Iris

So as I have been posting about different apps, a friend of mine, Everson Marsh (twitter: eversonmarsh) and I were talking about different apps and he mentioned an app called iris. I checked it out and didn't think too much of it, until I saw the pictures it produced. I asked Everson if I could use a few and he graciously let me use these with a description of how he did it. The app produces SUCH good pictures! And more, this is a great example of the quality brought to you by an iPhone 4!

More on the app however, I like the different effects that you can use with it, however, it reminded me a lot of the Photoshop app. The difference between the two is that the photoshop app is free and doesn't have quite the same effects.

The Iris app is more of a photo editing app, like most of the camera apps I have reviewed.

The final thing I like about it is how big the pictures are and they don't pixilate! Amazing!

Descriptions of Pictures:

Guy w glasses: instagram lomo-fi filter, iris app for contrast/highlights/cropping

Girl: instagram app, Nashville filter, iris app 4 brightness and contrast.

In n out guy : iris app for vignette, contrast, saturation, instagram 4 X-Pro II filter.

Wide Angle Lens for the iPhone

Recently, I went onto amazon, broke down, and bought a "GSI Super Quality Detachable Wide Angle Lens" for my iPhone 3GS. I wasn't sure what to expect, but after taking a few shots, I was thoroughly impressed with the quality that came out of my camera.

At first, I wasn't sure what the difference was, but once I played around with it some more, I realized that it was very good

for some close up things, it gave a sweet wide angle feel to something almost right up against the lens that looked absolutely awesome!

The lens came with a case and all together it cost $20 on Amazon, great price I thought! I think it was definitely worth it, I feel a lot more equipped to take good pictures when it is in my pocket.

Downside: Though the Lens comes off, it is still a little bulky in my pocket seeing as how you wouldn't want to take the lens off and leave it anywhere. It also didn't come with a lens cap which is a tad bit annoying, and it doesn't fit in any of my cases anymore. I often

take it off and put my other case on and just grab the new case when I want to go out and take pictures.

Drop the 'Digital'

I was pointed to a recent blog post by Chase Jarvis a few minutes ago, which talked about Digital Photography. I thought it would be beneficial to share it with you!

DROP THE DIGITAL FROM PHOTOGRAPHY

WEDNESDAY - 10TH OF NOVEMBER, 2010

I heard it again yesterday for the billionth time: “Digital Photography”. Isn’t it time we drop the word ‘digital’?

Seems we’ve managed to drop the “electric” from “electric guitar” in common parlance.

We found it easy to drop the word “acrylic” from “acrylic painting” when that came on the scene with oils.

We quickly ditched the “digital” from “digital music” when it took the lead over records and tapes and CDs.

I suppose by-and-large our industry has dropped the word, but given that digital and analog photography are fundamentally the same thing, isn’t it time we implore the rest of the world to assimilate the term “digital photography” back into “photography” as a whole?

Related posts:

If You Thought The Digital Photography Market Was Getting Any Smaller…

Comments on The Next Digital Era (of Photography)

Photography Vs. The Photography Industry

TiltShift Generator

First of all, I must start out saying that this is by far my favorite iPhone camera app.

Now, to the why.
Tilt shift Gen is not so much a picture TAKING application but more of a picture FIXING/EDITING app. It is simple, basic, and gives you the ability to take any picture you havein your mobile album, and make it awesome!

"There are controls for blur levels, color (saturation, brightness, contrast), and vignetting. Using any combination of these, you can create some beautiful effects and vintage style images."

If you don't already have this app on your iPhone, I suggest you rectify yourself!

Sources for information:
http://emilychang.com/2009/09/tiltshift-generator-for-iphone/

All pictures ©Staphon Arnold

Uploading Pictures to Picasa with a Mobile Device.

If you have downloaded the Picasa app on your iphone, you will notice that there is no option to actually upload your photos. However, there is a way to upload your photos. I found this last night when I was trying to get all these pictures up for the most recent blog post. It is a little time consuming, but great if you want to get all those pictures from your separate apps which don't save in a folder correctly to be taken off with iPhoto (still not sure why this issue happens.

Instructions (found on Google's help section for Picasa mobile uploads)

First of all, this feature requires you to E-mail the pictures with a photo attachment app and picasa's e-mail upload capabilities.

Set it up as follows:
1. Sign in to your acount at http://picasaweb.google.com/.
2. Click the Settings link in the top-right corner.
3. On the General tab, in the 'Upload photos by email' section, check the box next to 'Allow me to upload photos by email.'
4. Enter a 'secret word,' 6-15 characters long. As you enter this word, an email address appears.
5. Click the Save changes button.
6. To email upload your photos, just attach them to an email message and send it to the newly-created address.
7. A new folder will be created in your Picasa web albums at this point called 'Drop Box'

This can be done with any mobile device that has e-mail, not just the iPhone.

Enjoy.

PRO HDR

Pro HDR is a tool suggested to me by my old roommate and friend, David Linder. It is an app that takes two separate pictures (a dark picture and a light picture) and combines them together.

"Thanks to Pro HDR, you no longer have to choose between a blown-out sky or a hopelessly dark foreground. Bringing high dynamic range photography to your iPhone, Pro HDR lets you capture an image exposed for the highlights and another exposed for the shadows. It then automatically aligns andblends the images, giving you a gorgeous HDR image up to 5 megapixels like nothing you've ever seen from such a tiny device."

How to use it:

There are three ways.

one: You can take two images you already have, one light, one dark, and combine those together.

two: You can use PRO HDR to take two pictures where it will prompt you to tap a light part of your image and a dark part of your image and it will then combine them.

three: you can choose the Auto HDR where it will find the light and dark parts and combine them all by itself, all you have to do is hold your phone steady.

Downsides: You have to have an incredibly steady hand in order to take a good shot, or lay your phone on something. For this app alone, I am considering buying the iphone tripod.

Upsides: I love how the pictures turn out! They are so vibrant and colorful. After the pictures combine, you have some settings that you can mess around with, such as saturation and contrast giving lots of customization to your photos.

Download Pro HDR

All Pictures ©Staphon Arnold

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is a camera app shared with me by Kent Butler and Alex Wen.The app turns your iPhone into an old school hip film camera. You can setthe flash (which only

works on the iPhone 4) and from inside the app you can select different lenses and types of film giving you more control over how your prints look. Perfect for getting those shots to look like you dug them out of an old dusty box from your grandma's attic.

Another cool feature of the app is the fact that you can buy different lenses and different film to get a bunch of different effects. Some lenses are more high quality in

order to print them at a fantastic quality.

Samples:

Lens: John S

Film: Blanko

Flash: Dreampop

Lens: John S

Film: Kodot Verichrome

Flash: Off

Lens: John S

Film: Blanko

Flash: Off

Lens: Jimmy

Film: Ina's 1969

Flash: off

Lens: John S
Film: Blanko
Flash: Off

All Pictures ©Staphon Arnold

Project Chase

Apple, a well-known company, a few years ago released a device

called an iPhone. On this iPhone came many different abilities such

as texting and phone calls (as any phone can do) but also

thousands of apps from games to high-end organizational

programs. One feature of the phone, which only a few phones had

had before, was the built in camera, and the iPhone had the ability

to take this item one step further. Now there are now 180 iPhone

apps devoted to the camera and the numbers are rising as the

camera gets better and better.

Most people agree that in order to have a great picture, you need a

great camera. According to Chase Jarvis, world-renowned

photographer and writer of the book The Best Camera Is The

One That’s With You™, that statement is not true. The book

and website explain that “the idea that an image can come from

any camera, even a mobile phone. “

With that established, for my project, I am going to place my Nikkon

D5000 DSLR on the shelf and produce a line of pictures taken

solely from my iPhone 3GS. I will do a write up once a week of

each new app I find (I currently have an entire page of my phone

devoted to camera apps, including Best Cam, the iPhone camera

app created by Chase Jarvis) and display them using an online

source. This project will prove that you don’t need a fancy camera

to take great picture, but can create greatness with the devices

always around you.