PHOTOGRAPHERS. While many seminars at the PhotoPlus Conference in New York next week will focus on teaching photographers to shoot video on high-end DSLRs, check out some of the new accessories that will put more imaging power in the palms of iPhone users.
EyeSee360 Enables iPhone Users to Shoot and Share Panoramic Videos
EyeSee360, a leader in one-shot 360 video and panoramic imaging, has announced the availability of GoPano micro, an iPhone attachment that lets everyday users create 360 panoramic videos. The company has also introduced the GoPano App and a panoramic video-sharing network.
“Panoramic video has been available to pros for years but this is the first time the technology has been made more accessible and simple to use,“ said Brad Simon, President of EyeSee360.
Using an innovative 360 lens and software, the GoPano micro offers iPhone users the ability to record everything around them simultaneously. Using the GoPano micro is as easy as snapping the two-piece case onto the iPhone along with the 360 lens. At that point you simply press record to capture the action occurring around you.
Uploading videos is just as easy. To share video experiences with friends and family, you can upload video on gopano.com or through the GoPano app. You can view the most popular videos (or your friends’ videos) right from your iPhone or by visiting gopano.com. You can also share your videos on popular social media websites.
GoPano micro is now available for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Purchase it for $79.95 through the store on the GoPano website or at B&H, Adorama or Amazon.com. It will arrive at select retail outlets later this month.
EyeSee360 was founded in 1999 as an offshoot of Carnegie Mellon University, The company has applied decades of research in robotic vision, image rendering, and software interface expertise to the challenge of creating interactive panoramic still images as well as prerecorded and live 360 panoramic video.
CineSkates Introduces Camera Dolly for iPhone 4 and 4S
Cinetics is the Kickstarter-funded company that created the CineSkates camera dolly for shooting more fluid video on DSLRs. Now, the company has announced a CineSkates System for iPhone® 4 & iPhone 4S.
In addition, the company has launched the CineSkates Showdown–a video contest for CineSkates users. The showdown will include a category for iPhone videos.
CineSkates is a unique set of wheels that attach to a tripod and enable you to put your video camera in motion. CineSkates for DSLRs are designed to work specifically with the GorillaPod Focus™ tripod and a ballhead. New to the CineSkates System for iPhone is the Glif™ tripod mount.
If you are among those who backed the company on Kickstarter or have already bought a CineSkates system, you can enter the CineSkates Showdown Video Contest for the chance to win $500 cash or a SXSW Film Festival pass. Voting will begin on November 30, and winners will be selected based on viewer feedback on December 21, 2011. The contest will consist of 5 categories:
Cinematic Sequence
Timelapse Photography
Stop-motion Animation
Creative CineSkates Set-up
Mini Camera (shot with iPhone®, Android™, GoPro®, and other small cameras)
Cinetics was created to “to create innovatibe tools for filmmakers and photographers that combine the power to captivate with the luxury of portability.”
The fledging iPhoneography movement is a perfect example of what can happen when technology developers make it easy for artists and other creative pros to experiment with new hardware and software.
Imaging-industry analysts have long believed that smartphones would someday replace point-and-shoot cameras as the primary tool for taking snapshots. But these analysts probably never imagined just how wildly enthusiastic photographers of all skill levels have become about the artistic potential of the Apple iPhone camera and its ever-growing ecosystem of apps.
Some iPhoneography evangelists are long-time photography pros who have extensive experience with darkroom processing and fine-art photo printing.
The Advantage of iPhoneography
Photographers coined the term “iPhoneography” to describe the art of capturing and creatively processing images with the inexpensive apps available for the camera built into Apple iPhones
Professional iPhoneographer and teacher Teri Lou Dantzler still uses her DSLR camera to shoot portraits for clients. But carrying an all-in-one camera, darkroom, and social-communication device in her pocket has opened her eyes to limitless possibilities for creative expression and fun.
“Since I always have my iPhone with me, I have captured images that I would have passed by before,” says Teri Lou. “I have processed images while waiting for appointments, while snuggled into a chair at the coffee café, on top of a 10,000-ft. peak, and at bedtime.” She publishes her work on photo blogs and for the Facebook iPhoneography group she started last fall.
Another benefit of iPhoneography is the simplicity of converting a basic camera and processor into a device that can shoot HDR or panoramic images or mimic the look of vintage cameras. Anyone can produce Photoshop-like effects without enduring a painful learning curve or continuously investing in new gadgets or full-featured editing software. For less than $5, you can buy a new app that performs only the tasks you need to create the type of art you envision.
Where to Start?
Because so many iPhoneography apps exist, it can be hard for novices to know where to start. And in fact, many apps do similar things, some better than others.
To help guide and inspire novices, there has been an explosion of iPhoneography books, courses, and tutorials. To decide which resource is right for you, check out the instructor’s background, images, blogs, and the content of the course or book. Here’s just a sampling of what’s available.
Online Courses
Teri Lou Dantzler offers four-week online courses, supplemented by one-on-one critiques over the phone. When you register, she asks what type of imagery you would like to produce, then modifies the course accordingly. Her iPhone-Ography 101 course helps beginners focus on learning those apps best suited for their artistic goals. Her iCreativity course covers a variety of blending, brushing, and masking techniques.
For more information about all of her upcoming courses and workshops, visit Terri Lou’s blog: http://iphoneographywithterilou.blogspot.com/
Chances are your local photography-learning center will be offering iPhoneography courses sometime this year. But if you want to learn how to convert your iPhone images into gallery-worthy art prints, check out the workshops offered by Harry Sandler and Dan Burkholder.
Harry Sandler is a former music-industry tour manager and rock-concert photographer whose images have appeared in Rolling Stone and Circus magazines. He has been taking iPhone pictures of his travels for over two years. Some 17 x 22-inch prints of his iPhone images have been displayed at the Renaissance Fine Art and Design Gallery in Carmel, Indiana and he has another gallery exhibit scheduled this fall.
Sandler will lead an iPhone-Ography Workshop May 14 and 15 at the Peters Valley Craft Center in Layton, New Jersey and a day-long iPhonography class June 4 at Foto-Care in New York. From November 4-7, he will team up with Teri Lou Dantzler to teach an iPhoneography workshop at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island near Seattle
During his May workshop, Sandler will explain how to: capture an image with the proper resolution, work the various apps, figure out a personal workflow, create panoramas right in the phone, and process and print your iPhone images with good color, resolution, depth, and texture.
Sandler regards the iPhone as an extremely versatile tool in his artistic arsenal, offering a marriage of painting and photography. Initially, the iPhone camera reminded him of the Polaroid camera his father gave him as a child. Now he uses the iPhone in a variety of ways, including as a viewfinder for his 60 MP digital camera. Sandler is currently experimenting with compositing iPhone imagery and may try painting some of his iPhone photo prints.
Dan Burkholder was one of the first photographic artists to embrace digital technology in the early 1990s. He will be presenting iPhone Artistry workshops at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops (April 29-May 1 and October 12-15), Freestyle Photographic Supplies in Los Angeles (May 14), the Connecticut Media/Photo Workshops (June 25-26), the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY (Aug. 13-14), Maine Media Workshops (August 21-27), and in his own studios in Palenville, NY (Sept. 3-4 and Oct. 8-10).
During his workshops, he will teach camera capture techniques that are exclusive to iPhoneography and provide advice on which apps are best for contrast, color, and sharpening. He will demonstrate how certain apps can be combined to transform your images into fine art. Dan will also explain how to make stunning prints of iPhone images on art paper or canvas and show how the iPhone and iPad can work together to form a photographic dynamic duo.
Dan is widely known for both his vision as his artist and his mastery of the wet and digital darkrooms. His platinum prints are included in many museum and private collections. Dan’s groundbreaking book “Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing” helped black-and-white photographers take advantage of emerging electronic technologies. His forthcoming book on “iPhone Artistry” is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
To sample the type of advice Dan has to offer, download one of Dan Burkholder’s Tiny Tutorials to your iPhone. The tutorials explain how to organize your apps, streamline your image adjustment workflow, stitch and retouch iPhone images, and use basic masking and curves in Filterstorm.
Interactive Book with iPad Companion Edition
“iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps” was written by photographer/designer Dan Marcolina. Dan’s design firms are at the forefront of integrating design for print, video, and interactive media and designing publications and catalogs for touch-enabled tablets.
In his interactive print book, Dan shows how different iPhone camera apps can be combined to create artistic effects such as blurs and vignettes, high-dynamic range, and black-and-white imagery. After you download the free Microsoft Tag Reader onto your iPhone, you can scan one of the 75 tags printed throughout the book to watch Dan present pop-up video tutorials.
Dan was one of the first to use Adobe’s new Digital Publishing Suite to create an iPad Companion edition of his book.
Print and E-Books
The book “Create Great iPhone Photos: Apps, Tips, Tricks, and Effects” was written by Allan Hoffman, who has spent 15 years as the technology columnist for New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper. He explains how to produce stunning panoramas, vintage-style photobooth strips, and super-saturated Polaroid® photos with a hip, 1970s look. The book also explains how to unlock the power of your iPhone’s camera with burst mode, high dynamic range (HDR) effects, exposure and focus controls, and more.
In “The Art of iPhoneography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity,” award-winning documentary photographer Stephanie C. Roberts urges you to use your iPhone to loosen up your traditional approach to photography and become more spontaneous in shooting how you feel.
She emphasizes that, “photography is less about the camera, and more about the vision of the person behind the lens.” While the book explains how use various apps to stretch your creative boundaries and make art with your iPhone camera, many of the techniques in the book could be applied to shooting with any other type of camera. Stephanie will be presenting one-day Art of iPhoneography workshops at the Showcase School of Photography in Atlanta in May and June.
A new book by photographer/designer Dan Marcolina demonstrates the creative possibilities of both the iPhone camera and interactive books.
Entitled “iPhone Obsessed: Photo-Editing Experiments with Apps,” the book published by Peachpit shows how you can use 47 of the best low-cost apps with the iPhone camera and create artistic photographic effects such as blurs and vignettes, high dynamic range, traditional film effects, and black and white images. The “image recipes” in the book are the result of a year-long series of mobile-imaging experiments Dan conducted with his iPhone and various apps.
Marcolina explains how to combine apps to construct images, talking about which apps he used and why. He also includes some advanced tips for integrating Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. If you want to use your iPhone to create images that are good enough to hang on your wall, you’ll learn which apps to use and where to get them.
Marcolina has been practicing photography for more than 30 years, and his images have appeared in juried shows and dozens of publications worldwide. But he says his obsession with iPhone imagery has reinvigorated his love for both photography and visual experimentation.
What Makes the Book Interactive To extend your reading pleasure, the print version of the book integrates 75 Microsoft tags that take you beyond the surface of the printed page. After downloading a free Tag Reader (http://gettag.mobi), you can use your iPhone to scan the tags printed in the book. When you scan each tag, you can watch full-screen video clips on your iPhone of Dan Marcolina giving app overviews and step-by-step tutorial of how he created a particular image.
The tags let you uncover more than four hours of bonus video tutorials, app developer websites, and linkes to the iTunes Store for app purchase. You’ll also view inspirational image galleries and free downloadable resource images.
“Microsoft Tag makes the world around you clickable, and now with the scan of Tag, readers will get a richer, more enhanced experience from the pages of the book,” explains Bill McQuain, Microsoft’s director of Tag Product Management.
The iPad Companion Edition The book “iPhone Obsessed” is one of the first printed books to be released with an iPad Companion Edition authored with Adobe’s new Digital Publishing Suite. The suite enables publishers to create, distribute, monetize, and optimize publications on a variety of mobile devices including iPad and Android media tablets.
When the iPad companion edition of the “iPhone Obsessed” book is released later this month, Dan will supplement the book’s core content with 25 brand-new image recipes and 35 app reviews, along with expanded video tutorials on some of the images from the book.
About Marcolina Design and Marcolina Slate LLC Dan Marcolina’s Philadelphia-based firm Marcolina Design is well-known for their expertise in integrating print, web, and video work. Dan recently launched Marcolina Slate LLC to produce “touchable design for mobile devices.” Applying lessons learned from designing print, interactive, and video, Marcolina Slate LLC will produce unique publication solutions for iPad and Android Slate devices, immersive books, engaging advertising, memorable advertising, and living catalogs.
About Peachpit Peachpit has been publishing books on the latest in photography, graphic design, web development, digital video, and Mac computing since 1986. Many photographers and designers know Peachpit as the publishing partner for Kelby Training and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
PHOTOGRAPHERS. To celebrate the wide range of photography styles that can be created with different types of iPhone apps, the Studio2Gallery in Austin, Texas will exhibit the work of four i-Phone-ographers: Leon Alesi, Catherine McMillan, Carol Schiraldi, and Tina Weitz. Entitled “Appa-ritions,” the exhibit will open Feb. 12 and run through March 5.
iPhone photo by CarolSchiraldi
The idea for the exhibit came about after four well-seasoned photographers started exploring the boundaries of iPhone photography and what types of art could be created using the iPhone camera and some of its apps.
Carol Schiraldi, the artist whose work is shown here, says, “My iPhone has put the fun of photography back into my hands. It’s small, it’s sleek, it’s sexy. It’s easy to operate and easy to get away with. I love the joy of discovering new apps like Camera Bag, Plastic Bullet and Hipstamatic. I love Shake It Polaroid and the fake Tilt-Shift app.”
She likes that the iPhone allows artistic vision to go from concept to finished product in a second or two: “No Photoshop, no darkroom, no chemicals, no expense of films and such, only that vision come to life…Never before has a camera allowed me to be so productive while freeing me from the shackles of being a technician.”
Tina Wirtz, who owns the Studio2Gallery says, “I began to use my iPhone camera to fill in for those moments I did not have my high tech equipment on hand. As I continued to use the iPhone, a new love developed. I discovered the apps. I had lamented the departing of Polaroid Time Zero film almost four years ago, but found the new joy of Shake It, a beautiful tribute to the contrast and color of Polaroid. You even get the nostalgic click and whir.”
To read the artists’ statements of each four photographers and see more of their work, visit the Upcoming Events section of the Studio2Gallery website.
Uploading videos is just as easy. To share video experiences with friends and family, you can upload video on gopano.com or through the GoPano app. You can view the most popular videos (or your friends’ videos) right from your iPhone or by visiting gopano.com. You can also share your videos on popular social media websites.
Cinetics is the Kickstarter-funded company that created the CineSkates camera dolly for shooting more fluid video on DSLRs. Now, the company has announced a CineSkates System for iPhone® 4 & iPhone 4S.
