My GPS Camera Phone

High file compression is a given in the field camera phone photography, but I had not discovered a way to counter this efficiently, instead trying to manually reduce it through lighting and shot angles. Well thanks to the tutorial, “Reduce Noise in Photoshop CS3,” by Mike Rodriguez, I discovered a goldmine in the world of Photoshop.

The image above was taken some time ago (during Negative Week in August 2008), but it didn’t make the cut because of massive amounts of noise in the darker colored areas. Well, here it is now, cleaned up and much better for it. All this photo needed was a good dose of the “Reduce Noise” filter, a standard filter in the “Filter->Noise…” menu. I think I never noticed it because “Noise” implies making it, not taking it away. Now I know.

Give it a try and you’ll see how incredible this filter is. After viewing Mike’s tutorial, be sure to check out the rest of the detailed tutorials on the Layers Magazine site. They’re thorough, easy-to-follow and worth a look.

This was a fun exercise in Photoshop filter application. Many times, filters are overdone and abused, causing the image to look worse than it did originally. However, when applied in moderation, they can produce interesting results.

The image here was shot with my camera phone, as usual, and then edited in Photoshop CS. After a bit of cropping, I added a level adjustment layer to even out the colors. Then a single, overhead light was rendered to brighten up the center and darken the edges, adding a little more depth and drama. After that, I added a 40% pinch distortion, followed by a gentle ocean ripple. All of this was then covered up with a layer of clouds set to 15% opacity.

The image itself was a snapshot of the setting sun’s rays between the clouds as seen from my office window. (I get some great sunsets.) While the original shot was nice, I didn’t want to post another sunset photo. So I inverted it and applied the steps above, producing something that looks more like water than air.

With that said, I task you to start thinking of strange and unorthodox ways to capture photos with your camera phone. After that, try something even stranger in your favorite photo editing software. With a little imagination (and sometimes a lot of moderation!), you can produce something far beyond the ordinary.

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