iPhone Photography
Posted by: Rob Jurewicz
iPhone photography is a tricky thing. The standard camera for the original iPhone and iPhone 3G leaves a lot to be desired regarding the quality of photos that can be taken. I started reading about different applications that are available in the app store to boost the functionality or make photos more aesthetically pleasing. The results were very interesting so I downloaded a few apps to test out. The three I downloaded that I use the most often are Hipstamatic, Panolab by Originate Labs, and QuadCam by Art & Mobile.
Histamatic takes your phone and turns it into an old style SLR complete with different ‘lenses’, ‘film’, and even fake flash filters. Here are some examples (below) of the different pictures I’ve managed to take without any Photoshopping the past few months. For just about every photo I take for my photo blog, I use this app because it looks so much nicer than a plain grayed out iPhone 3G photo.
The first app I downloaded way back when I first got my iphone was Panolab by Originate. A simple app that allows you to take photos you took and stitch them together to form a simple quick panorama. While sitting at the University of Michigan Commencement waiting for Obama’s speech, I was able to snap a bunch of pictures, quickly make a rough overview of how many people were at the Big House, then post it to my Tumblr blog before the speech even began. It works fairly simply, but is somewhat limited when using the free version instead of the paid pro version.
QuadCam is an app that allows the user to take sequence shots. It allows the camera to rapid fire shots in groups of 4, 6, or 8. The time in between shots is extremely fine-tunable depending on what kind of action you are looking to shoot. My favorite feature, though, is the ability to create .gif animations out of the sequence that you just shot. It’s usually most fun to use when my friends and I are out riding bikes and can quickly make gifs of each other doing different maneuvers, see below.
There are plenty of places on the internet to get inspiration for iPhone photo projects: dozens of Flickr groups, a worldwide competition, and a blog to keep track of the latest in iPhone photography news. The other desirable feature, the investment (or lack thereof). I’ve spent a total of $4 in apps and upgrades to take dozens and dozens of interesting photos. Can’t beat that.
