For some time now I have seen other people posting photographs on Instagram that were collages or frames containing anywhere from one to six images. liking the look I went searching for the App to do it. My buddy Frank Tuttle (of Tuttle Images) forwarded me the link to Frametastic and I've been hooked ever since.

How it Works

Frametastic lets you select your frame and theme from the main menu. You can select anything from one to 6 images for your layout for free (there are expanded packs available for in App purchase). Once you have selected the layout, you select the individual squares that you would like to ad an image to by single tapping it. Double tapping the box brings that box to full size on the screen.

Once the individual box is large on the screen you can then resize and move the image contained within that box. You can also then make adjustments and apply filters to the image.

Once you have filled in all of the boxes, you have a few more options. At the bottom of the screen you can select the roundness of the boxes, the frame color and thickness, the frame orientation, and sharing options.

Sharing

When it comes to sharing you have a multitude of options. All of these options are pretty strait forward. Email, save to phone, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Postcard (the image has to be in a horizontal rectangle format for the Postcard option). Also selectable on this screen is Normal or Ultra-Res. Personally I prefer to keep them the best quality as possible.

The Bottom Line

This App is normally paid, but for a limited time it is Free! I really like the ease of use, the quality output, and the sharing options that Frametastic has to offer. Even at the normal price, this App is a must have, but for free, you can't beat it.

You can get Frametastic for the iPhone from the iTunes store for free here:

If you're a photographer and you're online you've probably heard about the new photo sharing/social media service 500px. It's touted as the new photo sharing site for professionals and I have to agree. I've been using 500px for a few months now and I have to tell you that I'm hooked. Not only is the quality of the photography better than sites like Flickr and Image bucket, but there is constantly a fresh supply of quality photos on every genre which keeps me inspired. My buddy Scott Kelby did a write up on the site, and how it works a month or so ago which you can find here. I'm not going to repeat Scott's write up and explain how the super advance algorithm keeps the photos fresh and of good quality but if you're interested you should head over and read how it works, it's worth the click. The initial iPad App offering from 500px is a really good one, albeit lacking a few key features that I would like to see added. If you're not already on 500px you can go here to sign up for a free account. Once you do, don't forget to see some of my stuff and follow me here.

This App is made for Viewing

The first thing that you notice when you launch the 500px App is the beautiful way it handles viewing photos from the 500px site. The App presents a beautiful grid layout of the "popular images" (which is selected by default).  Other sections to view include Editors picks (these are the images that the editors have chosen as favorites), Upcoming images (this is pretty self explanatory, these are the images that are moving up in the rankings quickly), Fresh images (these are images that have recently been uploaded), You (these are your images, Friends (again, self explanatory these are your friends images), and favorites (your favorite images).  Each of these sections brings up the images contained within in a grid view both horizontally or vertically (depending on iPad orientation). Double tapping an image brings it full sized on the screen. It also brings up the photographer's name, the image title, and it's rating. It also brings up the number of views, votes, and faves. Also on the full screen view is the ability to favorite, to vote for, and to leave comments on the image.

Slideshow

From the full screen view of any image in any section within the 500px App lies the ability to play a slideshow of every image contained within that collection. You can choose the transition type between images, the slide duration, as well as music for the slideshow.

Sharing

There are 5 options for sharing images from the 500px App. Natively it supports Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler, and email. The 500px App also allows you to open an image in Safari which in turn allows you to copy the direct link to the photo for use anywhere.

What I'd like to see

Just like any App, there are things that need to be improved upon. 500px is a photo sharing website, however the option to upload images directly from your iPad is curiously missing. This App is designed for image viewing only. The only thing I can guess is that they are trying to restrict the images to better quality and they feel that to keep that quality they need to restrict people to uploading images from their computer instead of their mobile device. I don't know that for sure, but it's just my guess. Hopefully one of their developers will read this review and fill us in on the thought process in the comment section. The other glaring omission that I see in this App is the ability to see the profile of your friend's or all other user's profiles for that matter. On the site each member is given room to tell about themselves, where they're from, what gear they use etc. No where on this App is there the ability to see those things. I would venture to say that it will be added in future updates since this is the first version, but only time will tell.

The Bottom Line

If you love 500px as much as I do, then you have to get this App for your iPad. The ability to view your images on the go, on what many consider to be the best image viewing device in the world makes it well worth the 30 seconds that it takes to download, and the small amount of space that it occupies on your iPad.

Get 500px for the iPad from the iTunes store here:

If you're a photographer, you should use a model release. Done deal. No doubt about it. No question. In the past (before smartphones) I carried a stack of paper model releases with me in my camera bag along with a bunch of pens. Whenever I shot ANY person (I do mean anyone), I would have them, or if they were under 18 their parents, sign a physical model release. This was a pain in the butt, not only to physically carry them, but also to organize and store them. With the invent of the smartphone and later the iPad, the need to keep physical model releases is no more. Up until recently, I was using a release App that was sufficient but also very tedious and had a little "too many" features. I wanted a model release App that was simple, strait to the point, and easy to use. Release Me answers that need better than any other I've found.

Make it Easy

My biggest complaint with many of the other model release Apps has always been that there was so much to fill out on a shoot by shoot basis that it took up way too much time. I shoot primarily people, I shoot in the USA always, I don't have multiple studio names or brands, and I almost always give the model copies of the images for their own portfolios. With previous Apps, I would have to select or enter each of those things above that almost NEVER changed. Release Me has made this process simple. I fill out (before hand) my standard model release, I enter the model's information, take a picture of them, have them digitally sign it, and I'm done. Of course there are more options if you want to exercise them, but they are either not options that are incredibly important for every shoot, or they are options (like emailing the completed release) that can be performed at a later time.  It doesn't get much simpler than this.

I mentioned that the "standard" model release is filled out before hand to save time while you are working with the model. Built right into Release Me is an industry standard model release form. for 99% of the shooters out there, this is all that you need. It covers you, your rights, the model and their rights. It has a place for minors and their parents and is legally binding.  For the other 1% of shooters that require more intense or specific language in their release, there is the option of adding in additional language. this language can be anything you would like, however I would suggest talking to a lawyer before adding anything to any legally binding document.  On the opposite side of this is the strike out feature. If there is language that the subject doesn't feel comfortable with, and you both agree to remove it from the release you can strike it from the document. Once the document is signed by the model, the information contained cannot be altered without a new signature.

See Who Signed and Where You Were

Another helpful feature that Release Me contains is the Map View. This Allows you to either manually enter the location where you photographed the subject, or use the built in Maps App to locate and place a pin where you are shooting. This is a very handy feature, especially if you have a multi-shoot project going on that spans multiple days and locations. The Other useful, and almost required feature is the photo section. Use your device's built in camera to take a photograph of the model that is going to be signing the release. Personally I think this is a required feature for a release App. 

Sign Your Screen

This seems like a "duh" comment or feature, but the ability to sign the screen is so incredibly nice. No more carrying pens. No more physical forms… If you've never used physical forms, I don't know that you can truly grasp how nice of a feature this is. Just suffice to say that it has saved a ton of trees and me from growing grey hair prematurely.

One thing that Terry and I have both found, is that signing the screen with your finger is cumbersome and a little clumsy. We both prefer a stylus designed for use on touchscreens. They can be bought for $15-$30 from many brand name manufacturers such as Targus and Pogo.

Get the Targus stylus from Amazon here for $33.33

Get the Pogo Stylus from Amazon for $10.68 here

The Bottom Line

This is one of, if not the simplest model release Apps that I have used. If you want a no nonsense, easy to use model release App, Release Me is for you. Their motto rings very true "it's better to have one and not need it, than need it and not have one". If you're taking photographs of people, get a release. You never know when that person might become famous, notorious, or otherwise profitable to have photographed.

You can get Release Me for the iPhone from the iTunes Store for $8.99 here:
You can get Release Me HD for the iPad from the iTunes Store for $8.99 here:

I travel for a living and many times I get to see some really cool places and scenery. While I often share photos online and via social media sites, it's great sometimes to send someone a physical postcard. As a photographer though I like to send my own photos and not the ones off the rack. I've reviewed Apps in the past that let you do this from your iPhone, but this new one adds a few tricks. Postcard on the Run let's you snap a photo (or choose an existing one) with your iDevice, compose a message, choose a contact and then pay a small fee (postage and printing) to have the card sent directly to your contact's physical address. That's what they all do! However, I like a few things that Postcard on the Run does that the others don't do. First off it lets you sign the card with your finger or stylus which is a nice touch. Beyond that you can change the font and color of the text in your message. Lots of formatting options. Lastly the thing that intrigues me the most is the ability to include a small map of where you are at the time you compose the card. I love Apps that can use Location Services for stuff like this and this is really a nice touch. 

How does it work?

After you build your card in the App, you can then pay by credit card the one time charge to print and mail that card. I did a test and mine came to $1.49. I like that they don't make you buy a quantity of stamps/cards up front. You pay as you go. My test card came back and while the printing was decent, the image was a little dark. This is not uncommon with digital prints, so you may want to adjust your images to be about 5% brighter before you put them in the App. My only other complaint is that while the geotag feature is cool, you can't use it after the fact. For example, my test was with an image from Russia. However, I was at home when I did the test. The map in the app indicated my current location at home and not the one in the photo. From what I understand is that developers can't access the geotag info a photo after the fact and while this may be true, it would be nice to have to option of specifying where the photo was taken in the absence of current location info. A simple drop a pin on a map would be better than your current location or nothing at all. Otherwise, Postcard on the Run is a great way to send real postcards from your iDevice.

You can get Postcard on the Run for free here from the 

When Adobe released the Creative Suite 5.5 updates Photoshop remained at CS 5. However, it did get one new capability in a free update and that was the ability to allow other Apps to remote control Photoshop. These Apps can be on iOS Devices, other mobile devices or even other Apps on your computer. Don't worry, this feature has to be enabled and it's password protected. Also the user has to be on the same WiFi/network as you. With that said, my buddy Brian Maffit (After Effects Guru) has helped develop this new App that allows you to use the camera on your iDevice and send the image wirelessly directly to Photoshop CS 5. 

How does it work

After setting up Photoshop to be a server (a simple process) and putting your iDevice on the same network, you fire up the Acquire for Photoshop App on your iPhone, 4th gen iPod touch or iPad 2 and snap a photo with the App. If you like the photo you can send it directly to Photoshop and it will open in Photoshop right before your eyes. The image comes over at full resolution and pretty instantly. Once in Photoshop you can do with it whatever you like. The big plus for me is that it can also send over screen shots taken with your iDevice. Since every review I do here has a screen shot, it makes it very easy to get them from my devices over to Photoshop to include in the review.  It's also important to me that the photos are still saved on the camera roll of the device too.

See it in action here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tak9kbujJhU

The Bottom Line

This is a good use of Photoshop's new open/remote controllable architecture. My only small grip is that this isn't a Universal App. Yes, it works on the iPad 2, but I'd like to see it full size on the iPad without screen doubling. Otherwise it rocks!

You can get Acquire for Photoshop for $1.99 here from the 

Most anyone that follows us on here knows that Terry and I are both avid photographers. We both take photographs for fun and professionally, so any time that a quality photographic App comes along we're all over it. When I heard last week that Kelby Media Group (the guys behind NAPP, Photoshop User TV, etc.) had an App dedicated to learning lighting coming out I knew that it would be something I was interested in. I expected it to be a quality App just because I know the quality of all of their other products, but I was absolutely blown away by the time and effort put into making every detail of this magazine amazing.

It's All In The Details

So what makes this digital magazine do different from other digital magazines offered on the iPad? The details. On the first  "From The Editor" column Scott Kelby (the editor) talks about how he sat down with his team and said that this was going to be different from any other digital magazine. He wanted it to look and FEEL like a real magazine. He even goes on to say " If we have to teach people how to actually read it, we've failed". They excelled. Light it Digital Magazine really does feel like a real magazine. The pages are turned just like they would be on a real magazine. Zooming in to make the text larger is as simple as double tapping or pinching to zoom. EVERY portion of the magazine works in both horizontal and vertical orientation. Video plays smoothly and is great in quality. I especially like the table of contents and the ability to tap any place in the magazine to jump directly to that page. Photographs preform just like you would expect. you can double tap them to snap to full screen or you can simply pinch to zoom just as you do the text. The magazine really "gets out of the way" so you can enjoy the content.

The Content

So what good is all of this seamless wonderful design without quality content? The guys over at Kelby didn't fail to deliver (Do they ever?). There are multiple articles from tons of great names in the industry. Zack Arias, Jeremy Cowart, Frank Doorhof, etc. There is a great gear guide showing you the essential gear that you can't be without. One of my favorite sections of the opening issue is the "Behind The Lens Interview" with Joe McNally. Joe is one of my favorite photographers of all time and who I owe a large part of my style and technique to. This is a video interview where Scott Kelby interviews Joe on all sorts of small flash tech and questions. And of course there's a great article from my buddy RC Concepcion talking about stuff for beginner's. All of this and more! I can't stress enough how good the quality is in the content of this App.

So What About the Cost

The Light It Digital Magazine App as well as the first issue are free! To download the magazine you first have to download the App which acts as a "magazine rack" of sorts. You then download the individual magazine through the App. The premier issue is free! Each additional issue (there will be 8 a year) will cost $2.99. This is really a value. For all of the great information you get, you would easily pay twice that at a news stand. There is no subscription required so you can pick and choose which issues you want, however I'm going to bet that you'll want them all just like me. A quick note on the download speed of the issues. Because of the quality of the photographs, the issues are a little on the large side so the issues may take 10 minutes or more to download on a broadband connection. Be patient, it's worth it.

It's for Photographers, by Photographers

I can honestly say that the guys who put this magazine together are all avid (and quality photographers). Each of them has a real passion for photography and will provide you with the best lighting information that you can get anywhere. My only real gripe is that Brad or Scott hasn't asked me to do an article yet . Other than that, this magazine is perfect.

You can get Light It Digital Magazine for your iPad from the iTunes store for free here:

As a general rule of thumb, red eyes in a photo are bad. You know the look, someone takes a shot of you with flash in a dark environment and you end up looking like you're possessed. That happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Someone took a picture of my girlfriend and I with my iPhone one Saturday night at a nearby restaurant in Dayton. It was dark. My eyes were red. Up until this point I had never had an issue with red-eye on my iPhone so I had never gone and looked for a solution. What I found was a really good App to not only fix red-eye but change the color of eyes all together! All of this and it's FREE!

What Causes Red-Eye

I know this is an App review but I thought it would be nice if you knew what actually caused the red-eye effect. You usually see red-eye appear when someone has taken a photograph of another person in a dark environment with a flash. The reason this happens has to do with the way our eyes work. When you are in a dark environment your pupils dilate (get larger) to let more light in. When the bright flash goes off what you are seeing is a reflection of the back of the retina. The red comes from the blood vessels. So there you have it, that is why, now lets talk about how to fix it with this great App!

Using Eye Colorizer

The core function of this App is to change the color of the eyes. In building an App that does a really great job of that, by default it works really well at removing red-eye. Getting images into the App is easy. There are two choices available to the user. Either load an image from the library or take a photograph. Once your image is loaded the App automatically detects where the eyes are located and zooms in. If there is more than one set of eyes the App chooses one and zooms in. (If you have more than one set of eyes, you work on the first set, then at the end add the second set) Once you have selected your eyes you are presented with lots of controls. You are able to change the outer and inner color of the eyes (the inner color is where you would fix the red-eyes).  Adjustable also is the hue, and pattern of color on the eyes. Once all of the adjustments have been made, there is an eraser to remove any unwanted "spillage" of color around the eye. Pinch to zoom in or out of the eyes to get the details perfect.

On the opening screen (along with the camera and library option) is an instructions button. This will take you to instructions with screen shots. These are some of the most thorough instructions that I have seen on an App. I am very impressed with them.

Paid Version

While I'm using the free version of Eye Colorizer, there is also a paid version for $1.99. The additional features of the paid version include the removal of all Ads, the addition of a rainbow effect as an eye color option, and a "splash" button that grays out the background and leaves the eyes in color while you're working on them. Personally, I don't see a need for any of those features so I'm sticking with the free version, however I have included the link to the paid version below if those are features that you feel you just can't live without.

Should you get it?

If you've every experienced the dreaded red-eye in a photo (who hasn't), especially on the iPhone, this App should be in your arsenal of photo editing tools. For the great price of Free, you have nothing to lose. I'm certain however, that if you download it you won't be disappointed with the quality of the final product.

You can get Eye Colorizer Free for your iPhone from the iTunes store for Free here:
You can get Eye Colorizer Paid for your iPhone from the iTunes store for $1.99 here:

Not too long ago to take a panoramic photograph you needed an expensive camera, and a tripod. Then digital came along with Photoshop making it possible to stitch together images to make a pano but you still needed a tripod and images that overlap each other. Now we have "an App for that". I've been playing around with DerManDar for about a week and a half now and I love it! This App makes it incredibly, incredibly easy to create a panoramic right in your iPhone, iPad2, or 4th Gen iPod Touch.  Not only does it make it easy to create them, but it makes it really easy to share them as well.

Making Panos Easy

What really makes this App nice is the "Ying and Yang". To create a pano with DerManDar you tap the camera button located at the bottom of the screen. The App utilizes the iPhone's gyroscope telling you when the phone is being held vertically via the ying and the yang at the top middle of the screen. Once you position the phone perfectly vertical the first picture will be taken. Then you rotate your phone to the left or the right (while keeping it vertical) until the ying and yang symbols come together. At that point the App takes the photograph automatically. You continue this until you have taken all of the images you want for the pano. Once you have taken all of the images that you want, you tap the camera symbol again. Stitching is done surprisingly quickly and your preview shows up within a few seconds. At this point you are presented with a pano that rotates from left to right full screen on your device. Tapping the "Keep" button at the top of the screen saves your newly created image to your camera roll. If that's all that you want to do with your image, you're done. If you want to share the image there are many more options.

Sharing

There are a ton of options to share your image. Of course you can share via email. That is a must for any image App, but you also have the option of sharing via Facebook or Twitter. Beyond that, you also have the option to upload the image to the DerManDar site. Why would you want ANOTHER place to navigate to you ask.. Well, if you want to animate your image just like it's animated on your phone, their site lets you do it. You can link to your image on Facebook and other social networks (Google+ anyone?) by simply inserting the direct link to your image. This is a really cool feature that I have been taking advantage of. Of course you can always add your image like normal as I did above but I like the interactive version better. 

I recommended this App to a good friend of mine Frank Tuttle of Tuttle Images who happens to be in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a week and he sent me a couple of really cool panos.

Conclusion

For the price of Free, this is a really good Pano App. Even if it wasn't free, this is a really good pano App. Head over to pick this App up now I'm betting you won't be disappointed.

Get DerManDar for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad2 at the iTunes store for FREE here

The other day a buddy of mine asked me what I used to convert my images to black and white on my iPhone and iPad. My response was either Instagram or Photoshop Express. The question got me thinking though, "I wonder if there are any GOOD black and white conversion Apps" so I went searching. I tried out literally 20+ B&W Apps before I found MonoPhix, but I couldn't be happier with this App. On my Macbook Pro and in Photoshop, I have found that the best software for specific tasks like black and white conversion is software that is specifically designed to do that task and little else. The same is true on the iOS platform, and with MonoPhix. MonoPhix is designed for little else than black and white/sepia conversion. Sure there is an exposure slider but it's not my first choice because there are Apps designed to do just that.

Black and White done the right way

When I convert color images to black and white I want to control my shadows and highlights. I want to be able to create contrast and avoid bland flat looking images. MonoPhix allows me to do that. With the Light and Dark shade intensity sliders I can simulate a tone curve similar to Photoshop on my computer.  Each slider does what it sounds like. The light slider will increase or decrease the highlights and the dark slider will increase or decrease the shadows areas. This is nice, but they take it a step further. Under the processing tab you are able to adjust the total black and white conversion as if it's a separate layer! Fade your newly converted black and white with your background "layer" to create a vintage look.

Color adjustment for sepia is superb with this App. Not only are there default tabs for B&W, Sepia, and Antique, but you can also adjust and apply Red, Green, and Blue to each image to obtain the desired tint. The really makes for precise colored effects and tons of possibilities when doing sepia, or other colored effects to black and white images.

Another optional slider within one of the tabs is Noise/Grain Generator. This slider really lets you add just the right amount of grain to your images to create classic film black and white style images. With just a little or a lot of grain you can have your black and whites as textured as you want them.

Vignetting comes with it's very own tab in MonoPhix. Under this tab you are presented with a slider to adjust the amount of vignette around your image just as you'd expect. The vignette seems to be feathered nicely and you are presented with both a burn and a bleach option for the vignette color.

A Few Settings to Note

On the iPad version you are able to control the preview size. I changed mine to 600px(largest) because I want to utilize all of the preview area that I can. The App says that you might see a slowdown in performance at this size however I didn't see any. On the iPhone 4 you are able to utilize the Retina display and view your images in higher resolution. Again they claim a slowdown in performance might be seen however I haven't experienced a noticeable slowdown at all yet. This last little thing isn't a setting, but it's worth noting. The Help button under the settings tab will open up the help page on PheonxSoftware website which is worth giving a look. It really has some helpful information about using this App.

Couple of additions…

Never one to leave well enough alone I have a few things that I'd like to see added to the App. First, there is no option for landscape view. On the iPhone I understand this, however there is enough screen real estate that a landscape view could be accommodated. I would also like to see a feather control for the vignetting. The ability to adjust the hardness of the vignette edge and the shape would be nice. I know these are small things, but I want this App to be perfect!

Conclusion

Like I said earlier, Apps like this have to be focused on one primary thing to be really great. MonoPhix is really great! It does Black and white/Sepia conversion very, very well. From now on, I fully plan on using this for all of my black and white conversion and adjustment on my iPhone and iPad.

Get MonoPhix for the iPhone for $.99 from the iTunes store here:
Get MonoPhix for the iPad for $1.99 from the iTunes store here:

Since I bought my iPhone, mobile photography has become more and more a part of my every day life. I think this is because of a couple of reasons. First, the camera on the iPhone is a whole lot better than it was on my last phone (Blackberry Storm), and secondly, the photography App quality and variety far exceed that of any other mobile platform that I have ever tried.  TiltShift Generator is a prime example of that quality. Allowing exacting control over blur, vignette, and a myriad of other adjustments, this App is an important part of my mobile photography workflow and it should be a part of yours too.

What I love…

When I downloaded TiltShift Generator for my iPhone, I was just looking for vignette control. I like to add a little bit of vignette to a lot of my images but I like to do so in a soft, natural way. The majority of the Apps that I have tried tend to distort the vignettes and make them look unrealistic. There is precise control over the vignette amount and the App automatically feathers it very nicely.

Adding a nice blur is something that I have found myself wanting to do recently as well. The "tilt-shift" of this tilt shift generator is the blur effect. They have done a really nice job with the control within the App. Not only are you able to chose between blur amount, and placement, but you are also able to change the shape and size of the blur as well. This really gives you a lot of control when adding this effect.

Other Control

Not only do you have tilt shift capabilities, and vignette control, but you also have the ability to control saturation, brightness, and contrast. Most of the time I add my color effects in another App but you could do some adjustments with these sliders if you wanted. To be honest however, I feel that the sliders are a little heavy handed. I haven't been able to get them to really add or subtract to an accuracy that I have been happy with so I really don't use them.

Within the settings tab, you will find the option to work on your image in different resolutions. They range from 480X640 to 1200X1600 or original(if it's larger than 1200X1600). I generally work in the largest available to me. I don't want to cut off any more pixels than I have to.

A Couple of Tweaks and It's Perfect!

I only have a couple of things that I'd like to see different on this App. First, no matter how you close the App, or shut it down, it retains the settings from your previous edit. This means that if you have adjusted the saturation, brightness, or contrast at all, you have to readjust them just for the image to look normal. This is a bit of a nuisance. I'd like to see all of the sliders "back at zero" as with most photo editing Apps. Also a lack of an undo button seems to both some but for me none of it is permanent so I don't see a need for one. The last thing that I would like to see is a few more options on output. Currently there are the big two Facebook and Twitter, as well as superpop cam but I'd like to see the addition of Instagram, Flickr, and even 500px. I know that's a little nit picky but I can ask for anything can't I.

Concluson

The bottom line is you can't go wrong with this App. If you enjoy adding vignettes or the tilt shift look to your images, TiltShift Generator does one heck of a job.

You can get TiltShift Generator for you iPhone or iPod Touch for $.99 from the iTunes store here:

You can get TiltShift Generator for your iPad for $2.99 from the iTunes store here: