Workflow and Kitchen Sink

Many thanks to Cheryl and Mike for their iColorama demonstrations last week. Took me awhile to find Help - under the Import Photo menu (but it is now missing after a little update). 

By now many of you have jumped into iColorama - with both feet. Because this is not for the timid or someone who wants to put a toe in the water. Did I equate iColorama with kitchen sink (in the old-timer reference of a deep catchall for many things)? 

Several of you have mentioned digging deeper and finding references on social media or YouTube and ... that is just the shallow end of the pool. (See how I am mixing metaphors here, it is a word salad that reflects my frustration with this enormously powerful app.) 

In previous semesters the workflow was described as "app stacking" where an image is stepped through several apps and saved/exported as a new image at each step. My linear lizard brain could grasp that process. But iColorama has such a different workflow ... 

Reflecting on features

• Photo editing 
• Filter effects 
• Styling 
• Blend modes
• Painting
• Masks 
• History
• Foreground / Background

Maybe jumping into Painting and Masks was my point of confusion. Or, maybe I've not set aside enough time to play and experiment with iColorama. 

New approach 

Open an image, use the photo editing features to adjust exposure, convert to B & W, etc

Open an image, use any menu and submenu and review the Presets looks

Practice the Apply (adds a Step) feature - aka History

Share > Save / Export (PNG for higher resolution ...?) 

Adopting any new app - thoughts on workflow

• Create an album of sample images including the original and several effects that show my favorite export images 
• Mark the images with Caption to report the app and features used 
• Download a new app 
• Play with the app - touch all the buttons
• Find the Help feature and the developer's website 
• Process sample images 
• Does the new app mimic previous apps - are the results better or the same? 
• Does the new app change the resolution of the image? 
• Compare to app with in-app gallery
• Compare to app with layers 

 

Tease Me Lessons

I hope this post doesn't jump the line too far, but the Tease Me activity will show the spotlight on editing possibilities. Maybe. 

We continue to take photographs to improve our eye for the scene and composition of the elements. Camera orientation, landscape or portrait, and position of the horizon change the story. Some of the lessons will encourage us to take more photographs at the moment or return when the light is different. Taking more photos using the various lenses and modes and using 3rd party apps with special features means more curating and deleting - but - better pictures in the long run. 

When we know what retouching can do, then that pole or tin can will not bother the composition. When we know how stylizing can push a drab day into an emotional scene then taking the photo is right. Now. 

Photos & Shared Albums - Pro and Con

Some thoughts .... will be updated from time 

What's to love about the Apple Photos app: 

• Photos are synced via iCloud to iPad and computer 
• Albums - created and curated by me
• Albums photos can be sequenced and arranged to tell a story 
• Search feature with Artificial Intelligence and metadata access 
• Caption field was introduced in iOS 14 

Struggling with Apple Photos 

• Interface for 3rd party editing apps is not standard 

What's to love about Photos Shared Albums 

• Not counted against the paid iCloud storage
• Keep photos online even when deleted from a device & iCloud
• Allow comments and likes from shared album subscribers

What is missing in Shared Albums 

• Search with A.I. image recognition and metadata 
• Export to Books with subscriber comments 

Tease Me - Animal Images

Day 3 - this will be "living things but not plants" are under this Animal unbrella. 

Process: 

Choose ONE or more of the posted originals to explore a new workflow (or refine a current workflow … where I started). You can use any of the apps we’ve used in class or another iOS/iPadOS app you have discovered. Your edits can use one app or a sequence of apps (called “app stacking”). 

Document your apps using the Captions feature in Photos. In iOS 15 Charlene and I discovered the Caption text will become the Comment text in a Shared Album when posting one photo at a time. But iOS 14 doesn’t transfer the Caption as Comment and it would be helpful to copy the Caption and paste in the Post to Shared Album process, or add as a Comment after posting using paste. 

You might be inspired by the animal and want to stylize the photo - you have probably seen many pet portraits. Maybe the animal you selected has a color that you want to transform into … something new. Also, sometimes the texture or details get our attention. Your final image does not have to be true to the animal. 

Play Process Review (until you all help me clarify …) 

1. Choose one animal photo to edit/stylize and view it at full screen 
2. Tap Share > Save Image (goes into your Library at the date of the original image) 
3. Return to Recents list of photos (current work appears here) 
4. Look at the photo full screen
5. Tap Share > Add to Album … under My Albums … tap Tease me (if you made this in class) 
6. Navigate to Tease Me album, look at photos there to see … no Captions 
7. Possible to use Retouch app as a Photos Extension to remove distractions … 
8. Open your edit/stylize app and navigate to the animal photo (interface is different with each app!) 
9. Make edit/style choices and Share > Save to Photos (or whatever the app says to export/save to Camera Roll/Library) 
10. Open another edit/stylize app and open the previous stylized image and process then save 
11. Open the original image and stylize in second app, stylize and save 
12. Open the edited image full screen in Photos app 
13. Tap ( i ) to access metadata and Caption field > add Teased 
14. In the Caption field append your workflow (i.e. Teased Waterlogue > Prisma > crop) 
15. Add this image to your Tease me album 

During class I will ask for edits on animals - when your animal comes up, be ready to Post to the 2021 Fall Studio Shared Album.

1. Look at your Tease me album photos in thumbnail view 
2. Tap Select > Share > Add to Shared Album 
3. Confirm name of shared album to be 2021 Fall Studio (if not, tap album name and tap to choose 2021 Fall Studio) 
4. Tap Post to upload 
5. Use the Comments feature to add additional workflow details as appropriate
6. Use the Comments feature to ask questions about the posted images 

When stylizing a photo, most apps let you try different effects before locking them into the image. It is not uncommon in my workflow to make five or more new images from a stylizing session. I also get inspired by a stylizing result and want to take a different image through the same process - let’s call this “inspired” and not “distracted.” 

Many apps access the camera and can stylize on the spot. However, there is no getting the original image back. So I recommend always taking photos with camera apps and editing and stylizing later - because you will have the option to export a new image or revert to the original photo. 

We will probably not have renderings of every animal posted. I hope that future photo selections will include an interpretation of the work shared from each participant. 

Thank you for giving us a chance to practice new skills and ways of seeing the world around us.  

Holiday Cards - Use Keynote to Create

Apple has launched their 2021 holiday recommendations and on the Today At Apple page you will find a link to this Keynote slide show with hints on how to add your photos to their designs and how to make new slides of your own design. 

This project goes well with the one page calendar project I’m using to highlight selected photos on my wall at home. The Keynote template document has been linked to the details page. 

Tease Me! Edit-Repost Activity

(Cynthia is not here to reign me in and I'm going wild on the keyboard... with this title and suggested caption. ) 

I want you to identify several photos for our Edit/Repost Activity. (That would be a better title for this article, but too bland for me.)  

Use the Search feature on you iPhone or iPad to find photos you'd like other participants to edit or stylize. Give these photos the caption: Tease me (Not a caption you might otherwise use ...  ).

Allow the AI to identify the following photos using the Search feature - or review using your own brain power: 

• landscape
• lake
• clouds 
• sign
• statue
• building (stairs, chairs, windows ...)
• fauna (flower, fern, rose
• machine
• animal ( bird, dog, cat, horse ...) 

Click the photo to enlarge

---

Email message text:  

This activity is a warm-up, a chance to play and experiment, an opportunity to see possibilities through the eyes and skills of others. You might declare that you are a “photographer” rather than “photo stylist." Then someone in class interprets your photo in a stylistic way. Wow. Unexpected. Next photo outing, you begin to see your path differently with new textures, shapes and colors. 

There is freedom in editing images that are not your own. There are times when playing clears the mind and opens the spirit, for then you can begin to create. 

Before Day 2, studio participants will have identified five photos of their own that they would like to edit or stylize but are not sure what direction or app to use. Open each photo and add the caption “tease me” so that Photos > Search can identify it easily. (Practice this skill for all other photo work.) 

Use Photos > Edit > Extensions > Markup to add your name in a visible color to the photo and adjust the font size as appropriate. (Practice using Markup - an essential skill/tool.) 

We will post the photos to our shared album DURING class as directed. Tease Me Challenge participants will download the photos and after class, apply photo edits and stylizing effects to posted images. New versions will be posted DURING subsequent classes. All photos will be posted in individual groups, two on Day 3, three on Day 4 and others on Day 5. Class discussion will summarize photo edits and additional comments added in the shared album. 

Editing and Stylizing do not follow a prescribed order of apps. Go with the flow or the feeling at the moment. Do something outside your usual approach to editing. Break the rules. Remove or hide details. Add something.  

Posted creations will tease all of us to use our apps in new ways. 

---

REVIEW Crazy Time! Your editing activities will not take as much time as the explanation time of this assignment. Hang in there for posting on Day 3. Photos can be taken with iPhone or another camera.

ANIMALS and TRAVEL are two subjects to include in your postings by Saturday, November 6th.  Return on Sunday to download any photos that look interesting to you. Once you download, select the photos and create a new album called Tease me. 

The photos saved from a Shared Album will not have the Caption text from the original. 

Use any workflow to edit the photos. Save the photo over the original or as a copy (depends on the app you are using to edit). You might edit the photo, merge the photo with another image, create an event poster collage, add a cartoon character ... play! 

In Photos add a new caption Teased. The caption can also include brief workflow hints that can be copied and pasted as comment in the Shared Album. 

During class you will be prompted to add the edited photo to our shared album. As you post, add your workflow comment. 

Thank you for your patience and willingness to try this new twist. All of the brain cells you lost during this introduction will be replace with creative brain cells. Promise! 

Photos - Metadata, Caption & Look Up

iOS 15 has added capability to the Apple Photos app in two important ways. Look at any photo and then swipe up to see Caption, exposure metadata, Map, file type and file name. We can also Adjust the date/time or location of our photos. At the bottom of the screen the ( i ) button is either plain or *( i ) enhanced - where Look Up is offered by Artificial Intelligence. Tap "Look Up" to see what Siri Knowledge reports. 

The most important feature on this swipe-up screen is the field Add a caption. This becomes searchable information. Using the Search feature in Photos will find ... dog, cat, horse, rabbit, bird, umbrella, flower and more. So we do not have to mark every photo a Favorite and then lose it in that bit bucket, or make albums on albums (been there, done that). You will soon discover that some of our editing and stylizing apps write info to the Caption field - very helpful reminders of our workflow! 

We walked through the Settings app for Camera and Photos today. Refer back to the Cheatsheet for the same tweaks. If you see a message with a warning (Cheryl > iCloud Photos) make a note and we will talk about it later, one-on-one. 

We will not have time to dig deep into all these features during class. You will have to become a self-study ninja. You will want to download the Apple User Guide for iPhone and iPad into the Books app and also link to the online versions of the guides. It is best to read the Guides on a tablet or computer if available so you can manipulate the features on your iPhone. 

---

Use the Books version of the guides for deep reading and personal note taking. The online versions are for quick reference. Read the Camera, Photos, Files, Notes, Mail, Messages .. and other chapters that catch your imagination. 

Get the free Apple User Guide in Books for iPhone iOS 15.1 or iPad OS 15.1

iPhone User Guide online version  

iPad User Guide online version 

---

Build muscle memory by playing with the many views in Photos. Use Search in Photos and at the Home Screen. 

Photos curates our images automatically. I'm old-school and would like to make my own (convoluted) image management layout like years ago. But, it failed me in the log run so now I'm bending to the Apple-Way of managing photos. Urggh. 

The Library is the timeline of my photos. But often in other apps accessing the Albums > Recents is the easiest way to find an image. Unless, of course, Search is an option in the media browser feature. CONFUSED? Stay tuned, we'll work through this. 

Favorite Apps

Favorite apps is a moment-by-moment thought. Your grasp of the features in any app will expand during this seminar. Our mantra is "Touch Every Button" and when we get comfortable with an app it is time to dig into it's features on a deeper level. Snapseed is one example in my world. This app hasn't changed much over the last 4 years - in terms of user interface and features. But, like a ride at the State Fair, sometimes you want to jump back in line and ride it again and again. This is "app stacking" and until August 2021 this meant different apps. Recently I've discovered that an app can be used twice. Three or more times. An exported version can be reimported and pushed further. 

Look over your App Catalog handout and write names beside the apps listed below. Over the next few weeks, conversations will happen. 

Favorite Apps   more names to follow 

Cheryl - Retouch, Snapseed

JoEllen - Retouch, TuneCam, Waterlogue

Guy - Snapseed

Karen - Retouch, Painnt, PicCollage

Jim - Retouch, Camera+ 2

Diana - Image Blender, Waterlogue

Roe - Paint, Brushstroke, Tangled FX, ProCamera

Carolyn - Photos app edit features, Retouch

Debra - Camera+2, ProCam, Prisma 

John - Apple Camera, ProCamera 

Chad - ProCamera w HDR, Slow Shutter 

Irene - Camera+ 2, Slow Shutter, Waterlogue

Collene - Camera+ 2 macros, Circular, Retouch 

Linda - Camera+2 Waterlogue, Painnt 

Cynthia - Brushstroke, Pixelmator Photo, Carbon

Melissa - apps with layers and in app gallery 

Retouch is the short name for TouchRetouch.