A few days ago, I was driving back home from Washington, DC when I saw a scene on the Potomac that looked interesting. We have been having some extremely cold weather the last several weeks and there was ice on the Potomac in a quantity not usually seen. On this day, the temperature had risen enough to cause fog to form over the ice, which created the scene that interested me.
I did not have my dslr with me, but I did have my smartphone and its camera. I must admit that my phone is several generations from being a current technological marvel, but it does work! I parked and proceeded to walk around the area across from Roosevelt Island and the bridge to the island. I took a few photos of what looked like some good prospects. My biggest concern was the lack of sharpness of the photos due to the age of my phone.
When I arrived at home I downloaded the photos to Adobe Lightroom and started to look through the group for the best photos. As I suspected, none of these shots was particularly sharp. I selected a couple and started to edit them as usual when the idea of taking advantage of the lack of sharpness occurred. Perhaps some interesting photos could be created via post-processing. I utilized both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. As it turned out, some fairly good photos were the result, at least in my opinion. I’ll let you be the judge.
Although I am still far from being proficient with either Lightroom or Photoshop, I am beginning to see some progress in my ability to use these programs. It also seems to me that the sharpness of my dslr and lens may not always be the best option for a photo. Sometimes an old smartphone camera may be ideal! Here are two photos with several versions of each. I hope you enjoy viewing them.
Original Process
Soft Image
Oil Painting Filter
Monochrome
Here is the view from directly behind the previous photo.
Original Process
Soft Image
Oil Painting Filter
Monochrome
This is only the beginning of my exploration into using different filters and processing techniques to create images from my smartphone. I will hopefully be able to transition these techniques to photos taken with my dslr. Please come back to view the updates to this blog in the future.
C'est la vie 