Willie and Lucinda

The Dude here with some concert photos (yes, I know the Diva said I would be showing shots from above tree line, but that will just have to wait till later).

One of the things I love about Tahoe is the Casinos. Never thought I'd say that. I don't gamble and hate the thought much less the reality of it. But...I LOVE the music. Every summer the Casinos bring in some truly great acts. Small venue, free parking -- what could be better. I've seen more concerts in the last five years than in the previous twenty-five!

About a month ago was Willie Nelson. Took the first shot with the zoom on Camera Genius. Not bad for relatively low light, but not that sharp and rather boring. Sitting there between songs I decided to play with it, so I brought it into IDroste and made a faux-Escher out of it. Back in Photogene, I fixed the exposure and sharpness. Then added a custom frame with the red line and the shadow. Think Willie might have enjoyed it.





Earlier I'd used Pano to shoot the whole stage merging 5 or 6 shots. Brought it into Cinema FX to add a bit of Comic effect. Then into Tiffen PhotoFX and added a Plum ND grad to the sky. Finally into EdgePix to add the boarder and get rid of the blemish in the sky where Pano had a little problem matching exposure. Only wish these images were larger files, this would have made a great poster.





Last night is was Lucinda Williams at Harrah's (Truly great show). Tried to shoot the stage from the audience but it was impossible without exposure control. The massive black background dominated the exposure and totally burned out Lucinda in the spotlight. She looked liked she was simple a white brush stroke. As I couldn't change the exposure, I had to make the best of what I had. Brought the image into ShockMyPic and accentuated what, as I said, already looked like a brush stroke. The result had a nice feel to it.

Hey,I also recorded part of the concert of Voice Memos. We got back home, played it through big speakers and the results were amazingly good! Good images AND good sound -- Too much fun!

High Sierra iPhone Art

The Digital Diva and the Digital Dude had a fabulous time camping in the High Sierra and the White Mountains. Here's a few iPhone pix from the Diva; stay tuned for pix from the Dude, coming soon.

I painted the Digital Dude working on his iPhone in Photoforge after tweaking for faux HDR and vibrance. Finished it off with Color Comic filter in Cinema FX.


Here's a straight shot of Tuolumne Creek after sunset. Note the coldness of the light and blocked up shadows. But no worries - it's Apps to the rescue!


In Photogene, I warmed the color temperature up. Then off to Photoforge to sharpen, HDR, and vibrant the bejeebers out of it.


Photoforge was also used to paint the image below. While I have to admit that I am really enamored with the paintings right now, it doesn't work with every image. It certainly didn't help this one. I remember when my girlfriend Theresa took a watercolor class and when she tried to paint rocks, they came out looking like potatoes. As do these.


I ran Shockmypic on this unpainted version of the image - I like this better.


Stay tuned for more high altitude iPhone art in the days to come, as soon as we dig out from work stuff.

Ah, to paint!....on my iPhone????

Digital Dude here. One of my favorite iPhone apps right now is PhotoForge. It has an impressive little painting program that allows your to turn your photos into "masterpieces". Well, come on, it's all relative, right?

You use your finger as a brush or you can get a stylus. I use both. Here are three before and after examples from a recent trip to the Sierra. The first two I painted and then took into the app CinemaFX and added an effect called Color Comic which made it even more painterly. The last one I actually took into Photoshop and used Topaz Labs' Clean to finish off the edges.

Give it a try, but be careful, it's truly addictive!

Good Frame/Great Frame

Digital DUDE here with a fun example of "going after the shot". Recently I bought some balloons at a garden shop. As I was leaving, I noticed a large reflective silver ball on a stand (the kind I occasional see in gardens and always wonder, "Why?"). Grabbed my iPhone...



...and took a rather silly shot of my reflection with balloons. Started walking back to the car and, as the iPhone was still in my hand and at the ready, I kept right on playing. First with my shadow...




...then... Wow, look at that!




One of the balloon strings wandered into the frame on the morning breeze......OK, follow that...can I make it part of the composition?



That's better... OK, try it again...



..now we're getting somewhere!



Bring the shot into Photogene for a little tweeking with levels and saturation. Add a fun frame and Voila! All done before I even got back to the car. Cool.

Artrageous iPhone Pix

Hi photo buddies! Digital Diva for this posting. The hardest part of making iPhone art is remembering the apps I use. I get tweaking the photo so fast that I lose track of what I'm doing. And with no uber-app like Photoshop to keep a history of my manipulations, I'm forced to trace back my steps to tell how I did each image. Which, truthfully is a good thing, since it helps me remember what works for the next time. Here are my latest artrageous iPhone pix and how they came to be to the best of my recollection.

For this photo, I used Photogene to overexpose the image of a Haida sculpture face and the sunset photo, since I knew I would be combining them in BlendPhoto. I used a medium amount of detailing in ShockMyPic and finished it off in EdgePix.

This detail of a Haida glass sculpture was tweaked in Photogene for exposure, etc. then I added ShockmyPic and finished it with EdgePix.

I used Photo Sketch for this drawing of the Haida detail.


This photo of the Haida face was combined with an overexposed (in Photogene) photo of clear Lake Tahoe water and rocks. (Combined using BlendPhoto again.

Pool Time in Las Vegas - Digital Photos

Hi all. Digital Diva here. While the Digital Dude was in the Midwest, I was soaking up the rays (read FRYING alive) in Las Vegas. While cooling myself between conference sessions at the resort pool, I couldn't help but notice a few surreal moments. I photographed them on my Lumix LX-2 digital camera. I enhanced the already weird feel of them with some of my favorite Photoshop plugins.

For this one, Cabana Channel Change, I enhanced it with Topaz Clean by Topaz Labs.



I used Lucis Pro for this shot of two chairs "watching" TV.



Topaz Simplify gave me the look I wanted for the "Pool People on Safari". This one is my favorite because of its Rousseau goes to Las Vegas look.

Summer Weekend in the Midwest

Dewitt here...

This weekend I was in Glen Arbor, Michigan visiting an old family home. Vintage Midwest town. I kept seeing things that looked like they were right out of Norman Rockwell paintings. I took each of these photos with my iPhone and then tweeked them in the PhotoForge application. I used Simulated HDR to open the shadows while keeping the highlights from burning out. This gave the images a much more graphic feel. Then I enhanced the photo realism by over-sharpening image. Great fun! Give it a try with your own images.