Waterlogue

After a busy weekend of too many parties, I found I wasn't quite up to creating Easter projects yesterday, so I settled for the bi-annual purging and organizing of my son's room. Something mindless but productive. It's all good in theory, but about halfway through. the tedium starts to burrow a little hole in my brain and I look for the nearest escape hatch - you know, just a 15-minute break. Well, that 15 minutes turned into more like 2 hours once I settled in with Waterlogue, a fairly new app that I've been meaning to play with since it was introduced.

I did eventually finish my son's room, but only so I could get back to playing with Waterlogue. I love this app so much I had to share! I've been looking for a great watercolor app for awhile now, and while I found some decent ones, this is the app I really wanted. It's quick and easy. In fact, it feels like magic. My only regret is not having more photos to experiment with.

It doesn't work with every photo. If you're like me and you like shooting with a very shallow depth of field, the app won't always make the details clear enough (like the water glass that nearly disappears in the image above). On the flip side, if you have a photo that's so-so in it's current state, but lacks a little something to make it a truly great photo (such as flat lighting), the Waterlogue app might just give you something worthy of framing.  I's not going to make up for poor composition, however. Fortunately, that's a skill everyone can achieve with practice.

To use Waterlogue, start with photos that lend themselves well to the watercolor effect. Scenes from nature and travel, portraits, still life. There are 12 different watercolor filters you can use to further customize your work, though I was drawn to the default Natural filter every time. If I were running photos of buildings through the app, I might be more inclined to use some of the others. But the filters are easy to use and you can compare them with your original as you work (something I wish you could do in Instagram). I'm not going to do an entire rundown of the app because I'd rather use this space showing off some of my photos, but you can get an overview from this post at Design Work Life. You can get tips on saving and printing your images here.

Try it out. I think you will absolutely fall in love! You can also post your completed images to your Instagram account or Facebook or just save them to your camera roll. For a limited time, it's available for .99, but I would have gladly paid a lot more. (One note - it requires iOS 7.0 or later and it's compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.) 

Before I forget, for those of you on Instagram, I have finally started using my long dormant account (all that peer pressure from photographer friends marveling at my Neanderthal ways). If you wish to follow along, you can find me here. I'm just getting started with it  - and realizing how dark and murky everything looks. Spring is a great time to lighten things up, but I'm going to have to explore some new filters and apps. (Anyone have a good recommendation beyond Afterlight, or is that all I need?)  At any rate, I'm finding that I like seeing in "squares." Just another way to be creative.

Happy Monday!

 

Still Life ---

Coral Honeysuckle

 

Butterflies and Ferns

 

Still Life with Citrus

 

Grandfather's Blueberries

 

Travel --- 
(Okay, I didn't leave my home state, but it's a place worthy of travel!)

Rural Barn

 

On the Porch

 

French Quarter Courtyard

 

Swamp at Sunset

 

 

Comments

[Suzonne]

Andrea, that would be better! I WISH I knew how to paint!!

[Andrea]

Well that is rather clever...I thought it was your paintings. x

[mike jeni]

These pictures are really nice but I am addict of photo effect plus app.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-effects-plus/id579571333?mt=8

[Betty J Schaub]

These are beautiful! Happy Easter Sweetie.

[Lachelle Via]

Wow! Thank you for sharing this. I've been looking for something like this.

[Shalagh Hogan]

I love this app. I love the pricetag. Everyone's making such amazing pieces. My sister is a watercolorist. I want to see what she thinks.
See you around Instagram.
Love,
Shalagh

[Catherine]

I love Waterlogue. I am joining in on a waterlogue challenge run by 'Pretty Handy Girl' right now. I am excited to see you on Instagram too! I think Instagram is my favourite social media app. I really enjoy it.

[Mari]

thank you!!! i was holding out because i didn't want to pay $2.99 for it! thanks for the update that it's 0.99! beautiful app!

[Lisa]

absolutely stunning! thank you for sharing.