Funny How the (my) Brain Works
First impressions – what do you see?
I took this photo but when I looked at this image I must say I was baffled. My first impression was it was the face of some creature from a fantasy movie (or out of a nightmare).
Part of the reason this image looks the way it does is because I took the photo with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone, using the Salvador 84 “lens”. That lens applies a certain mirror imaging effect to create a a “Dali-ish” surrealism.
However the my biggest block to perceiving the reality behind this image was just that I had turned it 90 degrees.
This is what the original image looked like (just turning the top image back 90 degrees clockwise) :
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Pretty obvious now eh?
Is it just me (and my brain) or did you too have trouble perceiving the top image but easily make sense of the bottom one?
Patterns – more iPhoneography Explorations
I continue to explore the Salvador “lens” on the Hipstamatic app. I haven’t yet got it figured out to the point that I can predict what the image will look like but I came up with some interesting images today. All of these have strong symmetry thanks to that Salvador lens.
These images may look like they came from some exotic carpets but they are all from outdoor photos taken a dark grey day. I used the PS Mobile app to increase the color saturation and image contrast.
It’s Hip to be Surreal
The last few days I’ve been exploring a new add-on to the Hipstamatic application for the iPhone. The new “Salvador 84” “lens” pays homage to the surrealistic art of Salvador Dali. I’ve been taking many photos and trying to figure out what exactly this app does so that I can control and use the effects for my creative purposes.
All of these images were taken from a single exposure, just one push of the “shutter”, The application obviously created a 2nd image from the original and superimposes it over the original. There is a degree of rotation between the two images and there does seem to be a delightful element of randomness to the process.
Here are a few of my early explorations of the “Salvador 84” “lens” :
Salv Portrait
City Hall Clock/Bell Tower Reflected
The first 2 photos shows a vertical “reflection plane” straight down the middle of the image.
With other images things aren’t so simple. In this next image you can see a slight rotation (maybe 20 degrees) and an offset between the original and secondary image.
Street Corner
Pyramids
“Pyramids” looks like it could have been composed of 3 or 4 or 5 images but again it was just a single shot. It is clear in this photo that the app has created a second image which has been shifted diagonally down but with no appear any rotation between the two. This image is the only one of this posting for which I used the DreamCanvas “film” that is packaged with the Salvador 84 lens.
Split Pigeon
“Split Pigeon” was an interesting, surreal surprise in that the crack between the paving blocks seems to go over and split the front bird.
Go - Don't Walk
This final image “Go – Don’t Walk” is simple enough to show the original and duplicate image with a change in size, intensity and a significant rotation between the two – but interesting.
In all of the images in this post I did do a bit of post-Hipstamatic-processing in terms of adjustments to contrast and color saturation
This is a fun add-on to the Hipstamatic portfolio that can certainly yield some creative results – I just want to learn better how to predict and/or control what happens. Next I intend to experiment with taking multiple photos of the same scene to see if there is some random variation in the way the application processes each image.
Black and White Photos (Hipstamatic App)
Here are a few black and white photos I created today (2010 Aug 18) using the Hipstamatic application on an iPhone 3GS. The Hipstamatic app offers a couple of simulated black and white films (BlacKeys B+W and BlacKeys SuperGrain) and that is what I used for these photos:
Wires
Beacon
This “beacon” is simply an indicator light atop a traffic light control box, to indicate when the a pedestrian has pressed the walk button or a bus has remotely requested the light to change.
untitled 1 (Aug 18)
I did a bit of post-processing on these images using Photo shop Mobile – mainly to adjust the exposure and contrast.
Once Upon a Back Stairs
I applied a purple tint to the image above using PS Mobile
Crash Guard
Paint Tracks in the Alley
These paint tracks were a close-up and crop of tire tracks I saw in a back alley after vehicles had obviously driven through a large pool of spilled white paint.
This last “Black and White” photo was a bit of a surprise to me. Like the other in this shoot I used the the Hipstamatic Black and White “films” (this one the BlacKeys B+W). This posted photo has not been altered or enhanced in any way but you can see there is a definite orange color to the barricade and pylons, indicating that this app is not in fact true black and white. It would be easy enough to remove the remaining traces of color using an app like Photo Shop Mobile but I thought it interesting (if not particularly useful) to illustrate this observation:
Orange Barricade (black and white)
My goal for today’s experiment with Black and White was largely to discover if there was any advantage to shooting directly in Black and White with the Hipstamatic App. So far I don’t see any real advantage as i felt I needed to adjust the exposure and contrast after shooting. As lock as I am going to use an app such as PS Mobile or PhotoFX. I may as well remove the color after the fact. Also,with Color FX I have the option of processing with color filters which can alter the relative values of different colors.
Garden Photos (Aug 14)
I had the opportunity yesterday to visit some friends and spend sometime in their garden. In the last year they have created an incredible urban backyard space with a bounty of wonderful flowering plants and some delightfully peaceful spots to sit and relax. Here is a bit of what I saw (and captured using the iPhone Hipstamatic app):
Moody Afternoon Skies
Summer in Edmonton and the afternoons can be pretty stormy. It is pretty typical for huge cumulonimbus clouds to built up and quite likely bring rain and thunder storms. The clouds can make for some dramatic skies – some parts clear blue with some dark clouds and some brilliant white fluff where lit up by the afternoon sun. Add to these conditions some moody effect from an iphone camera app and the results can be quite interesting (if at time a bit ominous and scary):
"Muster Point"
"Storefront with Spilling-over Sunlight"
"Apparel"
These images were captured with an iPhone 3GS using the Hipstamatic camera app and post processed a bit with the Photo Shop Mobile app
Randall Talbot - Artist 