Mobile Art Monday No. 8

Light is a huge thing in photography. A little extra light can take an ok photo and make it more interesting.

The original had an awesome dark blue sky set as a backdrop against the snow and touches of gold.

The little cloud pieces made me want to try and add a moon to cover it. So in Lenslight I did, but it still looked like it needed something. I added some glow and it worked well. I t also brightened up a path across the snow.
The glow was from Effects> Lights/Glow> Lumos Glow. The Moon is also under Effects> Lights/Glow.

These are the adjustments I applied to the moon.

These are the adjustments made for the glow.

Remember to add a new light to a new layer.

Another photo that I added several light leaks to but later realized it would be so much better with a Lens Flare.

Lenslight has had an update recently so all the Effects categories are under a little menu on the right. These include Lens Flares, Lights/Glows, Bokeh/Glitter, Sun Collection and Radiance Pack.

Have fun adding a little extra touch of light to your photos.

Shadow iPhone edit

Here's a new twist on editing a shadow selfie. I started with PicFX but did most of my effects with Lenslight.

PicFX A mixture of: Black & White>Invert, add layer.

Urban>Police, Bokeh 2 Rotated once, then I added Space>Galactic for a little more purple in the sky. 

 All the other effects were added using Lenslight. I imported my photo and clicked on Effects.

I added the 4 stars, Effects>Lights>Sun Star 3 times and and Effects>Lights>Blue Spikes. 

The effects are each on their own layer so you must must choose an empty layer before adding another.

I used Effects>Lights>Glow Aurora with edits of saturation, brightness, aspect and scale to add the blue red glow in the top left.

I again added Effects>Lights>Glow Aurora as a light leak. I used two fingers to rotate and reshape it. Then clicked on Edit in the Menu. Adjusting brightness, scale, aspect and flipped it vertically. 

By this time my layers were full but I was still able to add a texture. I chose Metal 1 and saved my image. 

I felt it needed a little more bokeh, so I imported my saved image and added Bokeh Overlay 2.

(And lastly I would clone out the white spot on my leg using TouchRetouch. I just noticed it.) 

Linking up with Barb at Keeping With the Times for App Happy Wednesday!

Mobile Art Monday No. 4

And of course I have another Mobile Art Monday featuring Stackables but today I'm combining it with Lenslight. It's often hard to choose a favorite if you keep editing a photo differently, but today my mood says pick this one.

 I just so happened upon 5 formulas in Stackables that were perfect without tweaking for my shot. Most of the time I don't mind natural lens flares, but this was not one. I'd call it nasty. Here's my original with some teaks in Snapseed to bring out the shadows.

Here are the five edits in Stackables.

In Lenslight, I added new flares to cover/enhance the bad flair.

Here are the 4 layers of flares used in my very first image.

It's possible to manipulate the flares to your needs: size, opacity, color and aspect. Come back on Wednesday to see a complete tutorial on using Lenslight. I believe it totally rescued these images and gave them a creative boost as well.

Early Morning Thoughts

As I laid in bed this morning with one eye open, I began remembering hubby's comments on yesterday's glorious sunrise (which I missed). I hopped out of bed, peeked out the window and OMG, the sky was pink! Throwing on my clothes, I dashed out the door only to find it was fading fast. 

Oh well, I also wanted to capture my newly found 'old barn'. Just 2 miles away and in the city limits, it had been too well hidden by tons of farm machinery and junk until just recently. The corner was purchased by Walmart last year, much to the dismay of the rich folks that built new houses on the north side of the street. Now it was exposed in all it's glory. 

Since the sun was still behind the clouds, I first stopped for coffee and a breakfast burrito to go and went to park pond where I intended to just sit and BE (Finally, my word for 2015). I shot photos of the geese, other birds and the burr oak acorns. I gathered up a grocery bag full for still life shots and decided to process and post a sunrise photo for Instagram. 

(Mextures app)

While cruising my Instagram feed I found that my still life shot (from yesterday, second photo) was chosen along with @7seasphotography for the #mystillsundaycompetition that Kim Klassen hosts. I had such overwhelming emotions about this. These thoughts came to mind, I wrote them down and decided more artists need to hear this. It's still shaking me to the core.

(Snapseed, retrolux filter, Over)

Back to the barn, This shot was taken a few days ago in bad light and with a nasty sun flare. This is one of 5 totally different edits I did in Stackables and Lenslight. You'll have to tune in Monday for all the details on Mobile Art Monday.

Linking up with Barb for App Happy Wednesday. 

Linking up with Kim for Friday Finds.

App Happy Wednesday July 9

It's an App Happy Day with Barb over at Keeping With The Times. Check out what everyone is doing with their mobile photography this week.
The original:

I used Stackables for the first part of my edit. (There is an iPad version that's better than the phone version and worth the extra .99 if you already have the phone one. The phone version is free at the moment!)
This app contains textures and gradient overlays with a lot of blending modes and multiple layers. There are a lot of textures and emulsions that are free in-app to download too. I recommend watching the in-app tutorial. It's excellent.

At this point I'm realizing I should've done some cloning out of the end of the stem that goes off the page and the bushes at the top need to go. TouchRetouch is what I use for cloning.

Thinking I'd heard something about using Pixlr Express for noise reduction, I imported it there and discovered a new love. It had been awhile since I used this app and only for the light effects. My heart was now bursting at what all my options were for this photo.
First under adjustment there are a million possibilities. I played with Focal and discovered in this app I can move the sharp focus around the photo. It doesn't have to stay in the center. Yea!!!! Add a little dreaminess.

Under Effect> Default> I chose Melissa for tonal change and played with some others.

What I didn't know about this app is that there is a desktop version. hmmmm…..

I still wasn't happy with how the natural light leak looked. It needed help. Enter Lenslight. The leaks are totally adjustable, down to the color and you can pull them off the page to get a partial one. It also lets you add them on different layers so they are more editable. I added two and decided I was finished.

I learned a lesson with this edit. Since I didn't take it into Snapseed like my usual workflow I missed getting a "cropped" original. Mostly because of using an unfamiliar app but it was user error on my part. Sometimes I like to overlay the original with a blend mode change for a different or more contrasty look. Or sometimes do a black and white version to overlay for different effects. How is your mobile photography going?

A Grand Entrance

It's App Happy Wednesday here on the planet and I have a few doorways from the Santa Fe area.
We headed south on the Turquoise Trail the first day. My favorite was this 'gate' at Kevin Box's Sculpture Garden Studio. (Snapseed and Lenslight)

This one was found on the same day trip in Cerrillos. Yes, it was just propped up in someone's yard! (Snapseed, DistressedFx and Touchretouch)

We'd heard there were many on Canyon Road, but we didn't actually find that many. I only took one with my phone. (Snapseed)

This was the most interesting place yet. Half way to Taos the car came to a screeching halt. I'll post the rest of the place later with my Canon photos. This one doesn't do it justice.

Come on over to Keeping With the Times and check out the other phone app edits.

5 Portraits From the Phone

My doll of a grand-daughter loves hats. We take selfies of the two of us usually with caps on (baseball style). She grabbed this hat on the way out the door last week. She just happened to have this adorable old-fashioned looking dress on too.

iPhone photo, edited with Snapseed, PicFX, Facetune, Touchretouch (cloned out hubby's arm), and XnSketch app gave it the sketchy feel.

Another sort of portrait. This was our shadow in the grass. While in PicFX I noticed an invert filter, thought it would make a cool night scene, so after adding another filter and some bokeh, I took it into Lenslight and started adding 'stars' and light effects.

Contemplating my next move. Usually I'm still in my jammies this early. Snapseed.

These last two were shot in the camera app ContrastbyHornbeck.

This was also edited in Noir for more contrast and to darken the lower left corner.

Linking up with Random Five Friday and Friday Finds.