If your into taking photos on your iPhone there are several photography apps that allow you to edit and enhance pix right from your device without having to sync or e-mail the photo’s to your desktop for editing later. In addition to the apps that will crop, enhance, and stylize photos I’ve found a few apps that will allow you to take panoramic shots and the results are quite amazing. I’ll review the panoramic apps at a later date but let’s take a look at a few apps to stylize your photos.
If your a fellow gadget geek your friends and family may look to you to take photos and create online albums. The iPhone makes this all possible on the go. After editing photos using your photography apps on the fly you can easily upload the pics to your flickr account or favorite social network by using apps such as Airme, Pownce and Facebook. With the ability to do everything from your iPhone, you can have an entire album edited, uploaded and shared before you get home.
Camera Bag 1.3
With CamaraBag you can take a new photo or edit any existing photo in your iPhone or iPod Touch photo library. Enhance your photos with a variety of effects such as; Cinema, 1962, 1972, Lolo, Ansel, Infrared, Helga and Fisheye. CameraBag lets you quickly preview your pic with desired effects before having to save your finished photo.
To give your photo an old school camera style try using the 1962 or 1972 effect which will give the image a washed out tinted look. Remove all color with the Ansel effect transforming your pics to black and white. To make your photo appear as though it were taken with a wide screen lens try Cinema. Below are a few examples of a shot I took in Toronto with my iPhone.
Overall a great app for $2.99 however often I experienced crashing will selecting specific photos.
Smaller photo’s taken with the iPhone loaded with ease however larger photos I imported from my digital camera with higher resolution had issues loading, causing the app to once again crash.
The developer recommends rebooting your iPhone if crashing occurs. In my case it didn’t seem to fix the issue as the same photos continued to crash and freeze even after 2 reboots. CameraBag just released a free update (1.4) adding a new polaroid style instant filter and a favorites list, hopefully also fixing the crash bugs.
Cost : $2.99
Import & take photos: Yes
Effects: 8
Text Overlay: N/A
Compatiblity: iPhone 2.0+/iPod touch
Get it
Photogene 1.6
This app has an impressive amount of features and effects that range from tweaking the sharpness and levels of the photo to choosing from over 10 borders or text bubbles. Photogene allows you to be creative and adjust your pics colours with colour temperature, saturation, thermal, antique and more. As seen below in screen shots of my photo, you can be easily crop with the scissor tool. Just drag anchors on the crop box or choose from the crop ratio options. Add fun symbols and alter their colors, such as comic book style text bubbles or shapes. Photogene didn’t have any issues with loading and editing the high resolution photos from my digital cam that crashed in CameraBag.
Editing was smooth with no loading issues or noticeable bugs.
Whether you’re the artistic type or you just want to have some fun with your pix I’d highly recommend Photogene. There are an endless amount of photo fun possibilities. The Photogene app doesn’t have a lot pre-set effects such as Cinema or 1972 so I won’t be replacing CameraBag with this app but PhotoGene will give you a lot more enhancements, text, and effects to tweak.
Cost: $2.99
Import & take photos: Only edit existing photos
Effects: endless
Text Overlay: Yes
Compatiblity: iPhone 2.0+ / iPod touch
Get it
VintB&W 1.0.
This app offers one function, developing your photo’s into black and white with a vintage looking style. This effect looks great and makes your subject look worthy of a rock album cover. On opening VintB&W the camera opens, there is no UI. After taking a new shot you can preview photo, use or retake then it will develop your photo and save to the photo library. You are unable to edit existing pictures.
The Vint B&W effect looks better and sharper than both the Ansel B&W effect in CameraBag and Photogene saturation effect. A useful app if you’d like to quickly achieve this style . Quick development of pics.
Cost: .99
Import & take photos: take new
Effects: 1
Text Overlay: N/A
Compatiblity: iPhone 2.2+
Get it
NightCamera 1.0.1
NightCamera assists you in taking a steady shot using the accelerometer. It will identify when the camera is stable then gives you 3 seconds to frame up the shot and takes the pic for you. You will get a less blurred and better stabilized shot but unfortunately its not going to light up the night sky for you like a flash as I had kind of assumed by the name. You can see the difference in the shakiness. Below is the photo taken with the iPhone’s native cam.
After taking a series of shots the pic was consistently clearer using the NightCamera. Sorry folks, the night cam comparison pic was deleted off the server ;(
The app won’t take a shot when your hands are shaking eliminating smears and blurs.
The photo taken with the NightCamera didn’t leave a blur on the street lights or sign. Very crisp.
Additionally NightCamera could be used to take self pics as the cam auto shoots for you every 3 seconds. Wasn’t able to see much differences in exposure between NightCamera and the iPhone’s native Cam. The developer claims you will get better results in dark and low lit environments.
If you frequently take blurry shots due to movement like myself you want to invest the .99 !
Cost: .99
Import & take photos: take new
Effects: Uses accelerometer to stabilize your photos, 3 second auto shoot.
Text Overlay: N/A
Compatiblity: iPhone 2.0+
Get it
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