You just downloaded the latest update of your favorite app to your iPhone, but the new version crashes and the old version is no longer available in the App Store. Are you out of luck until the fix is released? Maybe not. If you downloaded the update on your iPhone only (not in your computer’s iTunes), here’s one way to downgrade back to a previous version of an app.
iPhoneographer Dixon Hamby recently posted this to his blog:
If you want to make quality prints from your images, before you buy an iPhone photo app check to see if it saves at 100%. Many of the most popular ones don’t. After you download an app check the settings. Even though the app saves at 100% the default may be less than full resolution. I simply don’t use an app unless it saves at 100%. Why would I want to degrade the image? So if you ever plan to make prints, print calendars or books, check before you buy and save yourself some money.
Editor’s Note: Well said, Dixon. Thanks! Even if you’ve read a review of an app online, it’s always a good idea to read the app’s entire description in iTunes. If it’s mentioned, many times a developer will bury the size of output at the end of a description. Not all online reviews mention an app’s resolution (LifeInLoFi’s policy is to mention image resolution when we find lower than acceptable output. Often we mention the resolution anyway.). If no output resolution is mentioned in the online review you read — either full-size or reduced — check the user reviews in the App Store. Many times, the early reviews will mention low res output.
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Dixon Hamby publishes the blog dixon hamby iphoneography and has given me permission to republish his post here. You can follow Dixon on Twitter, @dixonhamby. You can purchase books of his iPhoneography here.
One of the issues that occasionally pops up for me is that sometimes pictures taken on my iPhone don’t display with their proper rotation in some, non-Apple instances. I encounter this more often with third-party apps, but it still can be an issue. A new post by TJ Luoma over at TUAW — The Unofficial Apple Weblog gives a very interesting, very technical, very geeky way to fix this issue using a utility called jhead. Personally, I prefer to run my images through Photogene on my iPhone, fix any rotation issues and everything is then fine.
This link isn’t presented here so much as a “how-to” but as another peek behind the curtain as to how the iPhone camera works. Note: I’ve found easier and less intrusive ways to fix this issue (see Photogene mention above). If you’re feeling brave, remember that you’re peeking and poking around data. Be sure you know what you’re doing. Always work on a copy of your image. Any time you’re working with the raw code of a file, there’s a chance that you may hose your image.
Apple uses an EXIF tag to rotate images. This can be a problem when you share images with others. Safari will rotate the image correctly, but no other browser will.
Adding to the trouble is that Mail.app and the Finder will also “auto-correct” the rotation, so it can be hard to tell which images need to be “fixed” and which don’t.
Read the full article here at TUAW.com >>>
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Since the birth of my FROM THE POCKET project in late 2009, I have received several emails from fellow iPhoneographers — many of whom want to know the applications I use for processing, capturing techniques, subject choices, and so on. As we all know, iPhoneography is a rapidly growing artistic medium and with that, comes the introduction of new artists and iPhoneographers alike. The art and design world is slow to accept iPhoneography as a true expression of art. However, we are seeing that iPhoneographers who are true artists beginning to alter this interpretation. Just like any new form of art, iPhoneography needs to grow and establish artistic legitimacy. There are those who simply take pictures with their iPhone, and those who employ the iPhone as an artistic tool.
This article is directed at my fellow and aspiring iPhoneographers who want to better their iPhoneography experience and artfully improve their images. Below, I have listed 7 simple tips to better your iPhoneography. This will not be a source of suggesting applications you should be using to process images, or how you should hold the iPhone, or how to make your images look “more analog”. My intentions are to provide artful insight into bettering your iPhoneography.
The iPhone’s camera has a 0.2 second fixed shutter speed and a fixed aperture of f/2.8. It adjusts for exposure by adjusting the sensitivity of the sensor inside the camera — in effect, adjusting the ISO. This means that the darker your photograph, the greater the chance there will be noise in the image.
You can improve the color and clarity, as well as reduce the noise in your iPhone images by making sure, whenever possible, that you have a strong light source that’s behind you. For example, when taking outdoor photographs, try shooting with the sun at your back whenever you can. Lighting your subject properly will help you get good color, good contrast and reduced noise from your iPhone photos.
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One of the “rules” of iPhoneography (if you’re a purist) is that all image manipulation — filters, effects, cropping, etc. — be done on the iPhone. The default setting for an iPhoto sync is to remove all images from the camera roll after they are synced to your computer. Adding an image back to your iPhone by syncing to an album reduces the image size to no larger than 640 x 480 pixels.
If you want work on the full-size image that has been synced and removed from your iPhone, simply email the full-size image to one of the email accounts that you receive on your iPhone. From Mail, you can save the full size image back to your camera roll where you can edit the image with the iPhone apps of your choice, as if you’d just taken the photo.
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In my graphic design studio, I work with images all day (and often well into the night), color correcting and manipulating them in Photoshop. All of the monitors in my studio are profiled and calibrated. While we can’t profile and calibrate the iPhone’s screen, we can use some of the concepts behind monitor calibration and make a simple change to help improve the results you get when you are making color moves in Photogene, PhotoForge, or other image editing apps for the iPhone. This is especially critical when you’re adjusting Color, Contrast and Lightness settings in your images.
For quick and easy access to a camera, you can easily reprogram your iPhone so that when you double-click the Home Button, it will open the Apple Camera app.
Open Settings > General. Scroll down about to just below the bottom of the screen to Home. From there, you can change your Home Button settings to Camera. Better yet, even if you change this setting, one-click still takes you to your home screen.
If you’re like me and you have third-party camera apps that you’d rather use, you won’t be able to assign the Home Button to automatically open one. However, in a pinch, the Apple Camera will do and having quick access to it is better than missing your shot.
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In lieu of a tripod, anti-shake stabilization is great for helping you to shoot clearer pictures on your iPhone. Many apps have this feature, including Camera Genius and ProCamera. If you don’t use one of the iPhone camera apps with anti-shake stabilization, you can still get better results and clearer images.
On many iPhone apps including Apple’s Camera app, the shutter doesn’t trigger when you press the shutter button — it triggers when you release the shutter button. To help get clearer pictures, when shooting your picture press and hold the shutter button, wait for your shot (“Say cheese…”), then take your finger off the shutter button to snap your picture.
Simply pressing the shutter button can sometimes cause the phone to jiggle a little which could blur your image. Taking your shot by pulling off the shutter button helps to steady the camera as you shoot.
Other tips to try: hold your breath while you take your shot. Or try and steady yourself (and your camera) against a pretty solid object such as a wall or a tree.
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