4 iPhone apps the landscape photographer in you would love!
There are absolutely thousands of photo apps available at this point for the iPhone. This is probably the single greatest factor that has played a role in making the iPhone the most popular camera on flickr. In fact, at the time of writing this post, the total number of iPhone photos uploaded yesterday was over 61,000. Incredible! One of the most unique features of offering apps is that every different photographer has the potential of using an app which caters completely to their genre of photography. This being true, there are also apps which are so well created that they may cater to a wide range of photographers.
The following are 4 of my favorite apps for iPhone photography. In my humble opinion, I think any landscape photographer who owns an iPhone should be aware of these 4 apps.
Snapseed - $4.99: If someone were to only purchase and use one photography app, Snapseed would be my recommendation. At this point, Nik Software has made themselves well known to landscape photographers (and others) as the makers of their software suite which is based around a technology called U-Point. They have built that technology into this app and have implemented it in an extremely well executed way. Snapseed is very advanced regarding what can be accomplished with it. However, unlike most of the more advanced apps in the app store, the user interface in Snapseed is very intuitive. You can quickly make adjustments all by just sliding your finger. Moving up or down selects the adjustment type while moving left or right actually makes the adjustment. Editing with Snapseed is a quick learn and once you’ve got the idea, images can be adjusted in major ways in just a short period of time. Just these adjustments alone would be worth the price of the app. But, Nik Software also included several vintage, black and white, grunge and drama filters which are awesome! Definitely an app to look into. It’s available for both the iPhone & iPad and from what I’ve heard, can handle even full size files from a normal SLR.
Instagram - Free: One of my first surprises with Instagram was how broad of a social network it was in and of itself. It doesn’t appear that way at first but as you begin to use the app more, pick up followers and start to communicate with others, this fact shines true. Instagram is probably one of the most widespread and popular apps available right now. It lets you create an account and post photos. You can follow others, let them follow you, favorite or comment on other photos and also respond to favorites or comments on your own images. Perhaps what Instagram is best known for is it’s set of faux-vintage filters which are very well designed and also work quite nicely with a well designed tilt-shift function. Personally, I like Instagram most for it’s ability to quickly and easily post a new iPhone photo to it’s own social network, tumblr, Facebook, twitter and/or other sites in just seconds. Snapseed tends to be what I edit most of iPhone photos in, but Instagram is by far my favorite way to share those photos! It’s also a phenomenal way to meet other photographers (pro or just iPhone-photographers).
Pro HDR - $1.99: Pro HDR is hands down the best HDR app that I have used with the iPhone. Period. It works in two modes, either an auto mode. (You point the iPhone at the scene, tell it when to start, and let it handle the rest) or manual mode (You point your iPhone at the scene, select the brightest part of the photo and the darkest, and it will let you combine those areas). Both modes then merge the images and give you a set of slider adjustments for fine tuning the results. 90% of the time, it nails the photo and merges everything correctly. This is much better than the other apps that I’ve tried, and usually the 10% don’t work out because I wasn’t even trying to hold still. I always use it hand-held and am sure it works even better on a gorrila pod or some sort of stable surface. I think of Pro HDR as a starting point. And then use other apps like Snapseed or Instagram to do my editing. The workable file it provides gives you so much greater parameters to work with than just the normal photos that the iPhone takes.
Slow Shutter Cam - $.99: Slow Shutter cam is an extremely interesting app. It mimics the look of long exposure photos in a very realistic way. You get to set the shutter speed and sensitivity (iPhone equivalent of Aperture) and then shoot away. It appears to take a series of photographs and then intelligently merges them into one photo. While I don’t use this app as much as the others, I am always pleased with the results. They even have a light trails mode for light-painting stuff! Once the image is generated, you get some slider adjustments for making changes to the photo before having the option to save it. This is definitely one of those, “You’ve just gotta try it” apps.
Anyways, by no means are these the only apps which would appease to landscape photographers. They are just four of my current favorites. You can view some of my iPhone photography through my favorite instagram browser - Inkstagram.