Tangled Sunset

I finally was able to catch a sunset at the beach last night. We’re getting our June gloom foggy weather already, which means sunsets are usually ruined. Lucky for me, last night the fog stayed off the coast just far enough.

This particular sunset wasn’t anything too amazing. I felt like I should use a few apps to make it look more beautiful in my eyes. First, I shot with TrueHDR. If you’re new to my blog, I use TrueHDR a lot because often times it makes for a  more realistic image by combining two exposures. Next, I used Snapseed to brighten a little, add contrast, and bump up the saturation slightly. Then, I used TangledFX for the painterly/fibrous look. Finally, I used Snapseed again because I felt like the image needed more contrast and saturation.

Flowers in Bloom

Yesterday I went out shooting with a new app that I’m going to review soon. The wind didn’t make for good shooting conditions, so I need to take some more time getting better images before I give the app a proper review. I don’t want to name it yet because I don’t want anyone to buy it before I give my opinion. Mainly because I’m not blown away by it and I’m not sure if I’d recommend it yet. I have to use it some more and see if some quirks were related to the shooting conditions.

2 apps that I used to edit were Snapseed and ShockMyPic.

Santa Monica Pier

After playing in the desert again recently, we escaped the heat and headed to the coast. It was overcast and a little chilly in Santa Monica, which makes for dull photos. I tried to spice this one up with a number of apps, but it still doesn’t pop too much.

Shot with camera+. Edited with Snapseed at first to add saturation,contrast, and to crop. Then TouchRetouch was used to remove a distracting element. Aquarella was used for the conversion to a painterly image. Snapseed was used again to add more contrast and saturation.

Cropped Clovers

Sometimes, if a photo doesn’t work, its because you need to be closer to your subject so it fills the frame. In the photo above, I was most interested in the clover at the bottom with balls of water on it. Unfortunately, I didn’t move in closer for the better shot. I don’t even know how much closer I could have gone with my iPhone. What I ended up with was a lot of extra space that doesn’t add to the image in this case.

To improve the image, I cropped very tight with Snapseed. Then, I used Tangled FX for the painterly edit.

On another note, I’ll be heading out of town again tomorrow. This time, I’m going to the bay area for an engagement session. Hopefully, I’ll remember to take some photos with the iPhone during it.

More Wildflowers

Today I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to edit this photo of wildflowers. I played with Snapseed to add saturation and contrast. I tried aquarella and autopainter. In the end, I couldn’t decide between the Snapseed edit above or the autopainter styles below.

Which do you prefer?

Painted Falls

I shot this out in Morgan Hill, California a few weeks back. I seem to have a lot of photos to edit on my phone and my mac. I got around to this one a week or two ago and gave it the painterly effect with AutoPainter. I couldn’t tell you which effect I used because my memory is bad.

I picked up AutoPainter recently when it was available for free. Unfortunately, its not free anymore. Oops, I should have mentioned it at the time.

I have all these apps that turn photos into paintings. Maybe I should take up painting already.

Tangled Clouds

The clouds were pretty interesting the other evening. Just for a few moments, the light and the colors of the scene were awesome. I was lucky enough to be there to witness it. Stupid me didn’t wait around for the sunset though. I drove to another part of the coast, chasing a cloud that I was hoping would make for a great shot at sunset. Unfortunately, it evaporated before the sun went down and I was left in the middle of agriculture fields with nothing too exciting going on.

This was shot with TrueHDR. Edited with Snapseed, Tangled FX, and ImageBlender. I liked the Tangled FX version, but wanted to dial it back a bit by using ImageBlender to reduce the opacity of the effect to about 70% just to bring back a hint of realism.

App Review: Tangled FX

Let’s get straight to brass tax with this review. Tangled FX is like ShockMyPic on steroids. You can get very similar effects to ShockMyPic or you can create an image that looks like you spent hours on it in photoshop.

The first screen is the simple instructions that pop up on how to use Tangled FX. When you tap on open, you can open a photo, use the camera, copy an image from the clipboard, or use one of the sample images. The second screengrab is what you see after the image is opened and initially processed. There are 16 presets to choose from ranging from fibers, to the shockmypic look, to extreme processing that makes the original image unrecognizable.

In the options panel, I reommend using the advanced settings with the preview on. The preview size will vary depending on your device. Choose something in the middle for pretty fast rendering. The higher the resolution, the longer it will take for the image to process. With that in mind, you’ll want to fine tune the image on a lower resolution preview image before you process the high res version. In order to switch from the preview image to the high resolution image, you must tap the top middle button that shows the resolution and says “preview.”

I think the presets offer a great start and often times you’ll probably be happy with at least one of them. If you’re a perfectionist, like me, you can fine tune the settings by tapping on the tune button in the lower right hand corner.

The sliders might be hard to figure out at first, but after playing with them a bit you’ll be able to get work with them like you know what you’re doing. I still don’t know how to explain what each slider does, but I’ll try to share what I can at this point.

The effect scale factor is exactly what you think it is…it makes the overall effect larger or smaller. Think thicker or thinner fibers or swirls. I’ve found that the pre sharpen, sharpen size, and post sharpen size all offer better results when they’re under 5%. You can adjust the amounts to get more or less of the sharpening effect. The stroke size is the size of the fiber/brushstroke/swirl. Smudge size is used to smooth out the image and reduce harshness of an effect.

Pros

• You can achieve a wide variety of effects with one app.
• The size! It’s only 6.2MB at the time of this review.
• Being able to adjust your settings on a low res preview image saves a lot of time.

Cons

• I didn’t find the sliders to be the most intuitive.

Examples

Conclusion

I’m a big fan. The effects on animal photos are amazing to me. Since I can use Tangled FX to create a painterly image, a fiberous image, or an extremely edited version of my image, I can see this app replacing a few other similar apps that don’t offer as much variety as Tangled FX. Although this app is optimized for iPhone 5, I didn’t find myself annoyed by long save times or sluggish performance because of the ability to work on a low resolution preview image. Don’t forget to work on the preview image and then tap on the preview button at the top to switch to full resolution before you save! For the absolute best results, run Tangled FX, save your image, then make some subtle adjustments to brightness, contrast, and saturation, in your favorite image editor.

Rating: 5/5 I feel like I give quite a few apps a 5/5, but this one truly deserves it.

Price: 1.99

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

***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. ***

http://www.orangeqube.com/tangledfx/index.html

Mmm Coffee

Just a quick snapshot from when I got coffee with my buddy in the Bay Area last week.

Free App: PhotoViva

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.

http://photovivaapp.com/

Just Married

My brother just got married this weekend. Luckily, I wasn’t hired to shoot it. This gave me the opportunity to try shooting a wedding with my iPhone. I wasn’t happy with the inability to get perfect exposures. The bride is fair skinned and got blown out in some of the shots.

This is the happy couple cutting and eating their amazing piano cake.

Shot with camera+ and edited with aquarella and Snapseed.

Sneak Peak: Aquarella

I recently got a promo code for Aquarella, which means a review is coming soon! It turns your images in watercolors like this.

Yesterday, I went with a friend to check out some mustangs that some people had picked up from the BLM the day before. Amazingly, they were already able to touch one of the wild horses with their hand.

This photo is of 2 of the 10 mustangs they have on their ranch. When I saw the puffy clouds in the sky behind the horses, I knew I had to try turning this into a watercolor. I wasn’t disappointed.

Shot with camera+ and edited with Aquarella

Double Daffodil

I got a little creative with this one. I shot with mirrorgram and liked the image, but it was a little out of focus. I didn’t want to scrap it, so I used shockmypic for the painterly look. Finally, I used snapseed to add some contrast and darken the image slightly. The result is much better than a blurry photo, in my opinion.

Foolproof

Last month, a friend of mine sent me a painterly image and told me to check out this app called Foolproof Art Studio for iPhone. There is a free version that you can play with. I was lucky enough to get the paid version while it was available for free.

Basically, you import your photo and make all of the strokes with your finger, or try the auto mode. Its very simple, you can adjust the brush size and the paint effect, and then go to work. It even saves a video of you creating your painting if you’d like to watch it back or share it.

I have a few apps that turn photos into paintings. Foolproof delivers the ability to create some dreamy paintings. I’ll be keeping this app on my phone for a while

Juno

 

Not really much to say about this one. This is Juno.

Shot with camera+. Edited with Snapseed and ShockMyPic.