Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Cool Links: How to photograph today’s annular solar eclipse

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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Perfectly Clear updated. Now works with iPhone 4S

Athentech Perfectly Clear for iPhoneWhen I found out that the Awesomizer tool of the excellent Camera Awesome was built by Athentech, I was worried that spelled the end of life for one of my favorite photo apps, Perfectly Clear. The long lapse between update didn’t help much to dispel my fears.

The new 2.4 versions of Perfectly Clear for both iPhone and iPad have finally hit the App Store today. They are both loaded with a lot of goodness, including a sale price reduction and a lot of bug-fixes. Regardless of the iPhone or iPad you use, regardless of any other photo fixer you may have, Perfectly Clear is an app that should be in your iPhoneographer’s toolbox and should be a first step in any image processing.

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Apple releases iOS 5.1.1 update for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

The iOS 5.1.1 update was quietly released by Apple today. It’s mainly a bug-fix release, but there is one new fix that is of interest to iPhoneographers. The new update “Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut”.

More on this update after the jump. >>>

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ProCamera is On Sale Now for 99 Cents!

ProCamera is a versatile and very powerful iPhone camera-replacement app. It has an extensive feature set, not only for shooting, but with its Studio and FX modules, you can tweak photos in-app and apply from a great selection of filters.

ProCamera normally sells for $2.99. To celebrate Spring, it’s on sale for only $0.99 — a savings of $2.00. This is a deep discount for ProCamera. This Easter sale is for a limited time only. This is a great time to grab it if it’s not already a part of your iPhone’s camera bag.

App Store link and more info after the jump. >>>

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PhotoGoo gets updated and is FREE right now

Old Photoshoppers may remember Kai Krause’s Power Tools, a set of Photoshop plugins that let you quickly and easily create slick (at the time) effects. One of those filters was the Kai’s Goo effect, which allowed you to push pixels around as if your photo were made of a heavy liquid. When used to excess, the results could be pretty twisted. When used sparingly, you could achieve some pretty creative and unnerving looks.

PhotoGoo is an iPhone photo app that let’s you create goo effects similar to the Kai plugin. It’s free right now in the App Store — down from $2.99. I reviewed an early version a while back. It’s still not perfect, but several updates since have greatly improved the app.

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CameraBag, Infinicam, and CameraBag for iPad are FREE today only. Nice!

CameraBagCameraBag is the classic iPhoneography app. One of the very first filter apps to appear in the App Store way back when (remember iPhone OS 2?), it was a staple in many an early iPhoneographer’s photo app camera bag.

To celebrate the launch of CameraBag 2 for Mac and PC, Nevercenter’s three iPhone photo apps CameraBag, Infinicam, and CameraBag for iPad are FREE for today only — a combined savings of almost $7.00. App Store links are after the jump. Grab these quickly! >>>

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Filterstorm 4.1 Update Adds More Photoshop-like Tools

New Filterstorm 3 iconiPhone image editing app Filterstorm is already one of the most powerful photo apps in the App Store. One of the things that I like about the app is how its interface was redesigned to take advantage of the iPhone’s limited screen real estate. Although there have been a number of other image editing apps released or improved, I still think that Filterstorm sets the standard and redefines how image editing apps should work on the iOS platform. You can read my full review of Filterstorm 3 here.

Filterstorm 4.1 was recently released. Although this is a .1 version update, it adds some powerful new tools to the app, as well as new social network sharing.

More after the jump. >>>

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Snapseed is FREE Right Now This Minute in the App Store

Powerful image editing photo app Snapseed is FREE right now, 12/31/11, 2:30 AM CST, in the App Store. This is a huge discount; it normally costs $4.99.

One of the benefits of being a nightowl is that you get to catch deals like this. This may be one of those freebies that disappears quickly (as in a few hours) so grab this one now.

Here’s the App Store link:

Snapseed - Nik Software, Inc.

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Photo App Focus: “Build” Your Own Camera App with TapShot

 

tapshot for iphoneTapShot is a new camera app from Two Teeth Technologies, the developer of the impressive and popular QuickPix. TapShot changes the way you interact with your iPhone’s camera. It’s a gesture-based app, rather than a button-based app.

TapShot also gives you an amazing amount of feature customization, allowing you to build the interface that works for you. Read more after the jump. >>>>

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iPhone Image Sizes: 2007-2011

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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