Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

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It’s not if the iPhone camera can make large prints, it’s how big….

Whether to mount and frame as gifts, for sale or for gallery exhibition, more and more prints are being made from iPhones. Prints and enlargements can be made from any iPhone camera. How big an enlargement you can make depends on a number of factors — the iPhone model you use, the resolution of the apps you use, and if, how and where you are willing to resample your images.

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Big Wheel, London, by Jason Feather

Jason Feather edits and writes the Appertunity blog. More than just iPhoneography, Jason writes about all things iPhone and does so in a very upfront and entertaining way. His blog is in LoFi’s blogroll for a reason — it’s one of my regular reads. He’s kindly let LoFi repost this recent story. =M=

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10 Brief but essential tips for taking better photos with your iPhone.

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by Jason Feather

Here are a few simple tips for taking good iPhone photographs illustrated with some of my own iPhoneography work.

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I reviewed a photo app recently that just refused to perform at all once I downloaded and installed it. The screen looked jumbled and controls failed to work. I rebooted my iPhone 4, restarted the app and many of the problems went away.

Does the app you just downloaded refuse to work right? Does it crash every time you first open it? Try rebooting your iPhone. Much of the time, that fixes the problem and helps the app as well as your iPhone run smoothly.

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Photo credit: © tap tap tap

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UPDATE: Based on Dean’s comment below, at 10:40: am CDT, I deleted and redownloaded Camera+ to my iPhone 2G, where I had NOT previously performed this feature unlock. Sure enough, the unlock didn’t work on this newly downloaded copy of Camera+. The app still says version 1.2.1. It may be because the “exploit” has already been closed and a revised version of Camera+ has quietly been uploaded to the App Store — that was fast. Or, perhaps the hack doesn’t work on an iPhone 2G. I’m still able to use VolumeSnap on my iPhone 4 where I’d applied the hack on an installed copy.

Purchase, update or reinstall Camera+ at your own discretion. At this point, the hack may not work with the app. Or it simply may not work with your device.

Are you getting this unlock to work? Let us know in the comments below.

=M=

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Camera+ is one of the best, most full-featured camera replacement apps in the App Store currently. Click here to read our recent review of the app. According the tap tap tap blog, the latest update of the app has been rejected because of a cool new feature, VolumeSnap. You should head over there – it’s an interesting peek into the backroom of the App Store.

We have a workaround after the jump >>>

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Hometown Sunset, by Jason L. Parks

©Jason L. Parks on Flickr

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Capturing silhouettes is a great way to add contrast in a photo. To do so, you must place your light source in front of you and your subject in a matter in which your subject blocks the light similar to the manner in which the moon does the sun during an eclipse. When coupled with a beautiful landscape or background, silhouettes  help to add balance and depth and strengthens a photo’s composition.

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Cleaning the iPhone 4's lens and flash

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The new, larger lens of the iPhone 4 camera is still teeny. The actual lens itself is protected by an external lens casing. While the lens casing is about 5 mm, the lens itself is about than 2 mm — just a little larger than the head of a pin. Even a small smudge or a fingerprint on your lens can really effect the quality of your images. Also, the iPhone 4′s lens casing is no longer recessed as in previous iPhones. It’s pretty much flush with the back of the phones case, making it even easier to get smudged and dirty. Fortunately, keeping the iPhone 4′s lens clean is even easier than previous models.

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Recently, the Pic Grunger 3.1 update was released and it contains a bug that saves all images at no more than 800×600 pixels. The developer, Stephen Spring, was quick to respond and an update that fixes the problem is coming soon — as early as next week.

If you weren’t able to downgrade back to version 3.0, here’s a temporary workaround to get high resolution working again until the new update is released. You can still save full-resolution 5MP images in the current version of Pic Grunger using this workaround sent to me by the developer.

To save high-res images, you have to select your photos from the the Effects screen (tap the camera icon on the top right — see the screenshot). This adds an extra step or two to processing the image, but worked on my iPhone 4. This won’t work on older iPod Touches, but it will work for iPhones.

Again, the update which fixes the issue should be available in the App Store late next week.

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Click to enlarge image

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It’s ironic that as digital photographers, we spend a lot of time in processing to duplicate the look of film in our photos. I’ve found very few apps that achieve the look and texture of analog films that I used to shoot with.

One of my favorite photo apps is FILM LAB. Despite its flaws, it’s a very impressive app that recreates the tonal qualities of a wide range of film stocks. The one thing it is missing, though is film grain.

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