As of this writing, through-the-lens photo app TtV Studio Pro is on sale now for only $0.99 – that’s a savings of $1.00 off the regular price. This sale is for a limited time, so grab it now.
Yes, you read that correctly – I wrote grab it now. Click past the jump to find out why.
TTV photography (TtV) is shooting ‚”through the viewfinder‚” of an old camera, often a single lens reflex (SLR) or twin lens reflex (TLR), using using another camera to create interesting framing effects. TTV images have the signature black edges from the viewfinder. They often have composition gridlines. Sometimes, they pick up dust and other anomalies from the prism. And color is not accurate, often washing out just a little bit for a slightly surreal cool hue and saturation. It’s a pretty cool effect and a few apps recreate this on the iPhone very well.
Back in March, 2011, Taplayer introduced their through-the-viewfinder app, TtV Camera. The app had several issues. What worked about the app was great. I wanted to like it, but there was too much that needed fixing for me to give it a good rating.
TtV Studio Pro is a similar, but different (and much better) app than TtV Camera. Everything I didn’t like about the previous app has been fixed in this new, updated app.
It’s a very good app that applies a number of authentic-looking through the viewfinder effects to your photos. It has great looking effects with dust, grain, color shifts, gridlines, frames and imperfections. They’re very similar to the gorgeous effects of their low-res TtV Camera app, except now in high resolution.
It’s a pretty impressive set of old viewfinder recreations, too, including – Kodak Duaflex, Argus 75, Brownie (I shot with my mom’s old Brownie when I was a kid!), Bronica SQAi, Super Ricohflex, Rolleiflex, and many others including a bunch you may not recognize. All the presets are labeled which helps when trying to find your faves.
It supports full iPhone 4 resolution. You can load images from your photo library. It’s not a fast shooter, but there are few photo apps that do through-the-viewfinder this well.
TtV Studio Pro also has a built-in toolset good for making basic color moves and putting some final tweaks on an image.
The app is background-operation “tolerant”. I didn’t test it to see if it processes in the background. It previews fairly fast so I didn’t really see the need. But, if you exit the app – not quit – for any reason, you return to where you left off in your processing. I like apps that do that.
It’s a square format only app. My only complaint is that it centers the crop. It loads the image with the ends cut off and there’s no way to move, pinch and zoom. This is not a huge complaint for me. It just means an extra step in a cropping app. The highly recommended Squaready is perfect for this.
I’m pleasantly surprised that TtV Studio Pro is as nice an app as it is. I recommend it for grungy, retro, through-the-viewfinder effects. And at a dollar off, it’s a steal.
TtV Studio Pro is normally $1.99 in the App Store. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
=M=
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