Today, we’re still giving away several copies of new photo app Geló. Although the concept is simple — it’s the digital equivalent of using Cokin gels on your iPhone — the app does much more than adding colored gels, shape overlays and gradients to your images.
Fotosyn, the developer of both Geló and the excellent Bleach Bypass apps, have created some online tutorials to illustrate some of the capabilities of this simple, yet versatile app, including sunrise and sunset enhance as well as a killer duotone effect. They’ve allowed us to reprint several of them here. >>>
Geló – Tutorial #1 – One touch colour enhance
This is the first in a whole series of quick tutorials on using Geló.
We’ll start simple with a one touch enhance using the standard palette.
After loading an image, dial the colour selector to the third colour (yellow-orange) and apply to image. Select TINT blend mode and SOLID gel mode.
Within the edit panel, select COLOUR image mode, and STANDARD contrast. Ensure the RGBA values are roughly as shown in the image – and adjust to suit (236, 180, 42, 100)
This effect is great on images with autumnal tones and deep orange/yellows. The resulting image has a glow to these colours and overall the image has more visual impact.
It would also add dramatic impact to a sunrise image – I’ll need to find one to try this out.
Geló – Tutorial #2 – One touch sunset boost
Following on from the first tutorial we’ll take another look at enhancing an image using the TINT function.
The image we’re working with here was taken just around sunset during summer. There was still quite a lot of light in the sky which makes for a lot of contrast between light and dark as the sun is not high enough in the sky to illuminate the shade as it would during the brighter hours of the day, yet bright enough to light the sky.
There are also a combination of textures to add interest, in the form of clouds in the sky and ripples on the water. These will all respond well to enhancement.
Sunset always makes for vivid dramatic colours, weather permitting of course. Sometimes however, we’re not quite there with the light; we’re roo early, or too late. This is when some simple enhancement can be applied to add impact to a photograph.
In this instance I have chosen a purple colour (there are a few in the standard palette), with a SOLID gel overlay, COLOUR image mode and STANDARD contrast. Of course, an orange or red, or more reddish purple would work, and you can adjust the intensity using the alpha slider. It’s all about trying out settings to get it right and to suit your taste.
You could also apply a grad, as many photographers do with real glass lens filters to add colour to the sky and maintain the tone of the foreground. We’ll cover grads and how to use them in a number of ways in upcoming tutorials.
Geló – Tutorial #4 – Duotones
Like tints and sepia tones, duotones are a popular way to add character to otherwise monochrome images. Often used for feature images in design, or to subtly enhance an image it’s a simple technique that involves the overlaying of one colour onto another.
The term duotone is inherited from the printing industry, where two colours are used in printing an image.
In this example, and as homage to the printing process; I have used an image of caseroom lead type taken up close with an Olloclip.
The image is then TINTED to a medium blue in this case over a MONO image with STANDARD contrast.
Other colours work equally as well, more deeper or stronger colours as opposed to lighter tones to work for the shadows; but as always it’s a case of trial and error and what works for your image.
Save this image to your camera roll.
Selecting load image, bring this newly saved version into Geló and dial to a different colour. I have used a golden yellow although a pale purple or light green might work well. As we are working on the highlights; generally lighter colours work best. Apply this colour with the OVER blend mode.
Using the ALPHA slider, the intensity is reduced to give a more subtle effect. Again this depends on your image and personal tastes but this gives you an impression of the scope of image editing available.
Save this new image to your Camera Roll. The final image can be seen here…
More Geló app tutorials can be found here.
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Geló is only $0.99 in the App Store. It’s worth it for the geometric gels you can add to an image, but as you can see, there’s a lot more you can use this app for. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
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