OK - I've been wanting to do this for a while now. This is an app by app walk through of how I went from testing out a new app to making something that I am really quite happy about...
First we start with a picture of a friend, typically this happens because I have a new app that I need to test out, and they guinea pig for me.

So I decide to test out the Kick Ass Photobomb app to see if it is worth keeping... Let's see what we get...

I see two things right away that are negatives.
1) I lost a LOT of resolution. Really chopped the image...
2) Watermarked. If you can even call it that in this instance. It's more of a full on advertisement on the image that'll HAVE to be cropped out - which means I'm losing even more of the image.
Not thrilled, but I have to say that the app did some nice work. I liked what I was able to add, and it blended beautifully. I'll keep playing and see where it goes... I took it into Camera+ and cropped. While I was in there I hit it with a little HDR action because I, like the rest of the known universe, find that crap amazing. Makes you feel like a god when it works out well... Here's what I got:

So I like the comic book thing going on so far - The Kick Ass Photobomb app had started that, and the HDR effect kept it rolling... Hmmmmm what else do I have that could push this project along? I've been playing with an app called Dynamic Light - and it gives you good control over HDR effects and you can really get in there and muck around. I gave it a try, and I came out with this:

Yeah... That's awesome. Overdone and blown out - but awesome. And Now I have decided that I REALLY want this to look like a piece of cover art for a Graphic Novel or a Manga. To do that, I have to pretend that I am an artist. I have an app that is called ArtistsTouch that has served me pretty well in the past when I needed to feign talent - So let's go there first:

Loving it - but it's not gonna fly at this point. One thing that I REALLY liked - ArtistsTouch gave me back some of the size that had been stripped away. Making a mental note of that now. It added the brush strokes AND size. That's a win. Now - I mentioned that it wasn't going to fly, and the reason isn't easy to explain. It met my criteria - looked artsy. Looked comic booky. DONE!
Not done. Something is missing. Keep going. I want something different as a finished piece. I'm going to use an app called Pic Blender to combine the last two images that I just showed you, and see what I can see:

That's interesting. It scaled the image to the size of the smaller of the two. Noted, and acceptable, and moving on. LOVE the look of it. Really feel like I am getting somewhere now. I need to shapen up the lines of the piece to create some definition though. It's too soft and fuzzy. ToonPaint might be the most overused app on my iPhone. I use it about as much as I use the mail app... Even before I launch the app, I know that I'm going to be making two images - One will be color, and the other will be black and white. This'll only take a minute, but it'll look like I spent a LONG time getting these images (ToonPaint, I love you SOO much)...
Color:

Black and White:

Love where I am at, and I KNOW that I have to take THOSE two images, and open up Pic Blender again... Observe:

Now... I see things that others don't always see. When I see that image I see two things:
1) His Name Tag
2) That damn napkin dispenser.
They gotta go. Touch Retouch is on the iPhone. If you don't know what it is, it is a slap in the face of the fine folks from Abode... Intelligent fill done on an iPhone? Yep. And well. Check it out:

And like magic - the annoyances in the image have gone away! AND Touch Retouch has also upped the resolution a bit. I've got my piece. I am done!
Or so I thought. I did this weeks ago. I keep pulling it up, and looking it over. I love it. It's just the right blend of looks to make me feel like it COULD be the cover of a Manga or a Graphic Novel... It's got attitude and charm and balance and I am happy with it. But why do I keep noodling with it, then?
I have an app that I sometimes use to help me when things like this happen. It's called Photofunia. It takes your picture and places it on a Billboard, or on a canvas at an art gallery - that sort of thing... It's great, but it's better when you take something that you've created - something that you have put through a firing line of apps - and THEN you see what Photofunia can do for you. And the results can be magical, from time to time:

So that's the story of going from Point A to Point Q (see what I did there?) with a picture and a handful of apps inside of the most remarkable handheld computer on the planet.
I hope that this didn't bore you to the point of no return. we'll be back with something that will be funny (to us) soon enough...