Photography is evolving.
Yes, there is still the "high art," serious photography with professional cameras and professional photographers. But thanks to smartphones, photography has come to the mainstream as a way of expression. Instant, digital photos and social media have taken photography from a time-consuming, detailed process to a quick way to capture memories and share them with others.
While many photography purists dismiss smartphones and social media, I see them as unique forms of self-expression. Smartphone apps add to that, allowing users to take standard photographs and turn them into works of art.
The biggest obstacles, though, can be the apps themselves. I've tried many "art" style apps and they can be fairly clunky to use, or limited on options.
The app I found this week is neither of those things. It turns those quick snaps into something more artistic.
There are social media apps, such as Instagram, that have a few filters to change the coloring of the photo. Smartphones have filters that can do the same. Often, though, they are limited on options.
One solution is to use a photo editing app. Personally, I use Google's Snapseed most of the time. It's great for photo editing, and it does have some filters to get creative with the image. However, the "creative" filters are limited and not terribly adjustable.
Effects Studio, however, offers a plethora of effects, backgrounds and edits, all of which can be applied with one tap.
The app is available in Apple's App Store (unfortunately, it's not on the Google Play store for Android yet) for $1.99. It's worth the price if you're looking to do more than post a plain picture.
The app has a very simplistic interface but it can produce powerful results.
The opening screen has four options: New, Edit, Save and More. More simply takes you to the screen for help and feedback.
Press New to either find a photo in your photo library or take a photo. Once a photo is on the screen, Edit goes to the options available for that photo.
The Edit screen offers Filters, Effects, Blend, Blur, Tunings, Tonal Curve and Rotate. Most are self-explanatory. Tuning can adjust the brightness and contrast, while Tonal Curve adjusts various lights and shadows in the photo. All of the tools use either a slider or a touch.
Filters provides an array of color changes and adjustments, while Effects can change the actual style of the photo. Several tools in Effects, Blend and Blur include slider bars that can increase or decrease the intensity of the filter. The quick changes and ability to adjust them create huge opportunities for creativity beyond a slight color change and a square crop.
What I really like is the app's Photo Extension. Available to phones running iOS 8 or later, it shows up in the Photos app native to the iPhone. By tapping Edit in Photos, then the More symbol (ellipses in a circle), you can tap the Effects Studio icon and use its filters within the Photos app. That means you can edit the photo right after you take it without having to go into another app to save it.
The photo included with this article provides an example of what Effects Studio can do. One of my photography passions is old iron bridges, and I got a chance recently to take several photos of several such bridges in Oklahoma. I took one of my favorites, tapped Edit, tapped Effects and tapped Sketch. In an instant, I went from a photo to what looked like a detailed line drawing. The slider bar made the sketch more or less intense.
Once I had the look I wanted, I hit Done in the top right corner, and my photo was officially a sketch. For a little more realism, I went into Blend and found a background that looked like paper. Using the slider bar, I made the paper look a bit more pronounced and hit Done.
Voila! I now had a sketch on fine-art paper of a bridge I photographed last weekend -- well, a digital version of a fine-art sketch.
There isn't much to fault with this app except that there's no Android version.
The fact is, Effects Studio has a huge amount of choices, any of which can be applied by one tap. It's possibly the easiest app I've found to apply special effects. The app is very intuitive and a lot of fun, and $1.99 is a reasonable price for what you get.
It certainly provides a lot of options for turning those quick smartphone memories into photographic art.
Melissa L. Jones can be reached via email at mljones72@me.com.
SundayMonday Business on 02/08/2016