Food Friday With A Twist - Hip(stamatic) Recipes

from Tracey G

Loftus lens + DC film

I am a HUGE Hipstamatic app fan, even though I haven't used it a lot lately, that doesn't mean I love it any less, lol. It's been one of my favorites for a long time, because it's fun to see what you can come up with with all the possible lens/film combinations you can dream up, plus all the fine-tuning you can do once you finally decide which combo you're going to stick with!

 I would also like to say that for these examples, I used the lens an film combination at full strength of both - I didn't adjust them at all.The first photo, at the top of my post is with my favorite combination, that I've used a lot, it's the Loftus lens and DC film. I seem to fall back on this one more often than not because I just love the look and love the forgiving nature of it with the various "blurred" elements it produces. I use the Loftus lens quite a bit, as I'm sure most of my photos taken with and/or edited by Hipstamatic will attest to! It works well with most of the films!

When I want a "vintage" look, the Gregory lens is a favorite of mine lately. It adds a bit of the hazy yellow/orange tones to the image. Here's a couple examples using that lens with two different films:

Gregory lens + Freedom 13 film

This first one is the Gregory lens with the Freedom 13 film, which, by the way is another one of my favorite films. I use it when I don't want the film to interfere too much with the effect the lens produces, and when I don't want a border. It only has the red, white and blue little lines in the corner.

Gregory lens + Tilda film

This one shows the Gregory lens in combination with the film Tilda. It's a subtle difference, but it's a difference. The Tilda film seems to lighten it up a bit more, by adding a bit more haze. It also seems to reduce the yellow/orange tones that the Gregory lens gives to the photo. 

Buckhorst lens + Freedom 13 film

This  one is an example of the Buckhorst lens and Freedom 13 film. This combination seems to brighten the yellow and reduce the shadows a bit. I really liked this combination for this photo, it makes the yellow of the cookie really pop!

And one more...

Adler 9009 lens + Freedom 13 film

This one uses the Adler 9009 lens and the Freedom 13 film. This seems to add haze and light pink tone to it while still letting the yellow of the cookie come through.

As you can see, there's so many choices you can make with Hipstamatic - it all comes down to the look YOU want your image to have, and what feel you're going for. It's all about what you want and what your image is asking for! Just make sure you play around with the combinations and have fun. I will say that it's easy to get overwhelmed at first by all the possibilities, but once you figure out what you're after, that does make narrowing down your selections a bit easier!!

from Kris B.

After being away from home for three weeks and having only the apps on my phone and iPad with which to process photos, I am even more appreciative of the power of these apps.  As with Tracey, Hipstamatic is also a favorite of mine.  I like it because, with the right combination of film and lens, I can create almost any mood.  sometimes it takes some time to find just the right paring of film and lens, although the process is fun.  Seeing how an image can change with just one simple click on a different lens or film still fascinates me every time.

For the purpose of today's "recipe" I chose to photograph grapefruit.  Why?  Because I like grapefruit and was looking forward to eating the prop when I was done.  I'm not sure that this was my best choice.  Tracey and I both ended up using a yellow(ish) citrus theme.  Sometimes great minds think too much alike.  Lol!  Here is my grapefruit, nonetheless.

Loftus lens + Telegraph film

This combination only slightly enhances the color and texture of the grapefruit.

Jack London lens +Telegraph film

Here, by changing only the lens,  a bit of the warmth and brightness seen in the previous image is lost.

Florence lens + Robust film

To me, the slight vignette and border in this combination create a more rustic look.  I did not do any fine tuning of this image.  I might consider either lightening it just a tad or boosting the highlights a little.

I wasn't paying attention when I bought the grapefruit.  I prefer the ruby red variety and was a little disappointed when I sliced this one open.  Just for fun, I tried to see if I could find a Hapstamatic combination that would give me at least the illusion of a ruby red grapefruit. 

Robust + Gotland

I'm not sure that this is exactly what I wanted, but this combination does recover some of the highlights that are lost with the Florence + Robust combination.  I could probably continue to experiment and stumble upon a combination that would create exactly the ruby red grapefruit look that I want, perhaps with a few tweaks beyond the lens and film combinations.  The possibilities with Hipstamatic really do seem endless.

The basic Hipstamatic app is free.  Then you can buy 99 cent add-on packs that give you both a couple of film choices and a couple of lens choices.  We are giving you fair warning that delving into the Hipstamatic world may cause time to evaporate and your paycheck to disappear 99 cents at a time!  Of course, it is all worth it!

Have fun creating with this powerful phone app.