Farmers Market, Cuba
As a relative newcomer to using apps exclusively for post-processing my iPhone images, I will show you how I use a very basic and largely intuitive approach for creating an artful image with fairly uncomplicated tools.
PerfectPhoto
PhotoToaster
With street photography my goal is to create an enhanced artistic image without destroying the original integrity of the story or circumstance, so I try to avoid the look of post-processing. I want my images to be absorbed first as a story, not by the techniques used, so my post-processing is entirely a means to an end that takes the image from snapshot to art.
This image of the woman selling onions at a farmers market in Cuba is part of a series of photographs in my book, La Belleza y Tristeza de Cuba (The Beauty and Sadness of Cuba) |1|.
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The book is available at Blurb.com: www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3512264.
I went to Cuba in April 2012 with a group of photographers, knowing little about the country other than what I had absorbed through the years. I am not a political person, but I am old enough to remember Cuba as a once-upon-a-time playground for the wealthy.
The first thing that struck me about Cuba was the poverty. We have poverty here in the United States, but it is not so pervasive. There it seemed that everything was old and decayed, and everyone was begging, even the children. The crumbling buildings, the rubble on the streets, and the iconic and colorful cars are symbolic and symptomatic. Because there are no new cars, the cars are kept running by whatever means possible—including machining parts, swapping parts from different cars, etc. The Cubans have little choice: there is no new anything and no money for repairs.
I became aware that the Cubans have few material goods and conveniences that we take for granted. One of my friends said that material goods aren’t required in order to be happy. That is true, but many Cubans are too young to remember the good times when Cuba was an economic leader. There are no kitchen appliances due to the unstable electrical system, and basics such as food, toilet paper, soap, and toothpaste are rationed. The schools don’t have enough supplies, and there are few personal supplies, like cosmetics. There is no Internet. What struck me about all this is that it is not about being happy or unhappy, it is about the lack of opportunity to live better, to travel, to be educated, to explore, to experience, and so on. There has been no progress in Cuba for many years.
I shot some 4,000 photos with just my iPhone. The rest of my group in Cuba had heavy equipment; some even wore harnesses to accommodate two or more heavy cameras with monster lenses, plus backpacks filled with more lenses, tripods, flashes, etc. They did not view me as a serious photographer.
I am a somewhat lazy photographer. I never carry a tripod and rarely use a flash. On a peripheral level, I am aware of light and composition, but it’s not something I think about consciously. All the images in my book were shot with only available light and were processed on my iPhone or iPad.
I found the Cuban people to be warm and friendly, and it was a privilege to be invited into their homes to photograph. My images are not posed, but neither are they completely snapshots. People were very gracious and appeared happy to have visitors from the U.S. who were interested in them. Perhaps shooting with my iPhone helped me get closer to people—perhaps they were less intimidated. I think this is where the Marian Rubin app takes over. It’s about seeing, feeling, and relating to people.
Shooting with the iPhone has freed me from many of the restraints and rules of more traditional cameras. This trip to Cuba, the 4,000 images I shot, and the subsequent book has pointed me in new and exciting directions in my development as a photographer and as an artist.
I took the initial image with the native iPhone camera |2|.
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Step 1: Making Minor Image Adjustments
The image required no cropping, in my mind. It was, however, a little flat. I opened the image in PerfectPhoto, where I most often make my first and basic adjustments |3|.
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First, I ajusted the levels with the Auto Adjust function. I then used the Sharpen tool and sharpened the image to 1.57. I increased the saturation by +8 to bring out the colors a bit more, and I increased the contrast by +8.
Step 2: Adding Zip
I thought this image needed more zip, so I opened it in PhotoToaster and selected Recover Highlights. Within that selection I increased the contrast slightly and decided I was finished |4|.
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For this tutorial I used minimal postprocessing and maintained the essence of the experience by completing my vision of emotion and drama without the look of heavy editing, which is more appropriate for other genres of photography.
I hope you will enjoy experimenting with PhotoToaster and PerfectPhoto. You can easily accomplish a lot with them.
Marian Rubin (Spring)
Marian’s images are about her passions: the people, places, and moments that touch her soul. Marian has won numerous awards, has had many one-woman and group exhibitions, and her work has been published in several books. Her work is represented in private collections throughout the tri-state area (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut). A major turning point in her photographic development was the computer, and especially the iPhone. Marian’s newest book, La Belleza y Tristeza de Cuba, is a collection of about 200 images that were made and processed with her iPhone and iPad. www.MarianRubin.com