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How-To
July 22, 2015

How to turn photography into art on your Lumia



What do you get when you mix and edit layers of photos taken with your Lumia? The answer: visual art! Here’s how Marcelo Santanna, from Brazil, makes art on his Lumia 640 XL.

Fantasia Painting(8)

A children’s educator, 43-year old Marcello Santanna loves taking photos and is an active member of #FotoClubeLumia, Microsoft Brazil’s photography club.

“I create a moment, a world or a story through my visual art and love to photograph nature, water and eventually turn them into visual art,” he said.

Marcello has four Lumia smartphones and has been using them since seven years (“I can’t get enough of them”). He has the Lumia 720, the Lumia 1020, the Lumia 930 and, his most recent acquisition, the Microsoft Lumia 640 XL.

“I love the screen size and camera of the Lumia 640 XL; it’s very special to me,” he said.

“The battery life is great and because of these features I enjoy creating visual art pieces and get an uninterrupted experience.

We recently had a chat with Marcello to learn how he creates art on his Lumia.

Q: How do you compose your photos?

A: I like to create something related to planets or something futuristic in my visual arts. I follow Miksang society [contemplative photography], try to mix elements of water and fire and like to make my photos surreal, like this one here.

Fantasia Painting(18)

Q: What makes visual art interesting to you?

A: The idea of depicting real world or my imagination using photography or another medium via my Lumia fascinates me. To be able to create this new art form by marrying various layers of photographs is quite different and I fully enjoy it.

Q: Do you edit your visual art on your Lumia?

A: All my photos are 100 percent edited on my Lumia only! First, I take a picture with my Lumia, try the various photo-editing apps and use the filter that best meets my requirements.

To illustrate this, I used Fantasia Painter in this photograph and selected “stickers.” Next, I chose a planet and applied a filter. Here’s the result? Great, isn’t it?

planets

Q: Can you share some photo-editing tips?

A: Always remember, a photograph is a blank canvas and you are an artist with your Lumia. Practice new ideas every day and experiment with your creativity.

Use your imagination and the host of digital-editing apps and their filters such as Phantom Photo , Planetical and Fantasia Painter to translate your gaze into an image.

Q: What are the top five Windows Phone editing apps you would recommend to budding photographers? 

A: Beyond Lumia Camera, I suggest Lumia Creative StudioAdobe Photoshop ExpressFhotoroomCamera360 Sight and Photo retouch.

For visual art, I recommend Fantasia PainterPicsArtPlaneticalLive Kaleidoscope and Thumba Photo Editor.

Q: What are your tips for photographers who snap images with their Lumias?

Planet

A: Be patient and take advantage of the extensive settings in Lumia Camera. Your [resulting] photos will speak for themselves.

Try different angles while clicking because you will need to combine different images to create your unique visual art. I would also suggest you to interact with fellow Lumia photographers on social channels to exchange ideas.

Q: How do you use your Lumia 640 XL day to day? 

A: Besides making calls and clicking photos, I use my Lumia 640 XL to check my emails and set-up schedules and entries in calendar to record various activities carried out by my students.

I also use the built-in Office applications to prepare reports for class assignments and progress reports to be shared with parents. Lumia 640 XL is a great device, which has useful tools and I recommend it to everyone.

Q: What do you do in your spare time besides thinking about your next shot?     

A: I like to shop with my wife, meet friends and walk my dog. Clicking photos with Lumia is my passion and I steal moments to do that every day.

Thanks a lot for talking to us, Marcello!