Apps used [all US AppStore]:
Diptic: [$0.99]
FrameMagic: [$0.99]
Juxtaposer: [$2.99]
Edit the image you wish to use in your app of choice to get the look and feel you want, and the square format.
Once square, open Diptic or FrameMagic (or similar) and select the frame layout you want. Below are the essential steps for each app, you can customize from here.
Diptic steps:
- Open the image in each segment of the frame. For this tutorial, I have used a 3-frame layout with which I changed the sizes to suit the shape of my duck (on the Transform tab, select the bi-directional arrows at the top right to adjust sizes).
- On the Effects tab, select the border button top left, and reduce the border to 0 to enable you to align the images back into 1 image. Once perfectly aligned, you can set your border back to whatever suits your image.
- NOTE: I don’t recommend the rounded outside border as when loading into Instagram you sometimes get a black corner around your chosen frame.
- When you have finished, select the Export tab and select Hi-Res before exporting to your camera roll [top right]
Frame Magic steps:
- I found a step I didn’t know before! Use the sliders to get your edges, sizes and corners the way you want BEFORE you load an image. Then load an image into any of the segments, then tap once on it and wait for the buttons to appear; select “All” and then select “Single Camera Mode” from the options presented. This perfectly fits your image into your chosen segments.
- If you don’t do the above, you can load individual segments and change your shadows and sizes as you chose. However Frame Magic changes the image sizes when adjusting after you have loaded the images. The issue now is that if you are using Juxtaposer for the next step, Frame Magic will have resized the image [see image overlay] so the snap to fit won’t work and you will need to work manually.
- When finished framing, select Share and save the highest output to your camera roll.
The primary reason I often chose Diptic at this point is that it doesn’t resize your images when changing borders. It also allows free adjustment of each segment whereas Frame Magic appears to have a ratio that it uses and adjusts according to this [the circular button between certain segments]. I would like to see more of these to adjust each segment individually.
For my Duck example, I then ran the framed image through a black and white filter. Filterstorm is my preference here, but is a bit buggy since a recent update so not recommending it yet, although it is easily the most powerful app I have used to date [ before the crashing 🙁 ]
Magic time!
Juxtaposer steps:
- Start a new session, Load the base image [my black and white was first], then load the next image which is the un-framed square image that you started with in Diptic.
- Initial load will have the top image smaller than the base.
- Tap the image with 2 fingers to snap it to the full size. This only works when “Move Top Image” is selected else it resizes the base image.
- Now it is careful time:
- Toggle between Pan & Zoom and Erase [or unerase for cleanups]. Try to never “Move Top Image” after you are aligned. Fixable, but annoying (select “Move Top Image” and tap with 2 fingers again)
- In “Pan & Zoom”, pinch and zoom to where you wish to erase to expose your frames.
- Switch to Erase and begin. In my sample, you see the black and white coming through. To leave the duck, you have to pinch and zoom really really close and erase tiny bits at a time.
- NB: If you click undo at any point, the top image resizes again to smaller. Before continuing, repeat the steps to match the size. Rather use “Unerase” where possible.
- A few minutes later [plus a few more if you are trying to mix colour and black and white as I was] you will have an image. Thankfully if you are purely popping out of frames, this process is really fast as all you erase is the parts covering the frame you wish to expose.
You can also use something like ColorSplash to add the black and white after all of this. I just decided to attempt this route. Call me a purist, or moron. Your choice 🙂
You are done! Save the image and post away!
roscoedude
