Tag Archives: specialized filters

Hipstamatic camera for iPhone updated with Foodie SnapPak

When Hipstamatic came out, I had a tendency to not use it. While the ‘retro’ camera effect was fun for many shots, it took so long to get the image from snap to library, I moved on. The app offers all sorts of ‘lenses’, ‘films’, and ‘flashes’. Which, act as filters, but adds to the romance of photography. The setting up the shot prior to taking it rather than enhancing a photo afterwards.

The Hipstamatic app offers the lens/film/flash options in little bundles, or as they call them, ‘packs’. A new pack was released in time for the holiday dinners, Foodie SnapPak. The SnapPak bundle includes Loftus Lens, DC Film and Tasty Pop Flash. Below is an image I took without the flash on. The flash adds a washout to the white areas of the image to add to the effect. In my house, espresso is in the food group. The Foodie SnapPak is positioned around the photography of your feast food items.

 

Adding depth of view to iPhone Photos

For film camera, you can get lenses that have a pretty close depth of field so that everything outside of the distance you focus at is out of focus. This will create an image that is very focused on a subject much like if you were there and was looking at a specific spot.

For the iPhone, you can tap a particular area you want to have in focus when you shoot the shot but does not produce a very sharp change between in/out focus areas. A enhancement to add the depth effect to an image after it is taken is commonly called Tilt Shift.

There are a few photo enhancement app for the iPhone that allows you to add that Tile Shift effect, I’ll cover those later. The issue has long been that you have to add the effect in a circle or straight line. Which means that the object you want in focus has a area around it that should be out of focus but is still in focus. Most people won’t notice it if the image is small.

I just discovered an app, Finger Focus, which allows you to highlight the area you want in focus with your finger… like finger painting. Everything else will look further away. The app includes the ability to adjust the size of the finger ‘brush’, the amount of blur in the background and the transition area between the in focus and the blurry areas.