Camera+ is an app I jump to when I need to do a quick tune of a photo. The app has a large group of filters, that can be layered and each can have their level of application adjusted. As well, there are non filter tuning options, frames and rotate. One of the best known Camera+ enhancements is the Clarify tool. Apply the feature to sharpen colors and brighten dark areas… sort of a clean HDR solution without going full HDR.
The adjusters for filters more descriptive now via icons and colorization in the slider.
In addition to the Scenes, Crops, Filters and Frames in now ‘The Lab’ option. Some of the options Camera+ already had like Rotate are in this group now. Also, is the addition of more Power adjustment. This is where Clarify Pro lives, along with DuoTone, SoftFocus and FilmGrain.
Depending on the enhancement, there are different and possibly multiple sliders to get the impact to the level the user is looking for. As the Camera+ slider is moved, a percentage number appears above the line (disappearing when the slider movement is stopped). Notice the other options in the tuning group are available to jump to via the micro icons along the bottom of the page, no need to go back to the overview screen.
The filter pages still show the different filters applied to the image. The thumbnails look larger and easier to see the photo impact. ‘I heart Analog’ and ‘Hollywood’ are still extra charge filter groups. While Camera+ isn’t a ‘photoshop’ of iPhone, it is an app that adds a bit to any iPhone photo.
Tag Archives: photo enhancement
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.
Changing a photo’s impact using gradient fills
I was recently looking to see if there was anything new with Squaready, an app that fills around ‘not square’ photos so they can be posted to sites that require square. Looking over the developers work, I saw they did an app for applying different gradient effects to iPhone photos. Normally, I think of gradients as simply a light to dark area fill, particularly when I want an area of a photo highlighted more than other areas. Looking over the examples their app had, it got me thinking about the many other natural and un-natural enhancements that can be done to a photo.
The app, Gradgram – Fast Gradient Image Editor for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter – …. (serious, that is the apps name!) is an iPhone only app that can be yours for less than a US dollar. Uh, I still can’t get over that name.
Back to gradients. The app allows for the application of gradients colors that you choose from a picker, then apply from an area to another using a horizon or even circle areas. Then share the finished result directly out through the sites mentioned in the app’s name but also to other apps like Camera+ if you want to do additional editing. Looking over Gradgram’s examples, it gives me a few ideas to play with photos I recently took of interior rooms that would pop with the proper area shading.
