Ipad App Reviews 1

I thought I'd review a few photography apps after testing out a number of them on my new toy. There are so many apps out there for photography ranging from simple editing suites to highly stylised art effects or filters (emulating a number of old cameras).

First note is the ipad's own camera isn't very good at all. I wouldn't recommend it for serious photography (the iphone 4's camera is apparently much better).

These are just a couple of the apps I've used. I'll review more down the line.

Snapseed:

This is a great photo editing app, providing a number of options to edit photos either from your own photo library or the camera roll. It provides typical touchup features (cropping, fine tuning, straightening) yet also provides some nice looking effects including vintage and grunge filters.

It is extremely easy to use and provides a nice and quick way to edit photos on the go, the output quality is enough for uploading to websites (not tried printing yet) and it has auto share options for flikr, facebook and twitter.

Above: One of my photos taken on the d80 imported and grunged up in Snapseed
Below: Taken with the Ipad Camera



The grunge filter is probably the best 'arty' filter I've seen in an app so far and is probably going to be overused (as it's so fun!). I like the way you can build up your effects (although as a warning there are no layers in this so you are essentially just stacking effect on effect). The compare feature is a nice touch to see the original unedited photo.

The new details feature almost works like Clarity in Lightroom, providing sharpening options as well.

Price wise I managed to get this free in a sale! But it is usually around 3.99Euros/£2.99 - I'd say it's worth the full price as probably the most robust and versatile on the go photo editor app.

Pixlr-o-matic:

This provides you a number of filters emulating Holga or Toy style cameras/lens. It seems to be a little like popular iphone app Instagram although this has a little more tweaking ability. It is completely free! With the option to purchase additional filters if you want (although you get plenty to choose from with the basic package).

Above: Taken with the ipad camera

It can give nice results, even from photos taken with the ipad camera (In fact I'd recommend this over snapseed for ipad camera shots for the full 'ghetto' feel). The ability to save out in small/web size or original size is a great bonus.


Above: Taken on the d80 and made to look like it's taken on a toy camera. As explained I'd still just use this for photos taken with the ipad camera.

As free this is completely harmless, while these looks can be overused they are still very fun to play around with and can give you some quick and easy lomo-style stuff.

Percolator:

This is an app which converts your photos in to a cool circle print art style image using a Circle Packing algorithm (or something like that! Go check out their site for more of the how it's done!).

It provides extremely unique imagines from your own photos (from your library or camera) which you can then save or upload. The quality is great and it can produce some really great results although it is stronger on images with clear lines/block shapes in the image (or so I've found in my own playing around with it).

Hopefully these images from my own portfolio will speak for themselves about the style and quality of images it produces.


I really recommend this app although it can be more trial and error than trial and improvement. Not every photo will work well with it. The price (usually around $2.99, I picked it up on sale) may be quite steep for some for an app with 1 trick as it were but it is a quality one which I think is worth it.

Another neat little feature of it is the titles of the pieces (Not visible above as I put them in another package when uploading to pc) provide you with the exact editing done in the package. For example my Lisbon streets shot (Middle image) has the title 'Grind: Medium (Smallest Circles & Effect: None), Brew: Treble (1/2 Pic & Darkest Blended Circles), Serve: Stirred (Sucralose Tone & Brown Bag Texture)' (the style of the app is done in a coffee roaster/blender).

Hopefully this is a nice intro in to some of the apps available all with their own bonuses for using them. 3 very different apps for about the price of a pint!



This entry was posted on Friday 20 January 2012 and is filed under ,,,,,,,. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.

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