PhotoSynth

PhotoSynth is a free program where you phone uses its accelerometer to take pictures that overlap and stitches them together. Very cool. Might be iPhone only.

Trailing Off

This picture looks more impressive than the amount of work that went into getting it. One of the tricks to getting a good Instagram photo is that you simply have to start with a good camera or good picture. What I mean is the quality. You want a high-resolution image so that you can't see the individual pixels of an image. Older photos or ones taken and blown up from the internet have a bit of fuzzy coloring and texture to them. With the iPhone this isn't a big concern because it is great quality for a camera on a phone.

When you frame up your shots, you also need to make sure they're well focused. If you tap once on your screen in shooting mode, the camera will try to focus the area you tapped on. If your image is still out of focus, then you are simply too close to the object. This picture was actually taken about 6-8 inches from the subject. Because you've started with a higher quality image, you can zoom in once you're in Instagram and the image will still look crisp and clean because you don't need to zoom in much so there isn't much loss of quality.

After that it was as simple as popping the Lo-Fi filter on this because I felt it gave a nicer, more contrasty, old school feel than the original. The background sinks away more definitively and the flowers pop out.

Shoes

Anyone can post pics of their shoes, but it's usually sterile, plain shots of the shoe sitting on the floor fully in frame. Now this works for selling most products, but as a photo to be enjoyed it often doesn't invoke much response. Instead, try zooming in very close, capturing the texture of the shoe. Or try a strange angle like shooting the picture from underneath or up one side. Just because a person can't see the whole subject of your photo all at once doesn't mean it isn't effective. An air of mystery or a unique perspective can greatly add to an images charm and power. This image, for example, is the inside side of one of my athletic sneakers. There's more interest here because it is a focus of color, pattern, and texture, rather than just a picture of a shoe.

Summer Pie

This was a picture that I took with my iphone and only edited the color a bit in PhotoForge2. I like to try to keep my pictures simple and realistic. I know many of the ins and outs of Photoshop, but I don't feel like you need it to take a great picture. There a photos from the time that cameras were invented that show more skill and originality than many images of today which are run through multiple filters and are barely recognizeable as the original. I also find the iphone takes amazing pictures with incredible clarity that is better than what nearly any average person needs.

The pie is a graham cracker crust (store-bought for ease), berries of my choosing, whipped cream and banana cream pudding. DON'T overfill your crust. The weight of the berries on the pudding will push all the outer berries and pudding over the side and out of the pie. :(

Instagram

I can also now be followed on Twitter and Instagram. My handle is @cirienphoenix. I will try to post pics here too and maybe give more insight as to how I take them.