For those interested in taking great pictures in low light conditions, this might be the app for you. The iPhone app saves at full resolution and offers a number of other manual controls such as white balance, exposure, and focus.

A long time ago I downloaded NightCap, and when [...]]]>

For those interested in taking great pictures in low light conditions, this might be the app for you. The iPhone app saves at full resolution and offers a number of other manual controls such as white balance, exposure, and focus.

NightCap GUI

A long time ago I downloaded NightCap, and when I first started it up I remember how sluggish it seemed. I didn’t try to use it since then. However, I recently gave it another shot and realized why it felt so sluggish – it was creating the preview image on the fly and trying to focus with almost no light. Once I got that into my head I started using it a bit and was amazed at the images I could get in extremely low light situations.

Here are a few sample images, taken with NightCap and the standard camera on my iPhone 4S. The shot with a tree was placed on a railing. The other shots were handheld. If you click on these you’ll see the full sized version (warning: these are the full size images).

Sample with NightCap	Sample: Camera app
Sample with NightCap	Sample: Camera app
Sample with NightCap	Sample: Camera app
NightCap: Zoomed In	Camera app: Zoomed In

It is clear that the app does amazing things with very low light. I was amazed at how good the app was for taking pictures of indoor environments. In the room with moderate light the noise in the photo taken with the camera app is extensive, while the shot with NightCap was vastly better. I showed a closeup view of a selected area.

If you ever want to snap any low light photo, I’d highly recommend grabbing this app. And try to be a bit smarter than me and keep in mind it may feel sluggish in dark conditions! It is currently $0.99 to download on iTunes.

Are you losing those special moments to dark grainy photos because the iPhone doesn’t work well in low light? Try NightCap. It captures up to 15x more light than any other app – you’ll be amazed at the improvement!

NightCap is a camera replacement built for high performance around the clock. It’s the first and only app to do real slow shutter photography, not the fake software effect other apps use! That means in low light it performs better than any other app thanks to its unique extended exposure range, producing brighter and more detailed images with less grain.

It also provides the best tools available to help you get that perfect shot, night or day. It’s built for ease of use and takes fully automatic photos or if you prefer you can effortlessly set exposure (including manual shutter speed for the first time on iOS), focus and even white balance to different parts of the scene. Just point the camera where you want to set something and lock it with a single tap – it’s extremely easy and intuitive.

== Reviews from popular iPhone photography sites ==
148 apps – “In night time, there’s nothing I’ve seen that can beat it” ☆☆☆☆

Glyn Evans, iPhoneography.com – “NightCap now lets you shoot day or night, and offers one of the most accurate, yet simplest camera interfaces I’ve used to date.”

Featured in “Best 6 iPhoneography Camera Replacement Apps” by David Roccato, davidroccato.com

== Features ==
• Automatic or Manual: NightCap works fully automatically when you want speed or simplicity. Automatic but with night mode when you need it. If you want control, class-leading focus, exposure and white balance control is available including true manual exposure in low light.

• Extended Exposure Range: In low light it uses much longer exposure times (up to 15x!) than other apps giving brighter, clearer photos. This is real long exposure not a fake software effect.

• Powerful and Intuitive Camera Control: All the flexibility of separate focus, exposure and white balance targeting and locking, none of the hassle. Just point where you want to focus and tap the focus button to lock. Point elsewhere, lock exposure. Full control, fast and easy operation.

• On-screen exposure and ISO display

• Self-Timer: Whether you’re taking a group photo and want to be in the shot or you’re taking a long exposure shot and want to avoid camera shake, the built in timer with adjustable delay is there for you.

• Full resolution support on every device, photos saved instantly to the Camera Roll.

• Left or right handed operation.

• Full EXIF support and geo-tagging.

== Tips ==
• Focus and exposure control is simple. Use the focus square – the camera focuses and exposes whatever is in that box. Point the camera at the object you want in focus – the square turns green once it’s focused. Tap the “Foc” button to lock. It’s now fixed until you unlock it. Do the same to lock exposure and white balance anywhere in your scene for complete control and perfect photos.

• Manual exposure gives you complete control in low light. In bright light, it automatically reduces exposure if it’s over-exposing (the on-screen indicator turns red to warn you). To avoid this cover the lens until exposure returns to manual control, then lock exposure.

• Photography in very dark conditions isn’t possible without the flash. NightCap will generally work much better than the built-in camera app (and will often work well when the built-in app fails completely), but results depend on the amount of light available.

• The camera needs time to focus, and focusing can be slow in very low light. Lock the focus to prevent the camera from re-focusing.

• Longer exposures make the camera susceptible to motion. Hold the camera still when shooting in low light – rest against a solid surface, use the timer, take several shots and pick the best one, or use a tripod/stand.

Wood Camera for the iPhone is a new app that allows you to do basic editing and apply a number of filters to images that you take or import. In many apps when adjusting photos you end up with a large number of sliders visible at one time. Wood [...]]]>

Wood Camera for the iPhone is a new app that allows you to do basic editing and apply a number of filters to images that you take or import. In many apps when adjusting photos you end up with a large number of sliders visible at one time. Wood Camera uses an interesting UI where you “slide” to the next slider and you’ll only see one at a time.

Wood Camera App

The icons are in a very logical order for photo processing. Start with getting the picture in proper orientation and cropped, then apply the filter, add texture, apply tilt-shift and vignette, and then add a frame. You can always go back and make changes since this is non-destructive editing.

I did a video walkthrough using the app which shows all the features.

The interface is well done but having to flip the preview button at the top seemed a bit odd. I think it would have been better to just click on the icon at the bottom to show/hide the controls. You couldn’t zoom in on the photo at any time in the app, so you couldn’t get a close-up view when applying the texture, which can be useful when adjusting the intensity.

Some might think that adding presets or allowing users to have favorites would be a nice addition, but I’m not sure if that would help or hurt the logical and simple GUI of Wood Camera.

Overall this app is really well done. It was very stable and snappy, and never crashed on me in a few hours of use. The filters are well done and since you can do a lot of basic adjustments it is rather easy to achieve the look you were going for. Photos are exported at full resolution. A great version 1.0 and I’m looking forward to updates!

Wood Camera is currently $1.99 on iTunes.

The developer spends time as professional photographer and has worked at a number tech startup companies, so feel free to follow him: @johnbarnett on Instagram, @picturejohn on Twitter.

Description

For the photographer in everyone.

The Wood Camera app gives you unparalleled control over the shooting and editing process:

★ LIGHTBOX
Easily import and view your photos all in one place. Tap once to enter full-size preview mode, or double-tap to go straight to the editing screen.

★ LIVE LENSES
Use the in-app camera to shoot with each of our 22 lenses in real-time.

★ FLEXIBLE EDITING
Layer 22 lenses, 17 textures, and 12 frames for thousands of possible combinations.

★ TILT-SHIFT & VIGNETTES
Pinch to customize tilt-shift radius and vignette position and intensity. Advanced touch rotation gesture to control linear tilt-shift for that perfect professional look.

★ ONE-TOUCH PREVIEW
Tap and hold to quickly compare your edited image to the original shot.

★ NON-DESTRUCTIVE
Enjoy the freedom to go back and modify any changes you made to the original image, even after exporting your work.

★ FULL RESOLUTION
Import and export your images at the full, 8 MP resolution of the iPhone 4S camera.

★ EASY SHARING
Quickly share your photos to the Camera Roll, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram.

I have no idea what phog phog means, but this new iPhone app is a nifty way to see your photos by date. The app is called Date + Tag Photo Album – PHOG PHOG and is free.

The app is very straightforward. You start it up and it [...]]]>

I have no idea what phog phog means, but this new iPhone app is a nifty way to see your photos by date. The app is called Date + Tag Photo Album – PHOG PHOG and is free.

The app is very straightforward. You start it up and it displays all your photos sorted by month. If you click the list icon in the upper left all the months are listed and you can just click on any month you want.

iPhone app: Date + Tag Photo Album - Phog Phog

When you view a photo you can tag it with keywords or share it to other apps, Facebook, or Twitter. My favorite feature is that when you share to another app (such as Photogene) you get the full resolution photo. I’d still love the option in a timeline app to be able to select a “go to this photo in camera roll” option, but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be allowed by Apple. By giving me access to the full res image, this app is close enough.

This app doesn’t import all your photos, it just reads from what is currently in your photo album (it ignores Photo Stream). If you delete a photo from your camera roll and then start this app again, that particular photo will no longer be viewable in this app. By not importing photos it doesn’t take a long time when it first starts up (as some timeline apps do), and it won’t take up large portions of memory on your iPhone.

There is also a nice graphical view showing how many shots you take each month and the number with each tag.

Overall I really enjoyed this app. It made it very easy to find photos from prior months with no problem. One of the first things I’d like to see added is showing the full date of the photo while viewing it. It would also be nice if in the graph view you could click on the month or tag name to get to those photos. But the app is free, so I won’t be picky

Date + Tag Photo Album – PHOG PHOG is currently free can be downloaded on iTunes.

Description

“PHOG PHOG” manages your photo nicely by Date and Tags.
You can easily find, rediscover and share your photos.

– What Can You Do with This App? –

1. You Can Browse All Your Photos by Date.
2. You Can Add Tags to Your Photos.
3. You Can Lock Your Photos.
4. You Can Share Your Photos with Twitter and Facebook.
5. You Can Connect to Other Apps in Your iPhone.
6. You Can Check How Many Photos You Have by Date and Tags.
7. You Can Choose from 2 Design Themes.

A few good sales this weekend. Photogene for iPad was recently updated with retina graphics, and is on sale for just $0.99, as is FX Photo Studio HD (for the iPad). Superb.

Top Camera – HDR and Slow Shutter is $1 [...]]]>

A few good sales this weekend. Photogene for iPad was recently updated with retina graphics, and is on sale for just $0.99, as is FX Photo Studio HD (for the iPad). Superb.

Top Camera – HDR and Slow Shutter is $1 for the iPad and the iPhone (separate apps). These do a number of things rather well.

Plastic Bullet Camera (Universal) is still on sale for $0.99. A fun app.

Time to go play a bit more with 645 Pro, a new iPhone app getting a lot of attention. I’ve started exploring the features and will post a review sometime this week.

Have a fun weekend!

Although I’ve never really been a montage sort of guy, I decided to try Montage Magic since it allowed for really hi-res export and the ability to use any fonts you feel like grabbing from a number of free font sites.

I quickly learned that Montage Magic is very [...]]]>

Although I’ve never really been a montage sort of guy, I decided to try Montage Magic since it allowed for really hi-res export and the ability to use any fonts you feel like grabbing from a number of free font sites.

I quickly learned that Montage Magic is very easy to use. You can add photos, names from your contacts, lines, shadows, text, backgrounds, and borders. When importing photos you can manually picks photos, or you can let the app randomly pick a fixed number, or even just keep importing until the screen is full (which can be a lot depending on the theme you have selected).

You can use one finger to drag objects and two to scale and rotate. At any time you can delete items from the screen or edit text.

Here is a video walkthough that I did on my iPhone.

One thing that I couldn’t figure out how to do (and as usual, I didn’t read instructions) was to change the shape of the line I had selected. Not a big deal though. As I show in the video, memory can be an issue. But at least the app never crashed, which is always a good thing. The retina iPad really lets you get a high res export!

I actually find this app really nice for creating poster-ish things. Here is one example I did using a font I downloaded while in the app.

Created with Montage Magic using downloaded free fonts. Click for larger version.

Montage Magic is currently $0.99 on iTunes [download].

For more information you can drop by the Montage Magic homepage. There you will find videos that go in much greater detail about importing fonts (it really is simple), and how to create an artistic poster.

✭✭ Works and Looks great on the new 3rd gen. iPad!
✭✭ The only photos app that lets you download and install 1000s free fonts
✭✭ Supports downloading Zip files containing multiple fonts from all the top free font sites
✭✭ Ultra Hi-Res Export: up to 4096 x 3072 px on the iPad
✭✭ Full PNG and Transparency support for import & export

Montage Magic provides a simple, quick and fun way to create beautiful collages or stunning photo mosaics. Create unique compositions and share them with your friends and family in less than a minute. Or let Montage Magic surprise you with Lucky Dip! Shake your device or use the Auto-Content features and let Montage Magic create a collage or mosaic for you!

You can add photos, text, arrows and even address book contacts and then simply move, rotate, resize and flip using multi-touch gestures on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. You can choose from many preset themes, or customise your creation by adding borders, shadows and text backgrounds. Once you’ve finished, save it as a high resolution image, or share it via email or twitter. If you have an AirPrint compatible printer, you can print both small and large size prints.

Want to use 1000s more fonts? Or add countless symbols from 100s dingbat type fonts?
✔ MyFonts lets you install any Mac or PC font (TrueType or OpenType) on your device and use those fonts with Montage Magic.
✔ Links to the top 5 free font sites – simply tap download from the site, and then “Open in Montage Magic”
✔ Zip files are supported – Montage Magic automatically extracts and installs all the fonts in one step
✔ Preview each font and use them to add text just like using the built-in fonts

Montage Magic is perfect for:
✭ Sharing Holiday Snaps with Friends
✭ Postcards and Invitations
✭ Greetings and Announcement Cards
✭ Address Book Contact Cards
✭ Framed Prints
✭ Signs & For Sale Artwork

Features:
▸ Resize, rotate, move, flip and re-order objects using multi-touch gestures
▸ Add photos from your photo library, or take a photo with your device’s camera
▸ Add multi-line text in different fonts & colours
▸ Install 1000s of fonts with MyFonts: .zip, .ttf, .otf supported
▸ Add photos, names and phone numbers from your address book
▸ Add straight or curved lines & arrows
▸ Apply borders and shadows to photos & text
▸ Add a coloured background to your text
▸ Use one of 20 supplied textured backgrounds
▸ Save time and pick one of many available themes
▸ Specify different mosaic & grid layouts
▸ High resolution export (1920 x 1280 on the iPhone/iPod)
▸ PNG/JPG support – save with transparent background
▸ Borderless 4×6 (A6) prints
▸ Letter (A4) prints
▸ Email or tweet your creation
▸ Snap to grid, snap rotation, lock collage
▸ Shake to Create!
▸ Auto Content and Lucky Dip
▸ Tap and Hold a saved Collage to make a copy

Great on your iPhone, even better on your iPad! On the iPad you get:
▸ More fonts: handwriting, chalk, engraved and more
▸ More themes
▸ Create mosaics with 200+ photos
▸ Higher resolution export (4096 x 3072)

As is common with holidays, there are a number of apps that will be having sales this weekend. As I hear about interesting ones I’ll try to post them here. Have a happy weekend!

For those with a Macintosh in the house, there are a few specials from the [...]]]>

As is common with holidays, there are a number of apps that will be having sales this weekend. As I hear about interesting ones I’ll try to post them here. Have a happy weekend!

For those with a Macintosh in the house, there are a few specials from the MacPhun folks:

• Snapheal is on sale for just $6.99. It lets you easily remove unwanted objects, fix skin imperfections, delete text, perform complex image edits in a matter of clicks and seconds. You can find out more and download a trial at www.snapheal.com.
• If you own FX Studio for the iPhone you can get a free copy of FX Photo Studio PRO for Mac ($40 value) till April 9. You just have to follow some rules on their Facebook page. I did a video walkthrough of an older version of this app and enjoyed it.
• Also, for those with FX Studio for the iPhone you can now send postcards to anyone anywhere in the world – the price per card this weekend is just $0.99 (includes printing and shipping – you just choose a picture and put the address).

Some other notable sales:

• PhotoForge2 is on sale for just $0.99. It is a Universal app that is a high end image editor.
• OldBooth for the iPhone is just good for humor, but it is always fun for a holiday. Output resolution is just 640×920. It’s on sale for $1. Just for fun I’ll post a picture of myself on the iOSPhotoApps Facebook Page later this afternoon.

PhotoForge2 on the iPhone

That’s all I have for now. I’m sure a few more will pop up.

Updates:
Laminar for the iPad is on sale for $1.
InifiniCam for the iPhone is currently free.

I’ll be honest, I wish I didn’t have to work and I could just enjoy photography all day! I just don’t get enough free time to do a lot of reading (or even writing in this blog).

I was looking at my stats for my blog the other day [...]]]>

I’ll be honest, I wish I didn’t have to work and I could just enjoy photography all day! I just don’t get enough free time to do a lot of reading (or even writing in this blog).

I was looking at my stats for my blog the other day and saw a number of visitors coming from a link on another blog: Karen L. Messick iPhone Adventures.

The author does iPhone workshops (among other things) and in the blog she discusses the various apps she uses to create various images. I love some of the shots. I occasionally post about how I created some of my shots, but I’m no professional. For good reading I would definitely visit her blog, and for those near Chesapeake City, MD, you might want to sign up for a workshop (note: I’m in no way affiliated with the workshops).

One of these days I’m going to put together a list of fun iPhoneography sites. There are probably a bunch of lists on the web already so I might end up just pointing you to one of those

Version 3 of PhotoToaster was released earlier today. PhotoToaster is a Universal app that is a great photo editor. This app gives you the option of choosing from a wide variety of presets, doing manual adjustments, or a combination of the two while non-destructively editing your images. Something for [...]]]>

Version 3 of PhotoToaster was released earlier today. PhotoToaster is a Universal app that is a great photo editor. This app gives you the option of choosing from a wide variety of presets, doing manual adjustments, or a combination of the two while non-destructively editing your images. Something for everyone – from beginners to advanced users.

PhotoToaster: Photo Info GUI

This update brings many improvements:

Photo Adjustments

• Professional level control over different lighting ranges
• Lighten Shadows, Recover Highlights, Lighten Midtones
• Intensity adjustment to create dramatic effects
• Blacks adjustment
• New and modified presets that use the new settings including Clarify, Bleach Bypass, Sketch, Dynamic HDR, Dramatic
• 60 global presets

Noise reduction using sophisticated bilateral filtering algorithms

• Remove noise or smooth skin imperfections

Photo Management Improvements

• Recent List that stores recent edit sessions for easy retrieval
• Support for saving and viewing location, exif and other image metadata
• Select specific photo albums during save
• Automatically save originals of camera photos to library

Misc

• Recent settings added to My Presets list
• Several adjustments were made twice as fast
• Rule of thirds crop grid
• More Crop aspect ratios
• Finer control over sharpen
• Higher resolution borders
• Soft focus vignette honors main adjustment settings
• Load full size camera kit imported images on iPad
• Direct printing to AirPrint capable printers

PhotoToaster is currently on sale for just $0.99. Great app to have in your toolbelt.

You can find out even more about PhotoToaster (and some other great apps) on the East Coast Pixels Home Page.

Flowers in my yard this spring was created with PhotoToaster

Every now and then I find an app that I’d never noticed before and I immediately wonder why. PhotoViva (a Universal app) is one of those.

Description:

PhotoViva is a powerful application for photo editing and freeform painting. It can help you transform your pictures into expressive and colorful [...]]]>

Every now and then I find an app that I’d never noticed before and I immediately wonder why. PhotoViva (a Universal app) is one of those.

Time/Blur by R. Pfaff. Created with PhotoViva.

Description:

PhotoViva is a powerful application for photo editing and freeform painting. It can help you transform your pictures into expressive and colorful works of art.

In addition to tools for enhancing your photos, there are paint brushes that let you make abstract painted interpretations of photos. You can select a brush and copy image features by cloning or painting. Brushes can track the direction of movement, or you can set the brush direction. You can also change the hue, saturation and blur of brush strokes as you go.

There aren’t any instructions included with the app itself, but watching this video shows you all the features of the app.

I put a few of my creations up on Flickr. Just click to see more

There are a lot of features in this app. A really nice one is the Auto paint feature which is often a great place to start when using this app. Then you can begin to tweak things after that. Or you can skip that entirely and just start painting on your own. The output resolution is 1600×1200 on my new iPad (aka iPad 3) and my iPhone 4S. The developer says he is working on increasing the resolution.

The overall size of the brush can be adjusted, but it would be really nice if you could adjust a few more features in a future version of the app. Things such as the length and fade of the stroke might be tops on my list.

I certainly enjoyed creating artwork even though I can’t do a painting in the real world. On the other hand, my sister does actual paintings which you can see on her blog.

The app is a lot of fun and worth grabbing if you like making this type of artwork.

PhotoViva is currently $1.99 on iTunes.

You can learn a lot more on the PhotoViva Home Page, and see lots of other sample images. There is also a Flick PhotoViva group. Feel free to add your shots.

Color Lake, a Universal app, was recently updated with Retina graphics for the new iPad so I figured I would give it a try.

The app is simple to use. After loading an image you can touch the screen to control [...]]]>

Color Lake, a Universal app, was recently updated with Retina graphics for the new iPad so I figured I would give it a try.

The app is simple to use. After loading an image you can touch the screen to control the location of a horizontal “lake” line. Animated waves will be below the line and the image above it stays untouched. When you click the capture button at the top of the screen it will save the image. The exported image will be full resolution (tested on iPhone 4s).

When you start the app the default color setting is hue rotation. I wish the default setting was the normal setting. Other settings include sepia and B&W. Wave size is another option.

Overall the app seems to work as expected. A few sample shots are in this set on Flickr.

Description:

Real Time Water Lake Simulation using photos from gallery, Simulation of lake reflection effect and with animated Color Rotator and realistic Snow effect to become perfect eye candy.

- Add water effect to your photos without losing resolution !!!
- Create your own magic with colors and snow
- Take screenshot directly from the main screen
- Adjust Lake height for any image
- Make incredible live landscapes out of your photos
- Retina Display Support
- Ability to change wave size
- Ability to save in original image resolution and not just the screenshot (no cropping or downsizing)
- Ability to share across social networks

One problem that I noticed is that after saving an image, the capture button at the top of the screen would often become inoperative. Clicking on it would end up just moving the horizontal line to that location, so the entire image became waves. I had to quit (or force quit) the app to get it functional again. One other complaint is that even in the paid app, there are a few small ads in the export and options dialog.

Having more flexibility in the line shape would also add to this app. Currently it can only be horizontal. Allowing this to tilt, be concave/convex, or be a hand-drawn shape would be a big addition.

I recorded this video while using the app and it shows the main features. You could also try Photo Lake which is a free (in-app purchase) version of this app.

If you are looking for the wave effect, this app is a good start, but I’m hoping for improvements in the future.

Color Lake is currently $1.99.