I See Double (Exposure)

One of the limitations of taking photos on a mobile device is the lack of dynamic range. The small sensor in the camera just simply does not do it justice. There is a way, however, to blend the highlights of a dark image with the shadow area of a light image to capture a much wider range.

High dynamic range, or HDR, is a technique that is normally shot with a DSLR, as “its visual interest lies in its large dynamic range and its foreground to background range” (Marcolina 106). HDR refers to a scene that includes both dark and light elements in a foreground to background range. 

Underexposed

Overexposed

To create an HDR effect, you need two similar photos with different exposures—one should be a little underexposed and the other should be a little overexposed. You can do this in two ways. The first would be to manually shoot a dark picture and then a light one right after. I personally find this quite challenging. “The process works best on contrasty scenes shot with the camera on a tripod or propped up on a table” (104). Since I do not own a tripod nor is a table always convenient when taking pictures (especially nature shots), I have found that taking one photo and editing it to mimic two different exposures is much easier. 

The next step after obtaining two photos would be to merge them together. There is a number of apps out there that can do this, but the double exposure feature in Rookie Cam has worked best for me. I blended the images together and tweaked the results with its excellent post tools.

What are other editing apps you use and what are their advantages or features?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

Giving Images Their Soul

Light is the most crucial element of a picture. It gives images their soul. Light can greatly impact an image’s tone or mood, so if a picture’s soul can be saved by adding a little “spark” in post, then do it (Marcolina 132). So how exactly do you add light in post? Adding light can mean adding or accentuating a sunburst or lens flare, or even stimulating an old camera defect, such as adding a light leak along the edge of an image.

After reading about the different techniques of adding light, I decided to try it out on this picture:

Unedited

I shot this on a road trip a while back, and I didn’t think much of it when I took it. Snapping a photo in the backseat of a moving car, I was really surprised by the image quality and resolution. It didn’t turn out nearly as blurry as I thought it would. As Marcolina said, “Trust your instincts when you get the urge to take a picture; don’t always ask yourself the reason for doing it” (134). I’m glad I took this picture because it has become one of my favorites, especially after editing. 

Edited!

Not much was done in the alteration of this image. All I did was fix the little bit of misalignment and add lens flare with the PicsArt app. I added the lens flare with restraints so it looks sort of natural and does not come across as cheesy. You can see this effect in the upper middle of this picture.

What are some other situations in which you can add light (in editing of course)?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

The Analog Look of Film

If you were able to read my previous blog, you saw that I wrote about grunge and covered the basics of that particular photography style. And as for this third blog post, I have decided to continue along those lines and attempt to create film-resembling photographs. There is just something about the look of film that catches my interest. These types of images tend to give off the glowy impressions that they were taken out of an old photo album (Marcolina 72). I’m not exactly sure why this aged, vintage look appeals to me. Perhaps it is the soft, dark edges, the raw grain, or the enchanting light leaks. Whatever it is, let’s move on and get into film looks.

On a recent trip back from Leavenworth with my family, we made a little pit stop and unintentionally came across a waterfall. The pictures I took on my phone were mediocre. The photo quality was not great and although I’m sure I did not touch the zoom settings, the pictures turned out a little grainy. I figured I might as well embrace the graininess and edit it accordingly. I cursorily flipped through iPhone Obsessed and found the perfect editing style for the situation—film. “By adding a film look you can give an image instant credibility along with a touch of nostalgia and an overall warm feeling” (72). The way I see film is that it resembles a thin sheet of finely grained wood. If you were to merge a digital picture with a film-like veneer, you would result with some unique and interesting images.

 

Although film looks are usually applied to shots with a single subject (both close-up and medium shots), I decided to try this technique on a few nature shots. The book did not provide a definite set of steps to follow in order to achieve the film look, so I just edited the pictures to how I found fit. First, I tuned the images to add color and saturation. I lightened and opened up shadows. Then, I added sharpness and strengthened the warm, yellow tone. Finally, I applied vintage and a grainy film.

Do you have any critiques on the pictures, and what is your opinion on film looks?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

Grunge It Up

Editing photos is not something I often do in my spare time. And just for the record, I have a very minimal understanding on this topic. (I don’t think applying text, stickers, and one-touch filters to a photo counts as much editing.) Now that I think about it, the only times I’ve actually had to use an editing app were when the pictures were either overexposed (too bright) or underexposed (too dark).

Photography has always been an interest of mine, but I have never fully committed to it. I would get into the habit of regularly taking pictures for a couple of months, but then I’d get discouraged and stop once I see all of these amazing professional-looking photos on social media. I would get bored and search for something else to do in my free time. But things will be different this time around. I’m determined to stick to this hobby for a while longer and become better at taking and editing photos.

I will start off my editing experiment with grunge photography. Grunge is a term I see used here and there, but it is not something I am very familiar with. According to iPhone Obsessed, these types of photos are often scratched, blotched, and/or desaturated (Marcolina 28). These photos generally have a sense of nostalgia or loneliness to them and involve a lot of post-processing and heavily editing. 

Here is the original photo before any editing:

In this case, I wanted to accentuate the sad and depressing tone that is sometimes associated with rain. Using the Snapseed app, I did some basic editing to try to mute some of the colors. I straightened the picture at about a +2° angle and cropped it accordingly to center the subject. Then I added vintage and a grainy film to the image.

Marcolina says, “Try going crazy with layers over layers, type and texture, saturation, blurring, and sharpening and see what happens” (Marcolina 36). I took this little piece of advice and made a second attempt at grunge. I took the edited picture I made with Snapseed and put it through another app called Pixlr. I did as Marcolina advised and experimented with different effects and filters. At the end, I added scratches, blur, a rustic frame, and a few subtle vintage filters. 

Here are the edited photos (left-Snapseed, right-Pixlr):

    

Grunge photography is one way to tell a story. How do you narrate yours through pictures and images?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

Capturing the Mobile Moment

*DISCLAIMER: The book I am reading is called iPhone Obsessed. However, I do not own an iPhone. The pictures below were taken with an Android (more specifically, a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge).

What is the mobile moment? It is the circumstances that would cause me to pull out my phone and snap a quick photo. For me, this could be anything, really, from great lighting to the natural and authentic moment of a human or animal. The mobile moment usually occurs when you least expect it to and is the moment that brings together a memorable image.

I take a lot of pictures with my phone. However, most of them are not worth sharing. Like many others, I know the fundamentals of phone photography, such as making sure the subject is in focus and fits within the frame of the screen. Easy enough, right? But here’s where it gets a little overwhelming—I begin to consider other features into my shots like framing, perspective, lighting, and exposure. I, personally, have a tendency to overthink the elements of a shot rather than just simply taking the photo, resulting in many passed opportunities.

Photographer and author Dan Marcolina would agree that this is a mistake many amateurs, like myself, make. He suggests snapping the shot and then thinking about it afterwards. There is always the option of editing it later. The perfect photo opportunity can be gone in an instant. Marcolina says it’s often the unconscious reaction to a moment that makes the most honest and impactful picture. Although the first impression will usually work best, he recommends following up with a more conscious set of angles (Marcolina 4). Marcolina’s advice has really changed the way I take pictures. Below are some unedited photos I’ve recently taken of my dogs. The top photo was taken just moments before she jumped off the bench and chased after a squirrel, and the photo on the bottom was taken of my dog mid-yawn. Had I spent time overthinking the shots, I never would’ve captured these moments.

Both pictures were achieved by applying the Rule of Thirds, which is basically breaking an image down into thirds (using both horizontal and vertical lines) so that you are left with nine parts. To make this easier, I simply went into my camera settings and turned on the grid lines. For the photo on top, I positioned the edge of the bench to one of the horizontal lines, balancing out the image and making for a more aesthetically-pleasing shot. As for the photo on the bottom, I aligned my dog’s head along a vertical line, purposely making her off center and therefore allowing me to expose more of the background.

In iPhone Obsessed, Marcolina stresses the importance of framing. “What to include in the frame and what not to include: It is that decision that really defines why still images can be more powerful than seeing the whole scene as in video” (Marcolina 2). Things to consider when quickly deciding your framing include the angle and position of the shot. What is the angle of the shot? Is it high or low? Will the shot be more dynamic if it’s taken horizontally, vertically, or squared? For both of the pictures above, I decided to take them in landscape and at eye level. This gives the viewer a sense of first person, as though he or she is experiencing the moment from his or her own perspective.

With a tap of a screen, phone photography is a hobby anyone can get into. The simplicity and practicality of a smartphone make shooting photos much easier than it would be with a bulky digital camera. This first blog was just about capturing and framing the mobile moment. I look forward to reading and discovering more tips and tricks. Over the course of the next couple of blogs, I will be trying various photography and editing techniques such as grunge, HDR (high dynamic range), and adding light. 

Any thoughts on the pictures? What are your “mobile moments”, and where do you get your inspiration from?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.