22nd October 1964 - 16th July 2011, RIP Nacho Cordova

Today is a sad day, as news is circulating the iPhoneography community that Nacho Cordova, a great iPhoneographer and photographer was killed yesterday (July 16th) in road traffic accident.

Nacho was an active member of the iPhoneography community, even sharing one of his how-to's here on the iPhoneography blog, and will be sadly missed by all.

The thoughts of the iPhoneography blog goes out to Nacho's family at this sad time.

My photo, by Nacho Cordova

This photo is called "What Dreams May Come"...

...and this is how I created it.

• Step 1.  I started with two images, taken with similar vision in mind. This image of my colleague reflecting on something she's encountering through her mobile screen, and the image of the man walking down the terminal (O'Hare, Chicago). I wanted to make sure that both images had similar qualities, in particular the tunnel like perspective created by the long hallways, since my vision revolved around making the images complement each other.

• Step 2.  First I proceeded to convert the "Terminal Man" image to Black and White. For the conversion I used Monophix, making sure I toned down the intensity level of the bright areas of the image. After the conversion, I ran the image of the "Terminal Man" through TiltShiftGen to soften the edges with a blur, and to add a soft dark vignette.

• Step 3.  When the "Terminal Man" image was done, I first loaded that image into BlendCamP Lite, and then added the image of my colleague in the hallway. I reduced the "Terminal Man" image brightness, then did the same for the image of my colleague keeping in mind that as the visually dominant image, I did not want to reduce its brightness as much. After careful previewing and adjusting of brightness levels, I landed upon the image below (#3), a fine blend, if a bit washed out and bland.

• Step 4.  I wanted to add more visual presence to the "Terminal Man" image, so I loaded the blended image into Photoshop Mobile, increased the contrast a tad, and enhanced the saturation so that neither image would wash out. A tiny bit of sharpening allowed me to impart a less "soft and hazy" look to the image while still keeping the feeling of convergence and occupying similar "spaces."  I  actually like both of the last images (the more washed out version and the final one), but one part I really like is the superimposition of the windows over the body of my colleague -- and that emerges best in the last image.

Simple enough, but it took a few tries to make sure the blend of the images was right, and that the processing of both images was what I wanted. Careful selection of images was critical. There it is!

So, that's how Nacho created his photo, so if you would like to share your photo with the rest of us, then send me an email and I'll reply with details on how to submit.