UPDATED

Realmac Software have announced the upcoming release of a new photo app, Analog Camera. It’s the iOS companion to their Mac-only photo app Analog (already available in the Mac App Store here ).

We’ve got a preview video and a little more information right after the jump. >>>

“We’ve built Analog Camera with the principles of Clear in mind, with a beautifully simple and uncluttered UI that we think is a delight to use,” says Realmac Software Marketing Manager Rob Jarman. “With essential features to compose the perfect shot, and a stunning set of filters for post-processing built into the ‘snappiest’ UI on iOS, Analog Camera will revolutionise taking photos just as Clear revolutionized to-do lists!”

While I’m not sure how Analog will revolutionize lo-fi iPhoneography, from the preview, the app looks super-easy to use, with several filters and all of the major sharing options. According to the developer, the Facebook and Twitter share buttons — two of the most used — are front and center. A nice touch.

Looking for Instagram share? “The top right Share button is ‘Open With’ where you can open your images in Instagram, Evernote, Path, etc.,” says Rob Jarman. “The other buttons are save to ‘Camera Roll’, ‘Mail To’ and the social options below depend upon what you have activated in your iPhone settings, the most common two of course will be Facebook and Twitter.”

The Mac version of the app has 27 filters — all richly saturated lomo-style filters, along with a selection of borders as well. No word on the exact number of filters the iOS version will have or the app’s resolution.

Analog Camera for iOS will be available for $0.99 when it’s released.

More details are available at the Realmac Software website.

=M=

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UPDATE 05.15.13: Updated sharing options

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"Analog Camera coming soon to iPhone." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

UPDATED

The BrainFeverMedia photo apps — LensLight, LensFlare and Alien Sky — have just completed a round of updates. Resolution has been bumped up to 9 megapixels on all three apps. More is good, right? At least as far as RAM, storage space and megapixels are concerned….

Read on for more info. >>>

All three apps now support image sizes of up to 3072 px on the long or square sides of an image — up to 3072×3072 px resolution. That’s up from 2048×2048 in previous versions. Standard 4:3 iPhone photos will now save up to a very nice 7.1 megapixels.

UPDATE: These updates are for iPhone 5 and iPad 2 and higher only. I just received an email from the apps’ developer and high resolution support for iPhone 4S is coming soon. iPhone 5 and 4S square format images will now see no pixel loss, while 4:3 images will save at 3072×2304 pixels.

No other new features, effects or fixes were introduced in these recent updates.

All three are great apps. Alien Sky not only lets you add celestial bodies to your photos, letting you create some surreal alien landscapes, you can also use it to add a large moon to simulate more earthly, extreme telephoto shots.

I especially like LensFlare and LensLight for adding the aberrations that can occur in cameras with better (worse?) lenses than an iPhone. Both apps are excellent for adding lens flares, bokeh, chroma rings and other wonderful lens anomalies that can occur when pointing multi-element optics into a light source.

Rather than simple overlays, LensFlare and LensLight use much more complex rendering techniques that interact with the placement of the effect. The result is a unique and realistic lens effect… now with more megapixels.

All three apps are now $1.99 each in the App Store. Definitely worth a couple of bucks. These apps are designed for both iPhone and iPad. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. These apps are optimized for iPhone 5.

LensFlare

LensLight

Alien Sky

=M=

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"LensLight and LensFlare Updated. Now More Megapixels." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Both Hueless and Huemore from curious satellite just got updates. There are only a few new features, but they should really please photographers who output high quality prints.

More info and some promo codes to give away after the jump. >>>

Both Hueless and Huemore are powerful, simple, fast, and elegant cameras.

Hueless, in my opinion, is the best black-and-white camera app available for iPhone. It’s a fast and easy way to take beautiful looking black-and-white photographs. It has a great user interface and a powerful set of tools that doesn’t get in the way of the shot.

Huemore is a color camera app that features the same great interface as Hueless. The app has excellent exposure, contrast and saturation control and lets you see the results of your changes instantly in the viewfinder. Although you can use the app’s tool for much more, having the ability to tweak color temperature in the viewfinder lets you make corrections on the fly. Using the presets is also like shooting with a warm or a cool film, depending on your preference.

Best of all, despite both apps’ powerful toolsets, when it comes time to shoot, the interface stays out of the way. Both apps are very nice to shoot with.

Hueless and Huemore Updates

Both Hueless and Huemore now feature toggles which let you save your files as a lossless TIFF or a maximum quality JPEG (100). Although the image compression on both apps defaults to JPEG Quality 90 (which is still very good), the new settings give photographers the choice of saving files with virtually no added JPG artifacts. The new settings can be turned on in the apps’ preferences in the iOS Settings app. You can also touch-and-hold the “H” button to switch between JPEG and TIFF formats on the fly.

The updates also feature an improved shutter response as well as various EXIF updates and mitigated ICC profile warnings.

The addition of high-quality image saves is a great, pro feature for photographers who prefer the highest quality, least compressed images in their workflow.

Both apps are $1.99 each.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Here’s the App Store link for Hueless

Here’s the App Store link for Huemore

Hueless and Huemore Giveaway

I’ve got a few promo codes for both Hueless and Huemore to give away today. To be eligible to win a copy, simply enter using the giveaway widgets below. If you follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll have additional chances for a free copy.

Cut-off time to enter is 11:59 PM Eastern Time, Monday, May 13, 2013. Winners will be determined by Random.org. One code per reader, please.

Winners will be notified by email, Facebook message or Twitter direct message — be sure to check your spam filter. If you enter, be sure your email info is correct or your code will go to someone else. Your email address is used for contest entry and for contacting the winning entrants only. We will not use or sell your email address for any other purpose.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(If you’re having trouble viewing the above widget on a mobile device, try viewing this page in landscape mode on your iPhone.)

=M=

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Big thanks to Christopher Radliff from curious satellite for supplying us with these giveaways.

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"Hueless and Huemore Updated. Now With Uncompressed TIFF." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Hipstamatic Announces Oggl,
a Community For Creative People to Capture and Curate Their Lives Through Photography

Oggl Connects the Hipstamatic Community Like Never Before; Is a Brand New
Place to Showcase Your Best Photos

Hipstamatic announces Oggl, a community for creative people to capture and curate their lives through photography. Oggl offers a brand new way to experience Hipstamatic’s beautifully crafted filters, and for the first time ever, directly connects the Hipstamatic community and like-minded creatives from around the world.

“From the editorial spreads of Harper’s Bazaar to the cover of TIME magazine to the pages of pages of The New York Times, Hipstamatic photographers have had their work showcased on a global stage, and are ushering in a new era in photography,” said
Lucas Buick, CEO and co-founder, Hipstamatic. “It’s time we created a place designed just for them—to connect, to be inspired, to create—and to continue to define what it means to be a photographer for this generation. This is our vision for Oggl, and we’re just getting started.”

Key Features

Oggl, which will first be available for iPhone owners, is designed around two key features: Capturing and curating photos.

Capture: Oggl is a “capture-first” shooting experience using Hipstamatic’s beautiful lenses and films, and comes with 5 “Favorites” pre-loaded for situational shooting: Landscape, Food, Portrait, Nightlife and Sunset. For the first time ever, edit a photo after it’s taken to experiment with different looks, and “tap to preview” effects before shooting.

Curate: Share your best photos to your Oggl profile to curate your personal story, and the browse the Curated Editorial Feeds, curated by the Hipstamatic team and talented photographers from around the world. With “My Collection,” see your photos showcased next to photos you’ve curated from around the community.

Additional features on Oggl include: Share to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Tumblr and Flickr, set additional “Favorites” for situational shooting, tag location, and tag other Oggl community members in photos.

Support the Community & Get More Gear

Oggl is an experience designed for capturing and curating beautiful photos, not for showcasing advertising. To support this vision for the community, Oggl is available via two subscription options: Monthly for $0.99 and yearly for $9.99. Each subscription comes with access to Hipstamatic’s entire catalog of current lens and film gear, and guarantees new gear each month.

Availability
In order to make sure Oggl is the most awesome place for our community, invitations will be issued as we build the experience. To request an invitation, visit the Oggl website.

Requirements: Oggl is currently for iPhone owners running iOS 6 and above.

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What’s your take on Hipstamatic’s latest offering? Is the price of the service worth the access to Hipstamatic’s past and future filters? Sound off in the comments below.

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"Hipstamatic Announces Oggl." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

While LoFi was on hiatus, One of our favorite apps Percolator got another really cool update with a lot of great new features.

More on this recent update and I’ve got a few promo codes to give away. More after the jump. >>>

The update hit the streets on April 11. Here’s what’s new in the most recent update.

PERCOLATING:

- A new Brew: Percolator boldly enters the 1960s with “Tripstamatic!”
- A new Brew: Percolator gets wobbly with “Charmed” circles!
- A new Serve Tone: “Flash Burn”—A high contrast vignette
- Even smaller circles with the new Tiny Circles Grind Effect
- A new Grind Effect: “Woodblock”—Converts your photo to 4 colors before Percolating for a very bold look!

EXPORT & IMPORT:

- Example images make great starting points for your own percs!
- Maximum ‘Save To Photos’ size is now 3584 pixels! (Maximum export size for iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 4G, and iPad 1 is 2048 pixels)
- Customizable image export settings
- Send to Instagram with the option to Crop
- Send a Postcard with Sincerely!
- Send your Percs to other photo apps or Copy to the Clipboard
- Import via Paste and from other photo app’s sharing features

The new effects can be found by tapping on the Brew and Grind selections. Percolator has been a favorite photo app of mine since its release. The new features add to the cool effects this unique photo app can create. It’s a great app to experiment with.

Percolator is $1.99 in the App Store. This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Percolator Giveaway

I have five promo codes for Percolator to give away. These are available on a first-grabbed basis and once these are gone, that’s it.

http://tokn.co/dkcttqus

http://tokn.co/sv557kwb

http://tokn.co/7rrufg4z

http://tokn.co/d3qyn863

http://tokn.co/skmh8mjn

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Big thanks to Tinrocket’s John Balestrieri for providing us with the promo codes!

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"Want a Free Copy of Percolator?." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

The past few months have seen some incremental feature-added updates for image processing app Process. There’s a lot that I like about the app, including its modular workflow and precision toolset.

Process 4.0 has just been released. The app is on sale now for only $2.99 for a limited time. That’s a HUGE savings of $12.

Keep reading for what’s in the updates. Plus, I’ve got some promo codes to give away. >>>

Among the features that make Process a unique image processing app is its modular approach to image editing. It’s similar to Photoshop’s History panel, except that it’s a lot easier to remove or change one single edit from the entire editing process.

Also, the app features dial-based controls for most of its tools, allowing you to perform edits with much greater precision than other photo apps.

The new 4.0 update features new incredibly sharp and accurate effect previews, blend modes, and performance and stability improvements. Previous recent updates also added new Zoom and Motion Blur adjustments, Posterize, and the ability to create your own custom sets.

Its normal price of $14.99 is steep, but not unprecedented for a high-end iPad image editor with these features — think Adobe Photoshop Touch. The app is a Universal build, so Process also works on iPhone as well. At $2.99, this update is a steal. Grab it now before the price goes up.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 6.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Process Giveaway

I have a few promo codes for Process to give away. They are below and are available on a first-grabbed basis. When these are gone, they’re gone.

http://tokn.co/eh4pzs5b

http://tokn.co/zy8zetau

http://tokn.co/tusnhzpz

http://tokn.co/vvbqkwf3

http://tokn.co/geudxann

http://tokn.co/0c7wgsva

http://tokn.co/kqy8vtdh

http://tokn.co/qngbdz36

http://tokn.co/4jr73e9t

http://tokn.co/3sqa4amc

http://tokn.co/spjm4v3r

http://tokn.co/a47fqt9q

http://tokn.co/5xn2ujmm

http://tokn.co/umaswwzd

http://tokn.co/6ahuaa2f

http://tokn.co/976ypv65

http://tokn.co/ybtrctje

http://tokn.co/f9ctyze4

http://tokn.co/bw558wh8

http://tokn.co/rde4maks

=M=

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Big thanks to Process developer Alaric Cole for the promo codes.

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"Process App Updated and On Sale!." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Life In LoFi has three PhoGo Cases to give away

The excellent DiffCase Lens Mount was my goto case on my iPhone 4-series phones until I got my iPhone 5. I’ve been using a temporary case waiting until the DiffCase for iPhone 5 was released.

The new PhoGo Case is the completely redesigned case for iPhone 5 from DiffCase. It’s shipping now for $39.95. Keep reading to find out more and how you can win a new PhoGo Case for iPhone 5, the sun shade, and a set of lenses. >>>

PhoGo Case For iPhone 5 Features from Jim Armstrong on Vimeo.

I love my DiffCase Lens Mount for iPhone 4. I still use one on my spare iPhone 4. Not only does it protect my iPhone very well from bumps, scratches and minor drops, but it also has a C-Mount which is designed for both the Gizmon-style macro/wide angle and fisheye lens sets, as well as the iPro lenses from Schneider Optics.

The new PhoGo has been completely redesigned for the iPhone 5. I’ll have a full review in a few days, but here are a few of the features of this new case system:

• The iPhone snaps in snug to the strong sidewalls of case and there’s no shake at all.
• When installed in the case, there’s actually a slight air gap between inside of case and back of the iPhone. This air gap helps absorb shock if dropped.
• Mounts your iPhone to any tripod using standard 1/4-20 fitting
• This case works great with existing DiffCase lenses, the iPro lenses as well as some others including the Photojojo lenses. The case comes with adapters.
• With the addition of an optional spacer pad, this new case works perfectly in every way with the newest iPod Touch 5th Gen.
• This everyday use case is made in USA and has optional leather backs that come from Boston (originating from Italy).

Gone are the tiny pins from previous versions of the DiffCase. The new sun shade simply presses on the case and can shift a bit left-to-right along top of case to help adjust where shadow is being cast on screen as sun moves across the sky. It also doubles as a stand for various iOS devices.

The case itself is a simple-to-use, compact, lightweight one piece snap-case design which replaces the two-piece design of previous DiffCase models.

The PhoGo Case for iPhone 5 retails for $39.95 but is introductory priced at $32 on the DiffCase website. Check it out. It comes in a number of colors and styles and is shipping now.

You can order a PhoGo Case or any other DiffCase product here.

PhoGo Case for iPhone 5 Giveaway

Over the next week, we are giving away 3 PhoGo Case for iPhone 5 rigs including Sun Shade and the 3-in-1 Lens set. Sweet! To be eligible to win, simply enter the giveaway below. By following us on Facebook and Twitter, you can get additional chances to win.

Cut-off time to enter is 11:59 PM Eastern Time, Sunday March 31, 2013. Winners will be determined by Random.org. One PhoGo Case rig per reader, please.

Winners will be notified by email, Facebook message or Twitter direct message — be sure to check your spam filter. If you enter, be sure your email info is correct or your code will go to someone else. Please read the giveaway rules before entering.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(If you’re having trouble viewing the above widget on a mobile device, try viewing this page in landscape mode on your iPhone.)

=M=

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Many thanks to Jim Armstrong of DiffCase for providing the prizes and sale for this promotion.

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"PhoGo Case for iPhone 5 from DiffCase Shipping Now! Want One For Free?." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Start your downloads. After over a week of false starts and hitting refresh in HipstaMart a jillion times, Hipstamatic 262 is finally out now. Included in the update is the long-awaited new Silver Lake HipstaPak, available as an in-app purchase of $0.99. As expected, the Silver Lake HipstaPak includes the new Abbie Mabel Lens and Dixie Film.

The 262 update is light on new features. The main one is the new HipstaPak. I’ve had a chance to shoot a little bit around the house this evening. The Silver lake HipstaPak is definitely one of the better paks. Along with the the excellent Tintype SnapPak, the Haus of Hipstamatic are on a roll.

According to the descriptions, The Abbie Mabel Lens is “inspired by the Wonderful Abigail Spencer, (the) lens adds beautiful light to any situation. The lens washes the image in very warm, yellow tones — almost like one of the “cross process” filters found in some analog photo apps but not as washed out. It’s much better than a sepia.

Hipstamatic Silver Lake. Dixie Film with Jane Lens.

The Dixie Film is described “a light and feathery edge licks the edge of your print like a flame when you use this hip film.” I might have used a different noun in place of the second edge, but no one asked.

The Dixie Film is especially nice. It doesn’t really alter the colors of the image. The frame has subtle rough edges reminiscent of old, hand-developed prints. The edges randomly shift with each exposure. The film randomly adds some great light leaks to the image. In some exposures they are subtle, in others pretty pronounced. The film also adds a touch of noise as well as dust and dirt to the image. The Dixie film is an excellent addition to a Hipstamatic camera bag.

There is no new case which is too bad, really. The artwork for the Silver Lake pak would have made a groovy Hipsta camera skin.

I think this is one of the nicer HipstaPaks and for $0.99 you won’t be disappointed.

The 262 update is available in the App Store now, but the Silver Lake HipstaPak may not be available on all iPhones right this second. Right now, servers are being pounded. We’ve got several iPhones in the house and so far the new pak is only showing up in one. Keep checking back.

This time, it’s really all in the App Store and it’s official. Go! Grab! Now!

According to Life In LoFi reader Allan Bedford, RetroPak Three will be available this weekend at a discounted price. No confirmation as to whether the final release of RP3 will have the sought-after Hornbecker lens and the two AO films from the Always On FreePak.

If you don’t already have Hipstamatic, Hipstamatic is $1.99 and comes nicely equipped with several standard HipstaPaks. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

=M=

Hipstmatic Silver lake detail. Dixie Film showing frame edge, noise and “dirt.”

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UPDATE 01: The Abbie Lens has been renamed by Hipstamatic to the Mabel Lens. =M=

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"Hipstamatic 262 Is Finally Out. So Is Silver Lake HipstaPak!." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

We recently reviewed Deco Sketch Pro, a great photo app that you can use to paint geometric elements onto your images.

Deco Sketch Pro has just been updated with more brushes and styles, more features, and more good stuff overall. Plus, we’ve got a few copies to give away this week. Keep reading. >>>

You can read my original review for Deco Sketch Pro here. It’s a great, modern-style app that creates effects that no other photo app does. Choose from a selection of eight overall styles, including lines, circles, hexagons and other patterns. It adds everything from a delicate web of geometric shapes to bold, colorful, modern patterns to an image. The results are amazing works of iPhone art that you can get using no other photo app.

Among the updates in the new version are two new brushes with 26 preset styles as well as 15 new styles added to existing brushes for a total of 130 different styles.

There are some powerful new tools with some very interesting implementations. One of the new brushes is a powerful and fun linear tool. One of the presets lets you draw and close a path. One of the new presets, a combination line/ray/end dot preset makes some really swanky flourishes and is one of my favorites of the new update. The other new brush has more great variations on the app’s rays styles. All of the new tools are great additions to the app’s “palette.”

The color palette has gotten a pretty big overhaul in this update. You are no longer limited to the app’s built-in color presets and can choose any color from the new picker. You can also toggle automatic color cycling which is a great new tool for experimentation for those of us like me who previously left the color picker on white.

Other improvements include a new redo feature which is handy if you change your mind back with an edit, quicker access to advanced color options and an improved user interface

The new brushes are visually interesting and exciting. The new color palette features greatly improve the ease in which you can use color with the effects. This is an excellent update.

Deco Sketch is $2.99 in the App Store. It’s a Universal app that’s designed for both iPhone and iPad. It should really be nice on the larger screen of an iPad. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Deco Sketch Pro Giveaway

I’ve got a few promo codes for Deco Sketch Pro to give away this week. To be eligible to win a copy, simply enter using the giveaway widget below. If you follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll have additional chances for a free copy.

Cut-off time to enter is 11:59 PM Eastern Time, Wednesday, March 20, 2013. Winners will be determined by Random.org. One code per reader, please.

Winners will be notified by email, Facebook message or Twitter direct message — be sure to check your spam filter. If you enter, be sure your email info is correct or your code will go to someone else. Your email address is used for contest entry and for contacting the winning entrants only. We will not use or sell your email address for any other purpose.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(If you’re having trouble viewing the giveaway widget on a mobile device, try viewing this page in Safari in landscape mode on your iPhone.)

=M=

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Huge thanks to Ben Guerrette for supplying us with the promo codes for this giveaway.

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"Deco Sketch Pro Updated. We’ve Got Giveaways!." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

The new Image Blender 1.9 update has just been released. It’s a dot-oh release, but still has a number of cool new features for both iPhone and iPad. More than a maintenance release, this update is a teaser of things to come. According the the developer, Johan Andersson, there are many features and improvements in the pipeline coming soon.

Keep reading for more on this update. >>>>

Image Blender is one of the slickest iPhone apps available for blending two images together in a variety of ways. It’s got a lean, easy-to-use interface. There are 18 different blending modes. If you’ve used Photoshop, you’ll be right at home in Image Blender. The top layer can be masked, giving you the option of even great creative moves. Masking in Image blender is a lot smoother and less-cumbersome than in other image editors.

This new update features a number of improvements and bug fixes. The cool new feature of this update is the ability to let you pick specific frames from an animated GIF. See the screenshots above for an example. This new feature is as easy as loading an image from your camera roll. Previews are well-sized and I had no problems grabbing two frames from this classic Muybridge animation.

Other new features include:

- Interface improvements
- iCloud support for syncing preferences
- New Blend Mode picker on iPad
- TIFF support

There are also several under the hood improvements as well.

Image Blender is $2.99 and is one of the better investments you can make to quickly and easily blend two images on your iPhone or iPad. It’s a Universal app designed for both iPhone and iPad. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

=M=

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"Image Blender Updated." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

It’s been a while since we wrote about KitCam. Since our first glowing review, this great all-in-one camera app has gotten several updates and its already great toolset has grown.

KitCam just got another update today. It now features the same low-light mode found on many other high-end camera apps. The base model is also on sale now for only $0.99 for a limited time. Keep reading for more info on this update and an App Store link.

The new Night Snap for KitCam mode is similar to the long exposure modes found in 645PRO, PureShot, NightCap and other camera apps equipped with long exposure. This opens up some great low-light photography to older devices. Basically, what it does is keeps the app in low-ISO mode and lets you force the shutter to stay open longer. A longer exposure means you need to keep your iPhone completely steady, but combined with the low-ISO speeds, it yields much clearer and brighter low light images with less noise, even on devices with Apple’s High ISO mode like the iPhone 5. Check out the sample shots below for comparison.

KitCam, Night Mode

KitCam, iPhone 5 High ISO mode, 3200 ISO

How the scene really looked

Other new features in this update include Front-facing Flash to help improve monkey-paw selfies, 10 New geometric shape frames, Uncompressed TIFF support, and extended time lapse parameters. You can now adjust the compression of JPG saves for swapping file size with image quality. And the histogram now shows the current exposure time (shutter speed) and ISO.

It’s a good update that adds a lot of power features to this already well-equipped all-in-one. These features definitely leapfrog KitCam over Camera+ as far as power and versatility.

KitCam On Sale

If you don’t already have the app, the base model of KitCam is on sale now for $0.99, that’s a savings of $1.00. Grab it now. This discount is good for a limited time.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.1 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

=M=

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"KitCam: Updated and On Sale." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Repix has just been released. It’s a cool app for applying effects to an image. Rather than apply overall effects, you paint in the effects. You can use Repix to create some interesting effects mashups.

Read more about this great new freemium app after the jump. >>>

I’ll have my full review of the app soon. I was a beta tester for the app and it’s not only easy to use, easy to figure out, but pretty fun to use and explore. Don’t like what you’ve done? The Eraser tool makes it easy to remove any effects and there’s even a more nuclear option with the Undoer too. It’s a good workflow that makes it easy to paint, explore, and more importantly re-do if needed.

The basic app is FREE and comes nicely stocked with several free effects. Here’s a listing of the free and add-on effects, available as an in-app purchase:

FREE:
1. Cartoonize
2. Charcoal
3. Edger
4. Dotter
5. Flares
6. Drips
7. Posterize
8. Silk
9. Bleach
10. Undoer (not a real brush)
11. Eraser

PAID:
COLOR BRUSHES (set €1.79/$1.99/£1.49)
1. Sepia
2. Hollywood
3. Vintage
4. Freshen

ARTISTIC BRUSHES (set €1.79/$1.99/£1.49)
1. Hatching
2. Daubs
3.Van Gogh
4. Spray

LIGHT BRUSHES (set €1.79/$1.99/£1.49)
1. Glow Smoke
2. Stars
3. Sparkler
4. Glow Line

OR UNLOCK EVERYTHING WITH MASTER’S COLLECTION FOR €4.49/$4.99/£3.99

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There’s plenty you can do out of the box with Repix and the free filters is where I tend to spend most of my time with the app, but the in-app purchases have several nice options as well.

Repix is free with several in-app purchases. It’s a Universal app designed for both iPhone and iPad. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 6.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

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"Just Released: Paint Cool Effects with Repix." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Huemore, the creative color camera for iPhone, was just released and is available in the App Store now for $1.99. Designed to meet the needs of serious photographers and crafted for ease of use, Huemore gives you the flexibility to capture beautiful color photography.

I had a chance to preview Huemore during beta testing. Like it’s sibling Hueless, it’s a powerful, yet easy to use camera app. Imagine the toolset and ease of use of Hueless adapted to the color shooting space.

Like Hueless, Huemore let’s you easily tweak your shot beforehand to better get the best image in camera. Its toolbox is well-equipped, but like Hueless, doesn’t get in the way of shooting. The app has a couple of great, well-implemented tools in particular that really help make this app a delight to shoot with.

I’ll have a full review later this week. Huemore is a great app that is deceptively versatile in its simplicity.

Huemore is $1.99. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

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"Huemore Is Available in the App Store Now!." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

One of my go-to utilities since my original iPhone 2G days is Perfectly Clear. It’s a Dynamic Range Correction (DRC) app that automatically performs lab-quality corrections that help improve the contrast, exposure and vibrance of an image. It’s also the best software fix currently available for the iPhone 5 “purple haze” problem.

It’s just been updated. Find out what’s new and read why you should still have this great app even if you’ve got one of the spiffy new iPhones.

The new update doesn’t bring any killer new features to the app, but improves the features the app currently has. The new features include:

- Improved interface for saving and sharing
- Perfectly Clear photos now saved to new “Perfectly Clear” Album
- Email photo size limit removed, you can email photos at maximum resolution application can handle
- Increased max size of images for iPhone5 and iPad3 to 24.5 MP

With more and more photographers using their iPads to process and share images in the field, the last improvement is actually a very important one and now Perfectly Clear should handle just about any image you throw at it without downsampling it or hiccuping.

Just for laughs, I opened and processed a 4948×4948 px image — the maximum the app will handle. Perfectly Clear worked smoothly on my iPhone 5. It processed and saved the image quickly, without crashing, and with no problems at all. Nice.

Not to cannibalize the developer’s sales, but this is the same image processing engine behind their Photoshop plugin, which costs a heluva lot more than $3.

“Why do I need Perfectly Clear?”

Perfectly Clear has been in My Camera Bag post since I bought it years ago and will still be there when the post gets updated soon. Even with the great camera in the iPhone 5, I still use Perfectly Clear often to clean up photos and get them ready for any other processing I may do.

Even an iPhone 5 or 4S will occasionally take pictures that need help. With one click, it corrects color balance, punches up the vibrance, sharpens images, and helps enhance and balance shadow areas. The built-in Noise Reduction is among the best I’ve found on the iOS platform. UPDATED: Noise reduction is now included in the price of the app. No additional in-app purchase needed since the 3.0 update. Even better! Apologies for any confusion. =M=

Perfectly Clear also reduces — often dramatically — or fixes “Purple Haze,” the purple tint effect found sometimes with the iPhone 5 camera.

“Purple Haze” reduction in Perfectly Clear

With newer iPhones, you may not always see noticeable results, but many times the results are better overall balance and more visually pleasing color. Perfectly Clear is a quick and easy fix to add punch to flat images and get photos looking like you expect them to.

I still recommend Perfectly Clear to owners of new iPhones. For older iPhones, it’s a highly recommended, even essential, purchase.

Perfectly Clear is $2.99 in the App Store. It’s a Universal app that’s designed to run great on both iPhone and iPad. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

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"Perfectly Clear Updated and Why You Need Perfectly Clear." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Huemore sample image with “Warm” really cranked up

UPDATE: Huemore has just hit the App Store. It’s $1.99. Here’s the App Store link. I’ll have a full review and more soon. |

If you’re wondering what a color camera app would look like if it were made by Curious Satellite, the creators of Hueless, that would be Huemore.

Huemore is coming soon and it’s as nice to shoot with as its excellent black & white sibling. I got to spend some time with the app during beta testing. Keep reading for an exclusive preview of this new camera app. >>>

Hueless, in my opinion, is the best black-and-white camera app available for iPhone. It has a great user interface and a powerful set of tools that doesn’t get in the way of the shot. It’s a simple, fast, and elegant camera. It’s a fast and easy way to take beautiful looking black-and-white photographs.

When I heard Curious Satellite were developing a color app for iPhone, I didn’t know what to expect. Would it be a color shooter? Would it be a color gel style app?

What Curious Satellite have done with this new app is take the outstanding user interface of Hueless and adapt its tools to the color shooting space. The result is a slick color camera app that gives the photographer a lot of control over the image before it gets in camera.

Like its older sibling app, Huemore shares the same user interface. If you have one app, you’ll feel right at home in the other.

Huemore has contrast, exposure, and gamma adjustments in camera. Color Saturation can be adjusted via a slider in the viewfinder as well. In addition, the app has all of the tools and features that make Hueless such a pleasure to shoot with.

It comes with several presets to quickly adjust the color temperature of the image either warmer or cooler. The app also gives you complete color control for more extreme, overall color gel-style shooting if you desire. It’s also fast and responsive.

I’ll have my full review of the app later this week when the Huemore hits the App Store later this week. Until then, here are some screenshots and previews from Huemore.

I really like the app. It’s a simple, versatile color camera app and slick environment to shoot in.

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Huemore, warm preset

Huemore, cool preset

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"Huemore is Coming. We’ve Got an Exclusive Preview.." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

LensFlare for iPhone with Telephoto effect and Red filter to give it a Kodachrome look.

The three excellent BrainFeverMedia photo apps — LensLight, LensFlare, and Alien Sky — were all recently updated.

All three are outstanding apps. Keep reading to find more about these great apps and this update. Also, we’re giving away copies of Alien Sky today. >>>

All three apps add great photorealistic effects to your images. All three apps got a User Interface update, making the apps easier to use. The updates include a set of 15 brand new lens filters in each app for enhancing your photos. The new filters range from subtle color shifts that change the tonal qualities of the image — warm it up, cool it down, etc. — to more striking stylized color moves such as a sepia look, a cooler cinema look, or cold Twilight-esque Gothic tones.

The new filter overlays in LensFlare, LensLight and Alien Sky

LenFlare effects and the new UI

LensFlare and LensLight

LensFlare and LensLight are both essential apps for adding great looking optical effects such as lens flares, chroma rings, bokeh effects as well as simulated lens damage such as smudges, dust and scratches. There just aren’t any better apps on iOS that let you create such unique and great looking lens and light effects so easily.

LensFlare focuses on creating a wide variety of lensflares and a few other aberrations. LensLight is more broader in its approach and offers several other sources of light such as spotlights, light leaks common in cheap cameras, bokeh, plus a few lens flares.

What makes these effect outstanding is that these are not static overlays. Each effect is realistically rendered on your device based on where you place the light source.

What used to be considered annoying artifacts on larger cameras is a look that I love when shooting the digital lo-fi of the iPhone. The iPhone’s optics can’t create most of these effects on its own. Having both LensFlare and LensLight in my camera bag let’s me quickly and easily add these great-looking lo-fi aberrations in post. It gives me more control over the final image than by trying to create these organically by pointing my lens into a light source.

LensFlare is $0.99.

LensLight is also $0.99. I use both apps often and highly recommend them both.

Alien Sky

Alien Sky lets you realistically composite your photos with celestial features such as space objects (planets, moons, and galaxies), bright suns and distant stars. I’ve previously reviewed the app here.

The effects in Alien Sky are overlays, but the app shares the same user interface and interactivity as LensLight and LensFlare. I’ve seen some amazing images created using Alien Sky. Adding a planet or an exaggerated moon to an image, or creating a sky can really make a photo pop.

Alien Sky is $0.99

All three apps are compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. These apps are optimized for iPhone 5. Maximum resolution on these are high resolution on an iPhone 5, 4S and 4 — 2048×2048 px — that’s 3.1MP-4MP. Resolution is lower on older devices.

Alien Sky Giveaway

Today, I’ve got a few promo codes for Alien Sky to give away. To be eligible to win a copy, simply enter using the giveaway widget below. If you follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll have additional chances for a free copy.

Cut-off time to enter is 11:59 PM Eastern Time, Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Winners will be determined by Random.org. One code per reader, please.

Winners will be notified by email, Facebook message or Twitter direct message — be sure to check your spam filter. If you enter, be sure your email info is correct or your code will go to someone else. Your email address is used for contest entry and for contacting the winning entrants only. We will not use or sell your email address for any other purpose.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(If you’re having trouble viewing the giveaway widget on a mobile device, try viewing this page in landscape mode on your iPhone.)

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Big thanks to James Grote from BrainFeverMedia for supplying the promo codes for this giveaway.

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"LensFlare, LensLight, and Alien Sky Updated and We’ve Got Giveaways!." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

The JackPod! is an interesting Kickstarter for a new, universal tripod mount for iPhone, iPod Touch, and any other smartphone-sized device. Rather than clamp to or clip on your iPhone or Android device, it mounts your smartphone to a tripod using its external headset jack.

We’ve got exclusive info, video, and links after the jump. >>>

According to the developer, Joe Simon, the JackPod! is a truly universal smartphone-to-tripod mount that works with ANY phone in ANY case on ANY tripod. By using the phone’s headphone jack, the JackPod! is low-cost, easy-to-use, and phone-independent. The just launched campaign already is 10% funded with 90+ backers.

Basically, the JackPod! is a small, lightweight device with a standard tripod thread mount at the base and two non-metallic plugs that supports your iPhone, Android or other smartphone. You can get in on the JackPod! for about $10 and that includes shipping.

Among the things that I like about the JackPod are that it’s truly universal. It’ll work in any device with a standard headphone jack. It’s very small and weighs in at just under a quarter of an ounce. It works in both horizontal and vertical modes.

The JackPod! works on devices with or without a case. This is a big plus for me. I’m a big case guy; a good case offers a lot of protection for your iPhone’s body and camera lens.

My big concern though, is that using the iPhone’s headphone jack to support the weight of the device may cause damage to the iPhone’s circuit board and possibly even cause parts of it to separate internally. I caught up with Mr. Simon and pointed that out.

Mr. Simon replied:

“We had wondered about the same thing when we first started testing prototypes, but have not experienced any headphone jack failures to date. When I review the various phone breakdown images, the headphone jacks are consistently housed in separate enclosures that are rarely even removed in these tear downs. The torque from the Jackpod! is placed on the housing and the case, not the electronics.

“We also evaluated using different materials and wondered whether it not that may cause any issue but were pointed towards the headphone “charms” that add a jewel or other decoration to phones via the headphone jack. These have been used successfully for years without issue.

“Finally, by using a molded plastic design and not metal, we prevent the phone from recognizing “headphones” and disabling the speakers. In early prototypes, we quickly learned that using an actual headphone plug prevent us from being able to hear the shutter or camera countdown beeps.

“The product has been tested and used actively for several months and has not experienced any headphone jack problem on any of the phones we have used.”

Here are the links to the Kickstarter project with more info. A minimum $10 pledge gets you a JackPod! but there are other levels with more goodies as well. The JackPod! will only be funded if at least $16,500 is pledged by Wednesday Apr 3, 8:00pm EDT.

Kickstarter Link: JackPod! – Truly Universal Smartphone | Tripod Mount

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"Kickstarter: JackPod! – Truly Universal Smartphone | Tripod Mount." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Hi, my name is Simon Ellingworth; I’m a Professional Photographer, educator and all round creative based in London, England and I’m honoured to be a guest blogger on the most established iPhoneography blog, Life In LoFi.

In 2013 my work was featured in Mobile Photography Awards, last year I was runner up in Professional Photographer of the Year & Sony World Photography Awards, selected from over 121,000 images from 171 countries.

Four months ago I started a photography education blog based upon the premise ‘buying a better camera won’t make you a better photographer’ aimed at smart phone, tablet, GoPro and traditional photographers called Lightism. In the last 60 days I have had 163,633 page impressions from 45,411 visitors, so I guess I must be doing something right!

My tutorials are fresh in perspective, simplify complex issues and appeal to a wide audience. They have been re-published by a number of blogs including Lifehacker, DIY Photography.net.

Amazingly, I’ve been approached by a British book publisher who’d visited Lightism, they are currently hammering out a book deal for me in the USA. In short, I’m living the dream!

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"Introducing Simon Ellingworth to Life In LoFi." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

If you’re still disillusioned with the recent Terms of Service debacle at Instagram, take a look at EyeEm. The EyeEm app has a bunch of great looking retro filters, including a great new black & white filter.

Keep reading for more. >>>

EyeEm as a social photo sharing service is one of iPhoneography’s earliest and actually predates Instagram by several months. EyeEm does not release numbers, but the app and network is popular among iPhoneographers and other mobile photography platforms.

The new update was recently released. In addition to several new interface tweaks, the app now features a great new black & white filter, kCe, that easily creates very nice black & white conversions.

The filter was inspired by the black & white photographs of EyeEm community member Klaudia Cechini. It’s one of the nicer one-click black & white filters available for iPhone, with excellent high contrast, deep saturation, strong vignetting and a “dreamy” analog feel to it. For me, it’s similar to a couple of Hipstamatic’s great monochrome filters only a little lighter on the contrast and saturation.

Other updates to the app include a dramatically reworked user interface.

If you haven’t explored EyeEm as a community, there’s a lot of great photography there and a much lower percentage of pouty duck lips than seen on Instagram. EyeEm doesn’t have the numbers Instagram does — it’s hard to top 100 million users, but it’s still a large, active community. Of importance to photographers, EyeEm’s Terms of Service are among the most photographer friendly out there.

The EyeEm app is free and not only has a bunch of great filters, but lets you share to EyeEm as well as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare with one upload. Your filtered images are saved in high-resolution to your camera roll as they are uploaded. EyeEm preserves EXIF data, including Geotags.

EyeEm – Photo Filter Camera is free. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

You can find me on EyeEm here, @MartyYawnick. Hit me up.

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"EyeEm App Updated With a Sexy New B&W Filter." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

What Adobe Photoshop Touch does is not groundbreaking but it feels slicker than just about everything else out there.

Better than Adobe Photoshop Express? By miles. As an iPhone app, Adobe Photoshop Touch is what Photoshop for iPhone should’ve been all along.

The app supports up to 12MP images.

It’s $4.99 in the App Store. Think about this — for five bucks, Adobe Photshop Touch for iPhone can do more than the Mac desktop version of Photoshop 3.0 which cost hundreds. I still have those floppies.

I’ll have my extensive, full review this afternoon. Click the link below to go to the App Store to see the full set of features and to buy this powerful new image editor.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod touch (5th generation). Requires iOS 6.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

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"Adobe Photoshop Touch for phone is Released." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Window shot of the DKNY store in Bangkok. Photo courtesy of humansofnewyork.com

Recently, there have been several high-profile instances of unauthorized photo/intellectual property … um, use. The most recent incident is making the rounds of The Facebook this week. DKNY “inadvertently” used 300 photos from New York Street Photographer Brandon Stanton aka Humans of New York without licensing or permission.

This incident has a happy ending for a bunch of kids in New York City, but underscores the need for vigilance as the internet gets larger, the world gets smaller and the photographic community gets tighter.

This latest incident follows another recent high-profile clothing designer, Mango Fashion, who created a T-Shirt using a photo taken off Instagram and used without the artist’s, Tuana Aziz, permission. The shirt has since been removed for sale. You can read the original story here on Instagramers.com. High-profile photography IP theft seems to be occurring with greater frequency.

Several months ago, Brandon was approached by a representative of DKNY who asked to purchase 300 of my photos to hang in their store windows “around the world.” He was offered $15,000 –  about $50 per photo. Given the size and revenue of DKNY, Brandon asked for more money. They declined and Brandon declined to license his photos.

But, it’s a small world out there. His images showed up in the DKNY store in Bangkok. Brandon was sent a snapshot.

“The window is full of my photos,” says Brandon. “These photos were used without my knowledge, and without compensation.”

“I don’t want any money. But please REBLOG this post if you think that DKNY should donate $100,000 on my behalf to the YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. That donation would sure help a lot of deserving kids go to summer camp.”

Shortly after the original post on Humans of New York, DKNY posted this announcement, via Facebook:

Since its founding in 1989, DKNY has been inspired by and incorporated authentic New York into its imagery. For our Spring 2013 store window visuals we decided to celebrate the city that is in our name by showcasing “Only in NYC” images. We have immense respect for Brandon Stanton aka Humans of New York and approached him to work with us on this visual program. He declined to participate in the project.

For the Spring 2013 windows program, we licensed and paid for photos from established photography service providers. However, it appears that inadvertently the store in Bangkok used an internal mock up containing some of Mr. Stanton’s images that was intended to merely show the direction of the spring visual program. We apologize for this error and are working to ensure that only the approved artwork is used.

DKNY has always supported the arts and we deeply regret this mistake. Accordingly, we are making a charitable donation of $25,000 to the YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn in Mr. Stanton’s name.

$25,000 works out to about $83 per photo — not a bad chunk of change but far short of the $100,000 donation requested by Mr. Stanton.

Regarding the donation, Brandon responded:

“$25k will help a lot of kids at the YMCA. I know a lot of you would like to have seen the full $100k, but we are going to take them at their word that it was a mistake, and be happy that this one had a happy ending.”

At first, this seems to be a case of “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission,” an attitude that pervades many graphic designers, hoping they don’t get caught using other artists’ work.

I’ll also take DKNY at their word here, although begrudgingly. I can’t help think that somewhere someone let this slip through, hoping that they wouldn’t get caught. I also can’t help but wonder how many other stores are/were displaying his work that haven’t gotten back to the photographer yet.

I also can’t help but wonder how forgiving DKNY would have been had the situation been reversed and 300 unique items from their intellectual property were used without their consent.

In the end, DKNY did a right thing by donating a good bit of money to this charity. Kudos to DKNY for the gesture.

To check if your photographs have been used without your consent, look into ImageRights.com to help discover unauthorized usage. They offer several plans for use and recovery, starting with a basic free plan all the way up to $995 per year.

With the ease that usable copies of photographs can be lifted from Flickr, Facebook and other websites, it’s increasingly important for artists to protect their work.

You Can Help City Kids Go To Summer Camp

Brandon Stanton has since added this post to Humans of New York blog and Facebook page:

As most of you already know, yesterday I discovered that a large amount of my photographs were used without permission by DKNY in a Bangkok window display.

In response, I publicly asked DKNY to make a $100,000 donation in my name to the Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA, so that deserving kids could go to Summer Camp.

They made a $25,000 donation in my name. That really made me happy. I went to bed last night thinking about all the kids who’d be going to summer camp.

But then I started thinking about the kids who wouldn’t be going to summer camp. And I thought: “You know what, wouldn’t it be awesome (and fun) if we made a $75,000 donation?” That way, a bunch more kids could go to summer camp!

So help HONY make a $75,000 donation to the YMCA. That would bring the grand total to $100,000 and provide 300 deserving kids with an entire two weeks of summer camp. These camps give kids such a wonderful, affirming experience. For certain kids, from certain neighborhoods, it could very well be the best two weeks of their life.

Unfortunately, I can’t afford to give goodies this time. Our Hurricane Sandy Fundraiser tapped me out. But I think there’s enough heart in this group to raise the full $75,000. I’m really counting pennies right now, but I’m going to throw in $100 myself.

LET’S DO THIS: Click here for the “Let’s Send Kids To YMCA Summer Camp” Indiegogo campaign.This campaign will receive all of the funds contributed by Fri 01 Mar 11:59PM PT.

And please share this post with your friends.

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Follow Humans of New York on Facebook

Follow the Humans of New York blog, too.

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"DKNY Uses Photos First. Asks Permission later.." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

The young Mobile Micro-stock Photography space suddenly got smaller yesterday. Pictorama has shut down “due to insufficient funds.” They are no longer accepting or licensing photos. Further, all remaining payouts have been canceled by the company. The servers have already been shut down and no more transactions are possible.

More after the jump and what it means if you’ve sold work on Pictorama after the jump. >>>

Micro-stock photograph agencies developed in response to the extremely high prices of the traditional stock photo licensing agencies. Instead of buying a costly traditional usage license for an image or an expensive CD for only one or two images, creatives and clients could purchase licenses for individual stock photographs, making the artwork more affordable for a broader range of agencies and clients. My graphic design studio has put iStockPhoto’s kids through dental school.

The mobile micro-stock photography markets developed along with the rise and acceptance of mobile photography and the improvements in mobile device cameras. Before these markets, mobile photography was excluded from the traditional micro-stocks.

The sudden shuttering of Pictorama means that your images hosted there will no longer be for sale through the agency. Any royalties due you from Pictorama will not be paid.

In order for a microstock market to work, there needs to be a healthy balance of both buyers and suppliers. A large number of usable images and good marketing attracts end users. I never saw Pictorama advertising where creatives would be shopping. As a creative, I found the image selection to be good, but very limited.

Nothing is mentioned about what happens to the licenses of the photography that have been sold. Contributors granted Pictorama the right to transfer licenses of their works or transfer the whole company to someone else. Unfortunately, there no longer looks to be a viable company and the end-licenses are in a legal gray area — an asset that belongs to creditors in a bankruptcy court (if there is one).

If you are owed royalties by Pictorama, it looks like your are out of luck. According to a statement, there is no money left to pay out artists.

If you purchased photography from Pictorama, technically, your existing usage license now belongs to creditors of the company in bankruptcy proceedings. From an end user standpoint, your license has been “transferred.” If the company just shuts down, your usage license is in a legal gray area and how you can continue to use the image (or not use it) is unclear.

As a photographer, if you see a work being used that you haven’t been paid for, you will need to contact that end user directly and hope they do the right thing. Their usage license is with an entity that no longer exists, not with you.

Sadly, this really sucks worst for the photographers who contributed their images and built the marketplace. Unfortunately, there’s little recourse here and the recourse that is available to you is most likely not worth your while to pursue.

Mobile Micro-stock Options

In the meantime, Pictorama’s competition foap seems to be healthier with a larger marketplace. Their platform is still being developed and updated. Pocketstock also seems to be doing very well. If you’d like to help the mobile micro-stock market succeed, join and contribute. The more unique, usable, quality images available, the more appealing the market is to those who purchase stock art.

Late last year, two leaders in the traditional micro-stock space, Getty Images’ iStockPhoto.com and Dreamstime began accepting mobile photography for consideration to their markets.

Here is the complete email that Pictorama sent to users notifying them of their closure:

Goodbye our dear friends

in 2011 we had a dream. We wanted to create an application enabling the people who enjoy smartphone photography as much as we do, to publish their pictures and sell them to people and businesses worldwide. In other words: we wanted to turn the existing microstock market upside down.

When we found an investor to realize our idea we couldn´t believe it. Over the last year we assembled a team of motivated and capable professionals who helped us to create the Pictorama. We put a lot of heart and effort into making our dream finally come true. The app launched and you, as well as hundreds of other users started sending in pictures and we enjoyed reviewing them und putting the majority of them online.

Unfortunately not as many clients as we expected bought our pictures. This forces us to shut down Pictorama due to insufficient funds. Unfortunately this also means we are not able to pay out your account balance any further even if you have already requested the pay out. We are so sorry.

Since we cannot wait more days we already have to take the servers offline today (23rd of February).

We still believe in our idea and are optimistic that one day there is a place in the market for Pictorama, but apparently this day has yet to come.

We wish all our existing competitors the strength and best of luck to make it.

Thank you for supporting us!

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"News: Pictorama Closes Down Suddenly." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

1197 is an annual conference dedicated to mobile and iPhone photography. It’s named after the first mobile phone photo taken on June 11, 1997.

The 2013 1197 conference was held at New York’s Soho Gallery For Digital Art. It wrapped up Friday, February 22, with a number of panels on social media and mobile photography, as well as a closing night reception. I was there, along with dozens of other mobile photography notables, iPhoneographers, and Instagrammers from around the globe.

Click past the jump for a gallery of photos from this year’s 1197. >>>

This year’s 1197 Conference, as well as the Friday night reception, was held in tandem with the SGDA’s premier of the 2013 Mobile Photo Awards exhibit, a visually impressive show of oversize displays showing a constant and changing stream of of iPhoneography and iPhone art.

Left to right: Anton Kawasaki, Sion Fullana, The MPA’s Daniel Berman, Nate Park of iPhoneArt.com, Jen Pollack Bianco, David Ballering.

iPhoneographer Jim Darling and Daniel Berman trading shots

1197 event producer and curator Susannah Perlman introduces a panel

L to R: Life In LoFi’s Marty Yawnick, The MPA’s Daniel Berman. Photo by David Ballering.

The Create, Career & Coummunity panel, L to R: EyeEm’s Flo Meissner, Jen Pollack Bianco, Nate Park, Marty Yawnick. Photo by David Ballering

Looking out at the audience for the Create, Career & Community panel

Drew English and Marty Yawnick

Bonnie Bouman and Marty Yawnick

Marty Yawnick and Clay Benskin

Percolator and Popsicolor developer John Balestrieri and Marty Yawnick

1197 at the Soho Gallery of Digital Art, closing reception

L to R: Janine Graf, Catherine Restivo

Marty Yawnick and Laura Peischl

Marty Yawnick with Pat Shourds

Marty Yawnick and Lotta Kratz

Rachel Sawyer from JUXT catches one of her images on display

A big thank you to Daniel Berman for the invitation to participate on the Create, Career & Coummunity panel. Also many thanks for event producer and curator Susannah Perlman for putting together this year’s event and for reaching out to Life In LoFi last year in preparation for this year’s 1197.

On a more personal note, it was great either seeing again or meeting many of the iPhoneographers and visual artists who came from all over the globe to attend this event. It’s always a pleasure engaging in person and putting a face and a voice to people I’ve only known previously online and whose works I’ve followed for some time.

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"Impressions from 1197, New York." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

Tilt correction with dotfunc(camera)

dotfunc(camera), a unique camera app that I figured had been end-of-lifed, has been updated. It’s just a minor update for iOS 6.1 compatibility, but any update is welcome and hopefully indicates that the developer will begin more frequent and beefier updates to this overlooked great camera app.

It’s been in My Camera Bag for over a year. Keep reading to find out what this app does and why I like it so much. >>>

Oroginal perspective shot with Apple Camera

dotfunc(camera) is really two camera apps in one. Its two “modules” really need to be discussed as separate items.

At its core, dotfunc(camera) is a perspective correcting camera app. Simply tilt and rotate until the image is cropped within the floating frame in the viewer. The frame acts as sort of a live preview as to how the image will be corrected and cropped.

dotfunc automatically corrects the perspective distortion, similar to how a tiltshift camera on a movable bellows would correct the perspective in camera. Basically, it’ll take a shot of building looking up and make it look like it was shot straight on from the the center of the frame. Really cool. There are a couple of other photo apps that can do this in post. I haven’t found any other photo apps that do this in camera.

Take a look at the two sample photos above for a striking example of what this app is capable of.

A couple of years ago, tilt-correction technology was something Apple was exploring for its own Camera app, but we’ve yet to see it or even hear any rumors about it.

Its other module is a fairly full-featured image editor and analog film filter set. The built-in image editor has the essential toolset that we’re now seeing in many all-in-one apps. The filter set is different than the standard “let’s be Instagram” filters found in many photo apps. It’s actually a very nice collection of great looking film stock recreations that reminds me a lot of the collection of films in RetroCamera. Unlike many of the faux-retro apps, these filters capture the look and tonal qualities of several analog film stocks.

It’s been over two years since the app’s last update. It still only supports an maximum of 3.2 MP on an iPhone 5, 4S or 4. Originally released when the 5 MP iPhone 4 was the top of the line, it needed the headroom to make its perspective adjustments. While 3.2 MP seems small by today’s standards, there’s still plenty of pixels there to make good-looking physical prints of 10″ x 13″ with these files.

For me, dotfunc is still worth it just for the automatic perspective correction alone. I still use it regularly. Hopefully, this latest update will lead to a resolution bump and better compatibility with the latest iPhones.

dotfunc(camera) is $2.99. There’s nothing else like it in the App Store. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 6.1 or later.

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"dotfunc(camera) Gets an Update!." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.

The first camera phone photo was taken on June 11th, 1997. In honor of that date, 1197 is a conference dedicated to mobile & iPhone photography.

This year, the 1197 Conference is being held at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art in New York City. I’ll be there on Friday, February 22 speaking as part of the MPA Premier Event and on the discussion panel “Sailing the Cs of Mobile Photography: Create, Career & Community.” Come on out. I’d love to meet you in person.

More info and links, after the jump. >>>

From the pressie:

From February  17-23, 2013 Soho Gallery For Digital Art welcomes 1197 to NYC. Come join us as we present week long conferences, juried exhibits, workshops, panels, prizes and worldwide collaborations.

1197 will be coinciding with Social Media Week and is proud to be sponsored by Nokia and Schneider Optics. All 1197 activities are free of charge. To participate, you must register with either SMW or 1197.

Read about last year’s 1197 in San Francisco in New York Times, MacWorld and the San Jose Mercury News.

Here’s a link to the full conference schedule. Some of the events have started. Most are scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week.

Events are free, but you’ve got to register first. Most are already sold out. I’ll let you know here and on Twitter and Facebook if there are any other side events, such as meetups and photo walks.

The panel I’m on also features The MPA’s Daniel Berman, Jen Pollack Bianco, and iPhoneArt.com’s Nate Park. Sion Fullana will be presenting earlier, as will one Ari Fuchs from Aviary, along with many other interesting presentations.

I look forward to meeting many of the New York area iPhoneographers in person.

EVENT:

Soho Gallery for Digital Art
138 Sullivan St.
New York, New York 10012

Facebook Event Page

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"Hey, New York! 1197 Conference is This Week and I’ll Be There Friday!." originally appeared on Life in LoFi: iPhoneography. © 2013 LifeInLoFi.com. All rights reserved.