Other than the drone of existence and working the past few days, I’ve pretty much kept my mind a blank slate.  I’ve pretty much been taking everything in, processing it superficially, and then moving on with the next course.  Today I decided to snap out of that rut and start thinking again.  Let’s see how this goes.

My next project is due at the end of the month.  That was part of the reason I shut my mind off…  I was hoping I could come up with something for it after re-engaging my mind.  So far there’s been no luck.  Just to let you know, the project is to be a juxtaposition of photographs (one of the things that Photoshop was built to do).  I did have one idea, but quickly dismissed it as it didn’t fulfill the requirements.  Oh well, work will continue.

Speaking of Photoshop, I did find out that Adobe makes a version of Photoshop Express for the iPhone/iPad.  I downloaded it and tried it out on my iPhone.  Although the editing options are rather limited (this is a phone camera we’re talking about here), it did produce some nice results.  This little program will be great for those photos that were compositionally good, but got caught up in the limitations of a phone camera sensor’s capabilities.  Besides, who says you can’t take great photos with a phone?

The first picture of Ozzy is the one taken straight from my phone.  I used the HDR function on my phone to take the picture (which actually takes 2 pictures and reprocesses it to get the tones correct) as the flash just didn’t look very good.  It’s not a bad shot, but it is a little underexposed and the colors are a little washed out.  The second picture was processed using Adobe Photoshop Express.  I increased the exposure value first.  This did introduce a little noise into the photo (which canbe seen in the highlight areas) but I can live with that.  I then turned up  the saturation as messing with the exposure tends to wash out colors in the process.  This actually helped the overall color balance of the photo, since it was taken in a room with yellow incandescent bulbs.  I realize the brick is now a little washed out, but the main point of focus – my beagle resting on my leg – is now looking better.  I suppose the software could do with a white balance feature, but this is a phone app, after all.

 

This set of photos was taken later in the day.  I was really struck by the harsh coldness of this room, which is surprising given the color of the floor.  The building’s designer seemed to go to great lengths to emphasize form over function, but instead got the reverse.  I used the app to straighten the photo (I made the floor line parallel with the top edge) and then turned up the saturation to bring out the color swirls in the tile.  The result, of course, now closely resembles something you would see in a Saw sequel, which is the impression I got when I first entered the room but was not able to fully capture with the camera.

Overall this is a nifty little app to have on your phone (or iPad 2 if you were lucky enough to get one already).  I am still playing with it a little, but you can convert to black and white, add different color tones, and add a limited selection of effects.  I don’t know if there’s an Android version (my Nook doesn’t support 3rd party apps at this point) but I’m quite sure one exists.

WIth that, I must continue my journey toward finding a genesis for my next project.  Have a good night, everyone!