Journeys and Journals

Take a few minutes to review the Journals of Discoveries resources contributed by participants 

• Niel Nielsen - Search Techniques in Apple Photo Library 
• Chad Randolph - Scanning Family Photos is a PDF
• Melissa Green - Photo Walk & Workflow 

Fall 2020 Gallery

Our studio members continue to explore possibilities and inspire each other to create fun, meaningful and sophisticated images. Our Fall 2020 Gallery has been posted to YouTube.  

Use the Search feature on the right side bar to find our previous galleries. The Search feature is found when viewing this site on an iPad or computer. (On an iPhone you can scroll to the bottom of the page and tap on the View Web Version link. Get out your magnifying glass.)

Glad you stopped by to review the prerequisites

iPhone Photography Experimental Studio (Pre-requisite needed)

This seminar includes participant demonstrations where experienced photographers use iPhone apps to create digital artwork. Online demonstrations with shared albums serve as our learning and critique platforms. This semester we continue using apps for computer migration and reporting exposure metadata. Visit our public website for demonstration videos, recent artwork galleries, and seminar details at https://rsiphonephotostudio.blogspot.com. New photo studio artists should be at ease with iOS basics and expect to purchase $25 in apps and prints. Requirements: iPhone 7, 8, X, XR, XS, 11, 11Pro, 12, 12Pro; iOS 13 or 14, AppleID. An iPad is helpful for editing images. This is NOT a beginner photography seminar. All enrollees go to WAITLIST and will be contacted by instructor to check prerequisites mentioned above. A computer is helpful to attend the Zoom meetings so you can use your iPhone or iPad for demonstrated activities. Zoom Meet & Greet on Feb 4 at 10 AM. Six meetings planned (optional meetings for updates).

NEW PARTICIPANTS read the Prep page to see if your iPhone is ready. Review the Apps page to see if you already have some of our favorite apps. Additional conversation is required for new participants.

Sharing Photos - Quandry

There are two ways to share your favorite pix, well three plus ways. 

• #3 Sharing directly in Messages makes the receiver do cleanup 
• #2 Shared Album by invitation is good for commenting and posting by others too
• #1 Temporary iCloud link that is viewable for 30 days without comment or you posting 

Does your audience have a preference? 

Actually, all of these strategies ( and more social media services ) can be applied anytime depending on the event and how important it is to “build community” among subscribers. 

#3 Messages is clumsy to select and delete images. But some control in Settings > Messages > Keep Messages > 30 Days/ 1 Year/ Forever. Yikes! Do your audience a storage-space favor by Settings > Messages > Low Quality Image Mode. 

iPhone 12 Pro Camera notes

In our scavenger hunt meeting today we got the iPhone 12 Pro unboxing reports from several attendees. There were questions about the improved camera quality over earlier iPhone models. Take some time to do research and experiment with cameras & iPhone models to see for yourself. 

Some discussion revolved around shooting RAW on iPhone 7 and later models using 3rd Party camera apps like Obscura2, Camera+2, Halide, ProCamera, Moment and others. Apple will soon release Apple ProRAW and that will be reason for more experiments. 

The earlier post today about Derrick Story's Creative Printing eBook I suggested putting his website on your regular reading rotation (new version of 3Rs) because he also links to other websites that track the technology we all use. Here are links to get you started: 

The Digital Story - also has a Facebook page and he mentions "the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Bottom line: it's like the full frame version of smartphone cameras" when referencing the DPReview article "Halide's deep dive into why the iPhone 12 Pro Max is made for 'Real Pro Photography'" (His Facebook page visible without FB account posted on 11/20/2020.) 

Derrick also wrote "A RAW Look at Image Differences Between Smartphones and Cameras" where he reviews images from iPhone X and Fujifilm X100V for file size, dof, color science, sharpness, shadows and highlights. (What iPhone app was used to shoot RAW photo? Maybe the Lightroom CC app.) 

The Digital Story - Apple ProRAW - The Best of Both Worlds 

DP Review - Apple's new ProRAW image format will capture in 12-bit RAW DNG files. 

DP Review - Halide Mark II is a redesigned RAW camera app for iPhones with over 40 new and improved features - with onboard machine learning. 

DP Review iPhone 12 Which models have which cameras? 

Fstoppers - Apple ProRAW Redefines the Meaning of Raw Files - might be indicating that the old RAW file required processing to bring it back to life and Apple is bringing a processed RAW in our up-to-date world. 

Apple Insider - Apple announces ProRAW image format for iPhone 12 Pro 

Apple - iPhone 12 Pro - scroll down the page to read camera details on Night Mode, sensors, Portrait Mode, Deep Fusion and Smart HDR3. You've heard of Image Stabilization and on the 12 Pro Max is Sensor-shift OIS on the wide camera. 

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Not all of us will be updating to the newest iPhone. But we can keep our iOS up-to-date and update our apps. Some 3rd party cameras have advanced features that allow iPhone X and 11 Pro make amazing photographs that approach iPhone 12 Pro quality. 

A recent field trip/picnic at Ice House Reservoir tells an interesting story of many camera apps. I saved 55 photos for later review, the camera apps used include ProCamera with VividHDR saved as TIFF, Apple Camera saved as HEIC, Hydra saved as JPEG and Moment saved as RAW. Many of these files range from 10MB to 18 MB. My intention is to keep several of the images as a reminder for this trip and then archive the other photos to an external hard drive. That way I'm keeping available space on my iPhone and in my 200GB iCloud subscription. 

Free eBook - Creative Printing

Derrick Story is a photographer, writer, podcaster and all-round educator located in Santa Rosa, California. Visiting his website regularly for inspiration and resources is a great idea - The Digital Story. I'd like to point you to his recent article, 5 Great Printing Projects for Creative Photographers, for the audio podcast episode or a link to the free eBook. He likes printing with Red River Papers, check them out. 

Over the years, I have purchased several of Derrick's paperback books on digital photography and attended one of his weekend ipad + photography workshops. 

Custom Colors for Collage Background

Interesting discussion this week - how can we add a custom color to PicCollage or Diptic layouts? So far these apps do not offer a way to customize the background color. Huh? What workflow could we add to processing to make custom colors? 

Several apps on our list would import an image and allow a color to be selected to fill the canvas, for example Procreate, Pixelmator and Graphic. 

We settled on a free app with the eye-dropper tool - Apple Keynote! This is the software for creating presentations - it can open Powerpoint presentations or save as PPT and PDF. 

Roughly, here are the steps: Open Keynote to any template with a white background. Use the default title page to make notes to yourself about how to use this slide deck. Add a second slide. Import a photo with the color you want as a background. Add a small square shape to this slide on top of the photo. Use the Paintbrush tool to show how the shape can be stylized with border or color. Look for the Eyedropper tool. Now move your finger/pencil/stylus/mouse over the photo to see a circle of changing colors. Stop moving to set the shape's color. Tap the Eyedropper tool again and practice changing colors. 

Watch for more hints on the Keynote slide process coming soon. 

Wow - learning all the time. The screenshots I made and then added to a new Shared Album using the iPad are out of sequence on iPhone and computer. What?? Need a workaround ...

Created a Google Slide Deck called Custom Color Background with the screenshots and comments. This is best viewed on iPad or computer. The slides auto advance every 10 seconds or you can force the next slide by swiping right to left. (Also swipe left to right to go back a slide.) Start your own Keynote presentation or download my template with slides and shapes in place. OK, third time is the charm. Keynote saved to my Dropbox account. If you see a log-in screen, try to cancel and access the file. 

Remind me to write up a little tutorial page on Tools for Sharing Online. Hint: WordPress or Blogger for websites, Google Forms for surveys, Dropbox for posting documents ... all tools and skills for contributing to a family reunion or a volunteer organization. 

iPad OS 14 Tips

Several tips were shared today and work on iPad and iPhone. 

Find a website using the Safari browser. In the URL bar, on the left edge is AA button to indicate options for this page. The popup menu offers to change text size, show Reader View (without ads!) and if the page is in a foreign language - to Translate to English. Also added with 14 is the Privacy Report. 

Create a PDF from website in Reader View for off-line reading (while camping/glamping) using the Share button > Print > using two fingers pinch-out on the page to open a PDF instead of printing to paper. Tap the Share button again to save the PDF to the Books app or Save to Files app (create a new personal folder on iPad (for camping when no wifi allows you to connect to your iCloud). 

Control Center has Do Not Disturb and if your calendar includes an event - like this class - press and hold on the crescent moon icon to see options for DND. This feature stops Notifications from appearing on screen when activated. My devices try to get me to refocus on new Messages, new email, new Shared Album postings, upcoming appointments and News items. Control Banners, Sounds and Badges from individual apps in Settings > Notifications > ...