iphoneography
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TUAW TV Live at 5 PM EDT: Using the best camera
Back in 2009, professional photographer Chase Jarvis coined the phrase "The best camera is the one that's with you" in reference to his work with the iPhone's built-in camera. His book, app, and website inspired a lot of other photographers to start doing more professional work with iPhones, and for the amateurs in the crowd, he gave us a reason to experiment more with iPhoneography. I've done a few TUAW TV Live shows focused (no pun intended) on photography with the iPhone, and today we'll explore more apps and accessories to help you get the best possible photographs and video from your favorite phone. As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel. The chat is on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.
Camalapse: Make your own panning time-lapse iPhone movies
So, you've always wanted to be able to take one of those cool time-lapse iPhone movies that slowly pans from one direction to another? Now you can do it easily and inexpensively with the Camalapse, a US$25 accessory that works with a Glif ($20) or other iPhone tripod mount to give your iPhone a spin as it's taking a movie. Design Basically, the inventors had a simple idea. Take something like a one-hour mechanical windup kitchen timer, put a tripod mount on top of it, and voilà! You can use your favorite time-lapse photography app while the iPhone (or other lightweight camera) slowly pans around up to a full 360°. The kitchen timer Camalapse takes exactly one hour to make a 360° spin, or it can be set to do 90° in fifteen minutes ... you get the drift. And since the device is essentially a timer, it ticks as it is slowly rotating and some early versions apparently "ding!" when the device has finished the rotation. I think that's a brilliant idea, and I find it discouraging that the bell has been removed. There's also a threaded socket on the bottom of the Camalapse so you can stick it on a tripod or other mount. The device weighs only about 2 ounces, and is about 2 inches high and about 2.5 inches in diameter. Functionality It works as designed, with no frills and no batteries required. As such, it runs at a fixed rate -- basically 360° per hour or 6° per minute. If you want a faster or slower pan rate, you're out of luck. But for most people, I think they'll like the ability to set this device up with a Glif and iPhone on top of it and let it rip. Of course, you'll need an app to actually take the photos. I did a search in the App Store using "time lapse" as a keyword, and found that the aptly-named TimeLapse ($1.99) has some of the better ratings in this genre. The app rings upon completing a time lapse session, therefore making that internal bell in the Camalapse unnecessary. It's quite easy to use and well-implemented. After installing the app and setting it to take 15 minutes -- 90° -- of images, I let 'er rip and here's the result. Notice the smooth panning, even if the video subject isn't the most exciting: Conclusion If you need a way to slowly pan your iPhone or another small camera to take time lapse movies, then the Camalapse is the accessory for you. It's simple in concept and does a fine job without adding unnecessary fluff. That being said, I wish it did a bit more. Pros Inexpensive Marked for 15, 30, 45 and 60-minute rotations Needs no batteries Very lightweight and compact Perfect for creating stunning panning time lapse movies Cons Only pans from right to left (counterclockwise) Rotation speed is not variable Who is it for? The iPhoneographer who wants to start shooting panning time lapse movies Many thanks to our friends at Photojojo for lending a Camalapse for testing
Mobi-Lens clip-on lenses deserve your Kickstarter love
OK, TUAW readers. It's time to once again prove that Kickstarter works to get some really cool projects off the ground. In this case, it's an accessory lens setup for mobile devices. Yeah, we've seen them before -- but they're usually set up with some sort of case that only works with one kind of device. You buy one for an iPhone 4S, for example, and when Apple comes out with a new iPhone, suddenly the case doesn't fit anymore. The Mobi-Lens is designed to let you buy one kit and use it on any number of generations of electronic devices with cameras. The Mobi-Lens project accomplishes this with a deceptively simple design. It's a clip-on lens that reminds me of an old-fashioned clothespin, except one that's been updated in bright colored plastic and given a lens implant. More correctly, multiple lens implants -- inventors Aris and Evette Allahverdian are proposing a 2-in-1 wide-angle / macro lens as well as a fisheye lens version. What's awesome about this is that you can use the Mobi-Lens with just about any existing or future device with a camera. Want to use it on your iPad? Clip it on. Use it with your iPhone 4S? Clip it on. That sorry brother-in-law of yours who has an Android phone? Yeah, he can borrow the Mobi-Lens from you, but I'd keep an eye on him because you'll probably never get it back. Want a wide-angle view from the camera on your MacBook Air? Yeah, you can do that too. At this point, however, the Mobi-Lens might just be an über-compatible mobile phone photographer's dream, because the project is woefully underfunded at this point. With about 35 days to go, the project is at only about $2,900 of the $34,000 needed to start production. You can back the project and get one of the clip-on lenses for as little as $30, although higher support levels open up exclusive colors and the fisheye clip-on. My wish is that Aris and Evette get more than their minimum funding amount and look into a telephoto lens version as well. There are a lot of ways to get wide-angle and macro lenses (see the Phocus as an example), but nobody seems to be looking at the telephoto or zoom end of the business -- which is why I still use a "real camera" for a lot of photography. Give me the option of a telephoto that I can clip onto my 18-megapixel iPhone 6 and I may seriously consider using it as my sole camera. Interested? Here's the video pitch from Aris and Evette: #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Panorama™ for iOS is a clean and simple way to create super-wide angle photos
There are a lot of apps for creating panoramas with your favorite camera equipped iOS device, and most do the job well. There are paid apps, and others like the free Photosynth from Microsoft which stitch lots of photos together vertically, horizontally, or in a complete 360 degree views. If you do a lot of landscapes, take a look at the US $0.99 Panorama™. It's dead easy and guides you with onscreen prompts about how to move your camera. When you are done, you can apply built-in filters, like Rice Paper, Vintage, Old Photo, Sketch and more. With another click, your photo is on the way to friends or family via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, and of course, email. The app worked fine and controls were obvious. You can see the images coming together in real time, and applying filters is a fast process. They can be selected in advance and viewed before you ever snap a photo. My only complaint is the app maintains its own library, and it takes an extra step to get images to your camera roll. That should be a direct save, not a second task. You can only take horizontal photos. The app prevents vertical (portrait mode) image capture. The output is seamless, and while I'm not much for adding filters to photos there is a large selection available. When you send an image, Panorama™ provides the thoughtful touch of letting you add a note. Photos are time-stamped and geotagged. Panorama™ does what it advertises. iOS photographers will also want to consider Photosynth (free), AutoStitch Panorama ($1.99), 360 Panorama ($0.99), and Panoramatic ($0.99). I've used all these apps and they do a good job, but differ somewhat in workflow and features. If you have a favorite, let us know in the comments. Same screenshots from Panorama™ are in the gallery below. Note that the samples are not at full resolution, and not as wide angle as the app allows. Panorama™ requires iOS 4.2 or greater, and works on any iPhone from the 3GS up, the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch, and all iPads with a camera. %Gallery-158193%
Fotor CameraBag -- Get this super iOS photo app while it's free
I'm always on the prowl for great photo apps, so let me tell you about Fotor CameraBag (now renamed simply Fotor). It's free for a limited time, usually selling in the App Store for US$1.99. There are a lot of iPhoneography apps that try to do everything, but many of them perform their functions poorly. Fotor CameraBag, on the other hand, does a lot of things and does them very well. First, it has excellent HDR imaging. Take a photo from within the app, and you can make final adjustments and tweaks before you save. I put it to the test with a darkened interior room with bright morning sun in the windows and the results were excellent. Next, for non-HDR imaging you get a variety of filters, a one-tap enhance option, frames, and something rare in an all-in-one app -- the ability to make collages. There's also a tilt-shift option called Big Aperture that simulates the effect of a tilt-shift lens. Fotor CameraBag also includes the usual social sharing options, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and email. With all of those features, there are a few annoyances. The work flow can be convoluted. You can't save directly to the camera roll of your iOS device; you save to the app's own library, and then export to the camera roll. That's just not necessary, and it should be an option you can turn off. The Color Splash tool, which allows you to selectively add or erase color, is a bit confusing. The icon to adjust brush size is simply called 'brush'. Until I clicked on it, I had no idea what it was for. Don't let these mild criticisms put you off. Fotor CameraBag is a very powerful app, and if you want just one app for editing that includes excellent HDR, I'd give this app serious consideration. The fact that it is currently free is the icing on the cake. The app is a 22 MB download, and works on the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. It requires iOS 4.3 or greater. This app has no relationship to the similarly named CameraBag, which has received positive reviews. It is an excellent filter collection, but not an image creation app. I've got an example HDR and some screen shots in the gallery below. %Gallery-156873%
Platter: novel photo-sharing social network for keen cooks
How do you launch a social networking site in this day and age, long after the likes of Facebook and Twitter seized the world? One answer is "micro-social networks": designed with a clear and specific purpose in mind, they can fulfill that purpose better than any of the generalists like Facebook. Platter is a new micro-social network app dedicated home cooking. It allows you to take pictures of food you make and upload them to show the world, tagging them with the you used ingredients. You can then search through those ingredient tags, finding inspiration for something to make with the ingredients you have to hand. As you'd expect, you can also do the usual social networking things, like follow people whose food you find interesting, and post comments and "likes" on pictures. "Why do I need this?" you might ask. "I have Instagram and Twitter, Facebook and Foodspotting. Why do I need another app?" Well, the Platter team cleverly identified that in fact none of these apps are exactly what you need if you're a home cook looking to show off. Instagram has plenty of food pics, but lacks the ingredient tagging feature. Twitter and Facebook are more general purpose. Foodspotting is designed around the idea of taking pictures of food when eating out, not for home cooking. Platter is complementary to these services. To underscore this, it has (as you'd probably expect) the ability to cross-post pictures to Facebook and Twitter. These cross-posts are in the form of links to Platter's attractive web interface (self-promotion alert: that's my own Platter page), from where you can drill down into individual pictures. This web view feature is already fuller-featured than Instagram's pared-down approach, as you can navigate from users to pictures and back again, and the Platter team are planning on expanding this further in the future. %Gallery-156011% Technically, Platter works pretty well. It's been developed by a small team of five people (for both iOS and Android versions) alongside their day jobs, and early on there were some rough edges that betrayed the app's homespun origins -- the occasional layout glitch or failed post. Subsequent patches have mostly fixed the problems. There's still the odd interface quirk -- I didn't find it particularly easy to navigate through the app at first, and sometimes tap targets seem to be frustratingly unresponsive -- but nothing too annoying. I couldn't test the Android version, but I must at least note that it has one -- so your Android-toting friends aren't left out in the cold. There are some usability decisions that are quite refreshing, too. There's no fancy/hackneyed (delete according to your biases) photo filters, for one thing; if you're suffering from Instagram Fatigue you may find this a relief. The app also doesn't enforce a trendy square crop on photos; when users view your images, they'll see the aspect ratio you took them in, giving you the flexibility to compose shots as you see fit. However, note that the layouts in-app often use square thumbnails, which can result in some weird cropping. Of course, the app can import pictures from the Camera Roll as well as take them live, so if you'd prefer you can use any app already on your camera to shoot, crop, and post-process images. Image compositing app Diptic seems to be a particularly popular choice. Platter's approach to tagging us also interesting. Unlike Twitter or Instagram's free-form approach, the ingredient tags are set by the system, and you can't add to them yourself; this promotes a clean hierarchy of tags that isn't littered with duplicates or misspellings. However, so far, the tag names are resolutely Brit speak rather than American orientated; so it's "coriander" and not "cilantro", "aubergine" rather than "eggplant", "courgette" over "zucchini". My Colonial cousins may find this jarring. Update: a full complement of US-style food words have now been added to Platter's ingredient tags. As for the actual content, the food, I've definitely found Platter to be inspirational. Not only on a "what can I make with this level" but also simply from a presentation point of view. And it's particularly good to know, when looking through pictures, that these are all shot at home in an amateur's kitchen. Looking at professional dishes on Foodspotting inspires me to eat; looking at amateur dishes in Platter inspires me to cook. Platter is also building a fun community. The developers of the app are all very active on the network, commenting on dishes and running competitions. There's a sub-type of user who delights in naming their dishes with the most groan-inducing puns you can imagine, such as my personal best, "steaks on a p(l)an(e)". Chatting with Platter I spoke with Will Hodson, director of Platter, about the future plans for the app. How did the idea for Platter come about? "Platter occurred to me as I developed another project with Channel 4's 4iP scheme. They were looking for ideas that could drill down into people's food habits; I thought of something like food Twitter... but didn't want to share it with a media giant!" What sort of team put Platter together? Is this a full time thing, a sideline gig, or what? How many of you are there, what are your backgrounds, and how long did it take? "Platter was co-founded by me and four developers. Most of us are fairly recent Cambridge graduates, working in software and programming. I met these guys as a client for another job, was struck by their competence, and we all got on." How do you feel the launch has gone? Are you finding a good audience? "Our press coverage is a testament to the appeal of the concept. We've been featured or recommended in all UK broadsheets as well as Evening Standard and Stylist. ABC News in the US recently named us as the number two app for food photos in the world (just behind Instagram). "Launch has gone well. I wanted to give this a serious food-loving hardcore and we have it. Our featured cooks read like a who's who of British food blogging: we have two of MSN's Most Influential Foodies on board, a Masterchef Finalist and most of London's top bloggers." Some of the food bloggers Will mentioned include Food Urchin, Gin and Crumpets, Meemalee and Leluu. I forgive him for not mentioning my own sparsely-updated food blog, Objection: Salad!, which has won precisely zero awards from MSN's Most Influential Foodies. It must have slipped his mind. What are your immediate plans for the app? New features? US localisation? Bugfixes? "We are in discussions with investors now. There are big plans afoot. First, expanding tags to cover dishes' influences as well as their ingredients. So if my dish inspires you to try something similar, you can tag my influence in your photo. This is almost a new currency of approval in social media. It also means communities can form around cookbooks and suppliers, taking Platter way beyond Instagram into food-specific functionality. Second, we'll open up our website for logged-in use. It will also enable curation of one's favourite dishes. And third, we'll look to put down some roots in the States. "Finally, we are looking into Instagram integration, via a similar solution to that used by Foodspotting -- users post pictures to their Instragram feed with a special hashtag, and we pick that up and re-post the picture to Platter." You lead on both iOS and Android at once. That's somewhat unusual. Was that tricky to manage? Did it definitely bring in more users than if you'd led with one platform at a time? "Android was fine to develop for because our Android guy has been fantastic. Marketing it has been a nightmare however. If you type in Platter on Google Play, it assumes you mean 'Plate'. So it's tricky to find our app. You'd expect better from Google. We're still committed to the Android App but most users are on iPhone." Anything else you'd like to say to our readers? "We've got this far with no budget and limited time, yet we've still established Platter as a great place for food photos. As we push out to embrace more home cooks making fantastic dishes around the world, Platter will become the place you go to decide what to eat." I can't say any more than that, really. One of the privileges of writing for TUAW is being able to help smaller apps find a wider audience. I've really enjoyed Platter in the six or so weeks I've been using it, and I wish it every success for the future. You can download Platter for iPhone for free from the App Store.
TUAW TV Live: A closer look, an updated iPhoneography accessory, and a lot of talk
Today on TUAW TV Live I'm going to go into a bit more detail about some of the products that have been dropping into the TUAW Labs recently. You'll get an honest first-look review at some iPhone and iPad accessories, as well as a look at an update to one of everyone's favorite iPhoneography accessories. TUAW TV Live is nothing without the back-and-forth chat between your host and the rabble-rousers in the chat room, so please consider joining in on the chat rather than just watching. Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments. You can also choose to watch the show on Justin.tv if you wish, by visiting our portal at http://justin.tv/tuawtvlive. In either case, you'll be watching the show in glorious HD! If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat. We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.
TUAW TV Live: The joy of iPhoneography
Welcome back to TUAW TV Live! Today I'm going to take you on a little adventure talking about the camera that has changed my life -- the one on my iPhone. It's not so much about the camera, but the clever and useful apps that developers have created to make my iPhone and iPad photos really stand out. Today we'll talk about iPhone and iPad camera apps, with a pile of demos of various apps that I've collected over the years. I don't shoot photos with my iPad, but I do use it to apply effects and filters to images taken with my usual digital camera, and to back up photos taken on vacation trips. Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments. If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It's a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat. We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET: The iOS photography episode
This afternoon on TUAW TV Live, I'll be talking about photography with iOS devices -- in particular, the iPhone 4S and third-generation iPad. For some reason, I've ended up with more photography apps on my iOS devices than any other category, and I tend to use all of them in one way or another. Today, I'll demonstrate the various iPhone and iPad apps that I've collected, describe what's good or not-so-hot about them, and solicit your input about some of your favorite photo apps that I may not have in my collection. As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel. The chat is on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.
Camera+ 3.0 now available, integrated into other apps via API
The popular Camera+ app (US$0.99) has just received an update to version 3.0 that adds new functionality as well as an API that has already been used by a number of top name developers to add the Camera+ functionality to a variety of apps. When I say that Camera+ is popular, I'm not exaggerating -- the app is the 10th best-selling iPhone app of all time, and the 7 millionth copy of Camera+ was recently sold. Not only does the app have a beautiful new icon (see above), but it has added features that will expand the popularity of this iPhoneography app: There's a new service that allows images to be shared to multiple sites simultaneously with a tap. Not only can you blast images to a number of Twitter accounts, but also to Facebook and Flickr -- all at once. A new "shoot and share" workflow. The normal Camera+ workflow involves shooting as many photos as you'd like, and then editing those photos after a shooting session. With shoot and share, each image is edited immediately after being taken. This is perfect for images that are going to be shared on social networks. There's now a way to add multiple images at one time from your photo library to the Camera+ Lightbox for editing. The Clarity feature, which provides automatic enhancement to images, has been tuned to provide better results. Camera+ 3.0 has added new focus and exposure locks that are incredibly useful when taking tripod shots with a Glif or other iPhone tripod mount. As noted, Camera+ developer Tap Tap Tap has also made an API available for adding the amazing camera and "darkroom" functionality of Camera+ to other apps. So far, the WordPress, Tweetbot, Twitterrific and Foodspotting apps have added the capabilities. If you're a developer who would like to add Camera+ to your app, check out the API information here. For the rest of you, go get the update now or purchase the app already!
Best of 2011 nominations: iPhone photo/video apps
During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We'll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011. Today's category for TUAW Best of 2011 nominations is iPhone photo and video apps. The new 8-megapixel camera in the iPhone 4S has raised the bar for iPhoneography, and the hundreds of iPhone photo and video apps make it easy to produce amazing pictures and edit professional-quality video. To get an idea of the apps you can nominate, just visit the iPhone Photo and Video Apps in the App Store and take a look around. Is it Camera+ (US$0.99) that lights your fire, or is the fun of Hipstamatic ($1.99) that keeps you shooting photos? When you're editing those movies on your iPhone, do you use iMovie ($4.99) to get the work done in the field? Perhaps you like to make your own vintage-look 8mm movies with the $1.99 8mm Vintage Camera. TUAW wants to hear from you -- what's your favorite iPhone app for photo or video work? Leave your nomination in the comments below. Voting will start soon! Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 18, 2011.
Holga lens effects iPhone case
Wouldn't you love to be able to preview iPhone photo special effects before you take a picture? The status quo for photography apps like Instagram right now seem to be that you shoot the picture, and then apply an effect. Our friends at Engadget pointed out that the Holga folks have now come up with what they call the Holga iPhone Lens Filter Kit SLFT-IP4 (US$24.99 plus $5.25 shipping), which provides physical effect lens filters instead of those cheesy digital equivalents. The case looks vaguely like a rotary dial for an iPhone 4 or 4S, with the dial providing ten different filters. As noted on the Holga Direct website, those ten filters do the following: Dual Image Lens: Produces 2 identical images similar to a Holga 2-way split image filter Triple Image Lens: Produces 3 identical images similar to a Holga 3-way split image filter Quadruple Image Lens: Produces 4 identical images similar to a Holga 4-way split image filter 60mm Macro Lens: For taking photos at approximately 60mm from the lens Empty Hole: For taking images with no effect Red Filter with Clear Heart Shape Centre: Reduces absorption of blue & green lights with clear heart shape centre to stand out Red Filter: Reduces absorption of blue and green light Green Filter: Enhances green colors Yellow Filter with Clear Center: Clear circular spot in center to stand out with surroundings in pale yellow to mimic sunset Blue Filter with Clear Center: Clear circular spot in center to stand out with surroundings in blue to mimic gentle moon atmosphere For about $30, you can get some really incredible photos. If you'd like to see what each of the filters can do for your photography, be sure to take a look at the examples shown here. Me? I'd love one just for the retro-looking case.
Instagram 2.0 now available for iOS
Instagram announced on their blog today that version 2.0 of their popular iOS photography app is now available. Their post outlines a number of additions and changes in the new version, including "live view" of the filters, so you can see the filter applied before you even take the photo. My personal favorite is the higher photo resolution which takes the resolution of the saved photo up to 1936x1936 on the iPhone4 and 1536x1536 on the iPhone 3GS. There is a catch here though: You only get the high-res versions saved to your camera roll IF you have the setting on to save them. What goes out to Instagram is still a 612x612 image. There are also improved controls for sideways photos and options on every filter to enable/disable the borders. Generally in my brief time playing with the update, I've found that the app is overall a little perkier. I did like playing around with the live view filters, even though I don't think I'll spend a lot of time with that function in day-to-day use. I think the revamp of the picture taking interface is nice too; I like the ease of controls and how you don't have to shuffle off to another screen to get the results when you take a photo. (See image.) This is a free update to the free app available in the App Store.
HP wants your "AirPrint Moments;" photo contest underway
HP currently has the only printers on the market that provide a direct, out-of-the-box printing experience for iOS devices using AirPrint. AirPrint-enabled printers like the HP Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One are great for printing photos that you've taken from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad 2, and now the company wants to give you a chance to win one of four HP printers. Through July 15th, 2011, HP is sponsoring a photo contest for original pictures taken with a mobile device. Titled AirPrint Moments, the contest has relatively few entries at this time, so your chances of winning are relatively good (for now). The judges for the event are iPhonegraphers Colin Vincent, Greg Schmigel, and Sion Fullana, all of whom use iPhones for professional photography. You can also choose to vote for your favorite iPhone photo, and if you get a lot of your friends to vote for your submission I'm sure you can improve your chances to win. Good luck to TUAW readers and let us know if you enter and win.
More photography with the iPhone
The above video shows a fashion photo shoot taken completely with an iPhone, and it isn't even the iPhone 4! The photographer uses only an iPhone 3GS. I think there might be a little cheating involved; the lighting is overdone and the photos were sent off to a retoucher, so it's not that surprising that they look as good as they do. Then again, considering that all fashion shoots probably have that kind of lighting and retouching applied to them, the fact that the iPhone can even compete is pretty impressive. If you like iPhone photography, you might want to check out the eyephoneography blog; it's a site that features some great photographs that are taken strictly with mobile phones (including the iPhone). They just announced an exhibit that will take place next September in Madrid, Spain, and they're also working with another blog called iPhoneography to spotlight and show off some of the best iPhone 4-based photography on the Web. It's pretty cool stuff. The iPhone's mobility and interface have always made it a pretty good camera, but with the arrival of HD on the iPhone 4, it's turned into an even better tool for photographers.
App Store review shenanigans, real and imagined
We first heard from iPhoneography and SCW last week about their two-man campaign to have skeevy developer Molinker pulled from the App Store (I included a link to their post, possibly a bit too subtly, in Sunday's post about the NYT story). Molinker was allegedly using the underhanded (and unfortunately under-caught) trick of distributing promo codes to 'puppet' reviewers who gave the company's photography apps five stars... and noticeably failed to review anything else on the store. Since the independent reviewers of the same apps were uniformly one-star, this resulted in star distribution graphs for the apps that looked like sideways versions of the devil's horns. Satanic mischief, indeed. After the site delivered its investigation results via email to App Store top cop Phil Schiller, the offending applications (more than 1,000 of them) were summarily yanked from the store. While it's good news for the App Store ecosystem that this kind of behavior is being monitored and corrected, and the iPhoneography team are to be commended for their diligence (although I doubt they'll be getting the requested "investigations reward for unearthing this blatant attempt at misleading and stealing from the public"), review manipulation schemes are seldom this blatant or easily identified -- and sometimes we start seeing them even when they may not really be there...
