The new App Store description reads “Another massive update!” I’m always leery of taglines like that, but the new PicFrame version 3 update lives up to massive.

The app now features 34 fully adjustable frames, rounded corners, and plenty of frame patterns. This new update adds many new improvements and features including full support for the new high resolution iPhone 4S. Overall, this is one of the top, if not the current standard for diptych-style photo apps.

PicFrame now supports full 3264×3624 on an iPhone 4S. Other new features of this update include:

• Full resolution saving for iPhone 4S
• Apply effects to individual photos (double tap a photo)
• Frames are now fully adjustable, tweak each area of the frame by dragging the borders that separate them
• Easily move photos to different areas by drag and drop (touch a photo until it pops out then drag and drop into another area)
• Easy rotate/mirror controls (double tap a photo)
• 2 new frames
• 20 new patterns
• 15 new label fonts
• New help screens to walk you through the app
• More resolution options when saving and sharing

PicFrame is still only $0.99. There’s an optional in app purchase to add labels to frames to help tell the story. And, PicFrame still old iPhone-friendly. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2.2 or later.

=M=

~~~~

Multi-panel photo apps like the excellent Diptic seem to be all the rage in the App Store right now. It seems that every day, there is a new diptych-style photo app. It’s an interesting photo style and using multiple images in a single photograph can really help tell a story.

Frame Magic is a recent release and it’s on special for free right now, down from $0.99. It’s not a great multi-panel photo app like Diptic or PicFrame, but for free, it’s good enough.

Frame magic has 16 basic frames — up to four panels. Frame sets containing up to six panels are an extra $0.99 available as an in-app purchase. The standard-issue set is definitely very usable.

When importing images, Camera Roll is at the bottom of the album list, not at the top where I expect it and where it makes most sense. The app makes you go through several clicks and gestures before you’re in the Camera Roll, where most of the images you’re likely to use are.

It has some basic editing tools. You can flip or rotate each image within the frame. You can even easily switch back and forth to a basic grayscale conversion.

Frame color is easy to change using the app’s built in color panel. There are also four presets with the popular cyan, white, gold and black. There are only ten frame patterns. I’m not a fan of frame patterns. These are pretty harsh and remind me of some of the old Mac System 7 desktop pattern presets.

The app saves to your photo album and also shares your finished piece by email, facebook or Twitter. Images are saved at a maximum size of 1514×2048 pixels on an iPhone 4 — that’s about 3.1 MP and is smaller output than Diptic or PicFrame. UPDATE: Reader and app beta tester Pat Timney shares that the developers plan full resolution support in a future update.

One of the things I like a lot about Frame Magic, though, is changing the style of the frame keeps any images you’ve already placed. They’ll need some tweaking to fit the new layout, but it’s a lot quicker and easier than re-importing the images all over again.

Frame Magic isn’t bad for free. If it goes off sale, I’d still recommend one of the more full-featured diptych apps for the money. It offers almost no features that you can’t get better elsewhere. But for free, it’s a good app and a great intro to multi-panel photography. It’s easy to use and it’s high (not full) resolution output should be good for many iPhone photographers.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

=M=

~~~~

UPDATE 09.18.11 @ 13:35: Updated release comment. Also added info about full-res planned for a future update.

LOFI

LOFI
Version 1.0

Bottom line: Recommend!

With the name LOFI, I couldn’t pass this app by.

LOFI by Christopher Comair is “a celebration of imperfection.” It’s a digital lomo app. Cross processing results in unnatural color shifts. Lomography tends to be oversaturated and blurry. LOFI wraps your image in both and then turns it up to 11, kicks it around, amps it up and leaves it exhausted and sweaty on a blanket on the sofa. This is probably one of the best free photo apps in the App Store.

Filter options in LOFI

LOFI is more than just a color throttling filter, although supercolor is a large part of what it does. You can shoot an image with the app’s basic camera or select one from your iPhone’s camera library. You can then choose from one of 12 color adjustment settings ranging from monochrome to Original (the more traditional lomo setting) to various degrees of super color saturation. LOFI supports 3GS files sizes and you can set the preferences to save your images at their original resolution.

LOFI produces color results that are not found in any other app I’ve come across. The color is even more saturated and vivid than the Lolo filter in CameraBag. These 12 filters alone produce great, often stunning results.

LOFI also lets you create multiple image photographs within the app. There are built-in templates for 2-image diptychs, 4-image quadtychs and 9-image frames.. Each frame of the image can have a different filter or image applied to it. Applying different filters and images allow you create some interesting visual and color contrasts. While I really liked the color intensifying the app does, I think the multi-image feature is an excellent compliment. The two components together have the potential to allow you to produce some very powerful images.

4-image quadtych created in LOFI

The interface is pretty straightforward. Undos are tricky and you may find yourself simply starting over on an image. This wasn’t a big issue for me as the the app is so simple that you really don’t lose much time.

LOFI is an app for experimentation and juxaposition. I was consistently pleased with what I was able to produce.

It’s very rare that a developer offers an app this unique and this well-coded for free. I’ve paid for many apps that aren’t this good. For many reasons, this excellent app is a keeper.

App Store link: LOFI

=M=