Category Archives: Photo-Technique

Depth of Field on an iPhone?

How to get a Depth of Field effect on your Smartphone.

With the increase in iPhone photography (and of course there are other similar brands of smartphone) and with photographers starting to take iPhone photography seriously as an image medium, new apps to help the photographer improve there images are appearing all the time.

One of the real bug-bears with the iPhone camera is its lack of depth of field capability.  The small size of the lense and its proximity to the sensor makes optical depth of field impossible, (at least just now, who knows what lies ahead). So it was only a matter of time before an app appeared to produce a depth of field effect using digital manipulation in post-capture processing.  The app is AfterFocus, and it’s available now in the App Store for 79p. Continue reading Depth of Field on an iPhone?

#Hueless and Clueless?

Got Hueless?

I’ve been playing with an iphone app called ‘Hueless.’  It’s an excellent piece of technology, allowing the phone’s camera to shoot in monochrome, and giving the photographer great control over the capture of the image.  the user interface screen is intuitive and easy to use.  it features accurate autofocus achieved by a simple tap on the screen to set the focus point.  There’s a drop down control to alter the exposure and contrast on the screen, so you can see the end result before the snap is taken.  There’s a series of optional presets which the photographer can set up for instant camera control, and cropping to photo-sizes is easily achieved by pinching the screen.  If you are for ate enough to own an iPhone 6 (and I don’t) then there’s even an option for high ISO shooting to make low light shots possible.

Here’s a selection of images I captured at the Tullyglass Hotel, and later in Belfast with the app.

No monochrome camera is complete without filters, and the Hueless app offers a drop-down menu with the standard filters one would use with a black and white film camera.    Here’s an image with the red filter:-

IMG_1406 copy

Really, for a couple of quid, its a fantastic app, get it at the Apple App Store! Dont be clueless, get Hueless, – it’s just about flawless!!!

Aliens have Invaded Ballymena…

A flying saucer has landed in Ballymena!

It has been rumoured that this alien spacecraft has travelled through millions of galaxies, and has landed in Ballymena to share in the hospitality and generosity of the local inhabitants!

Wellington Church
Wellington Church

No, wait!  It’s all a big mistake.  It’s not a spacecraft after all!  It’s a Presbyterian Church!  Yes, Wellington Church – with its remarkable new building is now a landmark feature in the town.  I captured this Monochrome image on my way back from a wedding at Galgorm last week using my Nikon F100 film camera, loaded with Ilford FP5 ISO400 B&W film, f/11 @ 1/250th sec.

It was processed for 8 minutes in Fotospeed FD10, washed and fixed for 10 minutes, then washed for 10 minutes.  Scanned into Photoshop for layer balance and contrast adjustment, and addition of border.  There you are!

Go buy yourself a real camera and use film!

Having said all of that – one does have to wonder why a church needs such powerful thruster rockets?

Flying Church
Flying Church

Bushmills Advertising Project

When I was studying for my HND Photography, one of the modules was Advertising Photography.  As part of the project, we had to select a well known company and create three adverting images that could be presented to that company.  I chose the famous ‘Old Bushmills’ Irish Whisky Distillery.  I researched their existing and previous advertising campaigns, and asked them how they wanted their product to be recognised – what was their unique selling point.  One of their brand images seemed to be the age of the old distillery – It was established early in the seventeenth century.   Continue reading Bushmills Advertising Project