Mutual Appreciation (Blending of the Ages)
My goal was to produce a somewhat abstract piece that reflected the mood and experience of a special moment in an art gallery while preserving my original composition at the time of capture. This tutorial begins with the use of the Slow Shutter Cam app to capture an abstract image, then it walks through how to crop the original, distort the perspective, apply texture, blend different versions to affect the lighting and tone, and add a focal highlight by introducing a splash of subdued color.
Slow Shutter Cam
Photo fx
Dynamic Light
Simply B&W
AutoStitch Panorama
TouchRetouch
Filterstorm
ScratchCam FX
DXP
Pixlr-o-matic
I captured the original photo for this piece at Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla during a visit to Spain in February 2012. The trip provided new stimulation and the right opportunity to achieve a thematic reboot while continuing to enjoy the slow shutter experimentation I had begun a few months earlier. As I visited museums and galleries, I turned my eye to presenting different views of people interacting with the art on the walls. In some images they blend with the work they observe and almost become part of it. In others, their dynamism stands in contrast to the staid pieces on the wall. All explore a complicit relationship in the making of art and meaning. Mutual Appreciation is of the former variety—those that blend with the work they observe—and is the second piece in a series.
Step 1: Using Slow Shutter Cam to Capture the Original Image
I wanted to blur the lines of reality somewhat while adding a unique physical character to the human subjects, so I used Slow Shutter Cam to capture the image. The basic technique I employed was to set the app’s capture mode to Light trail and shoot stationary subjects while moving the iPhone just enough to create the amount of distortion I was after |1|.
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Step 2: Cropping to a Square Format
I compose for a square format, even though Slow Shutter Cam offers only a 4:3 aspect ratio for capturing images. Photo fx is handy for the conversion task; you simply select its Square tool to grab the maximum possible width. It continuously displays the pixel count of the crop size when you select a smaller area, which helps you remain conscious of retaining as much of the original resolution as possible. First you select Levels, which appears in the middle of the screen after you open an image, then you can select the Crop tool on the toolbar along the bottom of the screen. The maximum available size of my captured image was 1936 × 2592 pixels, and I cropped it to 1890 × 1890 pixels |2|.
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Step 3: Enhancing Brightness and Contrast While Preparing a Second Black-and-White Version
Photos taken with Slow Shutter Cam in darker situations often lack contrast. To compensate for this somewhat, I opened the cropped file in Dynamic Light, adjusted the angle and strength of the lighting effect, and then saved the modified image back to my camera roll |3|.
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I then converted the enhanced image to black-and-white in Simply B&W, and I used the red color filter to further enhance the tone values |4|. You can tap on each of the color filters to display the change on the screen in real time and see a brief written description of how that color filter will affect your image. I had a motive for creating both an enhanced color version and a black-and-white version of the same image, as you will see later.
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Step 4: Combining Two Versions to Distort the Frame
Combining two or more images in AutoStitch Panorama can create an interesting distortion, but it does not work when you try to use two identical copies of the same image. The slight tonal differences in the color and black-and-white versions of my image were enough to get the result I wanted |5|. I cropped the curved bottom section and a little of the left side of the resulting 2096 × 2096 pixel image, which gave me a 1998 × 1998 pixel image.
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Another approach to create distorted perspectives with an interesting effect in AutoStitch Panorama is to shoot the same scene from slightly different angles and then combine the resulting images. AutoStitch Panorama also does interesting things to images that already have borders from apps that add them at the time of capture.
Step 5: Filling the Upper Corners and Converting to Monochrome
The cropped version of the file left curved black areas in the upper corners. I didn’t want to crop them out because I wanted to preserve some space above the painting in the image, so I filled them with the wall color. TouchRetouch made this easy to accomplish. I used the Paint tool to define the areas I wanted to fill and tapped the Start button |6 and 7|. I opened the resulting image in Filterstorm and applied a bit of blur to each of the upper corners to eliminate the slight roughness that TouchRetouch left in the color gradation.
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The final process in this step was to convert the file to monochrome in Simply B&W. This time I used the orange filter to achieve the tone and contrast I wanted, and I slightly adjusted the contrast and brightness |8|.
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I ran the monochrome version of the image through ScratchCam FX twice. In the first pass I added a Scratches layer and left the Textures+Borders and Colours layers turned off |9|.
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I applied the same Scratches layer in the second pass, and I also incorporated a Colours layer |10|.
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Tapping more than once on a selection in ScratchCam FX’s Colours layer window toggles through a couple of slightly different variations in tone and contrast. This can be useful to get an ideal result.
I finished this part of the process by opening the two resulting files in DXP and blending them with its Normal blend mode |11|.
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You can blend images in Image Blender, Superimpose, Filterstorm, Laminar, and other apps. Each app has its own strengths when it comes to blending a specific region of an image.
Step 7: Introducing a Color Highlight
I wanted a splash of modest color to serve as a subtle visual cue, so I began by adding a light leak in Pixlr-o-matic |12|.
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The next task was to tone down the effect and limit its impact to the painting on the wall. In Filterstorm I opened the file as it appeared before I added the light leak. I tapped the Filters icon, selected Add Exposure from the bottom of the menu, selected the image with the light leak, and tapped Fit to Image.
Next I selected the Gradient tool from the toolbar on the left and chose the icon on the far right, which adds visual data from the second image to the first image in a linear fashion from the center |13|. The farther away the smaller circle is placed from the center point, the more subtle the effect. This was more effective for my purpose than blending in other apps because it allowed me to add a more subtle color that fades from the center in a narrow range.
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After I introduced the subtle touch of color from top to bottom, and before I hit the Check button to accept the edit, I returned to the toolbar on the left, selected the Eraser tool, and erased the color from above and below the frame of the painting. The Show Mask Color masking view worked well for this task |14|.
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When I was finished I tapped the Check button to accept the edit, confirmed the results, and saved the final image.
Slow Shutter Cam is a versatile camera replacement app that offers near-infinite possibilities for introducing the blurred motion effects of slow shutter speed capture. The more you experiment with it, the more it will encourage you to discover new approaches to unique visual expression.
The app features three different capture modes—Automatic, Manual, and Light trail—each with highly flexible speed settings |15|. Access the Capture mode options by tapping on the Capture settings button in the lower left corner of the screen.
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Automatic mode emulates the shutter priority mode of a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera. You can use it to capture dreamy images of water flowing smoothly over waterfalls and rapids or ghostlike figures that suggest movement in the frame.
Manual mode is useful in low-light conditions because it keeps the shutter open for the amount of time you specify. Manual exposure compensation is available with a slider control after you take the shot. Light trail mode lets you paint with light to create interesting effects. For example, you might use it to capture the trails of car headlights and taillights at night or fireworks exploding in the night sky.
Light trail mode features a Sensitivity setting in addition to the Shutter speed settings that are available for each of the three capture modes |16|. The best way to understand how the Sensitivity setting affects your images is to experiment with it at the high and low extremes.
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A Self-Timer setting is one of the many options found on the general Settings screen, which you access from the lower right corner of the main shooting window |17|. The Self-Timer is handy for those who wish to use Slow Shutter Cam for shooting self-portraits.
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The best way to learn the ins and outs of Slow Shutter Cam is through extensive experimentation. The following are my recommendations for discovering what effects inspire you to experiment:
Aim to capture subjects that stand in distinct contrast to the background.
Try all three of the capture modes in conjunction with a variety of different shutter speeds and sensitivity settings.
Take advantage of the capture mode that you find best suits subjects in your immediate surroundings. This will allow you to experiment often.
Try experimenting with the Freeze and Exposure controls after capture. (Exposure is available in Manual capture mode, Freeze is available in Light trail mode, and both are available in Automatic mode.)
Use a tripod when you use Manual mode, when you want to capture smooth light trails of traffic at night, or when you shoot self-portraits.
The techniques you learned in this tutorial include an easy method for cropping to a square format or other aspect ratios in Photo fx while retaining maximum resolution. You also learned how to enhance lighting and contrast with Dynamic Light, use color filters and contrast and brightness controls in Simply B&W to enhance shadows and tone values, and how to distort perspective and frames as an effective creative process with AutoStitch Panorama.
In addition, you learned how to apply texture in ScratchCam FX and how to blend different versions of an image in DXP to create a unique finish. Finally, you learned how to add a color highlight with Pixlr-o-matic and how to use Filterstorm to apply that highlight in a specific manner that is limited to a certain area.
Alan Kastner (Tabiwallah)
As a Canadian living and working in Tokyo for nearly 25 years, Alan’s ongoing struggle to make sense of his environment and daily life drives his passion for capturing the mood of given moments. Whether his images are rendered unaltered as observed, or more often as a somewhat abstract reflection of his emotional response, they all reflect his fascination with light, geometry, form, and motion. Alan has employed his iPhone exclusively to capture, process, and post all his images since late 2010. His work has been featured around the world in numerous galleries and publications, perhaps most notably Museo de Huelva in Spain in 2012, where his images were featured alongside the Magnum classic photographers. More recently, his works were exhibited at Unit24 Gallery in London. www.iphoneart.com/users/1297/galleries