The wonderful photo world on an iPhone:
Since I have an iPhone, I decided to do the extra credit smart phone assignment and bought the Camera Bag and ProHDR apps. The two apps have similar qualities, yet there are a few main differences that make each app unique. I choose the food theme because I have this crazy recipe and food photography fetish.
Camera Bag:
This basic and cheap $1.99 phone app allows you to take a new photo or choose an old one from your photo library. There are four easy to understand symbols at the bottom of the screen. The first is a camera, which allows you to take a new picture. The second icon is an envelope, which allows you to immediately e-mail your picture. The third image is of a floppy disk, which allows you to save your photo, and the fourth, and final icon, is the typical iPhoto library symbol, which allows you to choose a photo from your phone’s photo library. These easy to read and understand icons make the app functional and user friendly. All you do is take or choose a photo and pick out a filter that makes the unique and helps capture the image exactly how you want to portray it. The different filters include: Helga, Colorcross, Lolo, Italiano, Cinema, Mono, Instant, Magazine, Silver, 1974, Fisheye, Infrared, Plastic, 1962, and Lightleak. Personally, my favorite filter is the Italiano, and I think it works great for taking pictures of food, particularly vegetables. If you just want to add a hip look to a photo, I would suggest Lolo, and if you have a dull colored photo of you and friend, I would recommend using the Magazine filter to brighten the image, giving it a glossy finish.
For more information about the Camera Bag app, check out their website!
ProHDR:
This cheap $1.99 app is slightly more advanced than the Camera Bag app. First off, this app drove me nuts at first because I would accidently touch the screen, and it would begin to analyze the scene to take the picture. It takes two pictures, so you have to make sure to keep your hand steady. Otherwise, it will cause you to capture two different photos that the program combines. This is tedious because you have to hold the phone still for a longer period of time. However, what this is doing is capturing your image with exposed highlights and another for exposed shadows. Then, the app combines the two photos by aligning and merging the images, creating a stunning HDR photo. These high-resolution photos are so stunning that sometimes they appear fake and flawless, which can be nice depending on the photo and the result wanted. Similar to the Camera Bag app, ProHDR provides a handful of fun filters that can enhance the photo’s message. Unlike Camera Bag, this app has a frame category that allows you to choose from a large selection of black, white, and rainbow frames that provide your photo with a border. Also, this app allows you to add a text caption to a photo, yet, it does not allow you to move the text to a specific spot on the image. I found this app great for outdoor photos, especially large landscapes.
When you first go to take a picture, the screen has a grid set up on it, which is nice if you are applying the rule of thirds to a photo. These can also be taken off by clicking on the small image of a grid at the top left of the screen. The app also allows you to zoom in and out of an image, use a flash, set a timer that can be set up to wait for either 2 or 10 seconds, and turn the HDR setting on and off. In comparison to Camera Bag, this app allows you to choose a photo from your phone’s library or take a new image. There is also a settings function that changes the resolution of the photo and even a setting that vibrates the phone to signal that the picture was captured. One really helpful tool about this app is that it does have a help tool under the actions button on the right bottom corner of the screen.
More information about ProHDR can be found at Apple’s iTunes Preview!
The Photos:
This photo is a close up shot of a tomato, yet the Italiano filter in Camera Bag really changes the mood. It the colors make the photo more dramatic and intriguing.
This is the same tomato, but I snapped the photo while it was being washed because I loved the water flowing from bottom. I edited this photo in ProHDR and used the sepia filter and added the basic frame.
This photo is of a watermelon that I shot in the grass and enhanced using ProHDR. Utilizing the concept of negative space, I set the filter on vignette, added a thin white frame, lowered the brightness, increased the contrast, and turned the saturation all the way up. These enhancements made the grass look extremely green and made the red of the watermelon really pop against the luscious green background.
In this photo, I took a low angle, close up shot of the same watermelon, which provided a beautiful shallow depth of field to the image. All I did was go into Camera Bag and change the filter to Magazine, which brighten and enhanced the already vibrant colors of the striking photo.
This is another low angle, close up shot of the watermelon, yet the photo was enhanced in ProHDR. All I did was use the Glamour filter, lower the brightness, and increase both the contrast and the saturation of the photo. I particularly love the beautiful blue color of the sky, and I think the scene frames the watermelon to look juicy and delicious.
This photo of the watermelon was also enhanced in ProHDR. The original image was definitely lacking an artist look. After testing different settings, I ended up lowering the brightness, slightly increasing the contrast, and slightly decreasing the saturation. These enhancements give the watermelon a much darker look, create a nice shadow, and really make the natural light from the window stand out and contrast with the darkness of the photo.
This is a photo of a cantaloupe that I enhanced in Camera Bag. All I did was change it to the Helga filter, which really brought out the juicy texture of the fruit.
This is a photo of half a cantaloupe, parts that have been sliced, a knife, and a bowl filled with the cut up fruit. I like the photo because it tells a story of the process of serving the fresh fruit. All I did was go into Camera Bag and change the filter to Magazine, which gave it the glossy, bright finish.
This is a close up picture of fresh raspberries that I enhanced in ProHDR. I turned the brightness all the way up, slightly increased the contrast, and completely lowered the saturation. This almost makes the berries appear fake, but it also allows you to clearly see the detail and texture of the fruit.
This is a simple photo of cut up slices of an avocado. The normal picture was boring, but when I started messing with the filters in Camera Bag, it truly changed the mood of the photo. I applied the Italiano filter, which gave the photo the perfect, rustic look I wanted.
fireonice678 