Post-Processing, the iPhone Way

I’ve never really been much on overly-processed photos, preferring a more natural look. It’s not because I don’t think post-processing has no place in photography, or because I don’t know how to do it (I shoot RAW, so post-processing is part of my routine – all my photos have to be processed, to some degree, before I post them) – it’s merely a personal preference.

That said, I’ve been having some fun running some of my older photos (and ones taken with my Olympus E500) through the filters in Instagram.

My job is keeping me way too busy for much photo taking of late, so my cell phone has become my camera, and Instagram my photo-app-of-choice. It has a small selection of filters, but it’s ability to share with various social media sites, along with it’s own social sharing capabilities have made it a fun toy for me, and made taking photos with my iPhone much more enjoyable. There are still a few things lacking (zoom would be nice), and I’m still less than impressed with the camera on my phone, but it gets the job done.

But this isn’t about the app, but rather what I did with it. Allow me to present two of my older photos, after running them through Instagram:

Got No Secrets, Got No Shame … Just Don’t Let Me Disappear

I went out for the first time since early December, packing my camera with me. It was a gorgeous day, albeit, a bit windy. There wasn’t a whole lot to see at the Botanical Gardens, and I wasn’t expecting a lot as it’s January.

And there wasn’t, but it’s central Texas. We had Roses. And the ubiquitous Pansy.

My First Two Lessons as a Photographer

I live in Austin, the land of 95-degree temperatures with 85% humidity. I’ve also noticed that my car has a wee bit of a problem in this climate: external condensation like you wouldn’t believe. Many a morning, particularly in the “fall” and “winter” months (quotations on purpose), I’ll wander down to my car, only to find that it’s the ONLY car in the entire parking lot that has every single window covered in water. Not just a fine, misty dew, but drenched in thick, fat drops I have no chance of ever seeing out through.

The front window’s not so much a big deal: windshield wipers to the rescue. But my side windows? My rear window? Yeah, not so much.

So, I started keeping a towel in the car.

It’s a ratty old towel, low quality, run through the washer & dryer so many times it’s grossly misshapen on both ends. I’m pretty sure there’s a hole somewhere in it. It comes out of the car, every so often, for a thorough washing in hot water & vinegar, then right back into the car it goes, to serve it’s owner the best way it can: clear the condensation off my car, so I can drive to work.

During the summer, there’s not really much call to keep a bath towel in the car, but I leave it in there, because if I don’t, I’ll forget to put it back. Hand towels are handy in the summer, for wiping sweat off my brow, and handling hot plastic (shifter, brake, steering wheel) or metal (seat belt), but for the most part, the mint-green bath towel just sits, waiting.

It was waiting when I picked up photography as a hobby, the summer of 2007.

It was one of the wettest summers Austin had seen in a while. I had the opportunity to play with a DSLR (Olympus E300) for about a month, before deciding a) that was definitely the right hobby for me (the first few photos were enough for me to determine that) and b) an Olympus was definitely what I wanted for a camera. I purchased my E500, and then the rain hit. Nearly 1 month of downpour.

It had dried up enough for me to venture back out to one of my usual haunts: Upper Bull Creek. This is one of the roads that ends up getting closed when it rains a lot, due to low water crossings & flash flooding. If you click on the link, and look at the map, towards 360, there’s a small dirt path that leads off to the left. That would be one of the myriad of hike & bike trails Austin offers; and one of the ones I’ve traveled quite a few times.

What wasn’t covered in water, was definitely muddy. Still, I threw on my trusty Crocs (yes, the big, ugly, plastic shoes; chosen for the fact that they were ridiculously comfortable and I could throw them in the kitchen sink to clean them), grabbed my trusty camera, and went for a walk. What you don’t see in the photo is the creek that runs adjacent to the trusty pathway, or the relaxing waterfalls scattered along the creek, as it dips in places.

I carefully plodded my way along the muddy pathway, mentally “ewww”ing as my feet squished in the mud. No real big deal, I thought. I’m washable. I stopped periodically to take some pictures (nothing I would later display). I periodically stopped to let a biker pass, a group of people walking their dog pass, and tried to avoid the kids playing in the creek. Then, as I neared one of the waterfall areas, I decided it would be a great idea to step down and try and get some photos.

And learned my first lesson as a photographer: Crocs have absolutely NO grip when it’s wet.

Yes, in a scene reminiscent of many cartoon, in what felt like slow motion, I went to take a single step, only to have my foot slip right out from under me. Camera, lens pointed up, went straight up in one hand, while the other prepared to brace my fall, once I hit the ground (the nice thing about being that girl who climbed trees & fences as a kid: I knew how to fall).

And fall I did: flat on my ass.

While wearing khaki capri pants.

The camera miraculously came through unscathed, a couple small drops of mud on the outside of the lens casing, nothing on the lens. To me, that was the important part, as I’d only owned it for a month.

The second important thing to me: the only thing I had injured was my pride. Fortunately, no one was around to witness this feat of pure comedy, save a few birds, dragonflies, and squirrels. Unfortunately, I still had to hike my way back out of the park, and to my car. In muddy pants.

I picked myself up, brushed the mud off my hands, tested my footing, and made my way back to my car. I still stopped every so often to take pictures; it was the reason I had gone in the first place, and a little mud wasn’t going to deter me. What I was going to do when I got back to the car was tucked away in the back of my mind. I had no plan, and didn’t want to think about it. I could wipe off most of the muck with the hand towel, and go from there.

I honestly don’t remember if I passed anyone or not. Nobody said anything. It’s muddy. People fall. It happens. I got back to my car in one piece, put the camera up, pulled the hand towel out, and started a better cleaning job on my hands, and tried to figure out how I was going to get in the car to drive back home without creating a bigger mess; I couldn’t see my back-side, so I had no idea how badly I was covered in muck, or how far up my back it went.

Then I spied it, sitting, folded neatly on the back seat, waiting patiently for me: my towel; just thick enough, just big enough to cover the seat so I could climb in and drive home.

My savior.

Towel arranged, I climb in, I go home. Somehow, I manage to see anyone on my way up the stairs and into my condo. The Crocs had some off at the park, in favor of my sandals. The hand towel, trusty bath towel, and Crocs all carried inside in one bundle, so I could make sure to wash them. I gingerly changed out of my clothes, trying to keep from making a muddy mess all over the carpet. The shirt was clean. The pants, on the other hand …

Not as bad as it could have been. And the second lesson I learned that day, I should have learned from Douglas Adams years ago: Always Carry Your Towel.

The Whole World Opens Up

I was given a gift recently.

I had been using an antiquated version of Photoshop (PS7) on my ancient Windows machine (Celeron something-or-other maxed out at 1GB RAM, no capacity for updating the video card, and barely running XP). Combining that, with Exifer, I was able to get most of what I needed in the way of editing. Yes, I had the old Macbook, but never bothered to throw a Windows partition on it, and while GIMP works in a pinch, I never could get the hang of URAW.

With each security update (once a week; I think I had more patches for Windows on my machine than actual programs), my desktop was increasingly sluggish. After it took 10 minutes to load Google (the main page, not any search results), I gave up. I was planning on buying a new computer towards the end of the year anyway, and started looking at my options. Maybe I could just get something to tide me over until then.

Then everything I started putting together, that wasn’t an exact clone of the machine I was ready to throw out my front door (and gleefully watch smash into a thousand pieces, 3 stories down) was about the same price as the base model Mac I’d been eyeing. After a few days, I decided to bite the bullet, go all out, and buy the base model 15″ MacBook Pro.

But that wasn’t my gift.

About a week later, courtesy of a friend, I was able to create a Windows 7 partition, so I could finally retire the desktop. Now, I only booted up Windows if I had to balance my checkbook or edit photos. Of course, this meant still using the Photoshop 7 & Exifer combination (Exifer, because Photoshop 7 doesn’t like camera RAW files, and strips all pertinent information out of the saved .jpg).

Windows 7 was a gift, but not The Gift.

I’d said in the past that I always do a minimal amount of processing on my photos – I really dislike doing it, but understand the necessity for it. I don’t know that I will ever be a fan of HDR (I’ve seen it done correctly, for some phenomenal photos, but it’s far too over-used), and I still like to try and get things right the first time around. PS7 worked for what I needed, and the RAW capability was .. enough. Mind you, I still had to download a plug-in so PS7 would actually read my .ORF files (silly me for not being trendy & going with Nikon or Canon), but it worked well enough.

I have now discovered the joy that is Photoshop CS4 and Adobe Bridge.

Between being able to add the Metadata to my photos from the start, to the increased editing ability of Camera RAW, I’m seriously in awe. I’m not only able to bring out details & colours in new photos, but I’m able to go back and re-edit older shots, to help bring out the colours and details I simply couldn’t get with PS7. I’ve even been able to edit photos I thought I’d never be able to save: the ones too dark, too noisy, too flat.

A gift indeed, and it has made my workflow so much easier to handle. I know Adobe has since stopped supporting CS4, in favor of CS5, and when I buy a new camera, I will likely have to upgrade, but I’m just thrilled with what I’m capable of doing now.

And now I only boot Windows in a Virtual Machine to balance my checkbook

Something new:

And Something Old, not posted previously:

Although looking at it now, I think I went a little over-board with the vignetting.

While You’re Waiting …

Here, have a cookie. I promise when you finish eating it you’ll be feeling right as rain….
– The Oracle, The Matrix

Taken with an iPhone 4, and the Hipstamatic App (Lucifer VI lens, BlacKeys B+W film, no flash). Cookies by me

Speaking of it Being a While ….

Yeah. Um. Yeah.

So life got a little crazy in the last year, mostly with work. I have still been taking pictures – I even broke down and purchase 2 new pieces of photography equipment: a 70-300mm zoom lens (I still don’t like it as much as my baby Prime (the 105mm Macro lens, that’s still my go-to lens) and my first external flash.

I’ll let you know when I finally figure out how to use the flash. It’s definitely a learning curve, since I’m more about available light & still trying to get exposure right the first time (not that I always succeed), and I find I tend to leave it home more often than not – it’s heavy to lug around.

In addition to new gear, there have even been new locations: Southern California (Dana Point, Capistrano Beach, Laguna Beach) and Orlando, Florida (Disney, Disney, and yet more Disney). More playing with the point & shoot camera, more playing with the camera phone & various camera phone apps (Kinda digging on Hipstamatic and it’s “shake for random” feature). I’ll get something new posted soon.

Purity

It’s been a while since I’ve updated here – too many things to keep up with. So here’s a new one for anyone who’s reading this:

I keep my camera on a -.7EV, to keep it from blowing out hilights & whites. During normal post-processing, I do the following: contrast +3, saturation +2, sharpness +1, and I’ll adjust the exposure compensation anywhere from +.7 to +1.0.

For this photo, I did all my usual post-processing except for my exposure compensation. Instead of increasing the EV, I lowered it even further, an additional -1.0 on what I’d already done in camera.

It’s the best photo from that set; the rest of them could use a little work.

I’ve Been Playing

with my Camera Phone, of late. I discovered that it doesn’t completely suck if I stick to black & white or sepia images.

(click on the photo for that set)

It doesn’t replace my big, pretty, shiny camera or my big, pretty, shiny macro lens. It’s a Nokia 6126 phone, with a whopping 1.3MP camera. All that really means is: a) I have to have lots of light for colour photos, and b) I should get really creative with all other shots, to make up for lack of sharpness. Still, I’ve liked the results I’ve gotten thusfar, and minimal post-processing.

Take this photo, for example:

The Secret Life of Shopping Carts

I played with some adjustment layers (curves, brightness/contrast, and levels), cloned out some blown-out rocks & debris, and poof. One very moody shopping cart, laying in a ditch.

Playing in Black & White

One of my customers at my regular job asked whether or not I’d considered doing a black & white treatment on some of my photos. I had played around with it Yesterday, but hadn’t done anything with the other photos.

So, I sat down and played a little. I didn’t do anything more complicated than Mode > Grayscale in Photoshop 7. I only uploaded a few, but I’m pretty happy with the results.

(Click on the Photo for the set)

Shoot the Light

Someone posted that as an invaluable photography tip: don’t shoot the subject, shoot the light.

I’ve found time and time again, that’s almost always what catches my eye: how the light plays on something, dancing, highlighting, reflecting. Things I would have normally walked by, without so much as a second glance, suddenly take on a whole new life.

This was one such subject.

(click on photo for the 6 Dec 08 photos)