My new video, When I Think of You (Do You Think of Me)

Hope you like it.

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Filterstorm Pro-A Very Exciting ipad Photography App

The ipad 2 has shown itself to be an incredible, magical device that can do so many things, the mind boggles.  But in the area of photography, it has especially shown its truly outstanding ability as an editing, creating and viewing tool.  Its seems like every day a new photo app arrives at the app store and one can be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers to chose from.  However, in my opinion, there is one editing tool that stands head and shoulders above the rest.  That would be Filterstorm Pro.  

   Filterstorm Pro, by designer Tai Shimizu, has arguably been called "photoshop for iOS".  And that it is to be sure.  But in the ipad, it is so much more.  Because of the special properties of the ipad-the ability to pinch and expand by a simple finger movement, the ability to enlarge to reveal minute details in a picture, and the vivid screen display, the editing capabilities of this deep app shine through like no other format.  

   I use FP in conjunction with iphone 4 which enables me to take a picture with a pretty good pixel camera and using icloud, that photo automatically shows up in my ipad's photo stream via wifi.  From there it is a simple thing to copy it, open the app, and paste it into the clipboard.  It then shows up in a 'collection'.  It is this collection/folder that is the starting point for your editing, and lets you store multiple versions of one image.    

   And now is when the magic begins.

   When the image is loaded into the editing window, it appears in vivid display on the right, and to the left there is a series of options on a panel- crop, scale to fit, rotate, straighten.  That is the canvas tab.  There are 2 others, history and filter.  Selecting the 'filter' tab reveals an inclusive array of editing filters.  These are brightness/contrast, curves, hue/saturation, white balance, sharpening, blur, black & white, clone, to name a few.  You can also add text to your photo as well as put a vignette around it and posterize to give it that 'painted by Monet' look.  

   One of the coolest attributes of these filters is that you can apply any effect selectively as in a mask, applying the effect to a portion only of your photograph.  And you can blend this in as well.  

   One filter I especially like is 'curves'.  You are presented with a small window showing a color graph and a line across it with a dot in the middle.  You pull the dot around with your finger and see the exposure and color changes in real time on the image.  This works real well for right brain types like me who sometimes operate by shooting from the hip and feeling with the gut.  I'll pull the dot around until it 'feels right'.  Unscientific yes, but totally sensible for an artist.  You also have the option of seeing the editing on either side of the image, viewing the effect on one side and the original on the other, or going full screen.  You may also 'batch edit' a collection of images, applying whatever effect/enhancement you like to an entire collection and then upload them to whatever medium you desire-Facebook, Photobucket etc.  

   Filterstorm's export features are very impressive.  You can export back to your photo library, send images to DropBox, or upload straight to Flickr.  

   I have barely scratched the surface of this incredible app.  It is designed for the photo-journalist and/or professional, however, for anyone who wants to create art out of their photographs, share their pictures and make something 'stand out' I highly recommend this app.  It does have a bit of a learning curve however it is very forgiving and after a few go's, anyone who is familiar with iphone photo apps or has a desire to learn can be up and running in no time.  

   Filterstorm Pro can be purchased in the App store for $14.99.  A pittance for such a great tool! 

Video for my song "Paris, Only You"

This is a promotional video for my song "Paris, Only You", about a man who meets a girl in Paris and has a love affair.  But its really two love affairs, one with the girl and the other with Paris, the city of Romance and Light.  One love affair ended, the other continued, but whenever he thinks about Paris, he thinks about her.  If you like this, hit the 'like' button! 

Pro Hdr and ProCamera, 2 Awesome photo apps!

   In the smart phone world, technology is doubling and doubling again exponentially.  Every day hundreds of new apps are submitted and added to the  iphone's portfolio.  Currently, as of April 2011, there are over 350,000 of them.  There are literally hundreds of photography apps doing everything from creating vintage photo booth effects to full on editing.  The state of the art in photography is HDR.  Professional photographers have always rolled their eyes when they hear about the latest app touting HDR.  This is because true HDR is produced by either using two cameras, or two shots using different light settings and blending them together.  An app has never been able to faithfully recreate that.  Until now.  Instead of raising their eyes, Pro Hdr is raising eyebrows.  And here's why.

    Pro HDR, $1.99, takes an amazingly good facsimile of an HDR photo using the iphone’s camera.  HDR stands for High Dynamic Range Imaging.   What that means is the camera takes two pictures, a light one and a dark one, and then blends the two, combining all the range of light in the image.  What is produced is a shot that contains all the ranges of available light.  Ansel Adams invented the first true application of this discipline in the Zone System.  His black and white photographs contained the entire spectrum from pure white to pure black and all the shades of gray in between.  HDR does the same with color.  And Pro Hdr does it with the iphone.  A direct shot can be taken using the app instead of the iphone camera, or pictures can be loaded from the iphone’s photo library.  When the screen is tapped to take a photograph, the photographer must remain still while the app analyzes the exposures.  It then takes 2 shots and processes them together.  This is the Auto Mode.   Once the shot is taken or chosen, Pro Hdr gives  you  5 tweaking options- brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and tint.  You then have the option to save.  You can also load from your camera roll, clicking twice on the picture and the app creates the same process.  The shot can now be edited the same way.  So though the app takes a good HDR image, direct or from the camera roll, a person still has the option to edit. 

    ProCamera, $2.99.  ProCamera has 2 modes, expert and regular. Regular steps the complexity down for the average person that just wants to take a nice shot with their phone.  ‘Expert’ is for the person who wants more control and more features.  The controls are intuitive and meld with the central template of the iphone.  You can adjust the 'white' balance, which is basically exposure, as well as the focus by dragging 2 boxes around with a finger swipe.  Once the desired look is achieved, you use the white balance button and it locks in.  A shot can be taken by touching any area on the screen, as well as fast multiple shots.  You can also shoot video with the exposure you desire by using the same locking boxes.  Some of the features are antishake, selftimer, multishot, power zooming and fullscreen trigger.  There is also an ‘album’ option where pictures can be loaded from the iphone camera roll.  Editing such as cropping, rotation, color and light adjustments and effects like sepia and other vintage modes can be applied there.  There are so many things a person can do with this app; it’s really like having a professional studio inside the iphone. 

    All the photographs created by using these 2 great apps can be saved to the iphone camera roll, emailed, or uploaded to facebook.  Your artistic imagination is the only limitation to what you can do.  You can even take a shot with Pro HDR, save it, and then upload it to ProCamera where you can tweak it, edit it, colorize it with the ‘special effects’ and re-save it.  If you want to kick your photography up a notch, if you are an “I” journalist, a professional photographer or someone who wants the simplicity of not having to take your SLR or point and shoot with you everywhere, you need to check out these iphone apps.  The smart phone camera has finally entered the realm of serious photography with Pro HDR and ProCamera.