*This is a guest blog post by David Hayes using the apps: iColorama and Snapseed
I am currently taking a still life online workshop where the instructor has a preference for things like white flowers in a vase against a white wall…that sort of thing. So…during a recent lesson I decided to give such a set up a try and after editing the image per the workshop instructions…I worked the image my way! I’d like to share my workflow with you in this article.
In this screen shot you can see how I set things up for my shoot: white rose, vase, white background, a bit of shadow. The first app I used is iColorama, one of the best all-around editing apps out there. Once loaded, I clicked on “Form” to bring up the editing tools.
Clicking on “Crop”, I used the “1:1” preset and positioned my image using rule-of-thirds and negative space in mind.
Next I went to “Style” (A) and the “Painterly” (B) tool box. I then applied “Paint” (C) preset. Now I have my image with a nice painterly feel.
Painterly yes, but not edgy which is what I wanted! So back to “Style” (A) and “Edges” (B)! In the presets I used “6/17” which knocked back the edges a bit more and put in some nice defining lines.
Time to do adjusting to the exposure to punch out the lights and darks of the image. Clicking on “Adjust” (A), I activated the “Exposure” (B) tool box. Using the sliders along the bottom (C), I played around with Brightness, Contrast, and Exposure until I was happy with the look.
Here’s what the image looks like so far. I liked it…but just needed a little something to finish. So it was off to my “closer” app – Snapseed.
Once in Snapseed, I naturally went to “Tune Image” and did some more adjustments to contrast, brightness, and the like.
After trying out a couple more ideas using “Drama” and “Grunge” I decided to see what “Center Focus” would do for the image.
While the default for “Center Focus” is “Portrait 1”, I went with “Portrait 2”. I also used the control panel to adjust the Blur as well as “Outer Brightness” and “Inner Brightness”. This gave the image the feel I was after! Not a soft and quiet still life, but something a bit darker and edgier!
The final version! I call this “Reality”. Oh and if you want to see the soft, quiet version you’ll have to go to my IG stream: @clearerreflections to see it!
*David Hayes is a photographer, mixed-media artist, painter and explorer of life. Visit his blog at clearerreflections.com.
For more photography inspiration and instruction, check out the latest book by Susan Tuttle: Art of Everyday Photography.
