Photography
There is no shortage of photo editing applications for the iPhone and we have sure reviewed plenty of apps before here on BestAppSite.
This app, Camera+ is a new one, made by tap tap tap who are known to make some quality applications and behind the apps effect, is photographer Lisa Bettany.
User Interface Design
Camera+ is an application that has been thoroughly designed and because of that has a gorgeous interface. Graphics are crisp and good looking and looks even more beautiful on the iPhone 4 on the retina display.
Overall, it is a nicely laid out app, that is easy to use both for taking photos and editing them (more on that next).
(subject to note at the end of the review)
First my buddy Jason Levine told me about this App and showed it to me on a recent business trip. I thought it was cool then, but got busy and forgot to grab it. Then I saw it recently on my buddy Scott Kelby's blog and was once again reminded to go grab that app. All I can say is WOW! Although I have access to hundreds, if not thousands of special effects in Photoshop, 3rd party filters and plug-ins, there are very few that make me go WOW! Plastic Bullet by Red Giant Software will definitely earn a permanent spot on my iPhone. I just love the kind of effect that it creates especially for my portrait photography.
If you don't like it, just hit the button again
When you fire up Plastic Bullet and then choose a photo, you get four different looks on that photo right off the bat. You can choose one and then just keep cycling through until you get it just right. There are no other buttons, controls, sliders or other interface elements to worry about. So if you're a control freak, this isn't for you. It does what it does and that's it. No more, no less.
There are a couple of issues and these are the things keeping me from giving it that elusive 5th star. First off, no matter what resolution your photo started out at, the one that Plastic Bullet renders out for you will be maxed out at 600×800 pixels. While that's probably fine for emailing and MMS, I would prefer to keep ALL of my pixels I started with if I chose. They have already promised an update to take care of this. The other one noted by other reviewers is that an many cases this app leans towards blowing out the highlights in an image. I can usually get around this by choosing one of the other results, but since there are no sliders/controls it limits the possibilities. Otherwise, I'm very hooked on this App!
You can get Plastic Bullet here from the App Store for $1.99: 
This App has one purpose! It shows one thought provoking photo from around the world each day. As a photographer I personally relate to photos easier than I do the printed word. I love this App because it's so simple. It shows me a visually compelling image each day and it gives me a short description of the photo. That's it! I can choose to share a link to the image with others via Email, Twitter or Facebook if I want. If I'm interested in the actual photography technique used to capture the image then I can tap the "Pro tip" button and see a little bit about how the image was captured. I can also go back and look at previous photos from days I missed.
You can download The Guardian Eyewitness for iPad here from the App Store.
The camera in the iPhone has always been "OK", not horrible, but certainly far from perfect. Chances are if you're a hardcore iPhone user then you have at least 2-3 iPhone Apps for shooting, editing and sharing your photos/video. The built-in camera App is very basic. It lets you take a photo or video (iPhone 3GS only) and share it via email, MMS or MobileMe. If you want to do any kind of editing or sharing beyond what's built-in then you'll need a 3rd party app. It's odd that Apple lets you trim video on the 3GS but doesn't offer any photo editing at all. They leave it all up to 3rd party developers. Also if you want to capture video on a previous generation iPhone you'll need a 3rd party App for sure. Camera Plus Pro attempts to give you everything you'll need in one app.
When you add this many features you also add complexity
Let's start with what you get in this App:
- Video Recording Modes on the iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS
- Live and Smooth Zoom
- Live Filters: B/W, Sepia, Invert, Sin City Red, Hulk Green, Avatar Blue
- Upload video to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter with Title and Description
- Send video via Email
- Geotag Videos and share location on YouTube
- Password Protect your Private videos with the built-in Password Feture
- Tag videos
- Tap to focus for 3GS
- Big Button (tap anywhere on the screen to fire the shutter)
- Anti-Shake & Grid Overlay
- Timer – up to 10 seconds
- Point Zoom to a particular Point
- Geotag photos and share with Picasa and Facebook
- Tag your photos
- Adjust brightness, contrast, sharpness, hue, saturation, temperature, tint
- Add soft Flash
- Crop in various shapes like rectangle, circle, oval
- Rotate photos
- Add Watermark & Date
- Edit Geotag
- Share single or multiple photos to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa and Email
- Adjust Photo quality before sharing for faster uploading
Yep, that's a TON of features for the asking price and certainly can eliminate the multiple apps that you may be using. However, like most things with a long feature list there is a learning curve. This App is GREAT and a joy to use. There are four simple buttons at the bottom of the screen to bring up the menu for the mode you're in, show the built-in Fast Camera Roll, Shoot and toggle between still and video. My only issue with the app is that I have to constantly remember what the icons mean in each module (there is no hover state to give you popup help on a touch screen). Again, this will probably become second nature the more you use the App and you probably won't use every feature often anyway. I'm impressed with what you get for the asking price and would definitely recommend this to people looking for one App that does it all. Just be prepared to spend some time getting up to speed. For non 3GS owners this is a no brainer! It gives you all of the above AND the ability to record video. Just get it!
Here on the App Store:
This is the 3rd App of this type that I have reviewed (see my review of mRelease and Photographer's Contract Maker). Each of these Apps promises to eliminate the need for carrying around paper based Model and Property releases. The first App I tried, mRelease was really slick but lacked the ability to create a "custom" release using your own text. Then BestAppSite readers turned me on to Photographer's Contract Maker, which does allow for custom text but lacks the ability to put in a photo of the model/building on the release and doesn't let you put in your own logo. Although I knew about Easy Release, I immediately dismissed it back then because it also lacked the ability to do custom releases. However, that's all changed now with their latest update.
Easy Release 1.5 Almost Does it All!
A BestAppSite reader turned me on to the 1.5 update and while I am satisfied with Photographer's Contract Maker for the most part (I used it at Photoshop World for both model releases and custom corporate interview releases and it rocked!), I wanted to give this App a spin. Being the most expensive of the bunch at $9.99 I was a little hesitant, However, I was lured in by the fact that it had the missing features I wanted. Not only did the update bring custom releases, but it also has the ability to have a photo (from either your iPhone camera or your Camera Roll/Albums) on the release AND allows you to put in your own custom logo/branding! Cool!
Get it here:
There is one problem though…
We buy books on photography, we take classes, we watch tutorials, we ask the photographers we admire for tips. We do this constantly because every photographer wants to be a better photographer. I haven't met a photographer yet that says, "I'm perfect and there's nothing else that I need to learn." We're always looking to learn new ways or better ways of capturing an image. I'm here at Photoshop World in Orlando and of course I'm surrounded by some of the best photographers in the world. So needless to say, I'm learning! I ran into Rick Sammon during a break and we started talking Apps. I was reminded that Rick has an App that is geared give you tons of photography tips to make you a better photographer right in your iPhone or iPod touch.
It's like having Rick Sammon in your pocket
Rick's App is very well organized with practical tips and techniques about various aspects of shooting AND editing your images. Rick's App is aimed at one thing, making you a better photographer. The content in the App is organized into 5 major sections, Seeing, Making, Editing, Tips, and Help. It's one of the first Apps that has a section on "Seeing". What this means is learning how to see a picture in your mind before ever picking up your camera. I know lots of people that take pictures, but they lack vision! This simply means that they don't have a good eye. I'm not sure that this is something that can be learned, but if it can this section of the App will definitely help you! There is over 100MB's of content in this App. While that may sound like a lot to take up room on your device, the good thing is that once the App is installed you can use it offline.
As great as cameras are today, they all seem to have one problem. They're not as good as the human eye. Your eyes can distinguish between shadows and highlights very easily. However, most times when you take a photo the camera tries to expose the photo based on the available light. If you have two extremes such as a very bright sky and and person standing under a shade tree, the camera is going to choose one or the other to expose for. This also happens with people. Say you have a person of color, but they're wearing a bright white suit. The camera makes a guess between the two to expose for. So either the person's face looks great, but the suit is totally blown out or the the suit looks fine, but the face is too dark. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is all the rage today with the pros. Pro shooters are shooting landscapes and other subjects with their DSLRs and shooting in bracketed exposure mode to produce 3 or more shots of the the same scene at 3 or more different exposures. Then they use software to blend the 3 or more images together into one composite keeping the detail between the range of exposures.
You can do HDR with your iPhone photos too
The iPhone seems to even have a harder time distinguishing between the two extremes. Now that's no longer an issue thanks to Apps like Pro HDR. Pro HDR lets you take two photos with your iPhone camera (or choose from your library) and it walks you through the process as you take the photos of exposing for the highlights and shadows by simply tapping on the screen in the light and dark areas. Then it automatically aligns the two shots and blends them together producing an HDR image. I was amazed by the results in my testing.
Last week I reviewed a similar app called mRelease. The App had all of the promise of allowing a photographer or other artist the ability to create, sign and email Release Forms. As a Photographer I deal with Model Release forms all the time. I have two custom ones that I use personally and a 3rd one that my employer has me use when I do interviews. While I loved the idea of mRelease, the one problem with it is that there was no way to put in your own release/legal copy. While I can probably get by with a generic release most of the time for my personal photography, I can't when it comes to my employer's release.
Photographers Contract Maker lets you roll your own
A reader of my other review turned me on to this App. It has the one thing that the other App was missing and that is the ability to create CUSTOM RELEASE FORMS. I was able to easy copy and paste each of my release forms into an email message and send them to my iPhone. From there I was able to copy and paste the exact text I needed right into the App creating the 3 separate forms that I needed. I was blown away by the ability to insert "fields" with the text that would automatically pull content from the App such as client name, shoot date, photographer's name, websites, phone numbers, etc. Wow! Just what the doctor ordered. It took me about 15 minutes of tweaking to the get the layouts just the way I wanted them and I had my first test release created. I also love the fact that you can build your client list from your existing contacts on your iPhone/iPod touch. You can even go in on a case by case basis and edit the verbiage. This allows you to customize a release to a specific shoot adding or removing terms. Lastly I was able to sign it and do a test email. It all works!
You can get it here:
If you do any kind of photography, video or other projects involving actors, models, a crew or location, then chances are you need a release form signed. The problem with paper forms is remembering to bring them with you. It seems I forget all to often. Now I have a model release with me at all times and it's in the device that I always carry. It's in my iPhone. This App is very cool by design. You enter some basic information about the shoot/project, then you enter some info about the model, property, etc. and lastly you can even take or use a photo from your library. Once you've entered this info a release is generated and can be signed right on screen. At this point the signed release will be generated as a PDF that you can email out to all that need it.
Never forget your model release forms again
I love the idea behind this App. It's brilliant! The thought of whipping up a release form right in the palm of my hand and having the model sign it with their finger sounds soooo 2010 
Also being able to add a photo right there on the spot is helpful too. A lot of photographers will use this to take a photo of the model's drivers license as proof of age/identity.
Get it here:
As a photographer when I travel to a place that I've never been to before the first question that comes to my mind is "are there any cool places that I should shoot while I'm here." Often I'm traveling on business and don't have a lot of free time, so I need to go to the best places in the short amount of time that I have. Flickr.com is a great photo and social networking site that photographers can not only upload their shots to, but they can also geotag or map them so that others will know where the shot was taken.
Foto Brisko delivers shot suggestions in a slick and easy to use interface
The mission of Foto Brisko is to show you possible shots based on your current location or by searching a location that you're headed to. It then populates that area of the map with a minimum of 20 shots (provided that many exist) that you might want to capture while you're there. See a thumbnail you like and just click on it to see the shot larger in the App. If you really like that shot you can immediately add it to YOUR shot list as well as share it on Twitter or Email it.
