Author Archive
WordFoto: Your Photos + Stylized Text = Awesomeness!
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When you review IOS apps you tend to experience a sense of deja vu in that so much of what you see has already been done, and done, and done… So finding new and exciting apps to share with the Current Photographer readers becomes progressively more difficult as time goes on, and so much of what I see is just a different twist on something that has already been done–and sometimes overdone. After all, my goal in writing these reviews is to share with readers apps that I actually use. And frankly, I don’t use seventeen apps that do the same thing. I select my favorite and use it.
WordFoto is not the first app of its kind that I saw. There are others out there, but I was not satisfied with them enough to actually use them for my own photos. But finding another such app ultimately led me to WordFoto.
WordFoto allows you to take or select a photo, add one or more words, and it works its magic by combining the words and photos in an attractive format. Here is a photo that I took in the app while writing this article. Yes, I stopped just now and took it, cropped it within the app, and uploaded it to Dropbox from my iPhone 4. Then I went into the “Words” menu in WordFoto and added a new word set that contains the words, “Zeke”, “cat”, and “meow”. I selected that set then went to the “Style” menu. For this photo I selected “Classic Color” and it is ready to export to the camera roll. Read More→
Foap IOS App: Sell Stock Photos on Your iPhone
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If you are a photographer it is likely that you have at least considered signing on with a microstock agency to sell your stock photos. Some photographers make a very good living selling stock photos. But how many of us make a living selling stock photos from our iPhones? Me either. But is is possible to generate some income from photos taken on your iPhone or other smart phone?
The folks at Foap say they can make that happen. The concept is simple. Download the Foap app and sign up for an account. Then upload your photos through the app. Once your photos are approved they will be added to the Foap website where they may be purchased for $10 per download. You get $5 per purchase and Foap keeps $5. It’s pretty much that simple.
So are you ready to strike it rich by selling photos on your iPhone? My guess is that you will not. But could you generate some extra income for your iPhone photos? Perhaps. My job is not to critique the concept, but to review the application.
Discover the World From Your IOS Device with Trover
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I love looking at photos. Places, people, still life, abstract…I enjoy 
seeing how others see the world through their camera lens. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy Instagram so much. Where else can you discover the world from the comfort of your own home? That’s why I also like Trover.
With Trover, you can discover new places everyday, and post your favorite photos from the places you have been. I am just discovering this great app, but have had a good time seeing new places and recognizing photos from places that I have been.
When you post a photo, or a discovery as they call it, you may do so either by taking it from your camera or choosing from your photo library. For instance, the photo at right is one that I took out my window at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. I was able to select the location from a list. Had my location not been listed, I could have added my own. You may also add details, tips or tags to help others enjoy your discovery. You are then taken to a screen where you may post your discovery to Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr. Once you do that, the photo is posted on Trover for others to see.
The main menu includes the following items: Home, Your Feed, Post a Discovery, Notifications, and Invites & Settings. At the home button, you will see the Newsfeed, Friend’s Discoveries, Nearby Discoveries, What’s Hot, What’s New, Featured Discoveries, Featured Trovers, Featured Lists, Places, and Search. There is so much to discover in this app that you will find so many new places that you will want to visit. Read More→
Turn Your Photo Into a Work of Art with ArtinPhoto IOS App
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So much of what we see in the “New and Noteworthy” in iTunes seems to be more of the same. So it’s nice to run across something unique in the App Store. Such is the case for the ArtinPhoto IOS app. This 99 cent app allows you to add a black and white sketch within your existing photo or photo taken from your IOS device. There is a free, ad-supported version also.
It’s very easy to use and, aside from the annoying photos of random hands that hold many of the available frames, it produces some very nice results. You simply choose or take a photo. Make your selection of sketch frame, sketch type, and sketch brush. Press the “Play” button, and the app does all the work for you. You can then save your photo or share it via email. Read More→
MagicHour IOS App: Awesome FX with Ease
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If you have kept up with many of my reviews you probably know that I really like vintage effects. And I have reviewed a large number of apps that provide effects. When I had almost given up on finding something new and different, I ran across MagicHour.
While I can’t say that there is anything earth-shattering about the filters in MagicHour, I simply like the way it works. Like most of the others, you may either take a photo within the app or use a photo from your camera roll. Once you select a photo (this is one I took this afternoon as a storm blew through), you go to a screen where you can move, scale, flip or rotate your photo within a square frame. Once you finalize that step you are taken to the filter section.
Here’s the neat part. You may select from lots of filters under categories of “Favorites”, “Preset”, “My Filters”, and “Download”. Not only can you use filters that are included in the app, you may also create your own filter sets and download filters from The Filter Market. Okay, so they give you a cheap app and get your dough by charging you for all the good filters? No! The Filter Market is free, as is the “Create Your Own Filter”. Let’s take a look at that feature. Read More→
Don’t Have a Personal Assistant? Check Out VOT Free.
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As soon as Siri was released it seems that a number of app developers came out with similar products for older iPhones. Though I have looked at a number of them for my iPhone 4, I really haven’t found anything that works very well. Until I discovered VOT Free.
Keep in mind that we are really comparing apples and oranges (no pun intended), because VOT Free only does one thing. But that’s okay so long as it does it well. And in my experience, it does.
So what does it do? You press the button and tell it what to remind you to do. Then you tell it when to remind you. That can be 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes or 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, or 18 hours. Or you can choose “Tomorrow” or a custom setting where you set the date and time. Simple as that! When it’s time for the alert, it will pop up with your reminder. You simply play back the audio recording as your reminder. Read More→
Tamron Lenses and How-To IOS App Provides a Wealth of Info.
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I usually do not review apps that are basically advertisements for a particular company, except when the app contains useful content. Such is the case with the Tamron App. So if you were a lens company what would you include in your app? Don’t waste your time thinking about it because you won’t think of everything that Tamron included. Here’s the rundown:
Tamron Products – This is the one you should expect. Select from menus for All-in-One Zooms, Fast Zooms, Wide & Tele Lenses, and Macro Lenses.- Local Events – Shows events in which Tamron participates.
- How To Videos – This section includes a good number of videos regarding shooting with Tamron lenses.
- How To Articles – Likewise, this section contains a good selection of articles on anything from “Shooting an Outdoor Concert” to “Using Lenses for Video”.
- Photo Contest – Includes details for any contests that Tamron is running at the time.
- Get Social – Provides links to Tamron on Facebook, Twitter, Tamron Blog, My Photo Exhibits, and Flickr.
- Get ENews – Where you can sign up for the Tamron E-News.
- Find A Dealer – Gives you the opportunity to find a dealer using Google Maps.
- Rebates – Shows current rebate offers.
- Scan – This is a surprising one. A QR Code reader is included as part of the app.
- Read More→
InstaCollage Free IOS App Gives You More, More, More.
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“Please sir, I want some more.” Even though he had a great British accent, and the whole play was named after him, that question didn’t get Oliver anything but trouble. But your luck is going to be much different when you download InstaCollage Free.
There are a lot of frame and collage tools out there. Take your pick. There are some good ones. But this one comes with what our neighbors in Louisiana call lagniappe–a little something extra. So here is what you get!
First of all, you get a number of collage frames. At the top are 22 collage choices and at the bottom are 22 frame choices. Once you have selected an arrangement and frame you may select your photos by simply clicking on the empty frame and selecting your photos. Once this is done, you can adjust the look of the frames with the “Style” menu. You can add text using the “Text” menu and add a number of stickers using the “Stick” menu. If that were not enough, you may click on the “Effect” menu to select from 8 effects, including sharpen, blue, polaroid, bright, and others.
Finally, you may share your photos by saving to the camera roll, sending via email, or posting to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
So there is a lot here to like. The only thing that I didn’t like is that the developers did not pass up the opportunity to try to sell you the InstaCollage Pro version, which includes 60+ photo frames, 45+ frame layouts, 140 stickers, etc. Yes, I saw it so many times I have that part memorized. Okay, it’s not that bad, but they do put on a pretty hard sell. Read More→
InstaCC Photo Challenges and Calendar View are Winners!
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By now everyone has heard the news that Facebook has purchased Instagram for a cool billion dollars. While I have not heeded the call of the Facebook sirens (al a Homer’s Odyssey), I have slurped the cool sugary nectar that is Instagram. Okay, I am piling it on a bit thick, but that’s only because I am paid by the word (or not).
Back on topic. I do enjoy Instagram. Where else can you vicariously live the life of a complete stranger through a series of photos the size of a… Well, the size of a 1 and 7/8 inch square. Okay, you can’t really live their life, but you can look at photos of what they are having for dinner and see what the wing of the airplane they are on looks like out the window. Yes, we have ALL taken that picture.
So now that we have taken the picture of the wing of our plane or what we are having for dinner, what do we do with it? I have reviewed dozens of great apps for making your iPhone photos look even cooler than ever before. But InstaCC is a bit unique as it displays your photos in a camera view and prompts you to participate in photo challenges daily.
Here’s how it works. You log in with your Instagram username and password and allow InstaCC to have access to Instagram. You can post photos using the built in camera feature in the app. If you are working through a photo challenge, you will be given a choice whether to take a snapshot or to take a photo for the photo challenge. If you take the photo challenge your photo will be automatically hashtagged, which is important when you start to look at challenges. Read More→
Merge Colors and Shapes with Photo Mates IOS App
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We all have our favorite photo effects applications; and I have reviewed a number of them here. Recently I ran across an app that works a little differently than most. Photo Mates for IOS lets you merge the shape of one photo with the colors of another. It is not simply an overlay, but works much better than you might expect.
The app is simple to use. You simply choose a photo for its shape (either from the camera or camera roll) and serve a photo for its colors (again from the camera or camera roll). The app does the rest. Your only option for output is to send it to the camera roll, and there is no way to make adjustments.
The app is free and ad supported. You may choose to remove ads through an in-app purchase.
The key to its use is to find a photo with a simple shape and another with vibrant colors. Using a busy photo for a shape will make it look overdone, as will using a photo with lots of colors. The app can be a bit frustrating in that you cannot select or sample the colors that you wish to use. So you might have a picture with a clear blue sky and the app samples a darker area in the shadows.
