Tag Archives: movement blur

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

Multi iPhone Photos merged into one for higher resolution… and clarity?

I have spent the morning playing with the iPhone app Cortex Camera. I am a bit confused but will stick with it.

The app it’s self is very simple, but the results are confusing me. Cortex Camera takes (they say 100 photos via a video capture) many photos, then merges them together into a single result. The output, according to theory, could be cleaner and with more clarity than just snapping one photo.

Launching Cortex Camera, you have the option across the bottom for the iPhone’s photo library (view only), the shutter button and the ‘settings’.

The settings in Cortext Camera lets you adjust the megapixels, on a iPad it goes above the power of the camera so the merging of photos is filling in a lot of areas to pixel multiply. PNG is not standard for the iPhone camera and is supposed to be a clearer image result. Alignment is if you have the app merge the photos into one or stack so it shows movement blur.

The photo taking experience involves not moving for about 3 seconds. A progress bar appears on the screen, when the photo was successfully taken it is saved to the iPhone’s photo library. If you move too much or something passes through the photo while be taken, the process will stop and warn you to move less. I have taken photos with Cortext Camera inside, outside, low light, bright light, big area, close up… every result is blurry. I have taken more than two dozen photos in both 2 mp and 8 mp settings, I just can’t come up with the perfect situation that the merging of multi photos into one looks better than just snapping a photo.

To compare, below is two regular iPhone4s photos, first is the regular and the second is the iPhone’s HDR. Notice that Cortex Camera zooms in a bit as well is narrower/taller with the regular iPhone photos as 1060 x 1890.