Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

Auto Adjust

I like free. As an end user, free apps are always good. It’s nicer when the free apps are well done and useful. Auto Adjust is one of those.

Auto Adjust by Joe Macirowski is free for a limited time! This is not a feature-crippled “lite” version, but the full version.

I’ve reviewed Auto Adjust and it’s one of my favorite apps here on LoFi. Unlike many of the “flash fixer” apps available, it’s more than just a flash enhancer which simply brightens images. Auto Adjust uses “contrast stretching” or normalization to help correct exposure. Its adjustable enhancement produces excellent results on many images that would otherwise be lost due to underexposure as well as automatically correcting the contrast of more properly exposed images. Auto Adjust is one of my go-to apps.

This is one of the better exposure enhancement apps available in the App Store. It’s highly recommended at its regular price of $0.99 USD. I think it’s an essential app while it’s free. I’m not sure how long the free offer will last, so if you don’t already have Auto Adjust, grab it now!

App Store link: Auto Adjust

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UPDATE 12/30/09: In the new 1.31.3 update, images that are processed in-camera are saved in full resolution, 1600×1200 on my 2G.

Also, in the new update, the built-in hook to the image-enhancement website, 9Monkeys.net, now works seamlessly and quickly within the app.

Kudos to the app’s developer Carl Im at 9Monkeys, who has always been very responsive when I’ve brought up issues from the perspective of an end user.

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SmartCam

SmartCam
Version 1.15.3

Bottom Line: A little pricey, but good exposure enhancement for your existing underexposed images

SmartCam from 9Monkeys Ltd. is a camera, exposure enhancement, and portal to an online image adjusting website. It’s an overlooked app that hasn’t really found its audience in the App Store yet. At $2.99 USD, it’s a little more expensive than most apps in this category which typically run about a buck. How does it fare and is it worth the premium? It depends on how you use the app.

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Auto Adjust

Auto Adjust by Joe Macirowski is free for a limited time! This is not a feature-crippled “lite” version, but the full version.

We reviewed Auto Adjust recently. Unlike many of the “flash fixer apps” available, it’s more than just a flash enhancer which simply brightens your images and can wash them out and cause them to look flat. This app uses “contrast stretching” or normalization to help correct exposure. Its adjustable enhancement produces excellent results on many images that would otherwise be lost due to underexposure as well as automatically correcting the contrast of more properly exposed images. Auto Adjust is one of my go-to apps.

A new update has been submitted. This is a great opportunity to get in the upgrade path.

This is one of the best exposure enhancement apps available in the App Store. It’s highly recommended at its regular price of $0.99 USD. It’s an essential app while it’s free. Grab it now!

App Store link: Auto Adjust

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Fort Worth, Texas
White Elephant Saloon

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Empty Dance Floor

Toolbox: Camera Genius, AutoAdjust

November 12, 2009

Ghosts in the Park

It was the beginning of the weekend of Autumn here in North Texas. In places that have autumn, it’s usually a multi-week spectacle of leaves changing with a lot of rich, saturated colors. Here, autumn arrives and leaves quickly — often within days. You have to catch it quickly.

Any day that begins way too early and involves extensive dental work before the sun has come up is a day that’s not starting off well. I was running late for my crown, having broken a tooth the day before. I rushed outside to leave and was awed by the the thin layer of low-lying fog lazily hanging over the park across the street. Road ghosts playing in the park.

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Auto Adjust

As promised, developer Joe Macirowski has updated Auto Adjust to version 1.1. I reviewed the app a few weeks ago and my biggest issue with this otherwise excellent app was the rotation bug that seems to be occurring in many new photo apps. The newly-released update fixes this issue and images now save to your camera roll with the correct orientation.

I’ve had a chance to use this app often since its release and many times the results are outstanding. There are other apps that use normalization for exposure correction, but I’ve found Auto Adjust easily and consistently produces superior results with good color, saturation and the least amount of noise that you’re going to get from running exposure correction processing. It tweaks the contrast of moderately underexposed images, but this app can sometimes work miracles on images I initially thought were too dark to be useful.

Especially after the new update, I highly recommend this app. The update is now available in the App Store.

Auto Adjust is now only $.99 USD in the App Store.

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Auto Adjust

Auto Adjust
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: Recommend!

Auto Adjust by Joe Macirowski is a new app that uses a different algorithm to adjust dark or washed-out areas of your images. Auto Adjust is more than just a “flash enhancer” which simply brightens your images and can wash them out and cause them to look flat. This app uses “contrast stretching” or normalization to help correct exposure. Thinking about the theory behind contrast stretching makes my brain hurt. It’s something we take for granted every time we do color or luminance adjustment in Photoshop, but like writing PostScript, I’d rather have an application do all of the under the hood stuff for me rather than learning the actual code.

However it works its magic, Auto Adjust does a great job of enhancing dark images and I found it can also do a decent job of adding punch and contrast to a flat, washed out image.

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