Mobile Alchemy ICM and ME with Deborah Loeb Bohren

About the series

As we all know, the best camera is the one you have with you, and today that camera is more than likely your phone, which can do far more than you might imagine. In this three-part series Deb explores how creative techniques once reserved for DSLR and mirrorless cameras, multiple exposure and intentional camera movement, are now fully achievable using your phone.

Deb has increasingly been using her mobile phones to create her abstract images. She is, in her own words, bilingual in iPhone and Samsung. Now she wants to pay it forward and share what she has learned from creating thousands of ICM and multiple exposure images on a phone.

Designed for curious photographers of all levels, this series introduces and demystifies several mobile apps that unlock advanced creative control. You will learn how to use Slow Shutter, Bluristic and Average Camera Pro to layer exposures, embrace motion and deconstruct familiar subjects. For Samsung Galaxy users, Deb will also show how to use Expert RAW's multiple exposure mode, which offers all the bells and whistles of a traditional camera. We will also spend time creating layered images after the fact using two more apps: Fine and iColorama.

Across three sessions we cover app settings, shooting strategies, and practical approaches to seeing and composing for abstraction on a small screen. You will experiment with movement and layering to make images that move beyond documentation and into interpretation, using just your phone.

By the end of the series you will have the skills to use the power of your phone to create dynamic images.

Outline

• Part 1: Intentional Camera Movement — Wednesday 9 September, 19:00 BST

  Deb kicks off the series by quickly covering essential settings, then dives straight into creative play. You will explore how to harness motion, time and blur using the Slow Shutter and Bluristic apps to create dynamic, expressive ICM images, right from your phone. This session is about loosening control, embracing movement, and discovering how small gestures can produce big visual impact.

• Part 2: Multiple Exposure — Wednesday 7 October, 19:00 BST

  This session shifts focus to layering images in-camera. You will learn how to create compelling multiple exposures using Slow Shutter, Bluristic and Average Camera Pro, and how these mobile tools compare to the multiple exposure modes found in traditional cameras. We will also explore the Samsung Galaxy's creative potential using Expert RAW. Expect practical tips, creative strategies and lots of aha moments.

• Part 3: Abstraction After the Fact, and a Celebration — Wednesday 4 November, 19:00 GMT

  The final session opens the door to unlimited experimentation. Working with layers, blend modes and texture, you will learn how to build richly abstract, multi-layered images after capture using Fine and iColorama. This is where intuition takes the lead, and where your images can go far beyond the original frame.

We will also spend part of the evening celebrating what you have made. Share the images you have created since session one and Deb will talk through them with you, so we finish the series looking at your work rather than only hers.

Sharing

This is a hands-on series, so you will have somewhere to show what you make. We will set up a private sharing page just for people on the course, where you can post your own images and see everyone else's. It will not appear on social media and only fellow attendees can see it, so it is a warm, safe space to experiment and cheer each other on between sessions.

Deb will look at what you have made and talk through it with you, so the series ends with your work rather than just her own.

You'll need

A phone. That is genuinely it.

Please download the apps before session one. Deb recommends this strongly, as it means you can follow along and try things live rather than watching. The apps covered are Slow Shutter, Bluristic and Average Camera Pro for shooting, and Fine and iColorama for editing. Samsung Galaxy users will also use the built-in Expert RAW.

Who is this for?

Curious photographers of all levels. No experience needed, and no equipment beyond the phone in your pocket. If you have looked at abstract work and assumed it required specialist gear, this series is the answer to that.

About Deb

Deb is an award-winning photographer based in New York. She serves as a frequent judge and guest presenter for camera clubs across the US and England, as well as teaching a range of photography classes. Her newest venture, The Traveling Lens, has her leading international travel photography workshops in London, Paris, Lisbon and New York. She also chronicles her global adventures in words and images as a contributing editor for Everett Potter's Travel Report.

See more of Deb's work: deborahloebbohren.com · travelinglensphototours.com · Instagram @the_peripatetic_lens

From Mark

I have seen over 600 presentations and Deb's first series for us was among the very best. I said so to her at the time and I meant it. The pace, the clarity, the complete absence of showing off. What I like about this one is that there is nothing standing between you and having a go. Reframing Reality was about how to think. This is about going out tonight with the phone in your pocket and actually doing it.

She describes herself as bilingual in iPhone and Samsung, which made me laugh, but it also matters. Most mobile photography teaching quietly assumes an iPhone. This series does not.

Tickets

Sessions only — £18

All three live sessions, recorded, so if you cannot make one live you will never miss a thing.

Sessions plus the optional guide — £34

Everything above, plus Deb's written guide to the apps and settings covered in the series. Worth having open beside you while you work, and worth keeping afterwards when you cannot remember which setting did what.