Life in LoFi: iPhoneography

Trusight Pro
Version 1.0

Bottom Line: Great results, but only saves low-res images. Disappointing….

Trusight Pro

When shooting on my iPhone, I rely on exposure enhancing apps such as Perfectly Clear, SmartCam and FlashPhix as a first step in most of my iPhone photo processing. These apps help remove the gray cast sometimes found in raw iPhone photos, help improve shadow detail, and restore brilliant color, luminance and contrast to an image. A good exposure enhancer does a superior job of bringing out the detail in 3/4-tones and shadows while not blowing out the details of the highlights in an image.

Trusight Pro by Trusight, Inc. is an excellent exposure enhancer. On any iPhone, the app restores color and dynamic range to an image. Unfortunately, it’s limited by what I feel is a pretty signifcant flaw — low resolution output.

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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.

=M=

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Berkeley, California
January 30, 2010

Her Face Forms in Summertime

Reflections. Light. Lines. More reflections. And a FSOL song stuck in my head on a chilly evening near Cal. She doesn’t have a name. Maybe that forms in Summertime as well.

=M=

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This updated Camera Bag post will also go in the navbar above. I wanted to share the evolution of my iPhone. You can read my original Camera Bag post here.

Some of my other camera apps. Page 4 on my iPhone

The best camera is the one that’s with you and the one that’s with me nearly all the time is my first generation 8 GB iPhone 2G.

I don’t use one app exclusively to shoot with. I have several and try to match up the image with the app. 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.

iPhone apps are constantly being created, updated and improved. Since I first wrote my original Camera Bag post, several new apps have been released and several apps have been improved to the point where they have leapfrogged ahead as far as functionality and performance.

I find myself shooting with many different apps than the first time I wrote about my iPhone’s camera bag. Here’s my updated toolbox — the go-to apps I’m currently using.

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Cinemark IMAX Theater
Dallas, Texas
January 14, 2010

The Planets

Toolbox: Perfectly Clear, CameraKit

The lobby of the Cinemark IMAX Theatre in Dallas is breathtaking. The tall ceilings house a steampunk-like installation piece of the planets. The theme, I suppose, is “the world of the movies” but once I get past the theatrically lit orbs and the odes to classic films, I always think of the brilliant musical classic by Gustav Holst whenever I’m waiting to see a film on the multi-story screen.

=M=

UPDATE 12/30/09: In the new 1.31.3 update, images that are processed in-camera are saved in full resolution, 1600×1200 on my 2G.

Also, in the new update, the built-in hook to the image-enhancement website, 9Monkeys.net, now works seamlessly and quickly within the app.

Kudos to the app’s developer Carl Im at 9Monkeys, who has always been very responsive when I’ve brought up issues from the perspective of an end user.

=M=

SmartCam

SmartCam
Version 1.15.3

Bottom Line: A little pricey, but good exposure enhancement for your existing underexposed images

SmartCam from 9Monkeys Ltd. is a camera, exposure enhancement, and portal to an online image adjusting website. It’s an overlooked app that hasn’t really found its audience in the App Store yet. At $2.99 USD, it’s a little more expensive than most apps in this category which typically run about a buck. How does it fare and is it worth the premium? It depends on how you use the app.

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December 4, 2009
Kapa’a, Hawaii

It could have been anywhere, really. It just happened to be a few miles before tomorrow. The presentation of this flour-free chocolate cake was as delicious as the dessert itself.

"Just Dessert"

Toolbox: Camera Genius, Perfectly Clear, TiltShift Generator

=M=