Life in LoFi: iPhoneography | iPhone Photo News, Showcases, App Reviews

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:

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TapShot 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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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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New retro photo app Vintage Camera Pro by Presselite is starting to make it’s slow journey up the sales charts. It’s yet another entry in the square format, analog photo app category. It has an impressive App Store description, but it’s definitely not a “Pro” app. The initial release of the app falls short in a lot of ways. You’re better off with Squara, Cameramatic, Hipstamatic, Leme Leme Pro… well, you get the idea.

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Large Aperture Pro
Version 1.3
Price: $1.99

Bottom Line: I don’t like it. The app has clunky and frustrating functionality, hard edges that make the blurs look harsh and fake, and low resolution output. I also don’t like the way the developer feels the need to bully critical reviewers.

Released several weeks ago, Large Aperture Pro by Zhong is back in the spotlight after a weekend price reduction. It’s a photo app that adds DSLR-like depth-of-field (DOF) effects to your photos. It’s the same type of app as BlurFX or the new Big Lens apps, which also simulate DSLR DOF and blur effects in your images.

Even after several updates, Large Aperture Pro still has a lot of issues and limitations. It lacks the features and finesse of either of those two apps.

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Photogene2 is the updated version of the classic iPhone photo editor. Photogene2 has been completely retooled and is the ultimate tool for handling your iPhone photos. It’s a full featured photo editor: crop, straighten, color adjustments (including histogram and curves), sharpen and denoise, retouch tools (dodge/burn, heal, localized effects and more). This new version puts it on par with Filterstorm and PhotoForge2. Photogene2 has an impressive, well-rounded set of features.

This powerful image editor for iPhone is on sale now for a limited time for only $0.99. That’s a savings of $1.00 off the regular price.

Current App Store ratings are averaging an impressive 4-1/2 stars for Photogene2 and after using it for a few weeks, I think those ratings are accurate and deserved.

Where the original Photogene was showing its age, this new version is fast, full featured, and has a great, newly revised interface. If you are currently using an all-in-one camera app (such as Camera+ or King Camera) or are otherwise not using one of the high-end iOS image editors, this is a great addition to your iPhoneography camera bag. Grab it now while the price is low.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later. It’ll run on an iPad, but this version is not a Universal app and doesn’t fully take advantage of the larger screen real estate of the iPad.

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

Normally, ProCamera sells for $2.99. Right now, it’s on sale for only $0.99 — a savings of $2.00. ProCamera is rarely discounted and this sale is for a limited time only, so grab it now.

None of the improvements and additions get in the way of the excellent camera module of ProCamera. For shooting, the app adds tools to help improve the quality of the shot in camera, including separate focus and exposure lock, white balance lock, and anti-shake stabilization. It has all of the things to look for in a good camera replacement app.

The studio and effects modules put the app on par with other all-in-one camera apps. You can read my review of the ProCamera version 3.0 update here. It’s an excellent photo app for getting the best shot in camera and it’s my go-to camera replacement app.

ProCamera works on any iPhone or iPod Touch 4th Gen running iOS 4.0 or newer. The latest version of the iOS is needed to take advantage of some of the app’s advanced features.

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Camera360 is a Retro photo app available for the Android platform (you can check it out on the Android Market here). It’s also available for iPhone as Camera360 Ultimate, making it one of the few photo apps that’s available for both platforms.

The new version 2.0 update was released recently for iPhone and it’s a huge step backwards on iOS. If this update is anything close to parity with the Android version, I feel sorry for our Droidographer counterparts.

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This updated Camera Bag post is regularly updated and is the same post as in the navbar above. It’ll eventually roll off here. It’s posted here in the blog to share the evolution of my iPhone. For kicks, you can read my original November 2009 Camera Bag post here. It’s interesting to see how things have changed (and how they haven’t) in two years.

I have a camera. Sometimes I use it to make phone calls.

Although I don’t share my photography here on the blog much any more, I still shoot. My old iPhone 2G and a handful of photo apps used to be the standard for creating some great-looking digital lo-fi. Now, the camera that’s with me nearly all the time is my iPhone 4S.

One of the features that makes the iPhone camera unique is the availability of thousands of photography-related apps. For less than the cost of a DVD, you can basically get a whole new camera experience. I don’t use one app exclusively to shoot with. I have several and try to match up the image with the app.

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I just finished upgrading to iOS 5 on a 32 GB iPhone 4. Once the update was downloaded in iTunes, it took just over 3.5 hours to install the update, restore apps, photos and music. During that time, there were lots of instances where it appeared that iTunes froze. In fact, it was thinking and working. Updating apps and content occurred in the background for me. If I’d disconnected my iPhone when I thought the update was completed, I initially thought that I might have lost a lot of data — pretty dangerous on Apple’s part.

However, reader Matt Fragale shared his update experience in a talkback on Life In LoFi’s Facebook page:

“Actually, Marty… I pulled mine off when I thought it was done, but then realized I didn’t have all my apps and stuff. I plugged it back in and it popped up an error to tell me it hadn’t finished and then asked if I wanted to continue. I clicked yes and it went on its merry way with nothing lost at all.”

My iPhone is now updated. All in-app photo albums restored. I didn’t lose any Hipstamatic lenses in the update. Now, to take iOS 5 for a shakedown….

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