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| Bringin' the geek noise via email! Thow yo hands inna air like ya just don care! |
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IT'S TIME for you to join the elite phone photographers. You know them: they shoot photos with their camera phone and somehow turn out Louvre-worthy photographs, and then act like it ain't no thang. Well, we're here to let you in on their black-bag secrets so you can join the ranks of the camera phone ninjas (that's right, we love you that much). This week, we're covering different apps and how they can make your photos look absolutely righteous. Unfortunately, this is also going to let all you IsaGeek-lings in on the secrets we use to make our photos look good, as well... |
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1. BLUR 
I know we demonized blur in the last newsletter, but it can be used for good and not evil. While blur gone wild will make your viewer feel confused and possibly nauseous, an appropriate application of blur can help focus the eye on your subject. It can even add a funky, artsy touch to your photo as well.Applications like TiltShift Generator (for iPhone) or TiltShift Camera (for Android) can make your subject look miniaturized (click on the image to the left), while Instagram (available for both iPhone and Android) gives you the ability to zero the focus in on a single point in your picture with ninja-like ability. Don't be afraid to fool around with blur in your photos - you'll be surprised how easy it is to focus your viewer's attention where you want it. |
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2. BOKEH 
On a related note, Bokeh (pronounced "bow-key" - I know it's weird - work with me here) is the art of blurring particular elements of a picture to create a super-awesome "holy-moly-I-know-what-I'm-doing" effect.Bokeh is the blurring of a background or "specular light sources", also known as little color blurry dots in your photo (such as in the example to the right). This gives your photo a dreamy quality that everyone likes, but hardly anyone really notices, and they don't know why. This makes it an uber-weapon in your photo arsenal - use it, but never speak of it. Ever. To see the impact a good bokeh effect makes on a picture, check out the before and after versions of the photo to the right. Two IsaGeek-approved apps for adding bokeh to your photos are Picfx for the iPhone (which was used to create the photo above), and BokehPic for Android. |
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3. HDR 
If you're ready to get red-hot geeky funky, then it's time for you to get into HDR, which stands for "High Dynamic Range." Which really makes no sense. So...What this comes down to is you can take multiple pictures with different light levels (exposures) to capture the lightest and darkest areas of a picture and blend them together. Confused yet? Don't be - there's not a quiz later. You end up with a super-awesome picture that captures details you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. This can be done by using witchcraft. Or a smartphone - whichever you have access to. Assuming you're going to take the smartphone route, the above picture (which you can click on to see a larger view) was shot with an iPhone 4. Not a 5. Not even an "S". But it was shot using HDR, which makes the picture super-detailed and just...cool. It was taken using ProHDR for the iPhone, which is also available for the Android. Go download it. Like, now. |
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