lo-mob is one of iPhoneography’s earliest retro photo apps and still a classic. It has 39 vintage and experimental photographic filters — all tweakable for endless variations. Its well-rendered selection of old analog camera effects are still among the best and most accurately recreated in the App Store.

The lo-mob 1.6 update has just been released. It fixes a few bugs and adds a new filter and a few useful new features.

The complete update description is below, but lo-mob adds one new filter to its set. The Vintage Instant Variation filter is another square frame instant print — a destaurated variation of its Vintage Instant – Reframed filter. With its desaturated color and slightly cooler tones, the new filter recreates an old vintage print more accurately.

lo-mob now also incorporates Apple’s “Open In…”, which means you can now open processed photos in another app without first saving to the camera roll. Among the apps which support this feature are Cameramatic, Phonto and FX Photo Studio. I’m a huge fan of this feature as it greatly improves the workflow while reducing camera roll version clutter. lo-mob also now sends straight to Instagram from within the app.

This update adds a Print feature. As more printers become AirPrint enabled, this feature becomes more useful. Not only should this work with recent HP printers, but Canon just announced AirPrint support for several of its current printers as well.

Its not a huge update, but lo-mob 1.6 gets a few new features which improve the overall functionality of the app.

lo-mob is $1.99 in the App Store. It’s still old iPhone friendly. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later.

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What’s New in Version 1.6

FIXED : iOS 3.1.3 issue
FIXED : orientation & crop issues
ADDED : Send to App : ability to send a processed picture from Lo-Mob to all compatible applications on your iPhone (DropBox, Magic Hour, Phonto…)
ADDED : Send to Instagram App
ADDED : Print.
ADDED : copy to clipboard.

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lo-mob for iPhone is on sale for $0.99 right now in the App Store — half off the normal price of $1.99. If you don’t already have this classic lo-fi app, go grab it now.

I think lo-mob is an excellent app. It features over 25 vintage analog camera effects, most not found in any other apps, including classic film effects, instant films, and some really cool through the viewfinder (TTV) effects. It’s got a lot of great effects and colors, textures and frames are authentic-looking and very well rendered.

lo-mob supports full resolution images, including 5MP images from the iPhone 4 and the 3.2MP images from 3GS. In fact, lo-mob should support any resolution without downsizing. It still supports older iPhones and OS 3 as well.

No word as to how long it’ll be on sale. If lo-mob has been on your watch list, head over to the App Store and grab it now.

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We previewed the version 1.4 update a few weeks ago, and this new release holds even a few more surprises.

lo-mob 1.4 - the new interface. Click to enlarge.

lo-mob now supports full resolution on all iPhones, including 5MP images from the iPhone 4 and the 3.2MP images from 3GS. In fact, it supports greater than full resolution as it will process any image you throw its way. The first photo I processed with the update saved at 1936x3226px — 6.2 megabytes!

The promised speed increase is there. lo-mob opens faster and filters seem to preview faster. Save times don’t seem to have improved at first, until you realize that because of the increased resolution, the app is now processing at least four times the pixels.

The interface also got an overhaul, with individual effects controls now more prominent and visible in the editing window.

The new pan and zoom feature isn’t the smoothest. The preview doesn’t fully render and appears a little chunky when zoomed. You won’t be using it to view any details, but again lo-mob is more of an overall-type filter app.

lo-mob 1.4 supports fast app switching, so you should be able to exit the app while it processes and come back to it without loss of data. There are other iOS 4 tweaks as well. And lo-mob 1.4 still runs on devices using OS 3.1.2. While not a universal app, it’s compatible with iPod Touch and iPad devices as well.

lo-mob is a classic lo-fi photo app and is a fave of the blog. It’s $1.99 in the App Store.

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[UPDATED 8/27/10 4:19 PM]

Nearly everyone with an iPhone has used the camera to take snapshots — pictures of family, friends and moments to capture and share. Far fewer — but a growing and diverse number — have created art for show, gallery or exhibition. But how many would consider using an iPhone for commercial work? How many of you already have?

The superior camera of the iPhone 4 makes a strong case for using an iPhone for occasional commercial photography. It has a 5 megapixel resolution that is certainly usable for many print purposes. The color and dynamic range are improved enough that a workable photograph can be produced with minimal tweaking. The cover of the September 2010 issue of Macworld was shot with an iPhone 4.

There are a lot of photo apps with great effects. They are easily applied, well-rendered and nearly all of the high-end photo apps save in at least 1600x1200px resolution — most save much higher than that.

Excellent hoto effects from apps like CameraBag, Picture Show, lo-mob, Photo fx and others take very little time to apply on an iPhone. Recreating these photo effects on a desktop in Photoshop would take much, much longer to experiment, recreate and apply. If there’s a need, why not use the iPhone as a production tool?

In my graphic design business, I have used my camera of choice for a few jobs now with great results. I’ve not only used my iPhone for photography, but to use iPhone photo apps to filter existing images.

The image above was for a local guide book. I was laying out the section for local grocery markets and wanted a colorful image of fruits and vegetables to indicate freshness and quality. Rather than dig through stock photography of a generic market, I knew I had this photo in my library. We dropped it in and the client loved it — not even knowing it was taken with an iPhone.

It was taken and processed on an iPhone 2G. While the initial shot was great, I’d pumped up the saturation of the peppers. For my photo, I didn’t necessarily want the color to be completely accurate (it was close, by the way…) but I wanted it to be bright — the same needs we had for this particular guide. It was a perfect fit for placement in this local lifestyle guide. Print size in the publication was small enough to where the 1600x1200px resolution of the image was more than enough. Perfectly Clear was the first app I used to get the original photo workable. I used PhotoForge to push the saturation of the image until I was happy with it.

For another project, I recently tweaked existing photography on my iPhone 4. For an event at a local nightclub, I was sent the photograph of the model. While a gorgeous photo, I wanted something a little surreal color-wise and a good, lo-fi analog edge.

To get the photo on my iPhone, I emailed the full resolution image to my iPhone to work on it. To achieve the effect I wanted, I ran it through the LomoGraphy filter with the Convex Blur frame in Picture Show. This not only gave me the oversaturation of the color that I wanted, but it also pushed the contrast. The filter has perfect analog film edge that I wanted for the piece as well. This process took minutes to experiment and complete.

At the client’s instruction, we backed off on the color saturation just a little bit, which I used Photogene to do. From there, I emailed myself the final, full-resolution image. iOS 4 now gives the option to email full-resolution images.

This wasn’t an exercise of creativity through limitations. In this case, the iPhone actually solved several production problems for me and saved me a lot of time in Photoshop experimenting until I was able to replicate what Picture Show did in minutes, quickly and easily.

With the number , diversity and resolution of iPhone photo apps, I now think of my iPhone as a production tool, able to quickly and easily apply effects to images, or to turn my iPhone images into commercial images for print. While I’m not replacing my DSLR or Photoshop CS any time soon, I wouldn’t hesitate to use my iPhone again in future projects as needed.

Have you used your iPhone for work or commercial purposes? Let us know what you did and how it worked out in the comments below….

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UPDATED: You’re right, Charles. It wasn’t lo-mob that produced that image. It was Picture Show that produced this final image. My apologies for the confusion. I’ve updated my post to reflect that.

lo-mob

I think lo-mob is an excellent app. It features over 25 vintage analog camera effects, most not found in any other apps, including classic film effects, instant films, and some really cool through the viewfinder (TTV) effects. It’s got a lot of great effects and they’re really well rendered.

We recently posted about lo-mob’s upcoming 1.4 update. This will get you into the update path. The current version and the new update both still support older iPhones and OS 3 as well.

Freebies like this disappear fast — often in about a day or less, so head over to the App Store right now and grab this excellent photo app. Go!

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The processing engine has been rewritten. aestesis claims that lo-mob 1.4 will be noticeably faster than previous versions — up to 4x faster with some filters on an iPhone 3G. lo-mob does a lot of processing, so this is a pretty impressive tweak.

lo-mob will also now support full resolution images, including 5MP images from the iPhone 4 and the 3.2MP images from 3GS. In fact, lo-mob should support any resolution without downsizing. If you shoot with ClearCam or one of the other pixel-doubling camera apps, you’ll be able to process the images in lo-mob without any pixel loss. Nice!

lo-mob 1.4 will support fast app switching, so you should be able to exit the app while it processes and come back to it without loss of data. There are other iOS 4 tweaks as well.

One very nice feature that will please owners of older iPhones is that, unlike many other recent app updates, lo-mob will still run on devices using OS 3.1.2, although it won’t be able to take advantage of the features designed for the new iOS.

Read the entire post here on the developer’s blog at aestesis.net. The lo-mob 1.4 update should street in about 2-3 weeks.

lo-mob is a Life In LoFi fave and is $1.99 in the App Store [link]

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Instant Camera
Version 1.3.1
Price: $1.99

Bottom Line: One of the more authentic-looking faux-Polaroid apps. Resolution isn’t the greatest, though.

There are a lot of fake Polaroid apps available. I notice subtle differences between them. Some are better than others. Some of them create square images similar to the old Kodak instant prints. Some have the textured, knurled frame. The vignette around the frame differs. Color saturation varies greatly. Instant Camera by bbcddc has been around for a while, but of the fake Polaroids or “fauxlaroids”, it comes awfully close to looking like the real thing.

Original image. Click to enlarge

Have you ever really looked at a bunch of Polaroid instant photos shot with an SX70? An interesting photoblogs was My Last Polaroid, an online repository of the last Polaroids taken (at least until the film stock was resurrected this year). While there used to be many more Polaroids displayed in the galleries, many of the images online now are yellow, warm and washed out. Like any classic analog lo-fi photography, the photographs have unique qualities and characteristics.

Instant Camera comes really close to capturing these flat, color-shifted tonal qualities. It creates images that aren’t super washed out. There are no deep, rich saturation in these images. Overall tones are a little on the yellow side, like a Polaroid that stopped developing about 15 seconds before it was really finished. Contrast is clipped, like in the real analog print.

Photos can be imported from your camera roll or taken within the app. The top and bottom of the frame is cropped out in the square images.

The shape of the images is identical to an old Polaroid SX70 instant print — complete with the developer tab at the foot of the print. There’s just a subtle hint of a vignette around the edge of the frame. The border has a slight knurled texture. There’s also an option for a more full-frame instant print without the tab.

There are no adjustable filters in the app. There’s a toolbar which allows you to use a brush tool write or draw on the image using your finger. I’ve always found that to be a pretty clunky way of adding handwriting on an iPhone. Without a stylus, my writing looks mechanical, like an Etch-a-Sketch and even worse than it actually is.

Processed with ShakeIt Photo. Click to enlarge

The app is not skinned and fun like ShakeItPhoto or ClassicINSTA. It doesn’t support full resolution like CameraBag or lo-mob does. Instant Camera outputs at a maximum of 1000x1160px — not great, but currently larger than ShakeIt Photo and Polarize. Size is good for sharing on Facebook or Flickr. If you’re making prints for home, gifts or gallery, you’ll be able to enlarge your photos to about the size of a real Polaroid. For an instant photo app, it’s all you need, but higher resolution support in a future update would be a good option.

Instant Camera doesn’t recreate what we want a Polaroid to look like. It tries to recreate the ways that Polaroids really look like and it comes very close. Along with a real-looking Polaroid border, Instant Camera does a superior job of capturing the qualities, or should I say appearance, of the classic instant photographs. At $1.99, it’s more expensive than other fauxlaroid apps, but it creates a better, more realistic photo than many of the other fauxlaroid apps. Instant Camera is an app for those who like the real instant photos. I’m not saying it looks the prettiest – I personally prefer the color and look of ShakeIt Photo. I’m just saying that it looks accurate.

If you’ve already got ShakeIt Photo, ClassicINSTA , or lo-mob, you’re probably covered for instant photo apps. Instant Camera isn’t essential, but because of the attention to accuracy and detail, I think it’s one of the better ones and it’s not a bad app to have. It’s definitely worth a look whenever it’s on sale.

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Pic Grunger screenshots. Click to enlarge

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Pic Grunger
Version 3.0
Price: $0.99

Bottom Line: Pic Grunger creates stunning lo-fi effects in high resolution. Highly recommended! An essential app if you like the look of grunge photography.

With the new, improved cameras in the iPhone 4 and 3GS, more and more the onus is now on developers to “dirty up” our images to give iPhonegraphy a digital lo-fi look. Pic Grunger by Stephen Spring has always been one of those apps and excelled at grunging up photos on the iPhone. The latest update brings new features and more importantly full-resolution output. Pic Grunger creates stunning lo-fi effects and now it supports the higher resolutions of the newer iPhones.

Pic Grunger is pure digital lo-fi. It takes an image, dirties it up, and makes it look like it’s been stuffed in your pocket and then left on the seat of your car — and does it beautifully and flawlessly. Pic Grunger is beyond toy camera lo-fi. Pic Grunger is in the same class as Lo-Mob — apps that make photos look used up, stressed and gritty.

Pic Grunger is incredibly easy to use, but now offers a lot of variation in its effects. It has 11 preset grunge effects, such as Aged, Cracked, Creased and Weathered. One of six styles can easily be applied to all of the effects, changing color and saturation. With the new 3.0 update, the effect strength can now be adjusted. A plain border can be toggled off and on.

The filters create beautiful, grungy, worn results — among the best grunge effects available for iPhone. Every filter applies a perfect amount of saturation, color shift, grain and weathering to make photos look genuinely old. The blotch, crack and crease effects are seamlessly integrated with the image. There are no gaps, white spaces or pixelization. The filters are flawless.

With the version 3.0 update, Pic Grunger now supports full 5MP resolution on the iPhone 4 and full 3.2MP resolution on the 3GS. 800x600px is the maximum resolution supported on older iPhones. It works great on an iPhone 4 — it is fast and stable.

Pic Grunger has always produced great looking effects. With its support for high resolution, this is an essential app for anyone who likes the look of grunge photography and its low price makes it a great deal for any iPhoneographer to have in their toolbox to add the perfect amount of grit, and stunning lo-fi effects to their photos.

App Store link: Pic Grunger

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HipstaMatic

Updates to the popular analog-simulation photo apps Hipstamatic and lo-mob were released in the App Store today.

The lo-mob update features general stability improvements — always a good thing for an app that processes as much as Lo-Mob does.

The Hipstamatic update features a few minor additional features, as well as bug fixes and performance improvements. The update doesn’t include any new HipstaPaks of films, flashes and lenses.

Here’s a list of what’s fixed and new in the new Hipstamatic 155:

New Features
- You can now zoom-in to Recent Prints (just double tap a print, or tap once then tap the tiny thumbnail)
- Images are now geo-tagged (if you have ‘Save EXIF Data’ turned on in Settings)
- Increased the maximum number of Recent Prints to 72
- Increased the default print size to 600 pixels square

Bug Fixes
- Fixed the Facebook ‘blank image’ upload bug – you can now upload images via the Facebook app (only applies to new images taken with the 155)
- Fixed the border on Ina’s 1969 film
- Other misc crashing fixes and optimizations

Both updates are available now in iTunes and the App Store. lo-mob is a 50Mb download. If you’re still on the EDGE network, you might want to wait until you’re connected to WiFi before updating.

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Related Links: Hipstamatic |   lo-mob

Willie Dawgs interior, by Mike Ayers

Greenpoint Ave, by Mike Ayers

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To paraphrase the classic T-shirts that are still available in shops on 7th Avenue at 3 for $10, I love New York. New York is one of the easiest cities I’ve photographed. The people, the architecture, the vibe of the city make for great stories everywhere, and especially great for iPhoneographers.

Created in January by Mike Ayers, old new york in a modern world is a project and photoblog which features photographs which makes modern day New York look old. Many of the images were either shot on an iPhone or processed with Lo-Mob.

“Yeah, I agree, New York is a great place to see the photos, especially these days,” says Ayers.  “It’s an interesting city to live in and see on a day to day basis, the changes, the people that coexist.”

If Mike Ayers sounds familiar, it’s because you may have read his work in any number of media. He’s an arts & entertainment journalist and has written for The Village Voice, Billboard, Reuters, New York, Spinner and AOL, along with a host of others. His day-to-day creative outlet is writing, but he’s always loved photography.

“I woke up one morning in early January with the idea that I wanted to see modern day New York as it might look in a bygone era. People lament about progress and change and how bad it is for many reasons, so in a way, I thought this could be a nice juxtaposition.”

There’s some interesting street photography here. Click here to visit old new york in a modern world.

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Related Links: Michael D. Ayers website |   Mike Ayers on Twitter @michaeldayers

Old NYC on Twitter @oldnyc

New York in LoFi by Marty Yawnick  part I |   part II

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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