So, I pretty much only use my cell phone to take pics anymore. It's so handy, and honestly, the technology has outpaced a lot of the cameras that I have owned. (Minus the DSLR I still need to learn...). I only used my phone on my NYC trip of 2013 and the only pictures that weren't good were the Statue of Liberty and that was because she was so far away. If I know I'm going to be taking such pictures I take my handy Nikon, which also has a superb auto-correct for lighting (we're talking magical night scenes of Paris, guys), and also I've found a sweet spot for photographing fireworks.
But back to the phizzone. There are a few apps that I have that I'd like to share; what I like about them, how I use them, and how my photography flavor has changed. Here are the main ones I use on the iPhizzone, (and they are all free):
Normally I just take pictures with the regular camera app and then go back and edit them later. A lot of the apps let you take photos within them, but it can take too much time to open them, I can get to my camera without unlocking my phone.
Going Across:
Instagram-It was all the rage with the filters and the frames, but then it got topped. I rarely use the filters now, I don't like how you can't control how saturated the filter is. Mostly I just use it for the social media aspect. I don't really post pics on FB anymore, and I keep my instagram list small. For my closer peeps.
PicStitch-This was my first picture collage app. I like some of the layouts once in awhile, but the frames aren't moveable or resizeable and they just stay white. Nowadays I just use it if there's a layout I want but not available on any other app.
VSCOCam-I call this my "hipster" app. VSCO is some kind of editing tool that I've seen some of the professional photography bloggers I follow use. I'm too afraid to use it because I feel like I need more camera skills rather than just throw words around like aperture and focal point. I think it has some filters...but it's not super intuitive and I haven't really taken the time to figure it out.
A Beautiful Mess-This app gets you into the scrapbook-y part of iphotography. I originally got it because it had cuter text that I could put on my photos. But I also really liked the filters because I could choose the opacity and the contrast. They also have doodles, phrases and borders one can add. I use these sometimes-but sometimes I feel like adding all that stuff in crowds out the photo you took. So I do this lightly. When I finally downloaded iOS7 and updated all my apps, I learned they also have backgrounds and collage capability. The app also has in app purchases to get more fonts and doodles if you're into that.
InstaFrame-This is my go-to collage app. I like it because you can choose a layout for different numbers of pictures, resize the frames and borders, change the color of the frame, add text, add stickers (I think), size the photos on a range of square to rounded corners, and put shadow behind the pictures. It really does a lot. I try not to go out of control with this one-I am not a 9 year old girl decorating her Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper. The one downside is that you can't rearrange the layout. I've wanted to at least flip the layout but I haven't found something that will let me do that yet. So the layout for five photos will always have two on the left column and three on the right. I use this one a lot if there are many photos from an event/trip that I want to share but I don't want to make 20 posts.
Snapseed-God Bless Stacey for alerting me to this one. It's Google's photography editing app I think and I just love it. Why? Because instead of filters it has the ability to let me adjust what I want. I use the tune feature most of the time and can adjust the saturation, brightness, contrast, shadows, warmth etc. Like mostly what I would mess with on Photoshop. It also has crop, straighten, and other filters, but the tuning is what I use most. I like the photographs I take. And a lot of time I like to stay true to the colors and light I saw-only make it brighter or crisper. Also, it doesn't crop your photo into a square like most apps do. I have printed regulation photos three times now edited by this app and it is a wonder. I have even gone back and done older pictures with this app and they look fabulous.
Aviary-I don't know what this one does. Someone sometime told me to get it. I think it does stickers? Idk.
And then! Because I like to print my photos for scrapbooking purposes I also use the Walgreens (blech) app which is pretty handy. I first got it because I learned Walgreens will print your instagrams in a 4x4 square. And then I also found out I can just upload photos from my phone that I want printed. It works really well. The quality has been really good so far and even the little instagrams with words or doodles turn out cute. The creepy thing is that I went to the store tonight to pick up my pictures and I got a text alert telling me that I was in the vicinity of a Walgreens and that I should head there for savings. Your phone really does track where you are.
As well as photos taken on traditional cameras-If I have images on my Nikon I want to edit I dont' get out my laptop and edit them on Photoshop anymore. These apps are much easier for the lay person (as well as the lay-z person! see what I did there?) But it is kind of a process. First, I load my SD card into the computer and copy the files I want to edit onto my computer. Then I open up my Dropbox account online and upload the files. Next I open my Dropbox app on my phone and save all the files I want to edit to my camera roll. Then I edit and print as explained above. It is so funny to me that I do more computing on my phone than my computer, and I hardly use my phone as a phone.
Let it be known that there are much more sophisticated apps and attachments for the cell phone to make iphotography even greater. There are crazy awesome pictures people pull off with cell phones. I've seen lenses that attach to the cell phone that are even more powerful than my DSLR. But everything I use above is for free and I don't have to learn complicated tools or techniques.
Anyways, Not really sure why I wanted to write this little DIY on cell phone photography on the bloggy but I did. I hope you learned something and let me know if there's a great app I'm missing!
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