Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Waterlogue App

Sitting in the Fairbanks airport again on my way north and was playing with a new "artsy" app on the iPhone. It is called Waterlogue and it turns any photo into a watercolor-like image. I've tried it on a bunch of photos and I must admit that I kind of like the results. To the left is the original iPhoto snapshot, non-HDR, not modified at all (well cropped a little) and below is the default conversion to a watercolor. It isn't just a filter but it analyzes the photo and finds sharp edges and individual physical objects. Then fills in the space between them with appropriate colors.


I think that it works pretty well and jut to bring a little moto-content back to the post, here is an older photo that I took on a beautiful Winter morning back in January. If nothing else, this kept me occupied while waiting for my flight to Barrow where it is a bit below 0°F but very sunny. Sunset up here isn't until 8:40pm so the days are even longer than in Fairbanks. I don't think it'll do too much with pictures of Barrow but maybe it'll be worth a try...

15 comments:

  1. Pretty cool Richard ... does this mean I can finally become the fine watercolour artist that I've always wanted to be? (the results are much better 'aka closer to real painting' than photoshop watercolour effect.)

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    1. I think that this app does pretty good. As it analyzes the photo, it builds up on the screen a line drawing then the spaces get filled in with color. And there are about a dozen or so versions of the final output that you can choose from. If you want to use it, you may have to break down and get an iSomething (that has a camera).

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  2. Good choices! Now you can tell your friends you've taken up watercolors...

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    1. Anyone that knows me won't believe it. This could be kinda fun...

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  3. Richard:

    I like it too. Looks like the real thing and you don't have to clean up the mess

    bob
    A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. For me, watercolors is just that little plastic tray in a small, flat tin box where you use a wet brush to get some liquid paint. Very little mess. But you're right, this app is so much easier.

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  4. That is a pretty cool app. The last pic of the bike needs to be on a postcard now.

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    1. That one, I actually printed it out to see how it looks on paper, not too bad...

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  5. Cool, I may have to get this little app. I particularly love the one of your bike, now that is beautiful!

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    1. The app isn't free but it is cheap entertainment. $2.99 I think...

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  6. Brilliant effect, now I get it why I need an iphone...

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    1. The iPhone has become my point-and-shoot camera since I almost always have it with me, it's 8 megapixel resolution is sufficient, and it's f2.2 which is reasonably fast though the sensor is tiny so poor low noise performance. Plus it has a decent flash and plenty of apps to play with the pictures. One of them, Camera+ allows individual set points for focus and exposure. 1080p video at 30 fps, 720p at 120 fps, 10 frame per second burst mode, image stabilization and a panorama mode. All in all, a decent point-and-shoot camera.

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  7. I love that app! I think I'll get it. I still want to try water color myself. This is Richard's wife, Bridget, everybody. I'm not an artist, but a few months ago I purchased a set of water colors.......that still sit nice and clean at the kitchen table. I'm going to get the app and try it on some pics of our grandson.

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    1. I heard about the app on a podcast and the newspaper reporter who ran into it raved about it for about 5 minutes. Had to see if it really was that good. I think it is...

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