Wednesday, April 24, 2013

iPhoneography - Part 5, Accessories, more apps, sharing & education

by Carol H.



Wow, the last post in the series!  Your positive comments and contributions have made this series a joy. Thank you all so much! Did you miss part 4? You can find it HERE.  I'll begin this post with a picture of the accessories I use with my iPhone 4s.



1.    Neck & wrist straps by Danglet. Unfortunately Danglet is a few months away from offering straps for the iPhone 5. Hope they have it out there when it’s time for me to upgrade because I absolutely love them!
2.    Olloclip lenses. The Olloclip set comes with a wide-angle, a fish-eye, and my all time favorite –macro lenses. The floral photos in this post were all taken using that macro lens. The only drawback is that you have to get super close to focus, which blocks out a lot of light.
3.   Tripod attachment by Glif. This slick little accessory has a standard tripod mount built in. Perfect for those slow-shutter captures.
4.    Mini-tripod. A must to get down low. This one is from Cowboy Studio.
5.    Reflector. Black on one side and silver on the other. Great for blocking light when in bright sun situations. The silver side is great for bouncing light into the subject. This one is by Photoflex.
6.    Remote by Belkin. Very helpful when phone is on the tripod. Handy for self-portraits.
7.   iPad. I often transfer images from my phone to my iPad to make use of the larger screen.

Other great apps to explore: 


Photo Transfer App by ERC Lab, LLC – Transfers photos & videos over WiFi & Bluetooth with no cables or extra software required. Can transfer between your iPhone, iPad, and Computer. Available for Android users as well.
 
TouchRetouch by Adva-Soft – Allows you to remove unwanted content or objects from your photos using just your finger on the iPhone or iPad. Didn’t see it available for the Android as yet.

iWatermark by Plum Amazing – Create custom watermarks easily. Available for Android users too!

Lab by LateNiteSoft S.L. – Use Lab to find out details about your photos such as date, location, exposure, resolution, size, and even histogram. Not available for the Android yet.

Squaready by Fang Inc. – Crops/resizes images to make it ready for square thumbnail posting to social network sites such as Instagram.


 
Taken w/ iPhone 4s and Olloclip macro lens attachment. Processed w/ Tangledfx


Sharing via Social Platforms
Instagram, Flickr, Facebook, EyeEm, etc. Most of us are familiar with and probably share our images on at least one or two of these networks so I won’t spend time writing about what they are. Instead let’s talk about why you would share your work. Being part of an online social community isn’t for everyone, but it can be a rewarding experience. For me, I will tell you that I have met some wonderful people through these networks and have found many of the posts to be inspiring and educational. And so, my reasons for sharing, my mission statement if you will is as follows: “To provide support and encouragement; to share images that I hope are inspirational; and share information that is positive and educational.” I also limit the amount of images I share so that I am not flooding the feed and dominating the space. We can each do our part to elevate the photographic discourse online by asking ourselves why and how often we post.

Continued Education
There is a wealth of information out there about camera apps…here are three of my favorites:

iPhoneograpycentral.com – Their tagline sums up the content of this wonderful site “The place to learn how to make amazing pictures on your iPhone.”

Mobile Masters e-book by Dan Marcolina – The e-book is an app you download from iTunes. The artists featured are incredibly talented and generous with their work path on the various images they have shared here. So inspirational!

App Alchemy e-book by Dan Marcolina – This e-book is also an app you download from iTunes and contains many videos on different apps and how they work. A must-have for the app addict


 Taken w/ iPhone 4s and Olloclip attachment. Processed w/ Pictapgo


If you are like me, you could talk about this stuff all day, every day. Smart phones today are a legitimate camera to take pictures, and the best part…it’s always with you! You have at your fingertips the ability to create art and share it, if you choose, anywhere, anytime. Today our days are filled to bursting with work, errands, chores, etc., that it can be challenging to carve out time to work on our art. But with our smart phones and some apps, we can work on an image while waiting in the dentist’s office, or standing in line at Costco.

Has mobile photography changed or enhanced your artistic endeavors? When do you work on your images…while waiting for the bus? On your lunch break? Leave a comment to let us know and show us your wonderful creations on the Focusing On Life Flickrgroup or on Instagram and tag #focusingonlife.

Many thanks again for contributing to this conversation and for following Focusing On Life. You are all awesome!  



 

8 comments:

Viv@Thoughts from the Desktop said...

Great series Carol thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. As an iPhone addict I will process my shots just about anywhere, bus stops, standing in a queue lying in bed is a favourite. Quite often I will transfer shots from phone to iPad using Photo Transfer app and process on the larger screen. One of my favourite apps at the moment is Typic you can add text but with a pretty banner or tape effect it's great....

heyjudephotography said...

Carol, you've provided everyone such a wealth of information. And the great thing is they can always come back to our blog, click on your name at the bottom of the page, and review all of this series whenever they want to. (I'm thinking that will be me since I don't do much with my phone or apps - yet!)Thanks Carol!

Dotti said...

Such an awesome series, Carol, with so much new information. Thank you so much for doing this. I know it's a passion for you but I also know it took some work to put this together. You have educated and inspired us and that's our mission here at FOL. :-D

Linda said...

Great post! Phoneography has definately changed and enhanced my artistic efforts! The apps alone can do so much! Just seeing some of the beautiful and interesting things others are creating really makes me want to do more and learn more and try things outside my comfort zone! Thanks for putting this together!

terriporter said...

I have really loved this series and have learned so much. Being relatively new (less than a year) to iPhonography, there are so many new things to learn! I like to process my photos at night while watching TV (more processing going on than TV watching!) and recently got an iPad, mostly so I can have a larger screen when doing edits. After watching you use that little 12-in. reflector, I know that is something I want to add to my arsenal.

While writing my post yesterday about using filters in Photoshop and why I love it, I realized that is one of the things I love about my favorite iPhone apps, the ability to be an artist. And I can do it all from the comfort of my family room couch!

Thanks again, Carol. I'm sorry to see this series end. You'll have to pop back in on occasion and update us on everything that's new!

Kim Stevens said...

What a great series Carol! But I have to admit I'm not quite an app addict (maybe not yet) and for me I would say that I use my phone camera to record moments more than create art, although I do enjoy that too!

Dee said...

Thanks for the series, Carol. I've learned of some new apps and have enjoyed learning their capabilities and applying those to my work. I always enjoy seeing your work, too. You're inspiring.

Safdar Ali said...

Great series. I really enjoyed reading this. I appreciate you for sharing this information with us through this blog. Thanks. iphone en ucuz

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