Tag Archives: iPhone tool

Free solution to create movies using photos and audio all on your iPhone

I have used a few solutions on my Mac to quickly assemble short videos using images I took on a road trip, add a bit of audio, then share with family and friends. It has always seemed like something I should be able to do on the iPhone, quick and easy, but nothing built-in offered the ability.

Interesting, the solution I found is free. The app is from the Blurb folks that offers a great site for uploading your images to, which they will create a print photo book for you. Their Blurb Universal app is just as easy to use. Simply launch the free app, create a new ‘project’, then start importing photos from your iPhone photo library. Photos can be simply placed next to each other or in specialized layout templates.

After your iPhone photos have been added, you can add text, adjust the size of each and rotate to create the effect your going after. It is also possible to maximize the photos beyond a square where the image is actually wider than how Blurb imported it. There is a nice selection of transitions choices for how the end movie stitches the photos together too.

Each image can actually be tuned individually. Blurb’s editing tools are powerful enough to adjust photos to better match each other. While I do a bit of clean up prior to adding to the app, actual editing with the images next to each other makes it easier to get the brightness and colors closer to each other.

When you have the images flowing as you like, move over to add your audio. The whole set up Blurb is providing is great for recording your voice to the video of your iPhone images. When ‘done’, the completed video is saved to your iPhone’s photo library to share as you please.

Floor plans and dimensions of a room using just your iPhone and a free app!

I just knew this had to be possible. We used to do it with a quick sketch on an Newton screen and pacing off the floor. Why couldn’t we collect data with our smartphone camera and then use modern processors to crunch dimensions of the room we are in. Well, actually we can, with the help of the free app MagicPlan.

MagicPlan is free to use for non commercial use. Launching the app starts you off with a list of videos on how to use MagicPlan. You can’t get past the videos without watching at least the first ‘how to’. There are many in the list to get the maximum out of the app for any room or building layouts. Next, choose to view a previously created room map, start a new, set english or metric measurements or scale calibrate. The calibration step can happen right after taking a series of room photos later if you find the need without having to return to the start page.

Choose to start laying out the rooms of a house, MagicPlan tells you where in the world you are, complete with map and address. Take a picture of the location, great for when your touring houses to buy. MagicPlan handles multi story houses, just tap the big green ‘+’ button to get started.

OK, after watching the videos, I learned all I have to do it take a panorama photo of a room, telling MagicPlan where any corners are. As you can see below, the yellow corner graphic is the alignment tool. As you turn the iPhone, the yellow line aligns with a corner, the lower split even moves about by it’s self to match the angle of the corner. When the line is on the corner, tap the button on the right of the screen, then continue to the right to the next corner. For doorways, align with the corners of a doors and tap the button on the left of the screen. Serious… that is all you have to do!

From just snapping shots of corners, MagicPlan produced the below. I just had to pace it off to see how close it was… insane, spot on! All of the slight angles and cut backs matched up. I didn’t put in the doors in this text, but did do one inside of the house and the doors addition meant the finish result would be perfect for thinking about furniture placement without having to be in the room.

Move from room to room and capture all dimensions, stitching together for an overview of the floor. You can add items within each room like partial walls, room dividers and closets too. Imagine what buying a house will be like if you can get a full layout in just minutes. MagicPlan is actually amazingly accurate. We can image a lot of different businesses will be stepping up for the commercial version.

Controlling the light source in iPhone photography – LensLight 3.0 is now available

There are two different lines of thinking when it comes to changing light sources in photos. There is those cute little dots of light to be added to photos for the Bokeh effect and there there is bright area highlights like a heavy light source. While I may play with both capabilities in this one app, LensLight’s new features means I will be leaning more towards the serious side of enhancing street walk photos.

I’m just diving into LensLight 3.0 and it’s doing everything as described so I won’t be knocking out a quick good/bad post, let me give the app a few days on the street before commenting. It is on sale for 99 cents right now so I thought I should at least mention it so you can jump in before the price goes up.

LensLight offers both light enhancements as well as texture filters. While the ability to adjust the light source location is lacking from more than adding the effect, the color picker for colorizing the filter is very nice. The color filter chooser actually took me from the app being cute to being a serious tool. Most of my photos shouldn’t be constrained to a default light when the world around us has reflective light of so many colors. With LensLight, the light splash can reflect the world around the subject in the photo.

 

InFrame Foto – the iPhone multi photo framed image builder – with enhancements

I know, I know… another iPhone app that lets you put multiple photos into individual boxes on a big frame that you can then create a single image from. True, InFrame Foto is that, but it offers just enough extra included features that I thought it was worth a mention. That, and it’s today’s Free iPhone app.

The first thing to notice in InFrame Foto is that there four screens of nine options each for frame layouts. Only the first page is what I would think of as ‘standard’ layouts, the rest are much more creative.

Frames in InFrame Foto can be adjusted for line width, roundness of corners and coloring.

Tap a box to be taken to your iPhone’s photo library, choose and image and it is brought into that part of the frame. The photos can be pinch/expanded and moved around to best match the area chosen. Tap again to choose a different picture for that area if you change your mind.

A tap and hold on a photo in InFrame Foto opens the image into a photo editor. A nice enhancement to the multi image framing apps as now it is possible to get the photos closer to each other in brightness and contrast where with others you can easily get photos conflicting with each other.

The photo enhancement area continues via a swipe,  offering more ways to clean up and customize each of the photos in the frames.

‘Effects’ in the editing area is InFrame Foto’s filter group. While not very large compared to other app that specialize in filters, the ones that are available are so much more than other multi image framing apps offer.

Adjustments are made through dials and sliders. Everything is temporary till you select the ‘Apply’.

I was actually pretty excited about the Text feature in InFrame Foto. Not only is the color adjustable, you can also resize and twist with the white do in the corner. Until you select the ‘Apply’ button, you can tap on the text and edit it too.

Saving to your iPhone photo library and sharing the last option on the work area screen. The image can be exported in two sizes, with the ultra-res producing an image that is 1350 x 1800. InFrame Foto also supports sharing through Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter… and there is a ‘more’ button too.

 

Using your iPhone Photos to create and share instructional guides – at no charge

Making a walk through or instructional guide doesn’t have to be hard. And, it no longer has to be done on a desktop computer.

I found a free app for the iPhone called SnapGuide. It takes what many folks feel is a difficult process and makes it easier and much faster than many other less powerful options. Also, when your done, you can share your creation at no charge on the app’s site to share with others or keep to a private group of viewers.

The SnapGuide app allows you to use photos and movies you have on your iPhone. It is just a matter of inserting the visual, add some text, view, rearrange, and save to share. Just about anything you need to walk someone through can be made into a multi image/text page turner so there is never confusion going forward. I really wish other processes where brought to the iPhone to be able to use my iPhone shot work.

 

 

Adding Depth and Movement to your iPhone Photos

In my early days of shooting film, I spent a lot of money on film as I took shot after shot, learning about different focal depths. It wasn’t that I was going for a particular look, I was trying to learn what visual impact the photo made depending on how what part of the photo was in focus. Recently, there has been a lot of attention to the Lytro camera in the area of being able to set the focus of the shot later (and a lot of other light versus color cool technology). The idea is that you take pictures with everything in focus, then say what depth you want in focus and everything else blurs to give the brain the idea of how far away you where looking when you snapped the shot.

On the iPhone, you can set what depth a item is away that will be in focus by tapping it on the screen. This makes a big difference for close up shots but for photos more than a few feet away, everything is in focus. So, how do you get the effect of depth focus like you could do with a old film camera lens?

One way is through apps like AfterFocus. Many of the options just blur the background, similar to a TiltShift effect so read the feature list prior to buying. AfterFocus actually has some ‘smarts’ and offers a lot more options while being at the same price as those ‘simpler’ solutions. AfterFocus lets you ‘color’ in the area you want in focus, or you can use the Smart tool… which offers you the capability to put a quick line in the area of in ‘focus’ and ‘background’. The app will calculate the outline of the focus point area and split for you. Completely removing the back and forth of trying to get a perfect line around a object with your finger.

After the areas of focus/blur have been applied, you can fine tune the type of depth on the next screen. Here also, AfterFocus lets you add a vignette or sharpen the image to bring out the details.

After the areas of focus has been chosen and applied, you can adjust the level and type of blur too. AfterFocus has a ‘motion’ blur option that will give a slight movement to the background like you would get if you where taking a photo of a person running. Also, below is the ‘Fading Background’ applied where the foreground is brought back into focus. Normally apps require you to go back and do that manually, otherwise you end up with a camera floating in air when the blur is all around it.

What iPhone photo app would be complete without ‘filters’? Yes, AfterFocus lets you apply a variety of filters too.

Normally I would cover what the output size of the image is at this point of the post. AfterFocus lets you choose that sizing, everything to small Web graphic to full resolution size. Sharing is through saving to the iPhone’s photo library, as an attachment to an email and through the social sites Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Picasa.