Perspective++ Now Available
New name, new look, new features, Get it Straight for iPhone & iPad has now become Perspective++ for iPhone, iPad, and Silicon chip Macs. The new user interface has many more touch (or mouse, stylist) interactions than before. In most cases simple swipes up, down, right, or left are all that is needed to make adjustments. Only one of the awkward sliders remains in the app. Sliders work great but need to be displayed and that tends to either hide portions of the image being edited or makes that image smaller. Hand gestures like swipes allow for full screen presentation of images.
The new Perspective++ also has a great new “Fisheye” feature that is far more than jus a fisheye lens effect. This effect is entirely user defined. Users are able to select the location of the effect as well as the size and intensity, all done with hand gestures. With that level of control edits can be be made ranging from the classic fisheye lens effect, to giving greater emphasis certain areas of the image, to creating crazy art effects.
There are other improvements throughout the application like a library of recent edits and support for multi-tasking on all iPads. There is more than that too, but rather than listing every single item I would greatly prefer that folks simply try out the new app by downloading or upgrading.
You can get your very own copy of Perspective++ at the link below and please keep in mind it costs less than a cup of coffee.
Perspective++ There’s a New Beta in Town
The Get It Straight – Photo Editor application for iPhone and iPad is getting a new name. Soon to be known as Perspective++ there is a lot more new than just the name too. Perspective++ has an all new design with new features. It also has a new Public Beta that anyone can join. Simply download the Apple TestFlight free application and click on the link below from your iPad or iPhone.
https://testflight.apple.com/join/ld5tKwjG
The photo above shows the result of one of the new filters. You might be wondering what is special about it and if you are check back in a couple of days when I will post a tutorial of what I did.
OK, download the beta at the link above and check out the all new Perspective++ app. You can also purchase the production version here.
Stickers Anyone?
Just released new versions of Seattle Stickies and Birds for Words iMessage Sticker packs with new stickers. They are both version 2.0 and work with the latest iOS devices.
For those of you not aware of what a Stickers App is here is a great explanation from iMore.com
Apple has made it possible for you to make your messages a lot more interesting with the help of apps and stickers in iMessages. You can use stickers as stand-alone images, or slap them right on top of someone else’s chat bubble (or sticker, or picture). Apps integrate information so you can, say, book a table at a restaurant or share movie times with others. Your friends can also change dates and times in some instances so everyone can collaborate together.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Nature & Wildlife 3.3.3 Now Available
The latest version, 3.3.3, of Nature & Wildlife Pictures has been released. There are lots of new images to see with an overall increase in the number of free full resolution images available. Sadly, in order to keep the app size reasonable many great images from the previous version have been removed. With future updates images will be rotated out of the app and may never return so if you see something you like it is best to download it as soon as possible. The vast majority of images in Nature & Wildlife are free to download and use for non-commercial purposes. The app is also a free download and has translations for Spanish, French, and Italian. There are also 11 of my favorite images and artworks available for purchase starting at just $0.99. Nature & Wildlife Pictures is available for all models of iPhone and iPad running iOS 12.
you can download your own free copy of Nature & Wildlife Pictures at the link below.
Seattle Stickies Ver. 1.2.5 Now Available
This newest version of Seattle Stickies for iMessage includes a new sticker commemorating the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which for more than 50 years served as Seattle’s waterfront highway. The Alaskan Way was recently replaced by a tunnel and will be demolished in the coming months. I had the opportunity to visit and photograph the abandoned double deck highway before demolition started and was able to make the new sticker. I hope everyone enjoys it.
To celebrate the viaduct and Seattle Pride Month starting this Saturday, June 15, 2019, Seattle Stickies downloads will be free of charge for one week.
Click the link below to download your very own copy of Seattle Stickies.
Seattle Stickies 1.2.4 Now Available
The newest version of Seattle Stickies, the iMessage sticker application, was released today. Version 1.2.4 includes two new stickers and more language translations. The new stickers are “Post Ally – time to eat” and “Seattle Coffee”. Post Ally celebrates the waterfront vendor ally and the famous eateries in it. Coffee, well that does not need any explanation.
In addition to the new stickers I have also removed all of the political content from the app. Given the overwhelming amount of bad behavior in social media, there is no room to safely express a political opinion and so there will be no more politics based stickers. So sad American society is abusive to others online!
You can download your very own copy of Seattle Stickies at the link below.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Black Friday Sale – Free Downloads for Get it Straight App
Thats right folks, not just on Black Friday but through the holiday weekend you can download the Get it Straight – Photo Editor application for iPhone and iPad for free. This application normally costs $1.99 USD. Beginning Friday Nov. 23 thru Sunday Nov. 25, The app will be free to have and hold forever with no upsells and no advertising.
For those who are not familiar with Get it Straight, here is a list of the features that make this application a valuable resource for any photographer:
- Perform horizon adjustment, perspective adjustment, and cropping in one operation.
- Drag and drop images into the application on capable devices.
- Application automatically scales very large images like multi-image panoramas to the device capabilities for quick and smooth performance.
- Full screen display of images being edited.
- Allows users to pinch and zoom into the finished artwork to precisely examine the adjustments.
- GIS is both a stand alone application that allows camera use, importing, and exporting images from and to numerous sources and is also a Photos Editing Extension for the native Apple Photos application. With the Photos Editing Extension users can perform the complex distortion correction while making all the other edits without needing to export the photo to another app or service.
- Users considering printing their masterpieces are able to see the images mounted on walls and other vertical surfaces with augmented reality. When viewing images with AR, users have the option of three frame styles, light colored oak, cherry wood, or dark walnut, with the choice of no frame, thin, regular, and thick frame styles. Users can also choose from five different overall picture sizes to get an accurate feel for what large prints would look like mounted on a wall.
- No ads, No up-sells. Users pay once for the application and that’s it.
You can download and use your own copy of Get it Straight for less than the price of a cup of coffee. Just hit the link below.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Canvas Art Gets Spooky
Canvas Art ver. 1.1.1 is now available just in time for Halloween. This special edition includes a new “Spooky” filter using machine learning. Users can now change their artwork to an orange and black Halloween themed image, save and share as desired.
Also included in the update is support for the latest operating system, iOS 12 and the new iPhones. There is an improvement to image processing in the Photos Extension where some larger images could not be processed for final output.
Canvas Art is just .99 USD for a limited time at the link below.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Birds for Words Ver. 1.6 Now Available
Birds for Words iMessage Sticker extension for the iPhone and iPad has been updated to version 1.6. The update includes two new Stickers bringing the total to 28, and support for the German language.
Go get your very own version of Birds for Words at the link below.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Seattle Stickies Celebrates Seattle Storm Championship
Seattle Stickies for iMessage version 1.2.3 was released today with new sticker celebrating the WNBA team Seattle Storm’s third championship this week. The update also includes translation for German and compatibility for Apple’s latest operating system iOS 12. Seattle Stickies for iMessage is available to all iPhone and iPad users.
You can download a copy of Seattle Stickies at the link below.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Get This Image For Free
420mm f6.3 250iso 1/2500sec
Yeah I know you could just right click and save this image but that is stealing and you have to deal with the watermark. I do believe that most people don’t want to steal and I am making it easy for to do the right thing anyway. You can download this image and dozens of others in high resolution, unmarked, to copy and enjoy for personal use by installing the Nature & Wildlife Pictures app for iPhone and iPad.
With more than 60 high quality nature images free and for sale and support for 4 languages, version 3.3.2 of NWP was released today looking better than ever. Included in this version.
- 12 Eagle pictures, 18 stunning landscape pictures, and 7 canvas art illistrations.
- 6 Free Wildlife images specially designed to be used as Apple Watch faces.
- See any of the for sale images in augmented reality mounted in a frame of choice in your own home before buying the image.
- It’s a free download! That’s right you can get this application for less than the price of a cup of coffee.
You can download your own free copy of Nature & Wildlife Pictures for iPhone and iPad at the link below.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Cruising With Seattle Stickies
Seattle Stickies stickers for iMessage Version 1.2.2 was released today with support for French and Italian languages and the addition of three new cruise ship themed stickers. Three of the cruise lines sailing from Seattle to Alaska are featured in this update to the sticker pack with Holland America, Norwegian, and Princess ships presented as canvas art stickers. If you are taking a cruise to Alaska or just like cruise ships, owners of the Seattle Stickies sticker pack can now show their support for their favorite ships.
If you are not aware of what a Stickers App is here is a great explanation from iMore.com
Apple has made it possible for you to make your messages a lot more interesting with the help of apps and stickers in iMessages. You can use stickers as stand-alone images, or slap them right on top of someone else’s chat bubble (or sticker, or picture). Apps integrate information so you can, say, book a table at a restaurant or share movie times with others. Your friends can also change dates and times in some instances so everyone can collaborate together.
You can pick up you very own copy of Seattle Stickies at the link below. It truly costs less than a cup of coffee and has no up-sells and no ads.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Canvas Art-Swipe for Transparency
Just a quick tip about using the latest version of Canvas Art. One of the things that changed in this version is the way that the transparency (alpha) of the edges of the image is adjusted. The edge is what you see in the image above. It creates the charcoal sketch look and always starts out as black but users can adjust the transparency of this effect all the way to the point of making it invisible. In the past, a vertical slider appeared on the right side of the screen. In the 1.1.0 update that slider has been removed but you can still make the same adjustment by swiping up and down. The first few times the app is used with this update an animation indicating swiping is available appears when editing. After that I don’t think it is needed and does not appear anymore. I actually hope no one needs to read this post to figure out how to use the app but just in case, here it is. Just remember that swiping up and down is available.
You can download your very own copy of the app at the link below. It truly does cost less than a cup of coffee and does not have any up-sells or ads.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Canvas Art Moving Forward
As sales of the art creation app Canvas Art climb version 1.1.0 was released this morning. The update includes improvements and bug fixes when editing very large images but far more important this new version brings in support for some foreign languages. Many applications are created in English only because it is the default language and the majority of sales come from english speaking regions. However, foreign users should not be ignored. So today I am kicking off with support for Spanish, French, and Italian languages and support for many more in the coming months.
Canvas Art is an iOS application that allows users to create art ranging from a sketch or line art style, water-color type look to a crisp canvas painting with just a couple of easy steps. Canvas Art is both a standalone application that allows camera use, importing, and exporting images from and to numerous sources and is also a Photos Editing Extension for the native Apple Photos application. Users are able to choose a canvas, tan, white, or gray, and set the intensity of fill color on the canvas with looks ranging from washed out to photo like. After that the special charcoal outline effect is added and users have a wide range of intensities to work from. The finished product looks like canvas painting or charcoal sketch.
You can learn more and download your own copy of Canvas Art at the link below. It truly costs less than a cup of coffee with no up-sell and no ads.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Free Hi-Res Wildlife Images
Just a quick little reminder that the Wildlife & Nature Pictures application that I have for iPad and iPhone contains 46 free full resolution images available for download and personal use. The application is a free download too. Counting it all up that means that there are 46 nature and wildlife images at no cost to you! When last I checked, that is less than a cup of coffee.
For real.
Wildlife & Nature Pictures is available world-wide in the Apple App store and is translated to Spanish with more languages coming soon.
You can download your free copy today at the link below or search for app id #595565558 outside the US.
#lessthanacupofcoffee
Get it Straight Updates
Get it Straight photo editing app version 1.2.3 was released today with a number of improvements including improved edge detection and improved graphics to make editing tools easier to identify. Here is a list of the features that make this application a valuable resource for any photographer:
- Perform horizon adjustment, perspective adjustment, and cropping in one operation.
- Drag and drop images into the application on capable devices.
- Application automatically scales very large images like multi-image panoramas to the device capabilities for quick and smooth performance.
- Full screen display of images being edited.
- Allows users to pinch and zoom into the finished artwork to precisely examine the adjustments.
- GIS is both a stand alone application that allows camera use, importing, and exporting images from and to numerous sources and is also a Photos Editing Extension for the native Apple Photos application. With the Photos Editing Extension users can perform the complex distortion correction while making all the other edits without needing to export the photo to another app or service.
- Users considering printing their masterpieces are able to see the images mounted on walls and other vertical surfaces with augmented reality. When viewing images with AR, users have the option of three frame styles, light colored oak, cherry wood, or dark walnut, with the choice of no frame, thin, regular, and thick frame styles. Users can also choose from five different overall picture sizes to get an accurate feel for what large prints would look like mounted on a wall.
- No ads, No up-sells. Users pay once for the application and that’s it.
You can download and use your own copy of Get it Straight for less than the price of a cup of coffee. Just hit the link below.
Pride Sticker Added to Seattle Stickies
Language and how we communicate has changed a lot the past couple of years and we are encountering new forms of communication that eliminate language and geographic barriers. Using stickers and emoji when texting and using other forms of messaging can eliminate entire paragraphs of written word and since they are visual and can also be interpreted by anyone with out the limitations of language or education. Applications like Seattle Stickies and Birds for Words are, I believe, first steps to creating comprehensive, universal form of communication.
Version 1.2.0 of Seattle Stickies was released today and it includes the new Pride sticker. This new sticker goes beyond the bounds of being a Seattle centric application and I think it deserves a few words. First and foremost I want Seattle Stickies to be successful. I did not put the work into it so it could fail and yes people no matter what you may believe, a lot of work is involved with developing and marketing an application. In addition to that, I want my applications to be inclusive and in this case adding the Pride sticker is the right move. Following the basic philosophy of what I think Stickers should be, not including a pride sticker would tend to be exclusive.
I also want to point out that Seattle Stickies is not a progressive application and I have no intention for it to become one. If you look carefully notice that a “9/11 Memorial” and “No Tax” stickers are still part of the pack.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Download a copy of Seattle Stickies at the link below.
Evolving Augmented Reality Experience
Born from the desire to make better screenshots all the photography applications will get an enhanced AR experience on the next round of updates. The trio of apps will soon be able to save and share a snapshot of the augmented reality experience and return to viewing artwork in AR on the same screen. Users will be able to save the snapshot to Photos, other storage services, and social media. Now users can see what their own artwork looks like mounted on a wall and easily get an opinion from others.
Also included in this update will be a larger range of image sizes with a maximum of 1 meter (about 36″) sized artwork. Planned for an update later this Summer the apps will also have the capability to free stand on table and counter tops.
You can download all of the apps at the links below.
Canvas Art
Get it Straight
Wildlife & Nature Pictures – Free Download
Canvas Art – A Different Filter
One of the things I try to do when developing an app that is plentiful (and usually free) like a photo filter is to build an application that is a little more complex and produces an effect that is unique. While it is pretty much impossible to look at all the iOS photo filters available I am fairly confident the work I create is different from most other filters. This week a new and improved version of Canvas Art was released. For those who may not already know, several years ago I developed a technique in Photoshop that makes a photo look like a canvas painting. It is a complex process and takes many hours to create but the results are quite stunning and detailed.
With Canvas Art I am trying to create a similar effect for the iPhone and iPad. Amazingly, the iPhone and iPad have pretty much the same capabilities as using Photoshop on a computer. The big difference is that the entire process is touch based and that simply does not allow the same level of precision. Also, the total time spent editing should be less than a minute on a mobile device. That is my personal rule of thumb.
The Canvas Art – Photo Filter application allows users to create art ranging from a sketch or line art style a water-color type look to a crisp canvas painting with just a couple of easy steps. You can see the range of looks in the three images below.
And that is what is different about Canvas Art. It is one filter with an infinite number of results. Another thing that makes Canvas Art different is the built-in augmented reality experience. Most other photo filters are a bit older and are not capable delivering an AR product but with Canvas Art things are always up to date and reflecting the latest technology. So with this application as with all my other photo related apps users can see the finished work in a variety of picture frames and sizes mounted on their own walls using augmented reality.
Next time I will show you just how easy using Canvas Art really is.
You can download a copy of the Canvas Art – Photo Filter application at the link below.
Augmented Reality Brings New Dimension to Photography Apps
Seattle,WA – April 3, 2018 – Ron Boyd Design today announced new augmented reality features in three of his photography related applications. With the introduction of Apple’s version 11.3 mobile operating system comes the ability to virtually place objects on vertical surfaces like walls. The new technology allows users to view art and photographs in a variety of sizes and frames mounted on their own walls before going to the great expense of printing and purchasing products. With the Wildlife and Nature Pictures application owners that are considering a purchase of a digital download of an image can preview what the image looks like as a framed print in their own home or office. Image editors Get It Straight and Canvas Art allow users to see their own masterpieces with AR. When viewing images with AR, users have the option of three frame styles, light colored oak, cherry wood, or dark walnut, with the choice of no frame, thin, regular, and thick frame styles. Users can also choose from five different overall picture sizes to get an accurate feel for what large prints would look like mounted on a wall.
You can download a copy of the apps at the link below.
Augmented Reality Coming to Photography Apps
Coming soon to the iPhone and iPad augmented reality becomes more powerful and will bring a new dimension to the three photography related applications I sell. Specifically, the next version of the iOS operating system, version 11.3, will include vertical plane detection in it’s ARKit framework. What that means for all you non-nerd folks is that your phone or tablet will soon be able to detect walls and place objects on them like paintings and pictures.
For the free Nature & Wildlife Pictures app, users will be able to use AR to preview the for sale images in a variety of frames and sizes in their own homes, on their own walls before making any purchase. Get it Straight and Canvas Art users will be able to use their edited images to mount in a variety of frames and sizes so they can see what their completed art looks like on the wall before going through the time and expense of printing the image.
Augmented Reality was first introduced to the iPhone and iPad in September of last year. At that time horizontal plane detection was fully functional and placing virtual objects on floors, table tops, and counters was all the rage. I have been testing the vertical experience since it has been available and I can say it works quite well and as soon as the feature is available to the public new versions of my apps will be released. I am anticipating this to be in about 4-6 weeks.
You can download the Nature & Wildlife app or Get it Straight app today.
Forty Days and Forty Nights
After three fantastic months of shooting birds I fell into a drought. Forty days of bad weather and worse shots. I have to blame myself for the most part. Who really wants to go out when it is cold and raining and who really wants to carry their heavy and expensive prime gear under such circumstances? It is easy to fall into an unproductive rut. That will all come to an end at some point, but I often wonder what I can do to stay eager and motivated to make great bird photos. As I look at things though, a big part of the reason why I got into the rut in the first place is because I have a lot of other related projects going on and there is just not a lot of time to get everything done. Here is one of those projects that has finally become a reality.
All last Summer I followed and photographed a pair of mature Pelicans who decided to stay in Southern California instead of heading out of town for the the breeding months and Summer that follows. I named them Ruby and Edgar. It was a little unusual for them to stay around but it was very unusual for me to encounter them each and every time I went to the reserve they call home. I was able to get some remarkable photos of them along with Least, Forrester’s Terns and an immature Brown that dropped in from time to time. I took some of those images and applied a rather unique processing to make some canvas prints that I think are different and beautiful. All done within Photoshop and using only one third party filter (Nik Tonal Contrast) then printed on canvas, the process takes a lot of time as it essential becomes a digitally hand painted piece of art. I plan to make a tutorial of how the process is done at some future point, but for now I don’t want to think about how the sasuage is made but rather what the results are. The image above is one of my favorites titled “Ruby Has Wings”.
I think it is self defeating task to try to sell pictures to other photographers so I am really not expecting much when I say that the series is now available for sale but hey, if you want to buy one drop me aline or mention it to someone who might.
Thanks for reading. You can get more details about Ruby and see more of the Shore Line Series here.
Diary of a Bird Shooter 