Life in LoFi: iPhoneography | iPhone Photo News, Showcases, App Reviews

iPhone 4 lens micro-scratch

I have both an iPhone 4 and 4S. Some people prefer to use their iPhone 4 models without a case… “naked.” Others like the protection and look that a good case adds.

I’m a case guy. While the iPhone 4S is designed to take real world bumps and scrapes, I prefer the protection that a good case offers. If you use a “naked” iPhone 4 or 4S, chances are good that your back lens cover has micro-scratches. How do I know? I found out the hard way.

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So, you got new iPhone for Christmas…. You’ve already downloaded Angry Birds and have asked all of the “Siri-ous” questions (my personal favorite is “Open the pod bay doors, please, Siri.”)

Your new iPhone comes with a pretty serious camera and with the small investment of a few inexpensive photo apps, you can take and share some really cool photos.

But navigating the App Store can be intimidating without a little help. Here’s Life In LoFi’s guide to the best starter photo apps.

If you have a friend or family member who recently got a new iPhone, this is a great list to share with them. There’s a quick and easy email button at the end of this post. >>>

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We’ve featured the Swedish iPhoneographer who shares under the name throughtheiphonelens in our weekly Faved On Flickr showcase. Many of his images have a slightly surreal look to them because of the blending and masking techniques he uses.

Nicki FitzGerald’s iPhoneography Central blog has just posted a new step-by-step tutorial written by throughtheiphonelens where you can learn just how these amazing images were created using only an iPhone using masking and blending techniques. It’s actually surprisingly easy to create these amazing photos with a tripod and just a few photo apps.

Here’s the link to the entire post “Masking & blending techniques using an iPhone“ on iPhoneography Central. It’s a great tutorial.

Here’s a link to the Flickr photostream of throughtheiphonelens, which contains many more of these great images.

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Size matters. Especially in iPhoneography. Here’s Life In LoFi’s graphic showing the relative sizes of all iPhone image sizes, updated to show the new 4S. If you’re still shooting with an old iPhone 2G or 3G, this chart may give you pixel envy.

5 megapixel and 8 megapixel iPhone cameras are now the norm due the the unprecedented popularity of the iPhone 4 and 4S. Just the high-res retina displays of the iPhone 4 series have a resolution of 640—960 pixels.

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With all the recent improvements in mobile phone cameras, Life In LoFi’s definitive iPhone/Mobile Photo Print Sizes guide has been updated to reflect the larger file sizes of iPhone and mobile cameras as well as the increased processing power of some of the new photo apps. While the updated post is written for iPhone users, the information it features is valid for all mobile phone cameras — as well as DSLRs and digital point-and-shoot cameras.

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I just finished upgrading to iOS 5 on a 32 GB iPhone 4. Once the update was downloaded in iTunes, it took just over 3.5 hours to install the update, restore apps, photos and music. During that time, there were lots of instances where it appeared that iTunes froze. In fact, it was thinking and working. Updating apps and content occurred in the background for me. If I’d disconnected my iPhone when I thought the update was completed, I initially thought that I might have lost a lot of data — pretty dangerous on Apple’s part.

However, reader Matt Fragale shared his update experience in a talkback on Life In LoFi’s Facebook page:

“Actually, Marty… I pulled mine off when I thought it was done, but then realized I didn’t have all my apps and stuff. I plugged it back in and it popped up an error to tell me it hadn’t finished and then asked if I wanted to continue. I clicked yes and it went on its merry way with nothing lost at all.”

My iPhone is now updated. All in-app photo albums restored. I didn’t lose any Hipstamatic lenses in the update. Now, to take iOS 5 for a shakedown….

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Despite its deceptive simplicity, there’s nothing common about Instagram’s filters. They look similar to effects that can be achieved in any number of photo apps, but they can’t easily be exactly duplicated. I’ve tried a few times and given up.

Among the changes in the new Instagram 2.0 update are the disappearance of a few of the app’s filters, including the popular Gotham filter. Instagrammer @wilburtheant, along with @darren2112 and @dudettewalnuts, have been circulating a recipe to recreate the look of the Gotham filter using Camera+ ( ).

I’ve made a couple of tweaks to their recipe which helps improve the converted blues in the image and helps reduce the amount of purple in the shadows and 3/4 tones. You’ll also need either Simply B&W ( ) or MonoPhix ( ) for this technique. The tweaked recipe is after the jump. >>>

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Apple's Open In... (left) and PhotoAppLink (right)

They’re two different APIs. One is called “Open In…”. The other is “PhotoAppLink”. They’re both great hooks in photo apps that lets you bypass saving images to the camera roll and open the image directly in another app.

It’s a great feature. I hope many more developers add it to their photo apps.

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There are a few of places on the web where resourceful users have created Hipstamatic Photoshop actions which simulate the look of the app’s films and lenses, allowing you to create the look of Hipstamatic on images that weren’t shot with the app. We don’t post those links on the blog, but recently, Daniel Box created some Photoshop actions which let you recreate the look of some of Instagram’s filters, letting you add the look of Instagram’s filter set and save the processed image in full resolution.

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Fireworks shot with my old iPhone 2G

This weekend, there are a lot of fireworks celebrations here in the US. Many of us will be capturing photos with our iPhones as our main camera. A couple of years ago, I was able to capture okay fireworks images with the inferior camera of my iPhone 2G (see above). This year, I’m looking to capture much better ones with the far superior camera of my iPhone 4.

TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog recently posted a great blog post on how to get better fireworks photos with your iPhone. If you’re out shooting the holiday with your phone, it’s an essential read.

Click here to read “Capturing the “rocket’s red glare” of fireworks with your iPhone camera this 4th of July” by Mel Martin.

UPDATE 07.03.11 @ 13:45: Yahoo Tech just posted a great overall post on getting better photos of fireworks. Although it’s written with all cameras in mind, many of the tips are applicable for mobile phone cameras as well.

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