Enter The Matrix

Digital Diva here. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of the Ezimba iPhone app. It has more manipulations and filtrations than I've been able to explore. But I'm workin' on it.

My latest foray into the wilds of Ezimba took me to a section called Enter The Matrix. I entered and got happily lost layering matrix effects on various images. Piet Mondrian, a Dutch 20th century painter, is one of my favorite artists and these pieces echo his abstractions to me. This first image was a tree with falling snow.

Next, I matrixed a tropical sunset photo from the coconut grove beach here on Moloka`i.



This is the most abstract (and my favorite, since it feels the most like Mondrian.) The original photo was a blur or drive-by of fall foliage in American River Canyon between Placerville and Lake Tahoe, CA.

This is a matrixed fall aspen tree driveby or blur. I also layered it with an aspen leaf - double exposed in DXP app.

This laua`e fern image is from our garden here in Hawai`i. I photographed it on the sepia setting of my camera, then increased the contrast (a la Brett Weston) and sharpened it. Lastly, I brought it into the iPhone and it went through the matrix.
Sunrise at Moomomi Beach.

And the last image is a double exposure of a matrixed photo of Sierra wildflowers and a photo of butterflies - created with DXP app.

Art at 35,000 feet!

Hi, Digital Dude here at 35,000 feet, somewhere between Philadelphia and Las Vegas. Ah, time to tweak some images!

Started with a shot I’d taken out the window as we landed in Philly two days ago.



Then I searched out a shot of sunflowers that I had taken a long time ago in France (with a big boy camera)





Put the two together using DXP (Double Exposure) with the Inverse blend mode. Notice how the original color come through only in the lower left where the water of the first photo is almost black. Also in the upper quarter of the frame both left and right, where there are dark trees in the first photo.





Next, I brought the image into Photogene, where I change the levels and bumped up the saturation and sharpness.





Finally, I brought the image into Fotomuse and added both a layer (which, in this case, gave it a golden hue) and a mottled black boarder.



There, that didn't take long. Ooops, got to go, we're landing now!

Somethin' Fishy Going On With My iPhone

Digital Diva here. Living on a tropical island means being surrounded by water filled with all manner of colorful fish inspires me to accentuate their color and form with my iPhone (and no, I did not take my phone underwater.) I did app the heck out of my fish photos with Vihgo, DXP, Photogene, Edgepix, Shockmypic, and probably more iPhone apps that I can't recall just now. My iPhone has become a virtual aquarium!

Slow Shutter and .... Darth Kitty!

Digital Dude here. What do to with the iPhone when you are shooting water? As you can't control the shutter speed or the ISO, the answer is.... not much. Most shots turn out like the one below with a speed not quite fast enough to freeze the action and not quite slow enough to make a nice blur out of it.


There are no neutral density filters for the iPhone to help slow the shutter speed, but the is an app called SlowShutter. It doesn't reduce the ISO but takes many multiple exposure over a given period of time. If the subject moves or if you move the camera, the result is a delightful blurring effect. So, in the middle of the day, without any filters, you can turn the above shot into the one below. Frankly, unbelievable!




One more thing. As my dear wife keeps putting up her ToonPaint pixs --- and as I found the app first (no competition here) -- I had to post one too. Meet "Darth Kitty"! Straight shot of our cat; mirrored the image in Symmetry; cartooned it and painted the eyes in ToonPaint; brought back his color in DXP.

You'll be seeing him in the next Star Wars movie.

Livin' in Those Little Latitudes

Digital Diva here and life is heating up in the tropics as I keep playing on my iPhone with Toonpaint, and combining images with the originals in DXP. Here's three more images.

Something fishy is going on here. Oh yeah, the blend mode is difference!

Hula dancing at the seashore on Moloka`i.


Anthurium and ferns.

Tooning Up With Color in Toonpaint

Hi all. Digital Diva back as promised with color added to iPhone Toonpaint images. My favorite method is to use DXP, a double exposure app, and combine the original color image with the Toonpaint black and white. I like using DXP because it has multiple blend modes, which can change the color added from vibrant like the sunflower below...

to just a hint of color as in this pale pink freesia...

to a more half and half blend as in this torch ginger...

to a totally "unreal" but wonderful color image like this inverted vase and flowers using the Difference blend mode in DXP. Just experiment and find out what blend modes work best with with images for you.

At-Tooned to Animals

Digital Diva here. My sister diva, Robin Robertis, introduced me to this cool iPhone app called Toonpaint. And I cannot believe the images it turns out. I shot this insect (large tropical, praying mantis lookalike) at our post office here in Hoolehua, Moloka`i, Hawai`i. It was hanging out in the middle of all the little metal PO Boxes - note numbers next to him/her.


I went on to photograph my pets and get them in Toon. This is our young, handsome chat noir, Frankie, posed on the window sill.

And here is our newest family member, Mele, taking a snooze on the porch. She's what we call a poi dog here in the islands, meaning mixed breed of unknown variety.

Finally, I photographed our "Queen" Po. Po is short for Pomaika`i, which means lucky or blessed in Hawai`ian. Dewitt aka Digital Dude, found her starving and near death on our driveway. As you can see, she's not gone hungry since.

In my next entry, I'll actually show some of the Paint portion of ToonPaint. Wait for it..............
(If you're like me and can't wait, be sure to check out Robin's newest images on my Digital Diva blogsite at iphonediva.com.)