Recently I was contacted by the metal band Unwriten Truth to do some promotional pictures. We shot outside their practice space at night. At first i as a little worried about light since the only major source was a large fluorescent lamp. But through test shots and a hot shoe mounted flash i reached the final exposure and look of the group shots. Shot at f/3.5 with a sigma 10-20mm and only adjustments to the RAW files. Correcting the color for skin tones left a slightly eerie green cast to the ambient light behind them, Which I’m totally into!

For the single portraits of each member of the band I grabbed my 50mm f/1.4 . Shot wide open at f/1.4 using only the ambient light from the fluorescent lamp overhead. The original pictures had a very heavy green cast to them but i was able to totally correct for it in photoshop’s RAW editor.

The band was happy with the results and began to use the pictures for their promotional items on social networks and in print. It was a lot of fun shooting and i look forward to working with them again!

I’ve been shooting more and more with just my iPhone 4. It’s the camera i always have with me. I used the Hipstamatic app to take all these pictures. I guess saying that I’m “late to the party” with Hipstamatic would be an understatement. I downloaded it about 2 weeks ago and have been using it exclusively since then.  Most of these pictures are of interesting people/things i see on my way to work. A slice of my daily commute.

This is another one of those “I’m not lazy I’ve just been busy working on projects to actually update the blog with something interesting!” posts. Which is true, I have been working on projects and i’m pretty excited about them. Be on the look out for them soon!

Also there will be a contest/giveaway that will be run through the blog. If you follow us on twitter or Like us on facebook then you will be the first to hear about it!

Some iOS app reviews will be posted. I’ve been using one non stop and its grown to be one of my favorites yet. Along with a portfolio update that will add a new category.

Thanks for all the support!

Jon

PhotoForge2 is my image editor of choice for my iPhone 4. The amount of different adjustment tools it brings to the table has yet to be equaled. The only thing i can compare it to is a scaled down version of Light Room for your iOS device. Powerful in the amount of control you have over the adjustment of your image yet never sacrificing ease of use or functionality. Combined with its layers options and connectivity to web services such as social media sites, Photo Forge 2 is an impressively solid app for your image editing.

The start screen of Photoforge2 is a simple menu where you can add pictures to a photo album styled page. Tapping the + button will bring your image folders, synced images though iTunes or the camera capture to take a picture. One option that i thought was great is the Blue Tooth connect option. With this you can connect to other iOS devices and transfer images over to yours then edit. A useful option if you have an iOS device with images you’d like to access. The process of choosing an image is well thought out. The photo album style first screen is a useful way to load images then quickly access them instead of scrolling through tons of pictures in the devices main photo album.

Once your image is loaded is when the editing begins. The tools are grouped together at the bottom of the screen in an intuitive manner.

Tapping the little slider icons brings you to all the image adjusting tools. From white balance to noise reduction most of the tools you will need to edit your image is there. When selecting a tool the adjustment options pop up over the image and lets you see how the adjustment is affecting you image in real time. Sometimes the tools cover a good amount of your image but its a trade off for ease of use with the tool. Also if you are using an iPod touch or in my case an iPhone 4 the real estate on the screen is fairly precious to begin with. The developers took this into consideration and though some of the onscreen buttons are small you can still work efficiently at editing your image.

The FX icon brings you to a filters page where you can change the overall look of your image.  You can scroll through an impressive amount of filters to give your image a toy camera look among others. I like how they have a little sunflower preview of each filter in the scroll menu. Instead of going through each one to see which on fits you can go right to the one you want or skip others. Once you find the ones you like then you will be going back to them because the filter does its job well. This is all based on personal taste and how you want your final image to look.

The pencil/ruler icon is the cropping and resize menu. Most of your final editing will be done through this menu. You can rotate, resize, crop and add borders to your image. Each tool is easy to use and the amount of options in each tool is relieving. You don’t get stuck trying to figure out how to do something because each tool is straight forward and easy to manipulate.

The layers icon is next and is one of my favorite tools in Photo forge 2! The layers editing options are powerful and easy to manipulate along with an extensive blending mode. If you are familiar with the blending options in Photo Shop then you are familiar with the ones in Photo forge 2. Here is a quick rundown on how to add a layer to your image, blend it and flatten the images to a final picture.

1 – Tapping the layers icon will pull a side menu from the right of the screen. This is where all your layers will be and where you add your layers.

2 – From the new layer button you can add a transparent layer or an image file. We will be adding an image file.

3 – Pulling up your image you are able to resize, rotate and basically lay the image anyway you want.

4 – Once you are done the image is loaded onto your layers side bar menu. Tapping on the image will bring up a menu where you can hide the image, copy it and move it around the bottom image. Whats impressive is an extensive layer masking tool you can paint on with yourself. Though very much a niche item in the app some might find it incredibly useful. Though on a smaller screened device it might prove to be a little too time consuming.  Tapping the last checker board icon in the layers option menu will bring you to the blending modes.

5 – I like the amount of blending options along with the strength adjustment for each one provided. Here we will select “Multiply”.

6 – The top layer is shown blended over the bottom image and can be further adjusted.

7 – Flattening the images together makes it one final image.

8  and 9 – Now you can crop the image and adjust it as a single image.

If you plan on doing some lengthy editing in Photoforge2 then you will at one time or another need an undo option, right? The app has a great image history tool that lets you scroll back through all the steps you took to edit your image. Reverting back to a needed point in editing your image will no questions be a time (and life) saver!

Saving your image is easy and I appreciate all the different uploading options provided. Because Photo Forge 2 is so powerful you will be using it to edit images for almost any situation. Being able to upload the images to which ever web service you want from the main screen just makes things that much easier. The biggest social media and photo sharing sites can be accessed and uploaded to. FTP uploading is also an option, something you don’t regularly see in an image editing app!

POP! CAM in app purchase option.

POP! CAM is a photography filter suite that is an add on purchase to the Photoforge2 app. A full suite of photography filters, POP! CAM is an excellent add on for those interested in the analog toy camera look.

Easy to use and fun to play with POP! CAM adds the toy camera/film look to your images. All the combinations of film types and lens styles will keep you busy each with it’s own character and look it brings to your images. Some of the options are found in the main Photoforge2 app but almost all are new to the POP! CAM add on.  Here are some images of the different options and slider menus in POP! CAM

Photoforge2 is a solid app. Tools that are powerful and easy to use is the main draw. For your iPhone photography or full size images you need to edit you will be pleased with the outcome and the “all in one” package it provides. Experienced photographers will enjoy the amount of tools and the depth of options in each. New photographers will appreciate the ease of use along with the little bubbles that pop up before using each tool to explain its function.

On special right now on at the iTunes app store Photoforge2 is a no brainer for your photo editing needs!

I’ve been working more and more on A. street photography and B. getting over my fear of street photography. Most of my time on the street has been working up nerve then subsequently talking myself out of any interaction with a person i’d like to photograph. This makes it by definition IMPOSSIBLE to photograph in a style i have long loved. Deciding that there are way too many interesting people in the world to pass up photographing i went and changed my ways. Starting with simply putting a smile on my face I went and started asking people if i could take their picture. Everyone i talked too seemed pretty interested and willing to comply with my request. Though not shocked i was completely relieved that people were so cool about it. I guess i would be too if someone asked me politely for a picture! Though a few i did sneak in here and there. Still a work in progress i’m happy with some of the results and portraits i took on the street. Many more will come along with the interesting street objects i see around.

Street photography is something i have always loved. The raw beauty in everyday life. Shooting my own and finding my way with it has built up a new appreciation for me and the art! Check out the few shots I’ve got so far!