February 9, 2012

Piictu Profile: Nicola Guida

Italian iPhoneographer Nicola Guida has brought a distinctive style to his Piictu images. Composing entirely on his iPhone, Nick cycles images through series of apps to generate just the aesthetic he desires. Inspired, we reached out to @kcinoi to learn about his approach to iPhoneography. 

There was some kind of magic in it, and when I was visiting tourist places, the most wonderful souvenirs were, for me, those small plastic fake cameras with pictures inside. I could spend days playing the photographer.

Later, I had possibility to use a AGFA 110 film camera, I used it for a while, until, at school, whena I was 16, I discovered that there was a photo lab in the basement. Someone lent me a reflex camera, a Cosina, with a crack on the glass of the viewfinder, a creepy 50mm lens, and everything started for me.

That was a great opportunity to understand how to take a picture and how image is created.

For a teen with some interaction problem was a good way to express his thoughts, and of course, a good excuse to take girls to the darkroom..”come downstairs after the lessons…I’ll show how I’ll print your portrait…”

POPA from Beep Insdustries (and sooner or later I will have also their big red button…), ‘cause is a fantastic app that allows to take pictures without frills, but with the possibility to choose the light measuring point.

HDR Photo Camera from Intellsys, I think this one’s the best app to create hdr images (even if sometimes I’m disappointed from the fake look of the images created).

Sometimes I use HIPSTAMATIC, from Synthetic Corp, but not so much…too many lens, filter, effects, I can’t loose minutes trying to choose the best lens+film…and I’m a little sick of those hip images, scratches and color bloops are not always making a pic better.

To edit pictures, I use normally:

CAMERA+ for the quick editing, it have a small and nice collection of effects, even if it’s “clarify” adds a lot of noise to pictures.

FILTERSTORM, I bought it when it was only for Ipad, but when it was released the compatibility with Iphone…well, wow… it is really one of the most complete apps to edit pictures ever released.

I downloaded SNAPSEED for free and it also became one of the tools I use most.

For the out of focus effects I’ve in some of my shots… BIG LENS, quick, powerful, one of the apps I love most.

This is easy to answer… people. People are my favourite subject, I love to take portraits and make street photography. Sometimes I take self portraits, a good way to study light and settings…with a cheap model!

Iphone is just perfect sometimes, cause it’s small, silent, powerful enough, and It doesn’t scare my subjects with a big face pointed lens.

Piictu has been a really fantastic find from browsing the AppStore. Piictu is perfect for me. It allows me to post my pics, even if I take them in other moments. I decided to post only pictures shot with the iPhone, but there is no limit at all. I love Piictu also because is good for inspiration…sometimes I look on it for things just to see how other people see them differently. And, I’ve to say, there are a lot of great photos, in there!