Snap & Sync
Now there’s a great idea!
Snap & Sync is a social photography app that may prove itself very useful.
The idea behind it is very simple. Sometimes when you go to places together with your friends, all of you guys usually take pictures on your own devices, and then you’ll never see their pictures, because they are too lazy to post it on facebook or send you by mail. Sometimes the lazy one is you. I know, I’ve been there.
So Snap & Sync has arrived to stop that from happening.
Basically you’ll create an album and invite your friends to that album. Then, every picture you guys take will go to the “cloud” and will be automatically shared and sync’d for all.
Nice, right?
Also, you can choose to publish all the photos directly to the Facebook, so another step skipped in the name of laziness!
This awesome app is free for a limited time, so don’t wait any longer!
Pocketbooth
Photo Booths can be so much fun! I can’t remember the last time I used one without making funny faces (funny faces are better than my normal ugly face, so there you go).
Now you can have that same fun without inserting coins and directly in your pocket, with this awesome Pocketbooth, by Project Box.
The app is simple enough and it’s focused on the user-friendly interface. Just start it, select the camera you want to use (for the devices that have more than one camera), center your eyes on the red arrows (yeah, right!), and click the big green button.
It will take 4 pictures of whatever is in front of the camera, and you better make it funny. Or hot. Funny or hot.
If you check the settings, there are a few parameters you can change.
- Strip Size: 3 or 4 pictures
- Photo Effect: 1975 / Antique / B&W / Color / Sepia
- Paper Stock: Glossy / Matte
- Border Color: Black / White
- Time Between Shots: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 seconds
- Auto Save: App + Camera Roll / App Only
- Camera: Front / Rear
- Flash: Auto / Off / On
GroupShot
So you’re at the park trying to take a family picture. You spend all your energy to gather everyone and make them face the camera. To be sure, you take 4 pictures. At least one should come out right. Right?
You get home and check the images.
Picture 1: Little Jimmy had a full finger up his nose and was very focused on extracting whatever was in there.
Picture 2: Darn, little Jimmy! Take that finger off your mouth! Ew!
Picture 3: Little Jimmy is perfect, but your sister closed her eyes at the precise moment of the click.
Picture 4: Where is Little Jimmy?
At the end of the day, you couldn’t get one picture with everyone on their places, looking at the camera.
If only you could mix the picture 1 and 3, that would be awesome.
Groupshot by Macadamia Apps allows you to just do that.
Take a few pictures from the same angle, and with the people in tha same positions/places, and their faces won’t matter, if they can make a straight face in at least one of the pictures.
Select the parts of the picture you want to replace and select another picture to replace only those parts.
This is a great app and it’s free for a limited time, so grab it!
FishEye Toy Camera
If you’re into photography, you must know those funny lenses called “fisheye”.
Those lenses provide a different and cool (for some people) look. A kind of a distorted tunneled vision.
So today you can get this FishEye Toy Camera by Misskiwi for free.
This is a very simple to use app. I advise you to first go to the settings and change de quality do high, and perhaps the effect to strong (that’s the whole point of it, right?).
After that, just point and tap anywhere to take the shot. After a little bit of processing (no more than 10 seconds), you’ll get the final result.
Then, you can slide through different type of effects (color effects) and select it as you please.
Additionally, you can send the pictures to Twitter, Camera Roll, mail, Instagram or any other application on your iPhone that supports file storage.
This is a fun app, and it’s free for a limited time.
Kinotopic
Cinemagraphs are the new generation of animated gifs. Their hypnotic effect can last from a few seconds to a few minutes. At least for me. Am I normal? Doubt it.
If you ever wanted to produce your own cinemagraphs, Kinotopic by Placehugger can get you started.
You will shoot a video (if you are using the app to shoot the video, it will only record 4 seconds and stop) and then select a “mask” to indicate which area of the screen will be moving. The rest will be static.
It’s simple enough, and you may make a few mistakes at first, but at the second try it usually goes smoother.
From within the app you will be able to share your work via twitter or facebook. Also, you will be able to see the latest “movies” uploaded from other people.
Try it while it’s free!
HDR Photo Camera
HDR stands for “High Dynamic Range” and it’s well-known by photography enthusiasts.
A good HDR photo is the one that most resembles what you see with the naked eye.
How does it work
Usually to produce a HDR picture, you take 2 or more photos with different exposure levels. The more, the better. Then you merge it all, carefully selecting the exposures and the final effect.
HDR photography is tricky, because as you take several pictures, the object tends to move a little bit and, if you’re not using a tripod, you will also move, so when merging the images, it may get blurry or have “trails” for not being in the same exact spot.
HDR Photo Camera, by Intellsys, makes it easy for you to snap some shots without having to do the merging and changing the exposure settings.
This app will take 3 pictures with different exposure levels and do all the work for you. Then it will save the result to the camera roll, with the original 3 pictures.
Of course it won’t make miracles. You still must observe the main “rules” for a good HDR, such as taking pictures of something static. A landscape, for example. Trying to take a HDR photo of a jumping cat will not turn out good.
Perhaps one of the exceptions to this is taking HDR pictures of water. I happen to like very much of those, even though the water keeps moving.
This app has several modes to take the pictures, but you probably want the default. You also can set the focus/exposure brackets to be fast or more accurate. Go for the default until you learn to do it properly.
The final photo resolution is customizable. Default is maximum resolution.
You may have noticed that the iPhone has the HDR option natively, and if you ever tried it, you also noticed that it pretty much sucks. It takes 2 pictures and most of the time you will get the trails and double imaging.
Make the test and compare.
HDR Photo Camera is free for a limited time and you shouldn’t wait for too long.
PicYou
And since we have talked about Instagram, it is only fair to present you with options from the competition.
PicYou by Flixya Entertainment is a brand new app for sharing and quick editing photos from your iPhone.
Its interface is pretty much the same as Instagram, in terms of sections and operations.
There is the “Feed” section to see all your friends shared images, the “Popular” section to take a look at what is hot (most comments and likes), and the good ol’ “Share” button, to get things going from your side.
The main difference here in PicYou from Instagram is really the filters set.
I must admit, I like PicYou’s filters a lot more than Instagram’s. That Killowatt filter is a must-try, it just looks cool.
By the end of the day, it’s just a matter of choosing the one you like the most, because both are very similar and free.
Personally, I have both installed, since I have most of my friends on Instagram, so I can check them up once in a while, and I take pictures with PicYou, because of the better (in my opinion) filters, and share them on my facebook (there is also the twitter option).
PicYou is new and free. It has lots of potential, so it’s worth a try.
Instagram by Burbn, Inc. must be one of the most used apps for sharing and quick-editing pics from iOS devices.
The app is easy to use and very intuitive.
The big innovation came from the fact that this app could not only take pictures, but also apply nice filters and share it immediately with your friends, effort-free.
In order to join in the fun, you must first register. It’s free (both registering and the app), so nothing to lose here.
Right off the bat, after you added a few friends, you get the “Feed” section, where you get to see your contact’s latest pics. You can like them and/or comment on them as well.
However, if you have no friends added, you can proceed to the “Popular” tab, with the most watched/liked/commented pictures from all over the world. This can be a great source of inspiration and, sometimes, friends (yay for them).
In the “Share” section, you’ll be able to take new pictures or get old ones from your camera roll, and share it “as is”, or pimp them up a little bit, by applying filters (love the Kelvin filter), adding frame, rotating and even applying tilt-shift effects (linear or radial).
You have unlimited uploads, and you have the option to share your work right away with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Posterous.
Instagram supports both iPhone/iPad cameras so you don’t have to make weird faces in front of your bathroom’s mirror whenever you decide to tak your own picture.
Instagram is free and if you like to take pictures with your iPhone, there is not much to think about really.
Hipstamatic Disposable
Yesterday we saw the awesome Hipstamatic, and today I shall give you something related to it, but free. And free is always good, right?
Hipstamatic Disposable by Synthetic Corp is a great way to share a film roll with friends.
The fun in this app is to use it socially with one or more friends. It can be used solo, of course, but for that you have the original Hipstamatic already.
With Hipstamatic Disposable, you get to create a new camera, personalize it with color and stickers, and add friends to share the film.
Your friends will receive the invitation, and if accepted, they will immediately join the fun.
So, how does it work?
All of you guys will have 24 pictures to take in the film. If you take a picture, the number drops to 23 to all participants.
After all 24 pictures are taken, the film is “developed” and you will have access to all the pictures (yours and your friend’s).
This app brings back the thrill of taking pictures without knowing the result on the spot.
To that, add the excitement of not knowing what kind of pictures your friends are taking. Personally, I have a roll going on with a friend for a few weeks now, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of surprises after it’s finished.
This app is free, so install it and test it free of guilt.
Hipstamatic
I just realized that I have never mentioned Hipstamatic in this site. For that I am deeply sorry and I hope you can forgive me someday.
Synthetic Corp made this awesome app for those of you who love to take pictures, and need that extra little something to it.
This amazing app takes you on a tour around the Lomo world. These little cult cameras were once used by spies on the cold war. They were small, light, made of plastic, and easily “tuned” to adapt any situation.
Nowadays, when you buy a lomo, you also get duct tape to cover up some cracks in the structure that let light in. This is the great thing about lomo: each camera is different, lets a different amount of light in, and the results are always a surprise.
Take a look at some pics to see what I’m talking about.
So, Hipstamatic gets you that lomo feeling at each picture you take.
To immerse you even further in the experience, the app comes with a set of lenses, flashes and film roll, that you can select separately, or even shake the device to get a random combination.
The standard included sets are:
Lenses
John S lens
Jimmy lens
Kaimal Mark II lens
Buckhorst H1 lens
Films
Ina’s 1969 film
Kodot Verichrome film
Blanko film
Flashes
Standard flash
Dreampop flash
Cherry Shine flash
If you really love it, you can buy additional sets to your collection:
Williamsburg [99¢]
Includes Helga Viking lens, 3 color flash gels, and Pistil film.
The Portland [99¢]
Includes the Lucifer VI lens and BlacKeys film.
Shibuya 渋谷区 [99¢]
Includes the Roboto Glitter lens, Berry Pop flash, and Float film.
Camden [99¢]
Includes Alfred Infrared film and BlacKeys Supergrain film
The Mission [99¢]
Includes Bettie XL lens, Eggshell White camera case, and Ina’s 1935 film
Soho [99¢]
Includes Chunky lens, Cano Cafenol film, Blanko Noir film, and Mr. Bling camera case
As if this is not enough, the app allows you to order paper prints of your pics.
Also, you can upload your pics directly to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr.
Hipstamatic goes for $1.99, and it’s worth every penny.
Hipstamatic on the AppStore ($1.99)
