Abstract apps – iPhoneography’s dark side…

Increasingly, the trend in iPhoneography is moving towards post production values. It’s becoming more common to find mad edits uploaded to Instagram every day. The term iPhoneart is now widely recognised and I believe it’s a legitimate art form. So which apps are the best for achieving weird and wonderful effects? Here’s a few that will turn your photos into abstract masterpieces.

PXL

Every time I see someone use this app on Instagram it’s followed by at least one comment asking what it is. It’s popular with hipsters because it has several editable geometric patterns. When you take or upload a photo to it it’s almost like the shapes and patterns within the app become the pixels of the image. Hence the name, I suppose. A great trick is to use this in conjunction with a blending app like image blender or Art Studio so you can add weird shapes and patterns to a regular photo for an abstract juxtapose.

My breakfast goes abstract

3D Photo

Possibly one of the weirder ones.. 3D Photo opens with a selection of shapes that appear to protrude from the screen. Whatever you point the camera at will find itself taking the form of these shapes. Again, when used in conjunction with a blending app, the possibilities really are endless. I’ve seen people take a photos with the diamond shape and then use Blender to cut it out and add it to a river scene, hovering in the air just above the water. Or have it appear wedged in the sand at a beach. Something to that effect.

Abstract napkin

Flowpaper

Not strictly a photography app but a lot of people do use it to add the strange patterns it makes to their photos. You can get some really dramatic effects with it by importing a picture and then running your finger over the screen. From out of your fingers tips appears a feather like trail of wonderful weirdness that has to be seen to understand. It’s even fun for just messing about with on a plane background as a time killer. You can get really creative with this app. I’ve used it several times on my iPhoneart Instagram feed @Pimotel see if you can tell which ones.