Apps for You From Me

I love taking pictures with my phone! Ever since upgrading my old iPhone (3G no s) to the 4s that is. And with all the awesome apps out there, taking pictures has never been more fun. So take a look see at some of my favorite photo apps.

SlowShutter - Kinda self explanatory. It has 3 different settings; capture mode, shutter speed, and sensitivity. It would be a great app to use with a tripod, but not impossible without. I took these 2 pictures while standing on a bridge. I lined up the camera between the fence links and just held the phone to one of the posts to keep it steady. One is using the lowest sensitivity, and the other the highest.

I also took this picture while Matt used a flash light to 'paint' the light whe we wanted it.

Camera+ - I don't really use this one much, but it has a built in timer that is helpful sometimes. Like this lovely shot we staged for new years eve.


Now that we have some pictures, its time to edit them!

Snapseed - This has got to be my favorite editing app. I actually edit the majority of my blog pictures with snap seed on my iPad. I love that it has a lot of the basic edits like brightness, ambiance, contrast, saturation,and white balance. That's just under the 'Tune Image' tab. You can crop, straighten, and selectively adjust (brightness, contrast, saturation). There are also some fun effects within the app as well, such as filters, frames, and tilt shift. I really like that when you're using the features the screen isn't filled up with different selecting tools. Just swipe up and down to select what you're doing, then left or right to adjust.

PictureShow - Mostly filters and effects, but if you want to be able to layer different layers of texture and light effects than you'll enjoy this. Honestly I haven't used it much, I forget to really play around with pictures before posting them. I really like the Boken effect, and the TV screen one is pretty clever. It also has the option to save your favorite 'Recipies' so you can apply them to any other picture all at once. (example photo taken by my lovely boyfriend. He hates it when I call him lovely.)

ColorSplash - While the name isn't as obvious as SlowShutter this app doesn't really need much explaining. It turns your picture black and white, then you can selectively add color back using your finger. You want a really clean looking picture where the colors are very crisp and true. Otherwise it will just look like a blurry mess.

Fotoyaki - More filters! I really like 1hrFoto, Sunburnt, Halftone, CMYK, Dots, and Tiles.

Percolator - My friend Naomi (go look at ther blog!) clued me into this one, and I think it really lends itself well to her photos. Her life and art is filled with lots of beautiful bright colors, and that's what your pictures should have when using this app. There is also an app called Wordfoto that does the same thing but with words.

Posterize - Kinda like paint by numbers but only using 3 colors. I find this one a little difficult to use, but I still like it. Changing the color from the default blue takes a steady hand finger. If you could just select one color and then adjust the brightness for the 3 tones that would be so much easier, maybe in a future update.

 Oh, and there's an app called Apps Gone Free that tells you each day what apps are free! Most of the time they are silly games, but now and then I find some good ones. Even Snapseed was free a couple weekends back.

So what are your favorite apps?