Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Iphonography: Water

{cropped, edited with snapseed "drama" plus added a frame}
The Cheryl Johnson iphonography class I'm taking features a series of weekly photo prompts. One of the prompts for this week is "water."  Paul and I met some friends at Stow Lake in San Francisco to rent row boats, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to work on the prompt.  The photo up top is a fairly abstract take on the prompt. It's an example of what I think of as digital art, as opposed to an actual photo enhanced with actions.
{straight out of the camera}
I love this shot of the row boats, all lined up and ready to go. Nice late afternoon light; good composition. It defines water by focusing on something other than water, which I think is a nice way to react to a prompt. I like how it is a fairly pure photograph.  Shots three and four take a different approach, with respect to processing.
{edited in snap seed using vintage, plus added frame}
{edited in snap seed using vintage and drama, plus added frame}
I think of these as photographs significantly altered or changed, with the use of digital enhancements.  I go back-and-forth about how much digital enhancement I like using in my photography (emphasizing that this is about me and my style, and I am in no way trying to dictate what others should do).  At the end of the day, I think I prefer things straight out of the camera.  On the other hand, I see the beauty of the vintage bridge (which has an instagram feel to it) and think that either the dripping oar or the first shot might be the best illustration of the prompt "water." 
 I'm really interested in your thoughts - about digital enhancement/digital art vs. straight out of the camera photography, as well as which photo I should submit for this week's assignment.  Thanks for your input!

19 comments:

Amy said...

A pertinent post for me today as at this exact minute I have been enhancing some photos with RadLab. I feel very similarly to you and while I do edit all photos I use on my blog or in scrap pages, I like a realistic interpretation almost all of the time. I am more likely to use something less realistic on my blog than on a scrap page - I really try and keep my scrap photos as close to the real thing as possible.

LOVE the boats lined up.

boysmum2 said...

Cool water shots, I like them, they look so refreshing and inviting

Mary B said...

Great photos all of them. I love the boats lined up (I have a similar one) the dipping oar is a great abstract type of photo but I think my favourite is the Bridge the softness and the sheer beauty of it is what draws me back to that one.

Kirsty.A said...

These are really good. I've never got anything like them with my phone

Julia said...

Rinda these are fabulous! Love the boats and the bridge :)

helena said...

A great set of photos, I think the oar is my favourite - hard to pick

For memory keeping I do very little to the photos - I crop and occassionaly I make lighter or darker.

I see my digiart as my creative outlet instead of using paint or pencils etc

Irene said...

Hi, Haven't popped in for a while. Your photography course sounds interesting. Rather like Amy, I prefer the shots as they come out of the camera and haven't yet got into tweaking them digitally.
I love that first water shot. It is like a pool of ink.
Hope Paul progressing well.

Abi said...

I love these photos. The top one especially. I know what you mean about digital art vs art straight out of the camera. I guess I personally lean more towards straight out of the camera however if it is for a prompt like this, the art style is nice. Certainly with instagram i lean more towards the milder filters.

Beautiful takes on the prompt as always Rinda.

Alison said...

I tend to prefer 'straight from the camera' , but I do have a play around sometimes
Alison xx

Sian said...

I love the rowing boats - they look so inviting.

I like to mess around with effects..but I think that's because I use them as a disguise for a poor picture some of the time

Karen said...

Like you, I usually prefer straight out of the camera, with a bit of sharpening and maybe some cropping. I do love to play around with iPhone photos, though, and usually do apply some kind of filter when I'm using Instagram. I was doing a lot with iPhonography for awhile but have gotten away from it again. I'm a fan of #1, the oars, and the boats lined up. You could submit any one of them, though!

Anonymous said...

I really like the boat one. I usually don't do anything special with my pictures and prefer just out of the camera but I do play around with instagram ones. Your course is really sounding interesting.

Jo Murray said...

It never ceases to amaze me what an iPhone can do... yours particularly. Soon cameras will be obsolete.

Miriam said...

I love to alter photos digitally, I find it a creative outlet (like Helena). When I scrapbook (paper) a photo I like to use an image SOOC with just a crop and/or levels/curves. I love the flexibility that digital photos and photo editing programs offer.

Elizabeth said...

Beautiful photos but my favorite one is of the water under the bridge.

Melissa said...

My favorite is definitely the line of rowboats.

Honestly I like my photos right out of the camera. I've been playing around with a few "enhancements" for fun but so far I haven't printed them to actually use for anything.

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

Wonderful shots! I love the bridge one. I just downloaded FotoFX for may Android and am liking being able to finally tweek the contrast & brightness of my photos.

scrappyjacky said...

For most photos....memory keeping photos....I just adjust the colour levels a little if needed....and sometimes crop.
I feel if much more than that is done...it becomes digital art...and is something quite different.
I do love what you've done with the bridge though....that would make a great card.

alexa said...

All of these are lovely and I'd be hard pushed to choose between them! For normal diary type scrapbooking I like my photos fairly natural bu sometimes it is jus so nice to experiment! I love your vintage frames and am enjoyed Snapseed a lot :).