Tag Archives: iPhone camera

Using the iPhone for Long Exposure photography with LongExpo

I have covered a few Long Exposure photography solutions over the last couple years. The camera on the iPhone is quite capable but you have to have more power over the exposure length which is possible with apps like LongExpo. There is actually more to long exposure photography then just holding the shutter open longer. It depends on what the end result is needing to be… a streak of light behind cars zooming by, blur of moving objects like water over a waterfall and low light. Each of those can require a different set up and tuning to the environment around the photographer. Usually, this means a lot of adjustment behind naming from film photography counterparts.

LongExpo attempts to give the options needed for all of the different long exposure via plain english options. Then, add on specialized editing tools to get the final photo closer to what was hoped for when the shot was imagined.

01 LongExpo iPhone

Choosing a different different photo type as seen above allows for access to different tools via the shutter setting button. I like the ‘keep it simple’ both in the options and the text used to describe the feature settings.

02 LongExpo iPhone

03 LongExpo iPhone

After a photo is taken, general fine tuning is possible via a set of sliders. The camera icon returns you to the camera and deletes the photo just taken.

04 LongExpo iPhone

Images managed through LongExpo can be shared or saved at full resolution. I have found most editing apps like to downsize the output to help manage memory usage and the speed of the app. From the ‘Next’ button you can save to your iPhone photo library, create a project so you can edit that photo more later and access to the ‘Magic’ tool set.

5 LongExpo iPhone

“Magic Sharpener” isn’t just a sharpening tool. The area of LongExpo is where you will find the ability to fine tune the image. The tuning is for sharpening and blurring. Paint an area, then choose which your trying to do. Also, the strength of the adjustments. Notice the image in the upper left corner, via this you can choose a photo within the time lapse photography in case an individual photo is better than the mix of the many used to create the long exposure. LongExpo attempts to keep the process easy to start, then more enhanced for those photos needing that extra touch for maximum effect.

06 LongExpo iPhone

07 LongExpo iPhone

Gels and shapes for iPhone photos, a different thinking around enhancements

We know the filter apps, adding a set of effects to a photo to gain a different visual impact. While the filters have simple names, they are actually applying a set of changes for the final effect. This can be seen when using a photoshop like app that breaks changes down to individual steps, each step can be changed before adding the next.

When using a film camera with lenses, one adjustment available is gels. These are most often recognized by color filters that are screwed onto the lens to take the photo though.

00 Gelo iPhone

Gelo on the iPhone is those color lens gels, in an after effect electronic enhancement. Import a photo, then use the color spinner along the bottom of the Gelo screen to choose gradient or solid film and color.

01 Gelo iPhone

Sliding the area at the top downward will provide access to color adjustment outside of the defaults in the application wheel.

02 Gelo iPhone

If a gradient is chosen rather than a solid gel color, the filter start and end points can be adjusted easily via finger dots. Gelo allows the effect application to be at an angle too, not just up/down.

03 Gelo iPhone

A different effect I have not seen in other apps is the ability to add a shape (circle, square or triangle) to a photo. The shapes can be solid fill, adjusted like the background gel filter effects.

04 Gelo iPhone

The shapes can also be resized and moved around for impact. As well Gelo lets the shape to be changed if you find a square works better than a circle or triangle.

05 Gelo iPhone

KitCam on the iPhone enhances photography and photo editing in one app

Generally, there are two types of photography apps for the iPhone. There are Camera apps that alter the way photos are taken with the iPhone. Then, there are apps for enhancing images. The second of the two are more popular, tuning images for sharing on social sites with family and friends. Apps that alter how photos are taken from the beginning have a strong following amongst the retro and film camera fans.

The folks that created the PhotoForge2 editing app has now released KitCam. An app that has film and lens options for how a photo is taken to start with, then editing tool for enhancing more. Amongst the enhancements is even the ability to change the film and lens used when the photo was initial taken.

01 KitCam iPhone

Tap the KitCam lens to slide out the options. Swipe left/right to choose and see the impact of each. Some allow fine tuning their enhancement impacts beyond just applying.

02 KitCam iPhone

KitCam comes with a very nice selection of lenses, films and frames. If you want to go for an extra special effect, there are in-app purchasable groups of each. The built in options have kept me plenty busy, but I can imagine a few shots that would enjoy the upgraded bundle.

03 KitCam iPhone

Sliders for fine tuning contrast and white balance in real time.

04 KitCam iPhone

Popular photography camera are on the view finder screen through the settings icon. KitCam works with single photos and video too.

05 KitCam iPhone

Photos directly after taking or after enhancing, can be shared out in a wide variety of ways. KitCam provides for saving to popular Social Services, cloud storage or open in other apps that you may prefer using to more adjustments.

06 KitCam iPhone

Basic adjustments can be made to the photos like crop, ‘enhance’, and contrast/white balance.

07b KitCam iPhone

There are advanced ‘Pro’ photo editing options within KitCam. Even these tools are included without an extra charge.

08 KitCam iPhone

Choose the film icon in the upper right corner of the photo editing area to have access to the KitCam film/lens options that where available when first taking the photos. This feature works on imported photos that you have taken via the iPhone camera without KitCam.

09 KitCam iPhone

This is the photo as it was taken with the film/lens selections above.

10 KitCam iPhone

Where other apps that offer film/lens combinations to take the photo with initially then export the photo. KitCam lets you change your mind about the film/lens/frame later so nothing is ever stuck with a bad decision.

11 KitCam iPhone

New Black and White iPhone photography fun with release of Tintype SnapPak update

The iPhone camera app Hipstamatic has received a new film and flash updated called Tintype. The additional two vintage films and single lens are available via a 99 cent in-app purchase as a new SnapPak. The group offer a new take on black and white photography for the iPhone. One film leans towards the look found in a police mug shot while the other gives the effect of early photography colorization prior to color film photography.

01 Hipstamatic TinType

The new Tintype SnapPak should prove popular with folks using the Hipstamatic app on their iPhone where more than just a lack of color is required in a photograph. The films and flash are all about setting a mood for the photo’s viewer similar to what was found in an old Kodak Brownie camera.

03 Hipstamatic TinType

04 Hipstamatic TinType

05 Hipstamatic TinType

It’s family holiday time, grab the Polaroid camera

Dad was an electrical engineer so we had the latest tech toys. A SX70 Polaroid fit right in, much more fun at the time than my 126 cartridge camera. Film and Flash bars were not cheap so we weren’t allowed to shoot a picture of every little thing. What really helped was the fun of the film coming out of the camera and watching the grey area of the card slowly become a ‘developed’ picture. Shaking helped the development process, speeding things up a bit as well making the color more even.

Snapping a photo with ShakeItPhoto will result in the classic film card slide onto the screen. I figured the kids I showed it to wouldn’t understand since they had never used a Polaroid camera… nah, they thought it was fun too.

It’s hard to resist not shaking the iPhone as the image starts to appear…

When the image is done, a copy of the Polaroid effect image is saved to your iPhone photo library. I found this didn’t start happening till after I restarted the iPhone. ShakeItPhoto also lets you import a image from your Photo Library to apply the effect to. ‘Sharing’ via email attachment or Facebook is available.

Options are light for ShakeItPhoto. ‘Polaroid’ is a square vs classic picture frame, Fast Processing just ‘develops’ quicker… less time to shake, Keep Original is the image without the Polaroid effect/frame.

Composing the perfect photograph on the iPhone

Most smartphone photography these days are the result of Spray and Pray shooting. Folks are taking a ton of photos and either hope or are just plain lucky to get a ‘perfect’ shot. Few mobile photographers take the time to work through their photos to find the one with an eye pleasing composition, rather they share all their photos with a few getting a lot of likes and comments. The high level of notoriety for a shared image is due to the image being striking, rather on a subject that is hot at the moment.

There is nothing wrong with this, until so many so-so shots cloud systems with clutter that lessen the enjoyment and thus return visits to a sharing location. I have a tendency to hunt out the ‘recognized correct way’ for anything I take on. I find that by having the knowledge, many times the information will be referenced without taking a lot of time to think about it. Photography is supposed to be fun after all, no reason to have so much set up involved that the moment was lost.

Most of the iPhone photography eBooks on the market cover how the Camera works, then dives right into specialty apps to use for the tuning of photos. They cover filters, enhancements and cropping options, but shy away from composition. “Big World, Little Lens” is one that has covers many apps, but took the time to include a nice group of inspirational examples. There isn’t much on why the photos look so nice as it relates to composition, but they do a nice job of showing what is possible via the camera on our iPhone. Included with the eBook is a series of videos showing how to use a handful of enhancement apps.

A bit better for what I was looking for had little to do with the iPhone per the title. “The Digital Photographer’s Guide to the Square Format” carried much more information in the area of getting an impact out of a area of a photo. As it happens, a few of the most popular photo share services and iPhone photo apps are in the square format so I found it matched up nicely to the real world.

I found a few nice articles along the way that explained and showed examples of how the rules work that have been followed since the earliest days of film photography. A glance at the photos shows how the rules work, whether they be in the area of Thirds, Golden, Fibonacci Spiral, try applying the rules to a few photos when walking around and they become more natural and less of a burden when needing to take a quick snap. While rules are made to be broken, know the rules first then add your personalized twist. A recent find on the eBook side of solutions is “Composing the Photo” by Trey Ratcliff. The book is much more about ‘seeing’ the composition of a photo through the viewfinder than adding a filter to make thing brighter or vintage.

An iPhone app that brought this to the fore front for me this last weekend is Sense Cam. The app has little to do with editing, rather it is for helping get the best composition shot from the start. Sliding the shutter button up, provides access to the popular accepted photography rules. Also, there is a few fine tuning options like Bracketing and Timer.

When your taking the actual photo, the rules are overlaid on the viewfinder screen. There is also a ’tilt’ indicator down the left and a horizon through the middle. Both handy if you need to hold your iPhone at arms length for a shot and not used to framing things up by eye. These can be turned on/off to keep the screen clear. All of the ‘rules’ can be individually or as a group used. In the case of the Spiral, Sense Cam provides a button in the upper corner to spin it to match the angle the subject it as so you don’t have to twist your physical iPhone to use the rule.

When shooting out in the ‘wild’, everything is ready to go on the screen to frame up the shot. There is separate focus and exposure and you can lock the settings by swiping to the side of the screen. I know, the photo below is not well done for composition, I was just showing that the guide lines that Sense Cam provides can be difficult to see in bright lit photos where this a lot of contrasting colors. Still, the tool is great way to start on the road to photos worth sharing!

Wide Angle and FishEye lenses for the iPhone 5

I tend to lean towards physical enhancements rather than software when possible. While there are many nice fisheye lens enhancement apps for the iPhone, I prefer using the Olloclip lens on my 4s to get the look I’m going for. The clip on lens is actually three lenses in one little package, that fit snuggly over the corner of the iPhone’s corner and camera. I actually stopped using the set up for a while as it’s tight tolerances didn’t allow it to fit over my iPhone that had a thin vinyl protective back on it. So, when I heard that the iPhone 5 was thinner, I set out to find a way to pick up the looseness as the Olloclip was now going to be too big.

What I hadn’t planned on was that the iPhone 5 camera isn’t placed symmetrically in the corner of the iPhone’s corner. This means that the lens doesn’t line up, and flipping it over to use the lens on the other side is just as bad. Just a millimeter off, but that is enough to effect a photo.

Luckily, someone jumped onto the 3D printing service, Shapeways, and created a lens holding clip to fit the iPhone 5 body and camera alignment.  This does mean someone else could come up with similar on their own and print the clip with their personal home 3D printer, but the price is so low it might not be worth a person’s time. I wonder if they might someday do a threaded insert so my Olloclip lenses will work with this holder… hmmm… doesn’t hurt to ask…

You may have noticed the different colors in the image above. There is the option to choose between a few colors 3D printed pieces. Which makes it fun to match your personality.

The clips (only one needed, holds two lenses for quick changing) hold the high quality iPro lenses (not included). iPro offers several lens options that will snap right into the ring; Wide Angle, Fisheye and 2X Telephoto. I have had mixed luck with telephoto add on iPhone lenses, but the wide Angle and Fisheye lenses are very nice. I own the set from a previous purchase so as soon as the clip from Shapeways shows up I’m set to start shooting. On a personal note, before you go looking at the iPro lens – if you already own a Olloclip, the price might surprise you. iPro gets about double what you paid for your Olloclip. I have never had a complaint about the quality of the iPro lenses though, they are a very nice quality product. I hope they come out with a close up lens soon.

 

Grab your iPhone and shoot some photos for your W Magazine contest entry

Last week I grabbed the latest film/lens pack for my Hipstamatic iPhone photography app. The Pak is free right now, through the end of this month. As usual, just launch the Hipstamatic app, tap the ‘cart’ icon and you should see the pack to download to start shooting right away.

The W Mag Pak includes a nice ‘Magazine Photographer’ camera case… which doesn’t change the iPhone Camera action but maybe helps a person get into the fun of being a magazine photographer. Included in the Pak is the W40 Film and Wonder Lens, but no new Flash.

The resulting photos from the W Magazine Pak are right in line with one of my favorite photography retro look and feel.

Oh yes, the opportunity to have your iPhone photography creative work appear with the W Magazine! From the folks at Hipstamatic:

“Snap some fashion-forward photos and enter our contest for a chance to have your work showcased at a month-long, W-curated exhibition at the Ace Hotel in New York City! W Magazine will even select one overall winner to shoot a photo story for wmagazine.com. Learn more about the contest here.”

 

iPhone effects and the manual photo creations of Ben Heine

A few months ago, I mentioned a iPhone specialized effects app called PowerCam ( Those fun iPhone Photo Effects using PowerCam ). Real time view finder application of the filters means you get what you see when you hit the shutter button. While the app offers many effects and photo enhancements, the one I always go back to PowerCam for is the Pencil over Photo images.

Yesterday, I came across the work of Ben Heine via his Web site. He does similar work with pencil drawings held up over an area to photograph. Not automated like PowerCam, you will notice the similarities though.

As you look around Ben’s site, you will see how he draws the paper art bits to hold up. Then, what you may have missed in the photo above, it becomes obvious that Ben is adding things to the area that isn’t there. Like below, in the actual background area of the dog, there was no cat. He has done some very creative Paper Sketch over Photo images like standing on top of a building when actually on the street and seeing through someone down to their skeleton.

The Ben Heine site is much more than these effects. If you need to look through an increadible portfolio for ideas or looking to add to you collection, spend some time here.