Bokeh is “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.” It’s those really cool light aberrations that appear in your images when the light hits the lens just right. iPhone 4 owners have probably seen it as a grid of about a dozen circles of light. Some call that a flaw in the lens of the iPhone 4. I think it’s cool and I call it a feature.
With apps like Bokeh Booth, you can add the bokeh effect to your images. Back in April 2012, the developer of Bokeh Booth promised that a big update is in the works. The 1.9 update was just released. This is not the big update. That’s a good thing, as Bokeh Booth takes a huge step backwards in this latest update.
The App Store description states that this update fixes a bug for misaligned effect. That’s good.
What the App Store doesn’t say is that now Bokeh Booth only saves images at either 800×600 pixels or 800×800 px in square format on an iPhone 4S. The previous version was low-res, but at least supported the slightly larger 764×1024 pixels in portrait mode. With this update, all images now max out at 800 pixels. Five years ago when iPhone photos topped out at 1600×1200 pixels, I’d have still found this low resolution barely acceptable.
In addition to adding bokeh, this update now also makes my images unacceptably blurry and extremely out of focus. I checked my previous review of the app and it didn’t always do this.
Previous versions of the app were good for iPhone photographers who only share their images on Facebook, Twtter, or Instagram. It’s a fast and easy utility for adding these light aberrations with some degree of randomness. While the resolution wasn’t high, it was adequate for social photo.
Hopefully, the upcoming big update will fix the bugs introduced in the 1.9 update. And hopefully, it will also include high-res support, making this easy to use app more useful for more iPhone photographers. Until then, it’s probably not a good idea to update Bokeh Booth if you already own the app.
If you’re looking for a bokeh app, take a look at the excellent LensLight by BrainFeverMedia. The learning curve is only moderately steeper, but it’s a much better, much more versatile lens effect app.
Bokeh Booth is $0.99. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.1 or later.
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