Digital Gems features ideas for enjoying your digital life and brightening your digital landscape. The series showcases suggestions that connect with the energy of the season and focus is on bringing more ease and simplicity to your digital life.

Winter      inner life and restoration
Spring       planning and renewal
Summer   activity and completion
Autumn    harvest and gratitude

Feel free to share your thoughts! What are your biggest challenges in your digital life? Which are your suggestions for a simple, easy digital life?

Getting Lost is Just Part of the Process. Digital collage by © LUMILYON.

If you’re interested in learning how to to create an artful, poetic, digital photo collage, you’re in luck! Award winning iPhone photographer Lumilyon has written the second free tutorial in her amazing series. This time she reveals how she creates her stunning, dreamy digital collages using her iPhone!

In this unique tutorial you’ll learn:

• one of Lumilyon’s techniques for creating a collage using an iPhone
• how to create an interesting background with just one click of an app
• how to extract an element from a photograph and collage it onto another
• how to blend two two photographs together by blurring them

You’ll need 3 creative photography apps to follow along in this guide for how to create a digital collage using your iPhone:

• Tiny Planets – Stereographic photos on your iPhone (free app!)
• Juxtaposer – Fun and Intuitive Photo Compositing App for your iPhone and iPod Touch
• BlurFX – Fantastic out of focus pictures

Now head on over to this priceless tutorial: iPhone Tutorial 02: Little Fishy Collages.

Related Posts:
The Secret of Artful iPhone Photography
15 Best Photo Apps for iPad and iPhone
PhotoSync: Wirelessly Transfer Photos and Videos
Top 20 Apps to Turn Your iPad into a Portable Creative Studio

PhotoSync is a handy app that makes it easy to wirelessly transfer the photos and videos from your iPhone to your computer as well as to your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch.

A simple way to share photos and videos between iOS devices and computers, this is a gem of a tool for any iPhone photographer.

Related Posts:
15 Best Photo Apps for iPad and iPhone
The Secret of Artful iPhone Photography
Top 20 Apps to Turn Your iPad into a Portable Creative Studio

iPhoneography Tutorial 01: Vintage French Street Scene. © LUMILYON

If you’d like to learn how to create an artful, dreamy photo like the one above, you’re in for a treat! Award winning iPhone photographer Lumilyon, has generously shared a free tutorial that reveals how she creates her exquisite, breathtaking, poetic photos!

In this unique tutorial you will learn:

• one of Lumilyon’s techniques for transforming a photograph into art
• a secret trick that involves a hidden menu
• how to add variety to generic app presets such as grunge effects and light leaks so that the apps you use will be less recognisable
• you’ll also get a feel for the many possibilities of the apps used in this tutorial and for how you can create your own variations based on Lumilyon’s technique

You’ll need 5 artful photography apps to follow along in this guide for how to process a photo:

• 100 Cameras in 1
• Pic Grunger
• PictureShow
• Lo-Mob
• Photogene

Now head on over to this gem of a tutorial: iPhoneography Tutorial 01: Vintage French Street Scene.

Related Posts:
The Secret of iPhone Collages
15 Best Photo Apps for iPad and iPhone
PhotoSync: Wirelessly Transfer Photos and Videos
Top 20 Apps to Turn Your iPad into a Portable Creative Studio

MOBILE PHOTO EDITORS

Filterstorm

Filterstorm’s unique touch interface makes it intuitive, easy and fun to use. The versatile and varied set of tools for editing photos includes powerful masking tools, that give you the ability to apply any of the filters by brush, color range, and gradient, as well as to the entire image. Selectively adjust your photo by painting on your adjustments. Includes in-app video tutorials.

For iPad and iPhone. Developer: Tai Shimizu.

Photogene

Intuivitve and easy to use to edit, enhance and share your photos on the go. Professional editing tools. Photogene is an excellent everyday photo editor.

For iPad and iPhone. Developer: Omer Shoor.

PhotoForge

PhotoForge is a digital darkroom with an impressive range of tools; image manipulation, painting, retouching, effects, and color correction.
PhotoForge is available for iPad and iPhone.

Developer: GhostBird Software.

Adobe Photoshop Express

The free, basic mobile photo editor that lets you upload, view and share your photos.

Available for iPhone, iPad and Android.
Developer: Adobe.

MOBILE PHOTO EFFECTS

Pano

Take beautiful, seamless panoramic photos directly from your iPhone. Handy semi-transparent guide helps you line up all your shots perfectly. 360 degree panorama images.

For iPhone. Developer: Debacle Software.

QuadCamera

4-8 serial shoots are taken in sequence by the iPhone’s camera, then composed into a single shareable image with six selectable effects. One of many toy apps by Takayuki Fukatsu that allow you to do fun and artistic things with the iPhone’s built-in camera.

For iPhone. Developer: Art & Mobile.

TiltShift Generator

Create more dramatic-looking images, focused only on one spot. Processes your photos with blur, color, and brightness to apply radical depth-of-field effects. Makes even flat cell phone images look like DSLR-quality shots with depth of field.

For iPhone and iPad. Developer: Art & Mobile.

ARTISTIC VINTAGE FILTER EFFECTS

CameraBag

Recreate the magic of film by emulating photography’s most beloved and iconic vintage cameras, film, and processing techniques. Effects can be stacked. Easy to use with an intuitive, simple interface.

For iPhone, iPad, Windows and Mac. Developer: Nevercenter.

lo-mob

Retro lo-fi and photographic experiments on your iPhone. Select or snap a photo and lo-mob immediately generates a list of previews of all the different effects. Pick the one you want, tweak it if you like, and save or share your photo via e-mail as well as through a range of social media services

For iPhone. Developer: Aestesis.

PictureShow

Choose between 37 analog presets or mix your own style with frames, light leaks, noise and vignetting. Features lens kit, random shuffle effects and social photo sharing.

For iPhone. Developer: graf.

Plastic Bullet

Randomly generates the look of many combinations of cameras, lenses and films turning your photos into gloriously unpredictable works of art. A true electronic lomography app that encourages you to explore the “happy accidents” of your photography. Share directly to Facebook and Flickr.

For iPhone. Developer: Red Giant Software.

Film Lab

Recreate the look of analog film stocks with Film Lab’s impressive set of film and film styles from brands like Ilford, Kodak, AGFA, Calotype, FORTE, GAF, Polachrome, Rollei and Fuji.

For iPhone. Developer: CLBITZ Ubiquitous Communications Inc.

FX Photo Studio

Tons of effects that can be stacked on each other, combined, randomised and saved as new presets. Includes basic photo editing like cropping, rotating, flipping, as well as social photo sharing.

For iPhone and iPad. Developer: Mac Phun LLC.

Hipstamatic

Turns your iPhone into a small toy camera. Take your time swapping a variety of camera components, film, lenses, and flashes with hip descriptions, for a variety of different looks and styles. Can not save your unprocessed photo.

For iPhone. Developer: Synthetic Corp.

Instagram

Instagram offers a selection of filters and borders but what really sets this app apart is its focus on social media and photo sharing. Easily share photos through Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare and Twitter.

For iPhone. Developer: Burbn, Inc.

Which are your favourite photo apps for the iPhone and iPad? What did I miss?

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It was a real treat to find that a selection of my art work has been published in an iPhone app that presents Swedish illustrators and designers!

I’m represented by Illustratörcentrum (The Illustrators’ Centre), Sweden’s largest agency for illustrators and graphic designers. They’ve just released a free iPhone app Illustratörcentrum that presents Swedish art and design. The idea is to help clients find the perfect fit for their projects. There’s lots of inspiring art in this app and it’s fun to browse and see the wealth of different styles, ideas and techniques out there!

1. MindNode ($5.99) Beautiful and minimalist mind mapping app. A simple and effective way to brainstorm and easily map out and organize your ideas. Also available for the Mac.

[App store link: MindNode for iPad and iPhone].

2. Evernote (free) Remember everything. Build and organize your own digital scrapbook with notes, photos, links, web clips, audio and auto-synchronize to your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Web. Magically makes text within snapshots searchable and includes geo-location information in notes. For research, to capture design, art, writing and blogging inspiration.

[App store link: Evernote for iPad and iPhone].

3. Moodboard Pro ($4.99) and Moodboard Lite (free) Make a moodboard to visualise your ideas and jump-start your creativity. Capture a mood, feel or ambience with a collage of materials (photos, textures, sketches, text and color palettes). Easily share early design concepts with clients and colleagues to communicate your idea or use as a guide and inspiration for your own creative projects.

[App store links: Moodboard Pro and Moodboard Lite].

4. MaxJournal for iPad ($2.99). A simple and elegant diary or journal. Customize the font and size, add up to three photos per entry and password protect your journal. Features tagging, time stamping and autosave.

[App store link: MaxJournal for iPad].

5. My Writing Nook ($4.99) and $2.99 for the iPhone. Simple and powerful tool for writers. Minimalist and distraction free writing environment with easy-to-use dictionary and thesaurus. Word count and auto save. Work on your manuscript anywhere, on your iPhone, iPad or computer, synchronize and have access to the latest version for reading, writing and editing everywhere.

[App store links: My Writing Nook for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

6. Qvik Sketch Pro ($0.99) Quick, easy, effortless sketching, doodling and drawing tool. Qvik Sketch shades or inks your sketches in real-time, creating beautifully rendered drawings. Fast and fun.

[App store links: Qvik Sketch Pro for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

7. Adobe Ideas 1.0 (free) A simple, vector-based digital sketchbook. Capture and explore ideas on the go. Use the color scheming tool to create harmonized color palettes extracted from your photos or artwork. Email your sketches as PDF files for further editing in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. A handy tool for designers and artists.

[App store links: Adobe Ideas for iPad and Adobe Ideas for the iPhone].

8. Brushes ($7.99) A portable art studio and powerful finger painting tool for creating original artwork featuring an advanced color picker, swatches, high quality brushes, layers, extreme zooming, and a simple yet deep interface. Paintings made with Brushes have been published on the cover of The New Yorker on several occasions. With Brushes Viewer for Mac (free) you can replay your Brushes paintings stroke by stroke, render them at high resolutions for printing, and export them as QuickTime movies.

[App store links: Brushes – iPad Edition and Brushes for iPhone ($4.99)].

9. SketchBook Pro ($7.99) A versatile, elegant digital SketchBook for painting and drawing that features 75 art brushes, a smear brush, geometric shapes and a symmetrical drawing tool. Interact with SketchBook through a gesture-based multi-touch user interface.

[App store link: SketchBook Pro].

10. iMockups ($9.99) This gem of a tool will save designers countless hours by helping you to quickly create mock-ups, layouts and wireframes for your web design, iPhone and iPad app projects. iMockups includes customizable navbars, tab panels, and autofilling Lorem Ipsum text. Intuitive and beautiful interface that takes full advantage of the breakthrough touchscreen device with iPad-optimized gesture controls.

[App store link: iMockups].

11. StudioTrack ($39.99) StudioTrack is a powerful audio recording and songwriting tool for musicians and producers who want to capture musical ideas and record songs on the go. Multitrack recording with up to 8 tracks, and bounce them down to add even more. Easily apply effects such as delay, reverb, EQ, and a compressor.

[App store link: StudioTrack].

12. Korg iElectribe ($9.99) A perfectly faithful replica of the famous Korg Electribe•R analog drum machine that’s easy and intuitive to use. Features 64 preset patterns, 8 supercharged effects and advanced Motion Sequencing that make patterns come alive.

[App store link: Korg iElectribe].

13. Rehearsal ($20) This professional tool for actors helps you learn your lines. Developed and tested by Hollywood actors. Highlight lines, play peekaboo to memorize your script. Record your script and play it back. Add notes and record different takes to explore your character. Updated with the ability to open your scripts directly from the email messages in which they arrive from your agent, casting or production. “Almost every show on TV has at least one actor that uses the app”.

[App store link: Rehearsal].

14. CameraBag ($2.99) Recreate the magic of film by emulating photography’s most beloved and iconic vintage cameras, film, and processing techniques. Easy to use with an intuitive, simple interface. The perfect companion for your iPhone photography.

[App store links: CameraBag for iPad and CameraBag for iPhone ($1.99)].

15. TiltShift Generator ($2.99) Make your photos look like they are shots with miniatures, toy camera images and fake DSLR by adding a radial blur to your photos to change the perception of depth. Move the sweet spot with your fingers and increase or decrease its size.

[App store links: TiltShift Generator – Fake DSLR for iPad and TiltShift Generator – Fake DSLR for iPhone ($0.99)].

16. Fabric Stash ($4.99) Manage, catalogue, match, track quantities and organize your fabrics with Fabric Stash. Perfect for quilters, sewers, interior decorators, fashion designers and fabric designers.

[App store links: Fabric Stash for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

17. HandiCraft ($4.99) Quilting, knitting, crochet and embroidery on your iPad with more than 150 patterns with full instructions and HD video lessons. Features patterns and step-by-step instructions displayed in a beautiful interface.

[App store link: HandiCraft].

18. iZen Garden 2 – portable zen garden ($5.99) Tranquil, Japanese rock garden, where you can find peace and create beauty. Arrange and resize objects like stones, seashells, fossils and butterflies, rake the sand into patterns and listen to soothing, ambient soundtracks.

[App store links: iZen Garden for iPad and iZen Garden for iPhone ($3.99)].

19. Soundrop (free) Wonderfully fun and simple sound game. Tap the screen to draw lines and watch as a ball bounces off them and Soundrop creates music out of the pattern you create.

[App store links: Soundrop for iPad and Soundrop for iPhone].

20. Zen Bound 2 ($7.99) Beautiful puzzle game with gorgeous graphics and sounds. Tilt and touch to wrap and twist the shapes to solve puzzles.

[App store links: Zen Bound 2 for iPad and Zen Bound 2 for iPhone ($2.99)].

More writings about the iPad: First impressions of the iPad.

Do you have a great tips for creating a digital studio? Have you tried any iPad or iPhone apps that you found inspiring and that boosted your creativity?

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I expected the iPad to be a revolutionary device and holding it in your hands, interacting with it, really is a revolutionary experience. It’s the computer of the future.

• It’s fast!
• It’s powerful!
• It’s intuitive, responsive, easy and inviting to use
• The iPad with its multi-touch screen and single tasking is the first computer that adapts to how humans work, while other computers expect us humans to adapt to how they work
• The iPad apps I’ve tested embrace the idea of simplicity, beauty, fun and ease. Just like the iPad itself
• The iPad is the first computer I’ve used where reading really feels inviting and user friendly
• This tablet computer is wonderful for a new kind of story telling! The iPad can blur the line between reading, watching films, gaming and I can see how people could invent new ways of telling stories where images, film, audio, text and interactive experiences all blend together into a new kind of multimedia story telling
• The digital environment on an iPad feels peaceful and focused
• The touch screen is crisp and sharp and the book-size feels user friendly
• The iPad lives up to its promise of long battery life
• You need a bag and/or a slip to protect your iPad
• You need a soft, lint-free cloth to remove marks left by your fingers

The iPad and iPhone are innovative devices that bring to mind Think Different, Apple’s advertising campaign from 1997

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Now, what I’m really interested in, is how I can use this revolutionary tablet computer as a digital, portable, creative art studio! I’ll be back on Tuesday with my findings and hope to present a list of 20 outstanding creativity apps for the iPad.

iPhone photography: candy tulips

I’ve been asked a lot of questions about my photography and here’s the scoop. All of the photos on my blog are shot with my iPhone. I often use an app called CameraBag that recreates the magic of film without all the chemicals needed to manually use and develop film. There aren’t any settings or choices for each filter, you just decide which vintage camera you’d like to use, some of my favourites are the instant camera (that I used for this Polaroid of vintage graffiti), as well as the Lomo (in action in these over-saturated photos) and Holga (that I used to put a dark and moody edge on some of my summer photography). But sometimes I don’t use any additional software at all. Just raw iPhone photography. In any case they all fall within the definition of iPhoneography, which means images taken with an iPhone and processed with apps on the iPhone.

iPhone photography: Tulips at night

Last night I thought this bunch of tulips might wilt before I got round to taking some photos of it, so I took a few pictures with the camera in my iPhone, although it was almost midnight and the camera doesn’t have a flash. Tulips are an early sign of spring for me, even if you have to buy them at the store because the ground is still deep with snow and it’ll be months before they blossom here! I find these tulips so inspiring, but with all the excitement over Apple’s new iPad and the administration and economy that I handle at the end of each month I’m way too busy to do much more than capture them on film.

iPhone photography: Blurred tulips

I really like the rough quality that the low-quality camera of a mobile device can bring out! And the immediacy. There’s something very appealing to me in this blurred photo of tulips. Perhaps it’s the almost painterly quality… Normally I wouldn’t post this photo, but seeing as I’m talking about photography, and some of the unexpected beauty of the imperfections of lo-fi photography, I did.

I absolutely refuse to spend time in Photoshop editing photos. If I’m going to be creating using my computer as a tool, I’d prefer to work on my own art. There’s something endlessly satisfying about the simplicity of lo-fi photography, trusting the moment, seeing what happens. Finding moments of serendipity. It’s a liberating contrast to the sometimes laborious methods involved in designing icons and the endless and complicated options and settings available in the tools of my trade, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

iPhone photography: tulips on the kitchen table

I first got an iPhone because I was designing icons for the platform and I needed to see what they actually looked like in their own environment. At the time, I’d never guessed what a huge inspiration the iPhone turned out to be for me! A digital playground and a canvas to experiment with and to capture ideas with the built in camera, notes and voice memos. It’s become the place where my creative process often begins. But my favourite source of creativity on my iPhone is finger painting with Brushes! More about that another day!

iPhone photography: karamell tulips

Related Posts:
15 Best Photo Apps for iPad and iPhone
The Secret of Artful iPhone Photography