Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

San Francisco, California
January 29, 2010

Bob's Broiler Before Bar Close

The Big Moon

On the 30 Bus Going the Wrong Way

Street scene from a bus window

Toolbox: Vint B&W, Photogene, Format126

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AA #1019
STL/SFO
January 28, 2010

The Creepy View from Seat 33A

Toolbox: Perfectly Clear, Format126

No one really likes to sit in the back of the plane, even when the engines are wing mounted. It’s much worse on one of the old MD-80s or DC-9s, where the last two rows of seats are blocked by the nacelles of the engines. Sleep is impossible and the sound of the crying baby in seat 22E — the middle seat — is far preferable.

They don’t build these aircraft any more. When you’re close to the front of the plane, their ride is fairly quiet. Today, the flight wasn’t completely full and the original seatholders of row 33 wisely vacated and moved to a more quiet row — probably one with a guy snoring (and they were grateful).

I love to fly on the window seat. I’ll look out for hours if I can. I try to guess which cities or landmarks we’re flying over. I look for the contrails of other aircraft. I watch the clouds and the sun.

In seat 33A, instead all I see is the steel staring back at me as I try to peek around the intake. I am first in the plane to hear the engines power up for take off. I’m nervous flying inches away from that many sharp spinning things. I almost expect to look out the window and see the scary guy in the bad ape suit from that episode of The Twilight Zone.

I have flown in row 33 once. Seat 34T we joke. We were offered a seat on the exit row, but I declined. I wanted to experience the back of an MD-80 at least once. It’s something I never have to do again.

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San Francisco, California
January, 2010

Blue Train to the G Stop

The F Train

Powell Street Station

Toolbox: Gorillacam, CameraKit, Format126, Vint B&W

Three trains in San Francisco.

People going somewhere. People going nowhere. People moving or waiting to move.

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Fort Worth, Texas
January 27, 2010

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Marsha

Express

LUH

Toolbox: Format126, TiltShift Generator, Perfectly Clear

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I was recently interviewed by John Meadows for the On the Log podcast. In “Episode 89: Less is More”, we discuss iPhoneography and using the iPhone with some recent apps to capture the look of old analog photography. It was a fun discussion and I think it’s an interesting interview. Plus, you get to find out whether or not this Texan talks with a twang.

Click here for the podcast On the Log, Episode 89: Less is More >>>

iPhoneography by John Meadows

John took the above photo with CameraBag.

Here’s the link to John’s site, On the Log >>>

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Recently, I wrote about The Best Free iPhoneography Apps: Camera Replacements. Now that you’ve shot your image, how are you going to process it? Here are nine great image editing apps and best of all, their price is free!

I realize that this list is not complete. There were several apps that I didn’t include for various reasons. In compiling this list, I found some apps that duplicated features of others. In those cases, I chose what I felt to be the app that did the job quickest, easiest and best. Also, there are great free apps being released all the time.

Some of these apps may be ad-supported, but none of them add a watermark to your images and all save at or really close to your iPhone’s full resolution, unlike many lite photo apps available. These are all full-featured apps and they produce good, if not outstanding effects. Again, for little more than bandwidth and real estate on your iPhone’s screen, there are some gems to be found in the photography section of the App Store. These apps should start you off with a well-rounded iPhoneography toolbox or enhance your existing iPhone “camera bag” — and all for free.

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Format126

Format126
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: Essential! There are apps that you’ve paid for that aren’t nearly this good. It is a fun and, especially for free, an essential app.

As a kid, growing up, my very first camera was a square frame Kodak Instamatic 100 with the peanut bulb flash and the textured plastic near the shutter release that was supposed to look like one of the old light meters. It used 126 format film, which was single perforated 35 mm film housed in a plastic cartridge. The camera was inexpensively made and was produced for the masses. It was built more solidly than the plastic “toy” cameras and didn’t produce a lot of the Lo-Fi artifacts that are the trademark of those cameras, but it was a fun camera for a kid growing up to explore the world in photos 24 square images at a time.

Format126 by Chris Comair is a new app that is the result of a collaboration between Chris Comair, who created EffectsLab, LOFI and Polarize, and Glyn Evans who writes and publishes iPhoneography.com.

Format126 makes your images look like they were shot with a number of retro cameras and films from the 1960’s and 70’s. As an Instamatic emulator, Format126 takes some liberties with the number of effects the app offers, and given the limits of the 126 format, this was an excellent choice, making the app much more interesting than the original film format.

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