How did she do that? Anatomy of an iPhone image...

As some of you may be aware I am in my second year of doing an iPhone 365 project, I suppose technically it could be called "iPhone 730 project", but when I wrapped the first year (2010), I wasn't completely sure I would do a year 2 (2011). However, I knew, that after the commitment of taking an image everyday, I would do a similar project this year, whether on my iPhone or not, even if it was just of my dinner or a tree. I felt I made progress as an artist, as a creative individual, I knew I'd want to continue in some way...

It's kind of like when you get that shiny new digital SLR and you just say to yourself "oooooooo with a 16gb memory card I can take hundreds of images", it sounds fun at the time, but then you take that card and have to transfer the files to your computer, then you have to review and edit them; at this point hundreds of images no longer sounds fun! A project like this can help focus you, to look for something interesting, and just take one photo, or perhaps a few then you have an option to choose a fave for the day.

It goes towards practice, commitment, creation. Most days the images were created of things that were around, perhaps a tree or flower I'd pass while walking, or a bridge, and some days I'd put something together, a little toy with a background and a light, and then some days, it was just dinner, or the realisation that it was 11:45 PM and I hadn't done my shot yet! 2010 was my first successful 365 project and so far in 2011 I'm on Day 111 and I haven't skipped a day!

Now on to the guts of my post today. I consider myself an avid iPhoneographer, many of my friends follow my results as I share them through Twitter & Facebook via Flickr. I often get questions on my process with the images. Let me preface this with one simple statement, an additional commitment I have with my 365 project is that I take all of the images on the iPhone and process them on the iPhone via various Apps. I like to use the Apps like layers in Photoshop to create effects, or black and white conversions, add texture and beyond. Let me also add that I have been floored by how powerful some of these Apps are (and some of them are even free!).

What I thought I would do here today was show the original image, and then each image after I had done some editing... so here goes:

Original image (A tree in Fremont, near the Lenin Statue):



I then put the image through Cross Process:



Then through Dynamic Light:



Then through Iris Photo Suite:



Then through Shock My Pic creating the final image:



So there you have it, the anatomy of an iPhone photo by yours truly. I don't always use this many apps, but I do normally use at least one! Do you take camera phone pictures/smart phone pictures/iPhone or Android and such, pictures? What do you like to do with them? Would you like to see more posts like this?

Thoughts and feedback are welcome!

-Kate