Original image, unaltered.
Grunge isn’t new, but the ability to add it to image on the fly using the new crop of camera apps for mobile computing promises to take schmutz to a whole new level. I’ll be looking at some of the free and nearly free apps that can assist artists in realizing their creative visions.
It seems, as a culture, we’ve mastered the art of creating pristine photographs. Photoshop has provided artists with the tools, and those that master them can retouch, repair and restore images to better-than-new, if there is such a thing. One only has to search websites like istockphoto.com or veer.com to find an abundance of stock photos, illustrations and videos, whose rights can be purchased for $.99 and up!
Now that our collective consciousness has been saturated with dust-, scratch-, and stain-free images, some photographers, illustrators and graphic artists are spending their processing time adding just the right amount of grit, grime, and goo to their images to set them apart from the increasingly ordinary flood of work on the cheap stock market.
And no, grunge isn’t new, and neither are the type of edges seen in the altered images of the snapdragons. Well before Photoshop or digital images, photographers distressed their prints using a variety of methods not excluding grease and toxic chemicals.
There have been techniques to achieve the rough and tumble, aged look seen in the snapdragon images since Adobe Photoshop© first appeared in 1990, but in order to achieve many similar effects, one had to first understand the relatively complex processes required to achieve similar results, and then implement the techniques on machines that crunched the data while you showered and ate breakfast. Only then could you could view the results of your commands, and then the results were unpredictable at best.
Instead of waiting hours, it now takes just a few seconds to render results on the newer, faster generation of mobile devices. And because most of these apps are so easy to use, I’ve been transferring images to my phone to alter them with apps instead of using a full-blown image editing program like Photoshop. For only $10, you can download enough apps to to mess up even the cleanest images beyond recognition. Here are just a few of the photo apps that photographers, designers and artists can use to create dramatically altered images:
Grunge effect added in photo app, picfx. I found effects resulted in edges very similar to Photographic Edges' edge masking templates, with added features for textures.
After applying the grunge effect, I applied a second, aged paper effect.
You’ve always been able to do grunge in Photoshop (although it may not have always been called “grunge”) using overlays and layer masks, which is essentially what all of these apps do on the iphone. They are all quite simple to use, and processing time is speedy. To produce some of the same effects in Photoshop, you can use AutoFx’s Photographic Edges, or one of their many plug-ins that produce mucky, eerie and foggy effects. That’s essentially what all of the grunge programs do on the iPhone.
So far, I haven’t located any other plug-ins that produce grunge, which isn’t to say they don’t exist. To produce dirt, grime and spills in Photoshop from scratch, you can search for “grunge effects in Photoshop” and come up with dozens of online tutorials with step-by-step instructions. I’m not really sure that I’d bother, though, when you can transfer your images to the phone, apply the effect, and then bring it right back to the computer..and it’s quick; however resolution may be compromised, depending on the app.
As for transferring the images back and forth to your computer, it just so happens that “there’s an app for that.” In fact, there are dozens of inexpensive apps, so you’ll want to choose one that suits your needs. Some transfer apps are just for photos, while others let you transfer a wide variety of file formats. You’ll want to download an app that lets you copy files from computer to iPhone and iPhone to computer. Some, like Photo Transfer App use an existing wireless network, while others, like DropBox, use FTP (file transfer protocol) to upload onto a secure server on the web.
Whichever method you choose, using the file transfer capability provided by the barrage of new apps makes it east to use any of your iPhone apps on your Photoshop images, or any digital image, for that matter. I don’t find the grunge apps a really practical tool to use in the field, though since the iPhone would not necessarily be my camera of choice, but after the shoot when you have some time to kick back, you pull out the phone and start fooling around, and the apps really do produce some remarkable results.
Hi Nancy,
Is there a Photoshop plug-in that does this grunge effect as well? I got an iphone, but probably wouldn’t know how to use it. Love the effect!!!