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

Annular ring eclipse photo, courtesy of National Geographic

Today, the western United States gets treated to a rare astronomical event, an annular eclipse of the sun. Depending on where you are, the show starts around 5:00 PM Pacific Time and runs to almost 8:00 PM. During the moments of annularity, the moon will be completely in front of the sun, but not covering it. The result will be a pretty spectacular “Ring of Fire”. I was fortunate to catch an annular eclipse 18 years ago when we were in Lubbock, Texas. It was spectacular.

Many of us who are in the eclipse’s path will be tempted to look at the eclipse or shoot the eclipse with our cameras or iPhones. Here are some links to great tips on how to safely view and shoot today’s eclipse.

IMPORTANT! Do NOT look straight at the eclipse! You will damage your eyes. Really.

Also, USA Today writes:

If you have a compact camera with an LCD screen (such as in iPhone. — =M=), you could, in theory, watch the eclipse on the screen, but it will still probably damage the camera’s image sensor, so we wouldn’t recommend it.

User Charlemagne in the Canon Digital Photography Forums writes:

If it is a full eclipse, I would try capturing the landscape at that moment. It’s magical. As if life suddenly comes to a stop. So wide angle for me. If it lasts long enough, might try to capture the diamond ring around the moon, but I’m not sure that is safe without extra protective filters. You don’t want to toast your sensor, or your eyes.

Here are a few links I found which are written for DSLRs and traditional cameras, but many of the techniques can easily be adapted for use with an iPhone camera.

How to photograph a solar eclipse, by Katherine Gray, Tecca, USA Today

How to photograph Sunday’s solar eclipse, The Christian Science Monitor

I’ll be shooting the eclipse today with an OWLE BUBO along with it’s very nice, huge, light-gathering wide angle lens to capture what’s around me.

Have fun, view safely and if you get any good, striking or eerie eclipse pics, share them in Life In LoFi’s Flickr Group!

=M=

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Instagram is one of the most insanely popular photo apps for iPhone. Since its introduction over a year ago, it has amassed over 15 million users. An Android version is “in the works” as is a rumored Windows Phone version as well.

While maybe not the best social photo app in the store, it’s the most popular and it’s arguable that the number of people who use it as well as the community that has sprung up around Instagram are huge reasons for it’s continued popularity. It’s easy for people to connect with Instagram. I use Instagram, especially when I travel. You can find me on Instagram/@martyneardfw.

By opening up its API, Instagram has made it easy to be as creative as you want, whether it’s using one of the app’s 16 built-in one-click filters or using one of the many Instagram-ready photo apps. Here are ten tips to help you get more out of Instagram. >>>

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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.

=M=

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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….

=M=

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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