- I am an outdoor lifestyle photographer and filmmaker based in Seattle WA. I love to push the envelope with my work and I enjoy sharing what I learn along the way.
This blog will show both current work as well as how-to's and insight on becoming a better photographer and DSLR filmmaker.
- Kirk Mastin
Upgrade your photo portfolio:
Category Archives: iphone
Extreme iPhone Photo Enlargements: A How-To Guide
I’ve been dying to see how iPhone photos hold up to rather extreme enlargement.
According to Microsoft, the maximum printing size for a 2-megapixel photo is 5×6.7 at 240dpi.
So what did I do? I went ahead and printed this photo at 12×18 at 240dpi!
(The MAXIMUM size you can print at Costco, and it only cost me $2.50.)
The final result?
In one word: Stunning.
12×18 Noritsu Print from Costco.
…and I used to work as a printer at a professional camera lab!
Of course if you view the image closer than 2-3 ft you can see the grain in the image. However, most photos of this size are usually viewed at a distance of at least 4-6ft away. In this case, the photo looks amazing. The grain in an iPhone photo is irregular. iPhone photos have much smoother grain than many digital point and shoot cameras, which is a great thing: iPhone photo grain mimics analog film grain.
Detail of print showing grain.
So there you go.
Go and make gallery-ish sized prints with your iPhone without fear of humiliation from your art friends.
If they are so close that they are peeping the grain of the photo and complaining about that then I would say they missed the whole point of how cool this is and what possibilities this creates for lo-fi photography.
Have fun!
-Kirk
Step by step instructions:
1. Take a good iPhone photo (enough light, not blurry)
2. Apply a CameraBag filter, save photo at highest quality (look inside CameraBag settings)
3. Download photo to computer.
4. Email photo to Costco’s photo lab, or bring file in on CD.
5. Print photo at whatever size you want. A 12×18 print is $2.50. How can you beat that?
6. Enjoy! Impress your friends! Have an Art show!
7. Blog about this article or better yet, Tweet about it on Twitter 
Also posted in articles, lo-fi
Tagged Apple, Costco, Film grain, Handhelds, iphone, Microsoft, Photograph, Photography, Point-and-shoot camera, Printing, Smartphone, Smartphones, Twitter
6 Comments
Two Excellent iPhone Apps for Photographers: CameraBag & Pano
I don’t openly shill for any kind of product. Never have, never will.
On the other hand I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t share two iPhone camera apps that dramatically improve your iPhone photo quality, (especially when you want to upload photos directly to a blog or Flickr account.)
Both of these apps would have been useful in India, where my girlfriend brought her iPhone while I brought my big ole’ Canon 5D.
CameraBag
CameraBag is a fairly inexpensive iPhone app that allows you to apply custom filters over your iPhone photos. You can either do this at the time of capture, or afterward by picking photos from your photo roll.
There are a limited number of filters available, each of which mimic a unique film style. The only filter that really sucks is the Infrared filter which is completely useless. That being said, the other filters, most notably the Helga filter (which supposedly mimics a Holga) is really nice.
Kirk + Robin. Seattle, WA. 2008.
You can save and reopen photos, adding additional filters each time to tweak your photo even more. All in all an idiot-proof way to tone photos without a computer.
’1962′ Black and White Filter.
’1974′ Vintage Film Filter.
Normally I would NEVER tone a photo in my iPhone, preferring the robust options available in Lightroom or Photoshop.
CameraBag is the first iPhone app to make me reconsider this rule.
Pano
Pano is an iPhone app that allows you to create very wide and very detailed panoramic photos with your iPhone.
Pano is easy to use and works very very well.
Just take a photo, and Pano will provide a semi-transparent guide from that photo that you align with the next photo and so on. Once you have shot up to six photos, Pano will adjust exposure for each photo and stitch the multiple images into one giant panoramic photo.
It is really incredible how well Pano does this considering the relatively small amount of processing power and RAM available on the iPhone.
Pano works much better than some of my manual attempts at stitching photos together on a much more powerful MacPro Tower using Photoshop.
If you shoot each photo using horizontal shots, you get an insanely wide final panoramic like this:
If you shoot each photo using vertical shots, you get a much higher resolution panoramic like this:
I’m hoping that savvy app developers will continue to expand the creative possibilities of the iPhone’s 2 megapixel camera.
(Tomorrow I am going to print an 11x14in from the above photo. I will report back on how that looks, but I will assume that it will look pretty damn good considering the camera.)
-Kirk
Also posted in lo-fi, review, tips
Tagged Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Canon EOS 5D, Flickr, Handhelds, India, iphone, Photography, Seattle, Smartphones
7 Comments
iPhone + Cycorder= future of journalism?
Over the last few days I have come to re-affirm a deeply held belief:
The end of the newspaper era is the beginning of decentralized news reporting, where ‘timeliness over quality’ is the rule of the day.
I have always believed in the Media Singularity which is the ultimate outcome of increasingly cheaper technology combined with ever expanding online distribution. I just never thought it would come so soon.
Just did it… or… why is this man smiling?
Your humble author. Shot with an iPhone by Robin.
Well, I did it.
I graduated with a Masters Degree in Digital Media from UW, with perfect grades.
summa cum laude!
During the last year I:
+Consulted companies on Social Media and Digital Content around the country
+Taught film making to young students, helping them produce short films on climate change
+Made a film about a famous rock climber
+Started the Lo-Fi, Hi-Style movement
+Was written about in the New York Times
+Found a fantastic girlfriend and helped her start a blog.
+Filmed two documentaries, one about social media, the other about fixed gear cycling
+Traveled to New Orleans as DP for a full length documentary
+Moved to a nice house (and out of a crazy apartment in Wallingford)
+Made a film about a famous rock climber
+Started the Lo-Fi, Hi-Style movement
+Was written about in the New York Times
+Found a fantastic girlfriend and helped her start a blog.
+Filmed two documentaries, one about social media, the other about fixed gear cycling
+Traveled to New Orleans as DP for a full length documentary
+Moved to a nice house (and out of a crazy apartment in Wallingford)
+Started running again and getting in shape
It has been a great year and I have so much to be thankful for. I’m now out in the world again, focusing on my photography, new-media/social-media ventures and trying to find a way to do well in this crazy economic/social climate.
A year ago when I was moving my stuff into my apartment in Wallingford from Coeur D’Alene ID, I had no clue that my life would change so much. This year has literally changed the direction of my life and I have to keep reminding myself of this.
I’m very excited for this coming year and I hope that those that follow my blog will enjoy what I post for 2009.
Thanks for sticking with me this last year through blog remodels and sometimes erratic posting.
-Kirk
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5edd7101-b9df-4e2b-9f8d-88157d80bfd9)
Also posted in lo-fi
Tagged Activism, Climate change, Digital Media, Environment, New Orleans Louisiana, NewOrleans, The New York Times Company, Wallingford
5 Comments
Two from the 5D, One from the iPhone and an Anouncement.
Rubble, 9th Ward. New Orleans, LA. 2008.
This is a photo from my two week trip to New Orleans this year as Director of Photography for the film Independent America: Rising from Ruin.
Canon 5D + 50mm.
Hair. Coeur D’Alene, ID. 2008.
Taken during the annual Car D’Alene Parade in Coeur D’Alene ID. Canon 5D + 50mm.
Slain Coyote. Priest River, ID. 2008
While hunting moose in Priest River ID with my dad as part of his 65th birthday, a hunter in a white truck pulled up to show us a coyote he had shot as part of a bet with his buddy (who apparently said that there aren’t any coyote in the Priest River area.)
While talking I shot a quick picture with my iPhone. Yes it is weird to pull out an iPhone when around hunters. It’s like an alien technology…
So the big announcement is……drum-roll please…..
My website has been updated! YES truly!! And this time it will incorporate my film portfolio as well.
So head on over to www.kirkmastin.com, check it out and let me know what you think!
-Kirk
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2a959c30-2347-4e0b-a25a-9b00d9d1ce86)
