Archive for Reviews
Color Instagram Text + Adds Oomph to Your Instagram Messages
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If you like Instagram like I do you sometimes need to share a typed message with your friends. In the past we might have used Notepad to write the message, take a screen shot and upload to Instagram. But Color Instagram Text + will change the way you do that. It’s very simple to operate and brings some pizazz…allure…oomph to your text-based messages.
Once you open the app you will see a simple box. Type your message and click “Next”. Here you are able to select your background/font combination. There are 13 options included and theme packs may be purchased in the app. The app is free but theme packs may be purchased for 99 cents to $1.99. Once you select your background you simply click “Share” to import into Instagram, copy and iMessage, save to photo album, or email.
1. Compose message. 2. Select effect. 3. Share. It is that simple. Read More→
Green Screen-Like Effects with VFX Studio IOS App
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What do you do while you have a long wait in the airport? Angry Birds? Maybe. But what if you want to be a little more creative? Well, quickly download VFX Studio and have some fun. That’s what I did recently while waiting at Dallas Love Field for my flight back home.
The app is very easy to use. You simply select a photo from your camera roll or take a photo within the app. Once you do so, you simply select the “Tools” menu from the left side of the screen. From there you may select “Add Fx” to select the item you would like to add to your photo. Current selections include animals, blood, bones, bullet impacts, cracks, fire, light flare, lasers, lightning, makeup, scars, smoke, shadows, weather and weapons. Once you add the effect, you may place, size, rotate, or flip the effect. When you finish, you can flatten to merge the layers and save to your camera roll.
The app costs 99 cents and is worth it for lots of fun. But there is a serious use for it as well. While waiting in the airport I used the app to mark a location on a photo using the shadow tool. This is a fun app with some serious applications as well.
This is one you might want to check out. Because you never know when you might want to add a dinosaur to your Caribbean island theme. And I’ve found that it is much easier to use this app than it is to shoot a dinosaur in front of a green screen. Seriously. Have you ever tried it? Read More→
OSXcellence – ACDSee Photo Flash Review
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Many of the apps I review in this column are stacked full of features and, seemingly, developers seem to think that more really is more. ACDSee Photo Flash is as far from these do-it-all apps as it’s possible to be, but will the traditional adage of “less is more” ring true for this minimalist app?
The one-and-only function of Photo Flash is image brightening, the claim being that this app is an in-Mac flashgun. My initial thought was, “Why can’t I just use the exposure slider in Aperture/iPhoto?” ACDSee claim, however, that their special “Lighting and Contrast Enhancement (LCE)” technology is a superior option. This function is adjustable, using Flash Photo’s only control – a percentage slider.
After studying images outputted from Photo Flash, I would say that the exposure adjustment which this app provides is tempered by highlight reduction and shadow lifting. The images, as a result, have a slight HDR feel, but nothing too garish, or even noticeable. I have to admit, though, that the effect is quite similar to the illumination that flash gives.
Get Your Next Photo Assignment with Rawporter IOS App
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The news media has indeed changed over the past several years. While newspapers have had stringers for many years, the advent of quality cameras in our phones has made capturing newsworthy photos or videos easier than ever. And with Rawporter, you have an outlet to sell your work.
Here is how it works. Download the app and set 
up an account. Once you do so, you are part of the Rawporter team. You can participate in two ways. First, you may upload photos and videos that you have already taken and make them available for use by Rawporter users. Second, you may respond to assignments that are sent out by news outlets and others.
So what is Rawporter all about? According to their website, “Rawporter connects media outlets large and small with everyday people who are willing to capture video and photos for them. Our simple App makes it easy for you to earn a little extra cash for being in the right place at the right time. Plus it protects your rights, ensuring you get the recognition you deserve.” Payments are made to the photographer by Paypal.
You can take videos and photos within the app, but you may also upload photos and videos taken with other devices. While the concept is a good one, I found that the website is much easier to navigate than the app. The app is handy for uploading videos taken with your iPhone or checking for assignments, but can be quite cumbersome when trying to perform other tasks. This entire service is still in the beta version, so I expect that improvements will be forthcoming.
OSXcellence – cf/x photo Review
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I have reviewed a number of simple editing apps in this column, many of which are effects-based. But suppose you don’t want to make your picture look like a badly exposed polaroid, yet still would like the simple operation that apps like CameraBag 2 have? Today’s app is cf/x photo, which aims to fit just this description – but will it fill the niche?
I hadn’t heard of this app, or its makers – cf/x software – before stumbling upon photo in the Mac App Store. On initial inspection, photo seems to follow the trend of sleek and simple effects/edit apps. Unlike the standard formula in this genre, however, photo is not about messing around with your pictures (even though a few basic effects filters are included). The aim of this app is summed-up nicely by its makers: “CROP. TWEAK. ENJOY.” As a result, the focus in photo is practical functions, like cropping and watermarking. You can also create classy frames of any colour you desire, and put text onto the image as well.
The crop function includes a number of aspect ratios, as well as the ability to crop at an angle. Given that you have a Mac (on which photo runs), you automatically have iPhoto, which can perform these crop functions itself. The need for such a cropping function in photo, then, is somewhat lacking.
The frame options in photo, whilst being basic, are very useful, allowing the easy addition of a coloured border, with one or two-colour options available. The width of the frame is adjustable, but unfortunately, making the frame wider makes it encroach on your image more, rather than expand outwards – a disappointing feature.
Text can be added in one of three segments of the image – top, middle and bottom – although the text actually sits somewhere near the top of each of these segments. The placing of these is strange, and makes this tool useless in comparison to the Mac’s inbuilt app, Preview, in terms of annotation. Read More→
OSXcellence – Picture Collage Maker Lite Review
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What’s better than a great photo? Lots of great photos on the same sheet of paper, of course; and so the collage creation app is born. Or should I say, “apps,” as this is not a niche market. Today’s app, Picture Collage Maker Lite, is one of many, but will it be this app that is the remedy for all of your multi-photo cravings?
This Lite version comes with 42 templates, including some quite elaborate, themed templates – Christmas and Wedding being examples. Additionally, there are numerous layout templates, which go beyond the usual grid, and allow your images to be arranged in a neat, but seemingly random pattern. A good variety of grid-based templates are available to use as well, if you so desire. Each of these templates has an adjustable size (although if you want to create something bigger than 1920×1440 pixels, you’ll need to upgrade to the full version of Picture Collage Maker).
The controls for making your collage are simple and well built. You can alter how the photos “lie” and the amount of the original image that is masked. There is a large library of shapes and looks available for masking, including theme-related shapes. If you fancy, text can be inserted onto the collage in the same way that photos are. Read More→
Make and Save Lighting Diagrams with Sylights IOS app
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Do you ever make lighting diagrams? Perhaps you are thinking about how the light will look in the studio, or maybe you want to be able to save a lighting setup that you liked. Regardless the reason for using it, Sylights iPhone and iPad app makes it easy to design lighting diagrams.
Simply click on the + symbol to add a new lighting diagram. At this point you will see a grid in the background, a menu bar at the bottom with options for “properties”, “discard” and “save”. At the top of the screen is where the magic happens. Simply click on the icon at the top of the page to see a wheel of options revealed. Here, you may select from backdrops, umbrellas, cameras, subjects, beauty dishes, reflectors, strobes, gels, softboxes, hair lights, gobos and other light sources. To select any of these simply tap on the item you want. From there, you may select the particular items you need.
Dragging items onto the screen is very easy to do. You may adjust the location and rotation of the components. From there you are ready to create. Read More→
Full Featured Photo Editing with PhotoToaster IOS App
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As you know, there are tons of apps out there that make your photos look cool. But some apps make your photos look cooler than others. PhotoToaster is one such app. I really like the way that you have access to all the main menu items from one spot. Menu items include “Recent”, “Photo Library”, “Camera”, “Clipboard”, “Tutorial”, “Email Support”, “Tips”, “Products” and “Follow ECP” on Twitter.
Once you take or select your photo, you have a lot of options for “toasting” your photo. When you select the tools menu from the top of the app, you may crop, rotate, straighten, or reduce noise. Cropping for apps like Instagram is easy, since there is a square option. But the magic really happens on the menu at the bottom of the app.
The menus at the bottom of the app allows you to add borders, texture, vignette, effects, and adjust exposure, temperature, contrast, and much more. The world icon on the bottom left provides global presets that let you quickly select multiple adjustments with one touch. There are lots of great selections under the headings “Basic”, “Deluxe”, and “Supreme”. You can also add your own presets or utilize your recent presets. Read More→
OSXcellence – Big Aperture Review
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Look in the Mac App Store photography section, and you’ll see a number of tilt-shift apps (see one of my previous reviews) but not so many dedicated to standard blurring of fore- and backgrounds. Perhaps this is because of the relative complexity involved in making depth-of-field blur look realistic in software. Can Big Aperture for Mac (from Everimaging software) be the go-to app for this task?
Big Aperture isn’t stacked full of controls, not least because the task it is set up to perform doesn’t require a vast set of menus. This provides the benefit of an uncluttered interface, which is already enhanced by Big Aperture’s classy, darkroom-style presentation.
There are two main control menus – Basic and Advanced. The Basic control menu – which I actually found the more useful – edits each image in what is, essentially, a four-step process. First, you select a blur “mode”; the selectable options are Nature, Portrait, Macro and Architecture, all of which act as presets. Their true function, however, is the selection of blur type; whether there is a sharp spot in the centre, with blur increasing outwards, or whether the blur is depth-based, with a horizontal plane of focus across the image, and blur increasing above and below this plane.
Catch That Elusive Image with Fast Camera for iPhone IOS
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Have you ever tried to photograph a lightning storm 
with your iPhone? Or how about that perfect shot of your puppy running toward you? Or that elusive cat that rules your house? Not easy, huh? My guess is that you would have to take lots of bad images to get that shot you are looking for. But what if you had an application that would let you capture lots of images within the application and save only those that you wish to save? That application is called Fast Camera, and it’s available to you in the App Store for only 99 cents.
It’s very easy to use. When you open the app it starts taking photos immediately. Ten, twenty, thirty…the app takes up to 800 pictures a minute. Eight hundred! Once you have taken the number of pics you want, just press stop. You may then click Review to see thumbnails of your photos. You can then preview photos, save the ones you want to the camera roll, and delete the rest. Before the most recent update, there was a problem with the app sometimes deleting your photos when you close the app. However, the latest update documentation states that this issue has been solved.
The latest update also allows you to purchase an update (for 99 cents) that allows you to export your photo stream as a video.
This is a great app that I highly recommend. I have found a number of opportunities to use it, as you can see from the gallery, it is lots of fun and allowed me to get some shots that I never would have been able to get otherwise.
So check it out!
All the best…Mike
