Tag Archives: square images

Lomo photography on the iPhone doesn’t have to be square, Lo-Mob provides options

When it comes to specialized apps for taking images that look like they were taken with a low end film camera, the list is long of quality and junk options.

The majority of the apps take square photos and offers a few filters. That may work for posting to a few of the popular photo sharing services. There are many other things I like to do with my photos so when I saw the app Lo-Mob offered effects and a variety of image formats, I was happy to give it a try.

Import a photo or take one through the Lo-Mob app then scroll through the options of enhancements to use:

39 vintage and experimental photographic filters for all your pictures
Classic square vintage photography
35mm experimentation : sprocket photography
vintage 35mm slides
square Through The Viewfinder (TTV) simulation
AE-1 Through The Viewfinder
old and modern emulsions
glass contact photography
classic format instant photography + reversed + deconstructed
square, tall and wide instant photography
photocards

After choosing a filter/size, some minor tuning can be done. Lo-Mob also supports the changing of the applied effect if your not happy with the direction you chose.

Sharing is big with me so it’s nice to see all the usual social options are available.

The ‘Send to app’ is a nice feature I mentioned in HalfTone. No need to save the photo output from Lo Mob then re-open in another editor, just ‘send’ it photo directly. If you did choose a square format, post directly to Instagram too.

Snapster – an iPhone photo app that is just enough different to be fun again

I’m been covering plenty of free iPhone photo apps for taking pictures and applying a variety of filters/effects. So, when Snapster showed up today I didn’t move very fast to download it. Once I did though, the Free app proved to be plenty of fun.

Snapster takes square photos so it’s output is all ready for the variety of photo share social services you might be using. Separate focus and exposure can be used.

Photos are saved to the app’s library, opening a image gives you the ability to use Snapster’s unique list of editing tools. The first button on the lower left brings up a list of ‘filters’ to use. A few look familiar as ones in other apps, but the majority are fun new options. A small percent of filters have padlocks which can be unlocked (along with a few other enhancements) through a overall in-app purchase. No need to memorize which filters and other enhancements you used to get the final result to use later, you can save your complete setup to apply again later.

The full range of color curves tuning is available. Or go all out and convert to black and white.

A selection of frames can be applied, interesting to see the majority are only available after the in-app purchase. Textures are also available to be applied. Snapster provides a group of color and enhanced light textures.

The photo output size is selectable, all square: 820, 1240, 1640, 1880 and 2448. Saved to the iPhone photo library, a variety of social services like Instagram, or open directly in other apps without having to save and reopen. If you used a group of settings that you want to use again, the ‘filter’ can be save to use on future Snapster iPhone photos.

Making your iPhone Photos square without cropping

Personally, my real retro film camera is 35mm, with images being wider than tall. But, the choice of most ‘social’ photo sharing services use square images. This makes the management of photos by the service much easier, they don’t have to worry about the presentation of wide vs tall images.

Unless you have a ‘square’ frame of mind when taking a picture with your iPhone, or specifically using one of the social apps to take the picture, you will be cropping every image to fit the format. This can mean the loss of some of the photo message.

A free app, Squaready, takes the opposite approach to the square problem than cropping. It gives you a square area to work in. Placing your image in that work area, you can expand to the edges, then fill in the area around the image with a color (tons available through picker). Squaready also offers a few tuning options; rotate, mirror, and manual resizing. When you have the image as you like, you can directly post to Instagram, save to the iPhone photo library or ‘sent to’ another app. A variety of image size and formats are available too.

The app is free, but has iAds taking up the lower edge part of the screen. There isn’t an in-app purchase option to remove the ads, but the developer claims that if you tap the iAd you won’t be bothered with it for a few hours.