Hipstamatic and Mextures

Today I wanted to share two of my favorite iOS apps that I have been playing with on a daily basis. Both of these apps have helped me jump start my creativity and are two that I plan on using with my students in the future.

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is one of my favorite apps right now. Hipstamatic is a camera app that allows the user to take pictures with different combinations of films, lenses, and flashes. The difference between Hipstamatic and other photo filter apps is that with Hipstamatic you choose all of your settings prior to taking the photo. What I like about this is that it allows you to take different versions of the same picture in real time. For more on the different combinations check out http://www.hipstamatic-combo-compare.com/ Below are a few Hipstamatic pictures that I took on a recent family trip.
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Mextures

Mextures is a fun and easy to use app that allows users to layer different filters, light leaks, and grain onto their photos. Users also have the ability to select different blending modes.  Needless to say the possibilities are endless with Mextures. If you don’t feel comfortable with creating your own combinations, there are several built in combinations that have been submitted by users. Below is an image remix project that I did using Mextures.

My original picture from Hipstamatic.
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After inserting the picture in Mextures and adding different layers.
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So how can you use these two apps in your classroom? Well many of our students already take and edit pictures on their own to post on various social media sites, so why not use that to our advantage to teach them about visual literacy? Incorporating digital photography is also a great way to incorporate the sometimes forgotten art standards into your curriculum.

For more information on using photography in the classroom check out Stephen Davis’ (@rushtheiceberg) great blog post for CUE. This post is a great starting point for anyone looking to incorporate digital photography in their classroom and has some great integration ideas.

-Ryan

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