Friday, May 04, 2012

iOS Photography (pt. 1)

iPhoneography (pt.1)

One of the main reasons I picked up the iPhone 4S was because of its new camera. I am a bit of a photobug and an app addict. As such, I quickly started trying and buying a slew of the apps being offered in the Photo & Video section of the iTunes App Store. This can be more daunting than it may sound as there are literally hundreds, most of which are not worth your time.


There are two main types of photography apps. There are apps that primarily center around filters and having fun with photography, the biggest examples being Instagram and Hipstamatic. Then there are apps that enhance the iOS photo taking experience, the two big examples are Camera+ and a newer entry, Camera Awesome. Those are some of the more well known ones. I've tested quite a few different apps, my personal favorites being Hipstamatic and a relative uknown called King Camera.

I'm going to look at quite a few different iOS photography apps. I won't lie, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this post. It's been sitting in a draft state (in one form or another) for a month or more now. I finally decided to make it a fairly extensive guide to iOS photography. I will note that I've only tested the following apps with the iPhone 4S. I only make that distinction because it does have a better physical lens than the previous iOS devices so keep that in mind if your running an earlier model iOS device.

Another thing I struggled with was where to start.  What App should I get into first? It was kind of daunting until the obvious smacked me in the face so hard it hurt. Camera. Yep, the built in, default camera that almost everyone took their first iOS photo with. That's where I have to start. That's the baseline. Camera is, for better or worse, what all these apps are trying to enhance or improve upon.

I'll start with a few basics then we'll start looking at some different apps.

One last thing, I'm going to add a pros/cons to the bottom of the app articles so if you want a quick idea of what a certain app is about start there.

(more after the jump)