Crystal Writes A Blog

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I Break for Creativity


A collage of 3 fireworks images originally captured in 2013 and 2020 by much older cellphones. These have been edited and creatively manipulated before being placed in the collage together using the Photo Studio Pro app for Android. Part of the creative editing included the alchemy filters in the Mirror Lab app for Android where the filter builds up and stretches the points of light.
Old Fireworks Made New by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

I’m running late on some things today while I rest from sciatica pain, so in my photo memories, these actual fireworks I captured were desperately needing creative editing. The pink one is the most obvious that it’s a real picture because it only needed a little creativity, but I really have fun with the alchemy filter in the Mirror Lab app for Android.

Here’s one before image…

Mostly white exploding firework with lots of sparkle, but taken with an older cellphone, so lots of photo noise and elements of smoke that needed to be edited out.
Old Fireworks Cellphone Picture Before Editing

You can see where I got rid of the smoke and added some saturation for better colors. Those simple edits, plus an AI request to clean up the smoke behind the big fireworks were done with the Photo Studio Pro app. (Link goes to the free ad-supported app, but if you have Play Pass, this is one of the included pro apps.) After that I applied the alchemy filter.

One more mid process…

Triple fireworks in reds and greens with some editing before the major creative editing done in the Mirror Lab app for Android.
Original Fireworks Image from 2020 by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

This one has been cropped and had contrast and saturation adjustments before putting it through the strong alchemy filter to really stretch out all those points of light.

Finally, when I got a few I liked (and it got too late to work on anymore of them, I grabbed my 3 favorites and put them in a collage using the Photo Studio Pro app.

And that’s my day and night for this post. I sure would love to see some responses from people trying any or all of these apps I share to tell me what you think and maybe show me some results. I do not use affiliate links to share these, so I’m not even certain what’s clicked on, but it’s important to me to think I’m being helpful to people. And because I have no Apple devices, I can only hope you can find some of these if that’s the system you prefer to work in.

July 18, 2026 - Posted by | Blog Break, Collaged, Mirror Lab app, Nonfiction, Photo Editing & Manipulation, Photo Studio Pro app, Photography | , , , , , , ,

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