BlazingB Studios » Reviews

My 2011 iPhone Photography Top Ten List

bill — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:15:12 +0000

1. 100 Cameras in 1 – Created by Trey Ratcliffe AKA Stuck in Customs this app has, you guessed it, 100 different effects and makes heavy use of textures. Some the textures are way overdone but can work for the right image. One of my favorite things to do is stack multiple effects onto an image. To do this you choose the first effect, then click on the add effect button and that will allow you to choose another effect. Do this as often as you like.

2. Instagr.am – Well you want to share all that iPhoneography goodness right? Instagr.am makes it easy peasy lemon squeezy! In addition to easy sharing with all the popular sites like FaceBook, Twitter and Tumblr (and many others) it also adds a decent set of toy camera effects to give your image a nice final touch.

3. Lo-Mob – A classic if such a thing can be said for a year old piece of software. Just about every image I produce takes at least a pass through Lo-Mob even if I don’t keep the image out of it. I love the frames available even if the processing can overcook an image.

Fog Rolls into the Bay

4. ClearCam – This software is indispensable when shooting in low light or extra shaky conditions. It takes three images then only keeps the clearest of the three. I use it a ton when shooting macros or out the window of a moving vehicle.

5. Plastic Bullet – I fell in love with this when it was first released and still use it a lot to this day. I will admit though that it does feel like a bit of a one trick pony at times. Still a must have piece of image processing software.

6. Hipstamatic – This is a fun program that emulates an old 110 camera. It makes some great images however you are forced to use it to take pictures, it will not process already taken images. Some people feel this is a drawback while other revel in this constraint.

7. ShakeIT Photo – Aims to create a polaroid look and feel to images but it does it in a pretty fun way, you have to actually shake your phone to get it to process. Image manipulation and exercise? Sold!

8. The Photographer’s Ephemeris – Not something that takes or processes images but software that helps you be at the right place at the right time. A must have piece of software that tells you the direction of sunrise rise and sunset on any given day for any given location. Want to shoot the sunset July 4th on Davenport Beach? This app will show you exactly where you need to be standing and when you need to be standing there.

9. Pro HDR – Yes IOS 4 now has HDR built-in but I find this app produces much better results. It seems to have richer colors and slightly less ghosting.

10. PhotoJojo iPhone Lenses – Fantastic set of lenses for your iPhone. I especially love the macro lens but the wide angle fish eye can make some great images as well.

My iPhone Toy Camera Quiver

bill — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:06:11 +0000

iPhone photography, aka iPhoneography, has really become popular in the past year. How popular? It is the most used camera on Flickr! Since my iPhone is pretty much always with me it makes capturing those fleeting moments that much easier. As much as I love my Canon 5DII, it is not practical to carry with me all the time.

Now the iPhone is a pretty good camera but the quality is not the greatest. Don’t let this be a distraction though. This lower quality really lends itself to having fun with various toy camera apps. If you are not familiar with toy cameras, the Wikipedia entry for toy cameras should bring you up to speed but basically think of really cheap plastic film cameras. These cameras are known to produce randomly imperfect images with various degrees of focus, color, and exposure. The beauty of these images lays in their imperfections.

Lets get on with the list!

Top iPhone Toy Camera Apps

Best Camera App

This is the app that got me really excited about iPhone photography. Chase Jarvis created this app and a companion book called “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You” This app is much more than a processing app, in fact that might be the weakest (relative to this other apps) part of the software. It is really about sharing. You can easily push out images to FaceBook, Twitter, the BestCamera site, and Flickr. This app helped me win 2nd place in the Adorama iPhone Contest. Below is another sample image process entirely in Best Camera App.

Out the Window

Plastic Bullet

A new entry into the space, you can see my full review in a previous post. I really really like this app, it produces stunningly beautiful images. I am in love with this app. The only current downfall is it only saves low-res versions but that is supposed to be fixed shortly.

Tiny Dancer

Lo-Mob

lo-mob is a great little app that has a ton of fun variations to play with. It attempts to reproduce various film variations and processes including shooting through the viewfinder of a twin lens reflex camera. Lots of vintage looks and film printing options like contact sheets and instant film.

Sadness

Hipstamatic

Miss that old flaky 110 camera? Now you can have it back! Hipstamatic does a great job of producing arty plasticy images. It takes a slightly different approach, it turns your iPhone into a little plastic camera where you can choose your lens and film before you take a picture. This is a bit different since you can’t manipulate an existing picture. The results are general worth it if you know ahead of time that you want to produce a toy camera type image. You can also upgrade your camera to new film types and lenses for a few dollars more.

Sea Myth

Camera Bag

Camerabag has a number of different settings, some are toy camera based, like the Helga setting and others are just interesting processing options. Below is an example image of the infrared processing in this app. This app creates some great images on its own but I often find I use it in the middle of a workflow as either the first or last app an image goes through.

Storm Eruption

So now that you have the tools, get out and make some great images!

Plastic Bullet Review

bill — Sat, 22 May 2010 20:48:45 +0000

I love iPhone photography and especially toy camera/lo-fi iPhone photography. Using the iPhone, small and compact like some kind of futuristic 110 camera, when combined with iPhone apps like Hipstamatic, Lo-Mob or Camera Bag can not only feel like you are back in the 1980s shooting a Holga but actually produce images that look a lot like toy cameras as well.

Lily Resting iPhone image processed with Red Giant Plastic Bullet

The latest entry into the toy camera emulation market is from Red Giant software, the makers of the great Magic Bullet video processing software, and it is called Plastic Bullet. Even though it is a little late to the game it is an impressive entry. Simple to use with results that are very pleasing to the eye.

White Square Lily processed with Plastic Bullet

The operation is fairly straight forward. Like most apps you can take a photo in the app or choose from your library.

A quick tip, I always shoot images using the default camera app, it is generally quicker, and you can take many images quickly.

Once you select an image you are presented with 4 versions of the image. If you don’t like any of them just click on the circle arrow and you are given 4 more versions. If you do like one click on it, it gets larger and then click on the heart icon and you can save it to your photo library. Real simple operation with impressive results.

Flapper processed with Plastic Bullet

The one downside I have found is that it saves in a reduced resolution 600×800, I have heard the developer is updating to save at full resolution.

Update: I asked Stu Maschwitz, one of the developers of Plastic Bullet, on Twitter about upgrading to save at full resolution and his answer was simple and direct “Hell yes”

Bottom line Plastic Bullet is awesome! The images are dreamy plasticy and lovely. If you like the toy camera look this is the app to get.

Go grab a copy of Plastic Bullet from the iTunes Store

Review – Peleng 8mm on Canon 5DII

bill — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:46:01 +0000

I wanted to try out some ultra wide angle photography recently so I rented a Peleng 8mm lens from the fine people at Borrow Lenses. I had read a few reviews of this lens and knew I was going to get some interesting looking shots. The Peleng 8mm gives you an incredible 180 degree field of view.

The Peleng 8mm http://www.flickr.com/photos/drome/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Peleng 8mm pointing straight up

Also I quickly realized this is no Canon L series lens. The Peleng 8mm is a all manual lens; manual focus, manual aperture. No a big deal but it can be a bit of a surprise if you are used to making changes on the camera as opposed to the lens itself. This also means you will be chimping a bit more than usual.

Backyard Fountian shot with the peleng 8mm

You will notice the extreme vignetting that you get when shooting with this lens on a full frame camera, like the 5D MarkII. I did not crop any of the images I am posting to give you a feel for the extreme nature of the vignette. If I was to use this images for display I would most likely crop a large portion of the black out at least. If you are shooting on a crop frame camera you will still get a vignette but it will be much less.

Umbrella from Below

This lens is useful when you are looking for an extreme wide angle fisheye effect. If I shot more skateboarding this lens would definitely be in my quiver. In normal shooting situations however it does not have a great deal of use. While shooting with it I often felt held back more than I felt empowered. You must get very close to your subject to have it fill the frame. You also really have to be careful with your field of view, at 180 degrees you can easily pickup your legs and shoes in a shot. I did that more than a few times.

Hello legs

I did not get a chance to shot any video with this lens, which I am now kicking myself for. It would have been a great little experiment to try for sure. Maybe I will rent it again an do some skateboarding footage with it.

Overall this is a fun little lens, if you want to break out from the norm I recommend renting it for a week or so and giving it a real workout.

Rent the Peleng 8mm for Borrow Lenses

House, through the looking glass