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.

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.