Same model, but mobile processing

[ionian]

I've had no time to take pictures in the past couple of weeks, so I've been itching to get out with a camera. Tonight I had 10 minutes with my daughter (she's learnt to say cheese when someone points a camera at her - very sweet but not ideal for candids)and I tried something new for me. I took a few pictures using the jpg engine on my GX7, and then processed them with apps on the iPad. My usual workflow is raw and Lightroom/photoshop, and I don't intend to change this for "serious" shooting, but it was interesting to see what could be done using software that costs a fraction of the cc subscription.

The apps used were:

Snapseed - this is free, and is made by the same team as make Nik. For general adjustments, it's superb - non-destructive editing, brushes, masks, control points - it's all there. For everyday editing it will do anything you need. It even has content aware fill, and content aware cropping.

Facetune - this is specifically designed for portraits, and the brushes are much better than Snapseed for face work. Smoothing skin, adding detail and removing blemishes is very simple. It costs around £3.

Picsplay 2 - this is also free, but has a paid option (£4.49) which opens up an enormous selection of preset filters. It's like Nik colour Efex on steroids.

All apps do the basics very well, and as I was using a tablet, making adjustments with your finger is a very tactile and rewarding experience.

So, on to the images:

1. SOOC
2. After Facetune
3. After Snapseed
4. After PICSPLAY



Final image:




-------------------------

1. SOOC
2. After Snapseed
3. After Facetune
4. After Snapseed (again!)



Final image:




---------------------

Both these pics were taken with bounced on-board flash and face-detect autofocus. As such, the lighting was hard to judge using the HUD histogram, and focus wasn't perfect (I'll be using the single point in future). I used the in-camera mono preset for the b&w image, and this may not be the best way to handle these. The original lacks highlight tones, and my edit is a bit contrasty. I have yet to find b&w colour filters in the apps I used, but I'm sure they are there if you convert in post.

Editing took around 10 minutes per image, despite swapping apps several times.

So, in conclusion, the world of mobile editing has moved on massively in a very short space of time. I'm blown away by what can be done with these at the price. You are limited by jpg, but it's so easy to get simple images right in camera these days that it makes me wonder if this is a way forwards. Snapseed will read DNG raw files but you'd need to convert proprietary files on a pc and that's an extra step that defeats the purpose of quick and dirty mobile editing.

I still love the control of raw processing, but the speed and ease with which these were done is still very impressive. I'm going to shoot raw and jpg for a bit to see if this is an easier way to deal with my "everyday" photos, reserving raw for those high detail landscapes and images with large dynamic range.

Comments welcome - sorry for the essay!

[Spam]

Thanks for the 'essay', Simon. Lovely pics, and some interesting apps.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Simon,

Interesting to read of your experiences - and the results look good (on my dinky laptop screen).

Cheers, Dave

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, I like the SOOC and some of the processing.

[IzzieK]

Simon, you need not apologize for the commentary/ies. It is nice to know your experience, even if I am still so far away from an iphone or iPad and similar editing seeing that my 3-year-old grandchild is more adept at using an android than I am...it looks so easy to just look and find good results. I am sure I can't do that kind of thing because of my mindset, but it is nice for others to be able to do it. Thanks for sharing.

[Sergio M.]

Simon, I particularly like the monochrome processing.

This link to a video is about snapseed. He really seems to like it.

Sergio

[ionian]

Thanks for the comments as always. I have to say, I really like the filter on the first image but I know it will not be to everyone's taste! I'm going to have a go on the ipad with some architectural or landscape processing as well - I should imagine snapseed will be relatively useful for those styles.

[ionian]

My PC has bricked while trying to update to Windows 10, so I've had no choice but to use the iPad this weekend. It's a certain someone's birthday today, and I got a few decent shots. As I'm not getting much opportunity to get out with the camera at the mo - work is insanely busy - I thought I'd share a couple more.

She suits short and broad light, but I think the difference in apparent face shape is clear across these two. Both were taken with a GX7, with an off-camera-left continuos light through a 30" shoot through brolly. Processing in various iOS apps.

3.




4.

[IzzieK]

It is her eyes! She is very pretty...

[Kaye Leggett]

Simon - this is a great lesson in keeping up to date........I am like Izzie in resisting new technology but I know I must do it - I hope to be around another 30+ years so it is necessary.

On and BTW love the final results - you could put these together with great captions, like
1 - Hi Dad, what are you doing ?
2 - I said, Hi Dad, what are you doing?
3 - Oh, you want me to pose ?
4 - Dad - enough !!

[ionian]

I think you should take heart from the fact that children can pick up an iPad and make it work - if they can, you most certainly can. At the moment, there is no question that editing via a PC or Mac is going to give you a lot more control and much more powerful software, but for everyday functionality the mobile apps are catching up. I find painting on some skin smoothing or tone mapping using my finger very easy and much more natural than using a mouse - I have a Wacom tablet top of my birthday list so that might improve things on my laptop in the future.

My little one is two - for her, iPads are old technology. Who knows what will be available in the near and medium- future?

[Rebel]

Very nice images Simon - I like the processing, works well.

[John 2]

It is her eyes! She is very pretty...

Absolutely. A nice set of images and an interesting dialogue on Pad Processing which I have to say, I have never tried despite having some of the apps. I like the last two in particular.