Ric’s journey without direction

Starzee said:
I have a hard time with Mextures. How do you like it compared to DistressedFX?
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Mextures takes a lot of work. If you try out some of the formulas that people make available, they have 7, 8, 9 layers, with adjustments. I've got about 30 formulas I've imported from other people, and those are mainly what I use. In DistressedFX Plus, on the other hand, I mix up my own combinations, and usually it just takes 1 or 2 or 3 with adjustments to get something I like.
 
ric alexander said:
Going away from the purpose of this thread, i often wonder why members dont post black and white versions of their images in the mono challenges. I see so many great images that would sit well in there.
Just wondering……
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I have to say, Ric, it never occurs to me to convert images into BW. I love colour and as sinnerjohn says my brain doesn’t even compute that it might look good in BW. If I add a BW image to the challenge it’s because I have consciously gone out to find an image that I think would look good in BW or I have trawled through my iPhone and looked for stuff I think would convert well. I seldom look at an image and think gosh that would be good in BW although when the contrast is extreme the light bulb does sometimes go on. :lol:
 
terse said:
Mextures takes a lot of work. If you try out some of the formulas that people make available, they have 7, 8, 9 layers, with adjustments. I've got about 30 formulas I've imported from other people, and those are mainly what I use. In DistressedFX Plus, on the other hand, I mix up my own combinations, and usually it just takes 1 or 2 or 3 with adjustments to get something I like.
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Still haven’t found anything I like as much as Stackables. Sorry, feel a bit like a stuck record when it comes to this. Sometimes I think I should just create a library of textures within Procreate with a ‘system’ and almost create my own ‘app’. I started something like this on my old Apple Pro and then I got a new iPad and never transferred it across. Workflow just not so easy on the iPad even with the better file handling.
 
sinnerjohn said:
This is partly it, but I'd go further.

There are the members that like the challenges and then there are the members that do 365's. Quite often the 365ers concentrate on their daily photo and don't have the time/inclination to get involved in challenges. I get that, as a 365 can be quite, lets say, demanding.

Of course there are crossovers who do both but not many. Depends who's photos you are referring to Ric?

Of course there is another answer. If I post a colour image its because I 'see' it in colour and vice-versa for black and white. Maybe we just see our children in one way ;)
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Thanks John. I was just curious I guess of whether people shoot in colour and actually convert them to see how they’d turn out. I’m finding it very hard to shoot in colour yet train my eye to know how it would turn out in mono, but, I do see some images on here and wish that a mono version was posted. I guess the challenge idea was just a way of people trying them.
 
ric alexander said:
Thanks John. I was just curious I guess of whether people shoot in colour and actually convert them to see how they’d turn out. I’m finding it very hard to shoot in colour yet train my eye to know how it would turn out in mono, but, I do see some images on here and wish that a mono version was posted. I guess the challenge idea was just a way of people trying them.
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Of course their is the whole debate about whether to always shoot with the native camera and then edit after, or shoot with an app that may already have a tone or texture embedded like Hipstamatic for instance.

I quite often shoot with a black and white app, to which there is no coming back, you can't just add the colours can you. It's good practice for b/w as it trains you what might look good in b/w.

I know there are apps that will save the original and the toned/textured image but for me life is too short for that. I only ever do quick edits, the use 10 apps and spend an hour pondering isn't my thing.
 
sinnerjohn said:
Of course their is the whole debate about whether to always shoot with the native camera and then edit after, or shoot with an app that may already have a tone or texture embedded like Hipstamatic for instance.

I quite often shoot with a black and white app, to which there is no coming back, you can't just add the colours can you. It's good practice for b/w as it trains you what might look good in b/w.

I know there are apps that will save the original and the toned/textured image but for me life is too short for that. I only ever do quick edits, the use 10 apps and spend an hour pondering isn't my thing.
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your spot on john, the luxury we have is that we can shoot black and white straight from the camera, maybe that is a better training tool, after all your seeing the potential for the photo in colour before putting your camera up to frame the shot. Might just try doing that to see if works.
 
Well I got a macro 10x lens secondhand online, a shiftcam one with a lens plate to fit into any case. A lot cheaper than the £150 it was gonna cost for a moment one from the U.S.
pretty pleased, but, there’s some dreaded dark corners, not a massive deal breaker but it did take the shine off my new toy.
of course I had to take it into the garden just to try it. It seems camera+ with macro setting doesn’t like to play ball with it so much. A 1.2x slight zoom loses the vignette.
anyway, the uncropped one at 1x of an insect trapped in an old web wasn’t too shabby.
Ignore the bright strip, it’s just a test but wondering if the vignette is that big a deal.
did a little edit for the sake of it.
Just wondering if it’s something that would bother anyone really.

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F990A2FB-1665-43FF-B3B6-F7FCF52E4010.jpeg
 
ric alexander said:
Thanks John. I was just curious I guess of whether people shoot in colour and actually convert them to see how they’d turn out. I’m finding it very hard to shoot in colour yet train my eye to know how it would turn out in mono, but, I do see some images on here and wish that a mono version was posted. I guess the challenge idea was just a way of people trying them.
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I post a fair number in the b/w challenges, but they're almost all images that I captured in color and converted to b/w. Every now and then I see something that I think will look good in b/w, but I still capture it in color when I shoot. Generally, I prefer the color versions of my images to the b/w versions, but the color challenge almost always has a theme, and my captures usually don't fit that theme.* So I convert to b/w in order to post them. I will sometimes post the color version in my terse fragments thread, but to me, the various challenges are the place to see and be seen. If the color challenges were themeless, I probably wouldn't be posting so much in the b/w challenge.

I've tried shooting with b/w camera apps, too, but they didn't do much for me personally. If I want to do that now, I just use the native camera app with one of the b/w filters turned on (usually Noir) while shooting.

* I'm not a big fan of themes. Every now and then one catches my interest -- the current Macro theme caused me to pull my macro lens out of hiding -- but mostly I prefer to go out without anything specific in mind and try to capture what looks good to me at that time and place.
 
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terse said:
I post a fair number in the b/w challenges, but they're almost all images that I captured in color and converted to b/w. Every now and then I see something that I think will look good in b/w, but I still capture it in color when I shoot. Generally, I prefer the color versions of my images to the b/w versions, but the color challenge almost always has a theme, and my captures usually don't fit that theme.* So I convert to b/w in order to post them. I will sometimes post the color version in my terse fragments thread, but to me, the various challenges are the place to see and be seen. If the color challenges were themeless, I probably wouldn't be posting so much in the b/w challenge.

I've tried shooting with b/w camera apps, too, but they didn't do much for me personally. If I want to do that now, I just use the native camera app with one of the b/w filters turned on (usually Noir) while shooting.

* I'm not a big fan of themes. Every now and then one catches my interest -- the current Macro theme caused me to pull my macro lens out of hiding -- but mostly I prefer to go out without anything specific in mind and try to capture what looks good to me at that time and place.
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Interesting Ted. Mobitog and the mono challenges made me try mono, which I only dabbled in, but now, I love it. The trouble is, images Smothered in darker tones have overtaken everything now. I did want to go back to texturing, maybe not as much as that shopper image I posted recently but along those lines. Maybe noir textured images? That could work.
reading your post above made me think we should do interviews with members, a bit like Mobiography do in their magazine. How cool would that be. Fav apps, fav photos etc etc.
 
terse said:
Mextures takes a lot of work. If you try out some of the formulas that people make available, they have 7, 8, 9 layers, with adjustments. I've got about 30 formulas I've imported from other people, and those are mainly what I use. In DistressedFX Plus, on the other hand, I mix up my own combinations, and usually it just takes 1 or 2 or 3 with adjustments to get something I like.
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Where do you find the formulas? I usually wind up running to the ones that are in app when I play around with Mextures.
 
ric alexander said:
Going away from the purpose of this thread, i often wonder why members dont post black and white versions of their images in the mono challenges. I see so many great images that would sit well in there.
Just wondering……
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Some of us may just be in awe of the bnws that are posted regularly and don’t feel their images will measure up. :notworthy:
 
ImageArt said:
Still haven’t found anything I like as much as Stackables. Sorry, feel a bit like a stuck record when it comes to this. Sometimes I think I should just create a library of textures within Procreate with a ‘system’ and almost create my own ‘app’. I started something like this on my old Apple Pro and then I got a new iPad and never transferred it across. Workflow just not so easy on the iPad even with the better file handling.
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I still revisit Stackables. I have quite a few textures I created in Stackables on 50% gray in my texture folder. I wish I’d put all the Stackables together in one folder, though.
 
ric alexander said:
Interesting Ted. Mobitog and the mono challenges made me try mono, which I only dabbled in, but now, I love it. The trouble is, images Smothered in darker tones have overtaken everything now. I did want to go back to texturing, maybe not as much as that shopper image I posted recently but along those lines. Maybe noir textured images? That could work.
reading your post above made me think we should do interviews with members, a bit like Mobiography do in their magazine. How cool would that be. Fav apps, fav photos etc etc.
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That’s not a bad idea at all. I believe I’ll bookmark that.
 
ric alexander said:
I did want to go back to texturing,
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Interesting, why?

I only ask because it seems the texturing phase had its day a few years back. Flickr 2010 to 2015 was awash with textured images, a lot of them coming from Jerry (forgotten his name) Shadowhouse. He gave all his away for free where others jumped on the bandwagon and started selling textures.
Of course then you had to use via Photoshop, there were no apps like Mextures, Stackables etc. With the improvement of mobile phone cameras over the years it seems like the trend nowadays is for a more clean image (possibly with a vintage twist). Maybe the texturing back then was to hide a bad initial image?

Thoughts?
 
sinnerjohn said:
Interesting, why?

I only ask because it seems the texturing phase had its day a few years back. Flickr 2010 to 2015 was awash with textured images, a lot of them coming from Jerry (forgotten his name) Shadowhouse. He gave all his away for free where others jumped on the bandwagon and started selling textures.
Of course then you had to use via Photoshop, there were no apps like Mextures, Stackables etc. With the improvement of mobile phone cameras over the years it seems like the trend nowadays is for a more clean image (possibly with a vintage twist). Maybe the texturing back then was to hide a bad initial image?

Thoughts?
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I largely agree with you john, i do like images where they use ttv images to mimic old films etc, i suppose it goes more into line with what you get from an app like hipsta.
I wonder if the same could be said with the style i favour, dark images with painting with light? Or noir mono even? Adding noise to hide soft images.
I think textures have their place but not so much the ‘just slap one texture on a photo’ type.
 
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