and release when they want to shoot. The switch is available in the iOS Settings app Hueless pane.
- Launch Center Pro integration: We have had a lot of requests to add support for this. Not sure if you have tried it out, but it’s a neat utility app. You can get it here.
I shot some more with the square format. I actually really like this format for this camera. Now I can shoot in the more natural landscape orientation without being limited to that layout.
There was a time where I only shot black and white film. If you shoot enough black and white, or constantly convert your images to black and white, you begin to actually see the world in a new way. I remember I use to be able to look at the scene in front of me and immediately see what it was like in black and white. Then I went digital and got into HDR, which is more how I see the world today.
Hueless is a great black and white camera app. Instead of having to imagine what the world looks like in black and white, this camera will give you a live preview. Not only that, but it has a couple of features that practically lets you edit while you shoot. Theres a slider on the left of the screen that acts as exposure compensation, effectively allowing you to brighten or darken your image before you press the shutter. If you ever want it to go back to 0, just double tap the slider.
The other great feature of Hueless are the colored filters, which is the icon in the top left corner. If you’ve ever been in the darkroom, you know what these are good for. Try experimenting with the different colors while shooting and see what a dramatic difference they can make. When you select a colored filter, there will be a slider on the right side that allows you to adjust the opacity of the filters.
If you feel like the screen is too cluttered, you can always just tap on the Hueless film roll in the bottom left corner and your view will be unobstructed.
The sharing features seem a little odd to me. You can email, tweet and post to instagram, but only if you allow location services. If you don’t you won’t have access to the camera roll in Hueless. Thats not really a big deal though because all of the images are also saved to your main camera roll.
Examples
None of these are edited with any other apps. I imagine you could get even more out of your photos if you touched them up just a little more. I know my examples aren’t the best I’ve ever included in an app review. I haven’t had time to shoot with this app as much as I’d like, which is why I included Keisuke’s photos as well.
You can overexpose images on purpose by increasing brightness before you shoot.
Below are examples from Keisuke Takahashi, a fantastic iphoneographer in Japan. I met him on Tadaa, where his username is TokyoGyango. Here is his flickr page.
Conclusion
Hueless is great for black and white photography. Its simple to use and post processing isn’t always necessary if you set things up before you take the shot. As with most cameras and apps, this may take some practice before you really master it. My only gripe with the app is the location of the shutter button when holding it in portrait orientation. It just feels awkward. Overall though, Hueless makes for a great black and white camera.
Rating: 5/5
Price: $1.99
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation) and iPad Wi-Fi + 4G.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.
***Full disclosure, I did not pay for this app, I asked for a promo code so I could review it. I’m not being offered any compensation for this review. ***
A while back I downloaded an app called Textify.it because it was offered for free at the time. It looked similar to another app that looked cool, WordFoto. WordFoto is actually the only app to deny me a promo code. I don’t know if its really their fault though. They claimed to be out of them at the time and I never heard anything back. Their loss is Textify.it’s gain.
The original photo was shot here at the desk I’m currently using. Felicia has a fake flower here that looked interesting enough to be the subject of a snapshot. The real reason I was interested was because of the lines the blinds were creating on the wall.
The edited photo above is ok, but nothing special. It needed something to make it stand out. I browsed my 60 or so photo apps and saw Textify.it. I figured I’d see what I can do with this app I’ve only used a couple of times before.
I adjusted the font size, the character quantity, and even tried using different characters. The first one below was composed of RED. The one below that was a bullet point *+# and an accidental L, but it worked.
If you’re interested in Textify.it, its 0.99 in the app store.
I just saw that NIR Color is free for a day. It’s one of those apps that I could go either way on, but since it’s free I’d grab it.
The effects are very different from most other apps. If you’re looking for filters that will give you unique images, this is a good app to have.
Diptic is free right now. I’ve seen other people do cool symmetrical images with it and I’ve wanted it for a while, but never bought it. It’s like I’m spoiled by developers giving me free apps or something 😊
It’s a good app for creating collages or symmetrical photos like this one I just made. All you have to do is tap your image after loading it to mirror it and remove the borders.
I have a few things to mention in today’s post. First, I decided I’m not waiting anymore for something to happen and I’m going to take a risk and try to make them happen. I’m heading north tomorrow, and after a few days in the bay area and Sacramento area, I’ll be moving to Oregon. I don’t have a job lined up and have hardly any money in my pocket, so don’t be surprised when I start asking you guys if you’re interested in buying prints soon. Wish me luck, pray, and send good vibes my way. I certainly need all the help I can get with this move.
Second thing I want to mention is Superimpose is free just for today. If you’re interested in blending images together, this one is worth a look. Check it out here.
Now, on to the image for today. For a little context, this large kiln is out in the middle of a redwood forest, about a half mile hike from the campgrounds. From the website:
In late 19th century, these ovens supplied a thriving industry: Limestone was ‘‘cooked’’ out of the rocks—a real stone soup—for use in building materials.
I believe they made mortar out there for the SF bay area if I remember correctly. It was almost impossible to get a wide shot of how large these things are because of the caution tape around them. If there wasn’t another hiker nearby, I’d have done what I had to do to get the shot 
Shot with ProHDR, edited with snapseed and shockmypic.
There’s a really cool app that was just released called FilterMania 2. It’s free this weekend and I recommend snagging it now. There are so many cool filters that you won’t find anywhere else. It’s got a lot to offer. The only thing I’m not crazy about is being forced to do the square crop.
These are examples of using just one filter at 100% opacity. Nothing fancy.
ShockMyPic is an app I’ve seen a few other people use to make some cool photos, so I had to get my hands on it and see what it was all about. This app is incredibly simple and provides great painterly effects. There is also a very similar Mac version that I’ll be reviewing soon.
Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I looked to see if there were any free apps worth playing with.
Part by MEA Mobile looks pretty interesting. Its simple. You start with large circles, or blocks, and as you touch them, they become smaller, revealing more detail in your photo. I’m thinking this app might make for some interesting photos if you take the images below and blend them with the original in an app like superimpose or imageblender.
The other app I found is PicArts Photo Studio by S Square System Limited. The main thing that interested me with this app was the number of filters for painting and sketch effects. The painting filters were painfully slow (you have to tap the screen or it will go to sleep) and the results were just ok for me. I dont think I’ll keep this one, but you might want to check it out since its free.
This is the watercolor effect. You can see its not a very clean job. There are some spots that are completely missed. And this is after about 3-4 minutes of processing.
