Technique: Mix and mash those apps
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 10:00AM | Glyn Evans If you are like me, many of you will have lots photo apps loaded on your iPhones, but how often do you look beyond what an app can do?
In this first technique post, I will look at what can be done with Pro HDR, that the app was not intended for.
Pro HDR is designed to create 'High Dynamic Range' photos by taking one under and one over exposed photo and then blending them together, but what if you mix photos created with other apps with Pro HDR. I asked myself this very same question, and this is what I came up with.
Rudolph the wired Reindeer
I love grainy, high contrast, black and white photos, but I also love colour photos, so I thought, "could I mix the two together?" The answer to this question, was of course, yes, and below is my creation.
So how did I create this look?
Surprisingly very easily. First I converted the original colour photo in to a high contrast, grainy black and white photo with Spica. I then loaded both the original colour photo and the high contrast, grainy black and white photo in to Pro HDR, using the load from library option, loading the colour photo first, followed by the black and white one, but there is no rules, just trial and error.
So this was my first app mash up. If you have Pro HDR, then why not try mixing it with other apps, then post them here on the iPhoneography blogs Flickr page, then send me an email with the link to your photo, the app/apps used with Pro HDR, and I may post them here on the blog for all to see.
If you've got a technique you would like to share, then contact me with further details.
Pro HDR, Spica, Spica - Super Monochrome in Technique
Reader Comments (10)
I've used ProHDR many times like this. The way I see the app is almost like blending layers in Photoshop. I use other apps to play around with the contrast and tones of an image and load them in ProHDR and play around with the sliders to get a desired effect. You can achieve subtle changes to an image or wild contrasts.
This image is an example of ProHDR being used to blend two versions of the same image:
http://kevinrichter.tumblr.com/post/721904775/lowness-021
Kev
Speaking off HDR apps. I'm sure most of you've already tried this, but for those of you who haven't take two different pictures and mix them. Can make some pretty surprising and nice effects sometimes.
I agree with Olle in that combining random images can also produce great effects, however Pro HDR has a 'same size' limitation.
Spica also seems to have an 'I will decide on exported orientation, not you!' function built in. I just opened a colour pic taken a few days ago and converted to grainy B&W. I tried opening the original and the converted and I get the following:
Image size error!
Images are not the same size.
Image 1: 2042 x 1529 pixels
Image 2: 1529 x 2042 pixels
Please start over.
Useful... ;)
This is a really clever idea and I love it.
You can avoid the orientation error by cropping the photos to square format.
It's even great to use this trick on Hipstamatic shots as they are already squares.
Or just turn the photo orientation back in any of the apps e.g. Photoshop Express (Free)
Something else you can use HDR Pro for is to get a double exposure type thing - I stumbled across this idea when I'd moved my camera before the second shot had been taken.
I have just tried using two images of different orientations on my iPhone 4 and it worked fine. One showed horizontal, the other vertical on the preview screen and they merged without any problems.
Love the technique Glyn by the way.
Richard
This is a very nice way to use Pro HDR. Normally when I don't use it for regular HDR photos. I use it as a double exposure. Didn't know at first this was possible but accidently I pushed the wrong second photo once and the end result was great.
THanks for a great blog
Ami
Really like this idea. Some of the mashups don't always work, but thats the great thing about iPhoneography; experimenting!
I hashed this together from a single image. Processed the original image once through pic grunger and then separately through cross process, then combined them both in Pro HDR.
Mashup FTW!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartistdanhoward/5179764270/
I ran into the same 'Size' issue but was told about the Iris app. You can change the size of any picture really easily. Load your pic then press the arrow button in the bottom right corner and a 'resize' button appears. You can then type in any size you want. Repeat for another pic then blend in HDR Pro :-)