My PhotoBlog

Pixlr-o-matic Android App Review

2012-03-13T21:01:00.000+00:00

I recently installed this application on my Android phone and I have to say that I am overwhelmed with the results, the following picture was taken with a Samsung Galaxy SII Phone (8 Mega Pixels) and later it was processed only with the Pixlr-o-matic App, it did not take more than 2 minutes to process and modify each picture, as you can see I am posting the original picture and three more pictures with the retro effects. The outputs haven’t been retouched by any other software or application and in my personal opinion the results are quite nice.

The software gives the options to apply three different effects to the picture that is been modified, the first effect uses a filter that affects the hole picture to generate the retro appear that we are looking for, the second option adds sparkling effects or lightening to specific areas of the pictures and finally the last option provides the function of changing the corners of the picture.

The app has a very friendly interface and it also allows you to modify any picture contained in the phone, I wonder just for fun how the performance will be if I use it with my DSLR pictures, maybe I will try it for my next post.

I use the following effects on each picture:

Picture one (Plain - Control)

Picture two (Ivan,Shine,Soft)

Picture Three (Amber,Leak,Hassel)

Picture Four (Melissa,Focal,Ground)

Picture one (Plain - Control)

Picture two (Ivan,Shine,Soft)

Picture Three (Amber,Leak,Hassel)

Picture Four (Melissa,Focal,Ground)

Rome - Coliseum and Victor Emmanuel II Monuments

2012-02-07T13:43:00.000+00:00

Today I am sharing two pictures of ones of the most impressive buildings in Rome, the first picture is the gladiators arena located in the heart of the city and my second picture is the Victor Emmanuel II Monument, I have to say that the Victor Emmanuel II is one of the most impressive monuments that I have seen so far. I took the time to do a bit of research on this building and I found that the structure is 135 meters wide and 81 meters high, this monument has been also criticized for being incompatible with the architecture that surrounds it. In terms of investment, this building along with the Coliseum attract tourist from all over the world and both of them had generated more revenue than the amount of money once invested for their construction. In my opinion these buildings once represented the power of a kingdom, nowadays represents the power of a nation and both of them without any doubt are magnets for tourism.

Coliseum at Night

Victor Emmanuel II Monument

St Peter's Basilica - Vatican City

2012-02-04T20:48:00.001+00:00

The Vatican city is a Catholic place that every year receives millions of people from all over the world and the main reason for that, is the beauty and the magnificent of the St Peter's Basilica, this church holds the title for the largest interior cathedral of any Catholic building in the world, it also contains the Michelangelo's Pieta and beautiful altars and paintings that are highly decorated. In my post I am sharing the pictures that I was able to take during my holidays in the Vatican city, however is not really the perfect place where you can stay and spend a lot of time taking pictures and this is because a lot of tourists are entering and leaving the place at all time.

Michelangelo's Pieta

St. Peter's Basilica - 01

St. Peter's Basilica - 02

St. Peter's Basilica - 03

St. Peter's Basilica - 04

Tower Bridge

2012-01-31T17:15:00.000+00:00

Here I share a night picture of one of the most emblematic buildings that London has to offer, the Tower Bridge, this suspension bridge is over the River Thames and it is located very close to the Tower Hill underground station. I have to say that this picture is a combination of patience and a great resistance to cold weather.

Tower Bridge - London UK

Generating HDR Images - Post 2

2012-01-29T14:19:00.001+00:00

Here i share a second HDR picture taken in Liverpool, as you can see, the appearance of black is all over the photo and this is for the reason that the original shot presented poorly illumination due to day conditions, however this make the picture looks tenebrous and worth the work and time of HDR processing. To generate it, I followed the same procedure described in my last post.

Liverpool - HDR processed

Liverpool - Original picture

Generating HDR Images

2012-01-21T21:31:00.001+00:00

I wanted to try high dynamic range (HDR) technique for a while and finally i got the time to do it, this picture was taken in Finchley Central London and as you can see, is software manipulated. I did not know much about HDR but the procedure is very simple, to create the picture below this is what i did.

Step 1 The photo should be capture in RAW format and this is to manipule the exposure later with an edition photography software.

Step 2 I saved the same picture with three different exposures(+1, 0 and -1).

Step 3 Using a HDR generator and the three pictures with the different exposures the picture was created.

Step 4 Finally a little retouching was made to sharp and properly light the picture.

HDR Edition - Finchley Central

Little Venice, London

2011-07-31T21:48:00.004+01:00

This place is called Little Venice and it is located very close to Warwick Avenue Underground station in London, the place is surrounded by cafes and eateries. The pictures above were taken with the regular lens 18-55 mm and later edited to make the colours more vivid. (Camera -Nikon D5000)

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Fountain

2011-06-04T00:19:00.001+01:00

Fountain located at Hyde Park London. This is a combination of high speed and maximum aperture (55-200mm lenses)

Sequence Photography

2011-05-28T12:19:00.002+01:00

Sequence Picture

This Picture was taken in Hyde Park (London-UK), i think that definitely would have been better to take this picture from the opposite side because light is not good in the last five subjects (starting from left to right), anyway i was just experimenting with sequence pictures and photoshop. I learned that in this type of photography is very importand to have a good SD card, at least 20Mb/sec transfer speed in order to avoid delay between shots, this way you can take more captures while the action is happening and later you will have a higher amount of pictures to choose from to produce your final composition.

Hyde Park - Spring

2011-03-27T23:11:00.001+01:00

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Vienna - Austria

2011-03-04T15:44:00.000+00:00

London Night Shots

2011-02-24T00:02:00.000+00:00

England - Hyde Park @Autumn

2010-11-07T14:56:00.003+00:00

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Perú - Lima & Cusco

2010-10-27T00:18:00.003+01:00

Lima - The Capital City

Cusco - Catedral del Cusco

Cusco - Machu Picchu (01)

Cusco - Machu Picchu (02)

Cusco - Machu Picchu (03)

Venezuela - Salto Ángel

2010-10-26T00:34:00.001+01:00

Salto Ángel - The world's highest waterfall (979m)

Prague - Czech Republic

2010-10-24T01:51:00.012+01:00

The Municipal House (in Czech, Obecní dům)

The National Theatre (Czech: Národní divadlo)

View of Vltava River in the Prague city center

Hradčany (Prague Castle - Day)

Hradčany (Prague Castle - Night)

Hradčany (Prague Castle - Inside)