Reduce, Modify, Or Combine App Effects With Image Blender

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Do you ever wish you could reduce the intensity of an effect? Do you ever wish you could combine the effects of multiple Apps with more control? You can, with the App Image Blender.
Image Blender is extremely quick and easy to use. Simply launch Image Blender, load one version of an image and then load another version of the same image (or another image). To reduce an effect, use the opacity slider. To modify the way an effect is applied to an image, change the blend mode of one image and change the combined effect. To rotate or scale an image double tap on the screen, then pinch and twirl to align one image with another. Finally, save a new image with the combined effect of your choice.
Blend Modes
Blend modes can be used to generate many creative effects. Image Blender offers most of the standard blend modes; Normal (for no special effect), Lighten and Screen (to lighten), Darken and Multiply (to darken), Overlay and Soft Light and Hard Light (for contrast effects), Luminosity and Hue and Saturation and Color  (for color effects), Color Dodge and Color Burn (for combined contrast and color effects), Difference and Exclusion (for special effects), and two others Plus Darker and Plus Lighter (with self-explanatory titles).
Image Blender Provides Global Not Selective Control
Image Blender doesn’t allow you to blend images selectively with masks – i.e. in or not in one spot or from side to side or top to bottom. (To do this try PhotoForge 2.) In some cases, you can achieve similar effects by photographing subjects on black or white or painting areas of an image black or white and using blend modes like Darken or Lighten to drop out either the darkest or lightest values.
Multiple Exposures
Image Blender can be used to combine two different images. When you create multiple exposures with Image Blender a few strategies are particularly useful for creating multiple exposures with Image Blender. One, make exposures that have the same background but contain moving objects for futurist motion and/or ghostly transparent effects; keep your camera still; consider using a tripod. Two, use images that have dark objects on a light background or light objects on a dark background; you can make background lighter or darker by processing them with other Apps; then you can use the blend modes Lighten or Darken to make the background disappear.
Creative Enhancements
There are many things you can do to creatively enhance an image by modifying App effects. Here are six.
1         Partially restore the original state of an image.
2         Modify the way an effect adjusts an image.
3         Overlay text or graphics onto an image.
4         Add a transparent texture to an image.
5         Make moving objects transparent.
6         Merge two images into a surreal composite
Isn’t it nice to know that when it comes to the effects Apps have on your image, it’s not an all or nothing take it or leave it proposition? You can get more control, with Image Blender.
Find Image Blender here.
Find more iPhone app reviews on the Huffington Post.

New Images – Skogafoss, Iceland

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These images came together quickly – after a lot of gestation. I sketched the idea several years ago during a workshop with Focus On Nature. I made the shots last summer, scouting for another workshop with Ragnar th Sigurdsson and Arthur Meyerson. The first time I visited this location, (Skogafoss, Iceland) I took a few shots in less than half an hour, looking for major compositional variations. After looked at those shots and identified this idea, I shot very differently the next time, standing still for the better part of an hour and watching the water for significant variations within just a few compositions.
I wasn’t certain, but I suspected I’d want to add an accent to the abstract composition, deciding on smoke during processing. While I processed the files, I also sketched out a number of significant variations to test location of symmetry/assymetry, positive/negative space, light/dark, and location/angle/value of smoke. Doing this revealed more options than I had initially pre-visualized. And that means there are more related images to make. It also clarified a few outstanding ideas and connections to other images, some made and some still in development. That means I have some ideas about how they’ll can be integrated into existing projects and new things that will come out of them. I find the seeds of future work are usually planted in current work and if tended will yield more fruit.
I think about and plan series of images, often for quite some time before and over an extended period of time during their development. While I’m focussed, I look for surprises and modify my plans based on the new insights they introduce at every creative stage – planning, exposure, development, reflection, redevelopment, metamorphosis.
Find more images here.
Find out about my Iceland workshops here.

The Art of Travel – Free Webinar Online Now

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John Paul Caponigro Webinar: The Art of Traveling from Lowepro on Vimeo.
You can view my recent webinar for LowePro The Art of Travel now.
I share many ways to make the most of your travels including Research, Packing, Storytelling, and Journalling.
Plus, you’ll find the presentation peppered with many free follow up resources on my website.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.
View my webinar The Art Of Travel here.

View my Equipment Packing List here.

View my Clothes Packing List here.

Find out about the tools I use here.
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iPhone Experiments – Bones

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Recently, during an African safari, I spent several days photographing animals. We saw all of the big five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, cape buffalo) and many other animals in one day. It was the first time I made a concerted effort to make wildlife photographs, which was excellent practice. I gained an increased appreciation for how moments of peak action (or lack thereof) can make or break some photographs. I made many competent photographs that entertained my family at home, which I have no intention of using professionally.
In between these sessions, I spent a few hours photographing the skulls of animals displayed in the camp. Initially, I photographed very freely, exploring many ways of photographing them. As I reviewed the images, I learned from both the successes and the failures, gradually refining my the point of view of the collection. I appreciate the images that go beyond direct representation and become suggestive of something more through abstraction and metaphor. Ultimately, these images, which I consider sketches, will lead to final results, which will result in professional products.
Unexpectedly, I found that these sessions helped me develop my thinking on how to incorporate the process of sketching, both with words, drawings and photographs, into the development and presentation of future professional work. In the right contexts, I might even publish, display or sell select sketches.
This session also helped me explore longstanding personal themes within my life and work. These images expand my understanding of the power of photography to transform our perceptions of a subject through close observation. They highlight for me the limitations of vision (and photography) to see beneath or beyond surfaces. They confirm how I frequently try to suggest the often unseen foundations of the things I photograph. They remind me of how much I love to draw bones, especially the human skeleton. They reinforce my longstanding desire to create sculptures, many influenced by these forms. They resurface my artistic influences; in particular Georgia O’Keefe and Henry Moore. I’m sure there are other valuable resources I can mine from this experience, if I give both the process and these results further thought.
Explorations often have many unintended consequences; often these become the discoveries we’re looking for when we engage in experiments. You’ll learn more from simply observing your creative process, without judgment, than from anything else. Awareness is everything. What makes a process of experimentation even more successful, richer and more relevant is subsequently reviewing our results and continually refining our lines of inquiry.
How could experimentation help you reveal, connect with and develop your influences?
What experiments would be most helpful to you?
These images were made in Mala Mala, South Africa during my recent South Africa Photo Safari (sponsored by NIK).
Apps used were PicGrunger and Snapseed.
See more images and find more posts on The Huffington Post.

Green Action – Use Multi-Use Bags

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Be more green!
You can make a difference today!
Make many small changes to make one big change!
And you’ll save a lot!
Take action now!
Here’s one idea
Choose to Reuse
12 million barrels of oil are needed
to make the more than 100 billion plastic single use grocery bags that are used in the US every year. An estimated 4 billion of these bags end up as litter each year,  If tied end to end these bags could stretch around the earth 63 times.  Recycling these plastic bags is costly and not economicaly ideal to many second generation markets. Sadly most of these recycled plastic bags end up being shipped to other countries with more lenient environmental laws to be incinerated.
It takes 98% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic compared to a pound of paper. Yet bags made from paper actually require 4 times more energy to produce, create more pollutants, and take up considerably more landfill space than plastic.
What should we do?
The answer lies in multi-use bags.
But be careful, not every reusable bag is the same.  Many bags imported from China have been printed with lead inks, others have been shown to harbor bacteria, mould and other organisms.
Cotton bags, molded plastic carry crates, and natural fiber baskets do the job well – IF you remember to bring them into the store! (Be sure to wash your reusable items regularly.)
Find more resources that will help you take action now here.
Find environmental organizations to support here.