Archive for category: Photography

Show off your Instagram images easily with PhotoPile

Show off your Instagram images easily with PhotoPile

For those of us who use Instagram on our iPhone, the one annoying thing is that it’s cumbersome to share those photos with anyone who doesn’t have an iPhone with Instagram installed.

PhotoPile

A fun way to share your Instagram photos with everyone

You can share your photos on Facebook & Twitter through the app, but it’s an extra step that you may not want to take. Thankfully, there’s a great way to share your Instagram photos with anyone, no iPhone required.

01/13/2012 Read More
Turn your image into a beautiful work of art with Snap Art

Turn your image into a beautiful work of art with Snap Art

Alien Skin Software released Snap Art 3 a while back, and I’ve been playing with it for a while now and found it to be yet another excellent Photoshop add-on from my favorite plug-in maker.

Snap Art 3 is definitely made for photographers, but designers can make use of it as well. It’s easy to use, highly flexible, and at $199 it’s affordable for what it does. Not only do the multitude of effects work on photos, but you can apply Snap Art filters to videos imported into Adobe Photoshop Extended as well.

Snap Art sample

Snap Art turns your images into works of art

I won’t bother to go into all the filters and features, you can check them out on the Snap Art examples page. But know that Snap Art now offers a Detail Mask feature that allows you to adjust the details in specific areas of your images. Very slick! All of Snap Art’s oil paint, watercolor, pencil, charcoal, comic art, and dozens of other filters, offer non-destructive editing. And experimenting is easy with the large preview window.

Snap Art 3 works with Photoshop CS4 or later, Lightroom 2 or later, and Photoshop Elements 8 or later, on a Mac running OS X 10.5 or newer, including in 64-bit mode. A downloadable demo of Snap Art 3 is available.

09/08/2011 Read More
How to apply pseudo-HDR image enhancement to your photos

How to apply pseudo-HDR image enhancement to your photos

Sometimes even a photo that has been composed perfectly needs a little something to really make it pop. Or maybe you just want to jazz it up for use in a text-heavy document. There’s a simple way to give it a pseudo-HDR effect using Adobe Photoshop, or even Pixelmator.

Pseudo-HDR effect

The original image lacks the oomph we're looking for

The original image above is really nice. It’s well-composed, has great depth and color, and would probably be fine as is. To give it some punch, you make a duplicate of the background layer by hitting Command + J, and set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay using the drop-down menu at the top of the Layers panel.

Pseudo-HDR effect

Adding a few layer copies can boost the overall color & contrast

While the image already shows boosted color and contrast, try duplicating that newly created layer again using Command + J. The Blending Mode should already be set to Overlay, but if it isn’t go ahead and do so. As you can see in the image above, the effect is quite stunning. But if you feel you went too far, adjust the Transparency of the top-most layer until you’re satisfied.

08/24/2011 Read More
Free image: Rusty warehouse door

Free image: Rusty warehouse door

Rusty Warehouse Door

Click the image above to download the full size image

I recently posted the above Instagram image (which of course shows up in my personal Facebook feed), and got a few email requests asking if I had a larger version of the image. Rather than offer it over email, I’ve opted to share it here instead. Feel free to use this 2,592 x 1,936 3.4MB JPG image in any manner you see fit.

08/19/2011 Read More
Alien Skin announces Snap Art 3

Alien Skin announces Snap Art 3

Alien Skin Software has announced Snap Art 3, the new version of its artistic natural media plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom. Snap Art turns a photo into a beautiful work of art that looks completely handmade. You make the creative choices while Snap Art takes care of all the tedious work of drawing brush strokes.

AlienSkin Snap Art 3

AlienSkin Snap Art 3 turns your photos into works of art

Snap Art 3 will be available in August 2011 for $199. Owners of Snap Art 1 or 2 may upgrade for $99, and if you buy Snap Art 2 now, you’ll get the upgrade to version 3 for free.

06/30/2011 Read More
Tips for controlling your DSLR autofocus

Tips for controlling your DSLR autofocus

Tips for a better autofocus

Digital Photography School offers a few tips for a better autofocus

Sometimes the autofocus on your DSLR camera can be really annoying. For some shots it’ll focus on the right part of your subject, but then the very next shot it may choose to focus on something far and away into the background.

Steve Berardi from PhotoNaturalist talks about three ways to get better control of autofocus in his guest-post at Digital Photography School.

05/31/2011 Read More
Lo-Fi for Mac brings retro camera effects to your images

Lo-Fi for Mac brings retro camera effects to your images

Lo-Fi for Mac iconiPhone users have plenty of apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic to apply effects to their images before sharing them. Those apps are all the rage right now, and for good reason. They give you the ability to turn a mediocre photo into a personal masterpiece. For the most part though, Mac users who prefer to shoot photos with dedicated digital cameras had been left out in the cold until Lo-Fi came along.

Lo-Fi brings retro camera effects to your digital photos in a fun and user-friendly application that looks more like the back of a digital camera than it does a desktop application. Lo-Fi doesn’t really do anything that you couldn’t do with a copy of Photoshop and some spare time – except that it does them with the click of a button, at a fraction of the cost, and with fantastic results!

Lo-Fi app

Lo-Fi offers a unique interface for enhancing your digital photos

After launching Lo-Fi, you simply drag a photo into the large viewer window to get started. That’s when the fun starts. On the right side, you’ll find three rows of options to enhance your photos; Film, Mood, and Frame.

05/25/2011 Read More
Gorgeous iPad wallpapers

Gorgeous iPad wallpapers

iPad Wallpapers

Click for 50 Free high-quality iPad wallpapers

10/19/2010 Read More