Tag Archives: iPhone Photos

Fujifilm now offering wireless pocket instant printer for iPhone

I covered the little wireless printer from LG that I have been carrying (LG Introduces An iPhone Bluetooth Version Of The Polaroid ZINK Pocket Printer). It has proven to work nicely, with the ZINK paper creating nearly indestructible long life ‘little’ prints that have proven nice to share or review how the printed photo will look.

Now, Fuji is jumping in with its Instax technology. If you remember the Polaroid cameras that pushed out the square framed pictures which developed in minutes, same thing, just smaller. Both the ZINK and Instax technologies are from the folks at Polaroid many years ago, but both have been updated and work nicely in today’s connected world.

For the Fujifilm Instax Share SP-1, it is more than just portable wireless printing. The device actually lets multiple people connect to it (via a free app) and print. Great fun at parties and gatherings. Using the app, some tuning can be done to the image prior to printing, then just send it and out pops a photo that literally develops right in your hand. The finished product is about the size of a business card. It’s the same film/printing that comes out of the Fujifilm Instax cameras (love my Mini 90 Neo Classic).

The Fujifilm Instax Share is portable, it is a bit big to put in your front pant pocket. There are colorful carry bag options, sold separately, as is the wall power plug. The printer comes with CR2 batteries (required 2) which Fuji says is good for 100 prints (printers are 10 per pack). The batteries are readily available and will set you back about a couple bucks a piece when needed.

While the device has yet to be delivered, I am familiar with the Instax prints which are pretty clear. The printer shows that it will be available June 1, but Lomography has brought a few over to the US to make available now. Their pricing isn’t much more than what folks are buying directly off the shelf in Japan so it’s nice to see no ‘limited quantity’ price gouging is going on.

I’ll post up some photos of the device and prints when it gets here in a day or two.

iPhone Photographer Magazine To Read On The iPhone

For the Digital and Film photographers that are fans of the Leica Camera, I mentioned earlier a specialty iPhone magazine of short articles and photo galleries, LFI (Leica Photo Magazine Comes To The iPhone). For the iPhone Camera user, there is now FLTR, a weekly publication.

The second issue of FLTR came out today, and continued the same level of reporting so I thought it was time to share the find. Like I mentioned above, it breaks from the normal iOS magazine by being a iPhone only publication, found in the Newsstand app. So, you won’t be getting another app icon outside of the Magazine area and you won’t be reading on the iPad.
All of the ‘magazine’ features are available. Within the FLTR ‘app’ is familiar iOS Magazine features, just on a different layout to fit the screen much smaller than that of the iPad.

Each FLTR issue has a regular group of contents plus specialty content unique to the particular magazine. The Table of Contents below gives a quick overview of the contents and the ability to jump to the area with a tap. Articles are long enough to not just be a blog news article, yet short enough to get through quickly even on the smaller screen.

Navigation in FLTR on the iPhone is similar to most popular magazines on the iPad. Along the top of the page is the ability to exit the magazine to the Library, bookmarking and share. Dragging from the bottom of the screen will result in a thumbnail viewer for the issue allowing you to sweep through to a specific location, tap to expand and read.

Going to any area listed on the Table of Contents, you will be presented with a cover page for the area or article.

After the article cover page, the articles are on a single scrolling page. In the case of FLTR reviews of individuals, several pages can follow the article with single photo per page.

All the content doesn’t come free. The weekly magazine has a variety of subscription models to choose from.

Every page of FLTR has a double circle on the lower left that is used to pull up a row of share buttons, use, then return to hidden. A trade off of using the area for more content access given away to the app’s need for your promoting it. Other than that, the only issue I have seen so far is that when you exit a magazine, then return, your not returned to where you left off. The content is very nice, looking forward to week three!

Instagram Pics Become Contact Cards And Party Invites

When photos on Instagram escape, they become fridge magnets, wall size frame pictures, photo books, stickers and even calendars. Printstagram is adding Business Cards to that list.

Using the free PrintStudio app, choose one or several photos from your Instagram, add text to the back side and they will print the batch for you. While many folks say “gone are the days of Business cards”, having ones that are square and present a message through a photograph might bring the paper social sharing back. At least, for the circles Instagram posting folks run in. This could be handy for photographers, but thinking beyond that, imagine a tour guide, sporting person, maker, etc… photos on contact cards don’t have to be just marketing photography skills.

Since these are square pieces of paper with a photo on one side and text on the other, why not use for party invites or company announcements. Basically, anything that would normally go out on a small flyer could get added depth by printing a photo on the other side. Of course I have a set on order and will report back here about quality and speed of service.

So You Want To Start A Magazine With Your iPhone Photos

For a fun view of creative minds at work, I sometimes visit behance.net . There, anyone can post their creative work for others to see and comment on. It can help a person fine tune their ideas as well possibly lead to work coming from someone looking for the creative person’s talents.

I was searching for vintage work when I came across several Polaroid themed projects. One, a magazine about the history of Polaroid and The Impossible Project linked off of behance.net to a service provider. The magazine/book appears to be a school project so it was never produced, but The Impossible Polaroid Book is a nice online read.

The magazine/book was being hosted on issuu (I didn’t get it till autocorrect tried to replace with ‘issue’). The service hosts small run online magazines as well as online versions of major printed publications. For someone looking to post their hard work, there is a free service of ‘Essential Features’. Beyond that, if site integration, targeted distribution, and other customizations are $29/$39 per month. What a great way to put together a magazine idea, promote, and see if there can be a following that could turn into a for-pay product.

The Essential Features include Detailed stats and analytics, SEO, Timed launch, social share to Facebook/Twitter, Human support, Embed widget, Javascript API, Search API, and up to 500 pages per publication. Viewers use a reader that supports 150 dpi resolution, dock navigation, single/two page layout, and in doc search.

There doesn’t seem to be any limitations on the quantity of publications an account can have and no limits to the number of public views.

The for-pay upgrades on issuu includes promoting the publication to the issuu monthly readers, better stack organization, unique URL, etc…

What will it be? Tips on iPhone photography? Your favorite shots? Special edits you have done to photographs? Issuu appears to be one way to see if anyone shares in your interests.

iPhone Photos Become Printed And Shipped Products All Using The iPhone

I have mentioned using Zazzle before as a great way to bring my iPhone photographs into the physical world. Generally, this means photos printed to mousepads, notebooks, iPhone cases and tshirts… the usual. Most, I post up for others to buy, netting me a little unmanaged profit.

Zazzle has moved the creation of the products (and ordering for those not needing to create anything new) and shipping all to the iPhone. Even, drop shipping, meaning a fun gifting option. No one needs to know I created, ~~posted~~, ordered and shipped while sitting in a business lobby waiting for attendees to arrive. All via a wheel picker interface I pointed out earlier that I liked on other apps. The picker’s options are obvious if you have a ‘buyer’ using it in mind.

The free Zazzle app lets a person search for products created by others by buyer type, pricing and product type to quickly narrow in on what you need to buy.

It appears though that I can not create a product via the app to put up on my store. Perhaps that will be added later… or, I could just be missing the option. You can get to Your Products via the left side pull out if you need to order an item you created via the desktop interface.

Today (11/25/2013) only, Zazzle is offering 20% everything using CODE: BLKFRIDAY301

First, the Zazzle app is for people to use to shop what others have created. Secondary is the creation side using your own iPhone photos.

After you upload a photo, sweep through a few options to add the image too, then customize.

Of course, ornaments of a wide variety of designs.

You can even create wrapping paper (several patters available) through the Zazzle app.

iPhone Photography App Update: Camera+ for the Win!

So, your favorite app, how did it handle the move to iOS7? Did the developers do a new UI to look more like the new flat OS? Where any features added? Did they release a new version you had to buy, just like the old version, but will be the only copy of the software continued to be supported?

If you use Camera+ and follow the team’s updates notes, there is always a bit of fun humor. The update released today had bug fixes, new features, enhancements to the UX and poked fun at a title that took advantage of their customers by charging again for the same app.

Camera+ for me is an app that keeps getting used. I have a nice selection of apps to do light to extensive photograph enhancements. Camera+ is usually my first app to hit since it is best at adding just a little more to a photo without going over the top. Basically, it’s the app that helps enhance the photo’s story. There are a couple additional filter packs that can be in-app purchased, but they aren’t required for continuing to use the app on a new iPhone/iPad and new iOS.

Below I have inserted a brief Camera+ UX history via screen shots. The first is the Pre-iOS7, then iOS7 slightly flattened and improved buttons, and finally today’s update with nicer example thumbnails and text overlay. Simple, yes. That is all that is needed.

One fun area of enhancements in Camera+ 4.2 is the addition of the filters that Apple now includes with their camera app. Also, higher resolution Burst Mode snaps. No extra charge!

Oh yea… here is the text from the update. Guess who Camera+ is poking fun at for their iOS7 upgrade path.

So the previous version of Camera+ had a little bug where burst-mode shooting would crash. We fixed that.

We almost stopped there and just called it version 4.0.3, but then figured that it’d be the perfect time to boost burst-mode snaps to full-resolution on devices that could handle it (like the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, and the unapologetically poorly-selling iPhone 5c).

That was enough to justify calling it version 4.1. And then we thought about jumping on the bandwagon where we put Camera+ out as a whole new app and let existing customers pay for it all over again. And of course there’d be the ensuing sh__storm where those customers felt cheated and we’d have to backpedal and reverse that shortsighted decision.

So it was Clear that that would’ve been a knuckleheaded move, so instead we decided to treat our lovely customers fairly and make Camera+ 4.1 a free update as we’ve always done. But then we felt like it was all give and no take… so to make us feel better about giving-in too easily, we chose to call it version 4.2. That’ll teach you to mess with us.

Then we felt bad about jumping ahead two version numbers and giving you little for your troubles. So we added a new effects pack that includes all the filters that Apple’s standard Camera and Photo apps include (for users on iOS 7). Two hours of coding (and eight trivial Core Image filters later), the Standard Effects Pack was born.

The Fun Of Creating And Sharing Printed 6 Inch Photo Booklets With The iPhone

The list of companies offering to print photos taken with the iPhone continues to grow. Many have different offerings to set them apart from the others. Cards, iPhone cases, TShirts, mugs, photo books, magnets and postcards. The latest, from Kindred, is a print and mail service for a booklet of a dozen photos. The images are full bleed to the edge and each can have a bit of text added over the top of them.
Kindred’s free app lets you choose photos from any of your iPhone’s photo libraries, your social sites… or you can have the app auto choose photos that you have taken over the last week. After photos are chosen, a larger view is presented to assign a cover, sort, delete and add more.

Kindred offers the page inside the front cover for extended text. From this thumbnails view, just drag/drop to adjust the order the images will appear in the booklet. No actual photo editing is available.

There is also a view options to see individual photos and how the photos will flow next to each other when printed. Deleting and adding text per photo is offered in this view.

When the photos are arranged as you like, enter an address to send the booklet to. Kindred would like you to subscribe to a monthly (free month if you sign up for the subscription service) photo booklet. If you don’t think you will have a couple minutes to put the booklet together each month, don’t forget the ‘auto’ create feature. The monthly booklet is $5, plus the monthly $4.95 subscription.

If you would rather not jump right in with a Kindred subscription, single booklets can be created, printed and mailed for $11.95 each. When you checkout, the app offers to let you take a picture of your credit card to remove the need to enter the info. If you do it, you still have to enter the expiration date and card’s code, so it is only saving the time to type in the card number.

iPhone Photographers Print Without The Need Of A Computer

After a photograph is captured with the iPhone, there are many ways to share the image with others via social share or cloud storage. While, it’s a very digital world now for photos, there is still a need to be able to print the photos too. Most people will sync their iPhone photo library to a computers which can then print, but that can be a limited line of thinking when the iPhone allows so much mobility.

I have covered a couple printers in the past that I have and use regularly. Along with physical mobile printing options, there are also online printing services available to use with the need of a computer. Everyone knows to think through both price and portability of the printing solution. First on my list though is the resulting image print. What the prints will be used for will impact the final choice.

Jumping right to the point, here is a snapshot of a few of the printing outputs available for the iPhone –

A: The wireless CP900 from Canon. The prints are the size of a postcard, with the option to print full bleed or with a boarder. The paper is either Canon Branded back or with a mailing postcard marking (text area, address area and stamp box). Printing involves the paper automatically passing through the printer 4 times to layer the colors and protective surface on.

B and B: Two examples of printing through the LG PD233. It is the most portable printer being barely larger than the iPhone, using bluetooth, and the ZINK active paper. Kids love being able to have a little print right away from something that fits in a pocket (takes about a minute). QR barcode can automatically be added if the image is also uploaded to a social share service.

C: Just for reference, a real Polaroid print from a OneTouch Land Camera.

D: Printic service printed. The service charges less than a dollar per print uploaded from the iPhone, the service prints and mails in a nice envelope. Text can be added to the photo via the app too. The quality is very nice, but it isn’t instant gratification.

E: StickyGram is an online printing service. This is an example of their Instagram magnets (9 different per sheet). It can be accessed via the iPhone browser. The magnets are only one of the many printings that are offered using a person’s Instagram photos.

F: Another ‘for example’, this is an print from the current Polaroid camera, like the Canon uses Zink paper.

G: Not shown, Prinstagram has an iPhone app (called Print Studio) to select the print size and format (small/large cards and small/large photo books) and photos. They offer as many print sizes and formats as there is examples above. Again, not for instant gratification but provides a nice quality product.

Creating Art With iPhone Photos Isn’t All Just Filters

Ready for a change? A newer iPhone photo enhancement app… that ISN’T a bunch of filters. I still enjoy using filters effectively to expand on the emotion of a photo. But, this post is about the world outside of ‘enhancements’ and more about ‘art’. An app that fits the ‘art’ from iPhone photos is Deco Sketch. For me, it’s fun, but looking at the examples there are those that can use the app’s tools to make very memorable images.

Deco Sketch is a geographic art tool to use on photos taken with the app or imported from the iPhone’s photo library. Art sketches are done via 10 brushes that can be adjusted for 130 different effects. The brush strokes can also be adjusted with 15 configurations. And, exporting is a full 8 MP (2448 x 3264).

The tools buttons are well done with little explanation needed to know what it behind them. The application of an effect is more than selecting and applying a bunch of blotches. The geographical lines apply differently depending on starting points, movement of your finger and ending point.

Choosing a different geographic option in the lower of the two rows, results in a new line of fine tuning options above it. Select one to apply. There is also a color picker to use for the lines. I found it fun to just blur the color object in the image. Below is one of the many ‘hint/tips’ that pop up when using Deco Sketch… while they can be turned off, I found them very useful to leave on.

Using the magnifying glass, you can zoom in/out to get better precision. Also, using the button in the upper left corner removes all of the tools buttons for a clean work space.
The finished Deco Sketch image can be shared out of the app via email, message, Twitter, Facebook, use as a photo for a contact, save to the iPhone photo library, print or ‘copy’ to open in another app.

Put your iPhone photos on a T-shirt… tell everyone… make money

There are many options to have products made with your iPhone photos, a few of those options have iPhone apps to do the creative work on. A new service and free app joining the mix is Snaptee.

As the name implies, the iPhone app is a tool you can use to create T-shirts with. The T-shirts can then be purchased as well offered for sale via the Snaptee Web site. T-shirts are priced at $19.99 + shipping. If a T-shirt is sold with your design on it, Snaptee pays you 10% of the sale (to your PayPal account when the amount owed to you reaches $100). You can also create/buy T-shirts that are private so others can not see or buy. If you set a T-shirt creation to ‘private’, the service does not offer the ability to change your mind later and offer for sale. The solution is to ‘remix’ your design onto another T-shirt. Speaking of ‘remixing’, this is an option that has to be allowed near the last step of creating your T-shirt. But doing this means anyone can take your design/photo and remix onto a T-shirt they offer to sell. So, your photo and T-shirt design is protected to you by Snaptee… unless you let others remix, in which case your photo is up for grabs.

The Snaptee T-shirt design app lets you choose from a series of templates or free form your own design. You can add text, which can be colored via a picker. I noticed quite a few T-shirts on the site that where just lettering and no photos at all so there is no limitations on your creative there. Speaking of the site, if you want to make any money selling your T-shirts, you will need to do all of the promoting yourself. The Snaptee site is a single long list of T-shirts which means it is by chance that someone would happen upon your creation. Your best off creating, then promoting. Is this better than Zazzle or CafePress? Snaptee is a new addition to this group of long term professionals so while their list of offerings may be limited right now, they may be highly motivated to make this a winning solution.

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