Archive for Reviews
OSXcellence – The Photographer’s Ephemeris for Mac Review
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Unlike many of the apps I review in this series, today’s is neither new on the market, nor new to me. In fact, I have been using it for years now, so it’s about time I shared the brilliance of The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) with you.
This app provides accurate prediction of sun and moon positions at a given time, in relation to a location on the inbuilt version of Google Maps. A simple function it may seem, but for any photographer who needs to work with the sun’s light, TPE provides a unique and incredibly useful utility.
TPE has a very polished interface, with period-style visual details, providing a beautiful accompaniment to the app’s purpose. The main focus is on the Google Maps area, where you navigate to the location of your shoot – a search bar is provided at the bottom to ease this, as is a favourite locations list – and then hit the marker button to see the line of the sunrise and -set, and the moonrise and -set in that location. In addition, you can see this data for, seemingly, any date in the future, and information on the timing of the rise and set events is included on the right of screen.
Photoforce App for iPhone and iPad Allows You to View Your Facebook Photo Stream
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Okay, so I don’t use Facebook. Yes, your great grandmother and I are the two who are not on Facebook…But I know that lots of you are on Facebook. So when I saw Photoforce, I knew I needed to review it.
No app could be simpler. Once you download and sign in on Photoforce using your Facebook account, you are able to view the photos that your friends post on Facebook. That’s all. So if you want to see your friends’ photos in an attractive filmstrip format, check this one out. It’s free and easy to use.
So let’s cover how it works again. Download. Sign in. Enjoy.
Go forth and do likewise.
All the best…Mike
Viddy: It’s Like Instagram for Video
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I am not much of a video guy. So when I first saw the app I downloaded it and never used it until someone else told me about it. I first heard someone talk about Viddy on Episode 41 of The Digital Photography Cafe. A couple of days later my youngest son, Lane, asked if I had Viddy on my phone. So I dug around and found it and decided to check it out.
Viddy has been described as an app with the potential to be the Instagram of video, and has received a good deal of attention from the company’s ability to raise capital and to partner with various celebrities including Snoop Dog and T-Pain.
So how does it work? If you have used Instagram, the interface for Viddy will seem quite familiar to you. Like Instagram, the menu items at the bottom are the key to moving around. Start with the film icon on the bottom left. Clicking this will bring up the Viddy stream for those you follow. You may also select, at the top of the page, to view the featured videos, and those that you have liked. The next icon on the bottom is the fire icon, which shows you “What’s Hot”. Here you will find popular, trending and newest videos. We will skip the middle icon, the camera, for now. The next menu item is Activity, which shows you the activities of your friends. The final icon shows your data, including your videos and the number of people you follow and how many follow you. Read More→
OSXcellence – Photo Sense for Mac Review
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So you have a Mac? And you want to make your images look better? But you can’t be bothered to use iPhoto’s manual editing controls? And you want to use auto-enhancement on batch images? And you’re willing to pay two-thirds of the price of Photoshop Elements to get something that performs this function only (which, of course, Elements can do – a lot better)?
Well, whilst I would suggest that you are a fairly niche target market, the market that you represent is catered for (or so the makers, VeprIT, hope anyway) by Photo Sense for Mac.
The process of “improving” pictures with Photo Sense starts with adding images, which have their previews immediately “enhanced.” The options for processing include the standard exposure, contrast and saturation adjustment, as well as noise reduction and sharpening. In addition, effects can be added, although the extent to which you use most of those included very much hinges on “personal taste”.
By clicking on each individual image, you can manually adjust it, with the aid of a histogram and a split-screen before and after.
As with most auto-enhancers, the results of Photo Sense’s default processing are at best, “dramatic”, and at worst, disasters. Whilst the heady mix of over-sharpening, super-saturation and ridiculously boosted contrast can be attention grabbing, the thought of allowing these images into print fills me with dread.
To Do List on Steroids: Priority Matrix for iPhone, iPad and Mac
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Are you an organizer? Do you use To Do lists to assure that you get everything done? Are you unfulfilled by your current To Do list? Do you long for something more…
Okay, that’s a bit much. But I do like To Do lists, and I like my To Do list to be more than just a list. So you can imagine my giddyness when I discovered Priority Matrix for iPhone and iPad.
More than just a To Do list, Priority Matrix by Appfluence is a full-featured planning tool that I have found to be very useful. Rather than focusing solely on what you need to do, Priority Matrix lets you prioritize that which is most important. I really like the graphical format that lets you see your list all on one screen. To take a closer look at any of the four quadrants, you simply move the arrow icon with your thumb. You may also reorder items manually, alphabetical, by level of completion, and by date due. It is easy to view the items that are complete or are not complete. Alternately, you can view all items and with one button delete all completed items.
Adding an item is easy. You simply press the + button on the menu bar. Enter your title, the percentage of completion (which you may update at any time), select the quadrant, set the date due, and enter any notes.
Now a word about the quadrants, which include:
- Critical and Immediate – This should be your priority.
- Critical but Not Immediate – This is something for which you should plan.
- Not Critical but Immediate – Do you really need to do this one? Can this be delegated or deferred?
- Not Critical and Not Immediate – Why bother?
One feature of Priority Matrix is that you may post your list on the cloud at no cost, with automatic synchronization to your iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac. You do have to purchase the apps separately for each device, which is a bit of a pain, but understandable since each is a bit different and the synch to the cloud is free. The iPhone version (which is what I use) is $1.99; the iPad version is $3.99; and the Mac version is $19.99. Read More→
Show Your Photos in Their Best Light with Mediapad iPad App
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Show of hands…How many photographers are using an iPad to show your photos to clients? If so, what app are you using to assure that your clients see your photos in their best light? I recently had the opportunity to review the Mediapad Pro iPad app.
This customizable app is more than just a medium through which you can view photos; it is a fully functional portfolio in which you display any combination of photos, videos, website, and audio files. And the app is fully customizable so that you can add your logo and information. In just a few minutes, I was able to quickly customize the background and banner.
Once that was done I added photos. As you can see from the screen shot, it displays photos beautifully. There are a number of options regarding how to display the photos, and you may set transitions and timing as you see fit.
After using the application a while I found that it does a great job displaying my photos. It is easy to operate and provides an attractive display so that you may easily hand your iPad to a client and let them enjoy the photos.
Features of this app include unlimited file upload, batch uploading, fully customizable interface, slideshow options with transitions and timing, and a built-in tutorial. The guest registry may be
downloaded to an Excel file or a PDF document.
OSXcellence – CameraBag 2 Review
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The original CameraBag was one of the first style and edit apps, not only on Mac, but on iPhone too. It was well built, and performed well, but since then it has been trumped by FX Photo Studio Pro (see my review) in this category. Now, however, the folks at NeverCenter have come back fighting, with their new offering, CameraBag 2.
CameraBag 2 is a slick looking app, but pretty looks aren’t the main feature of this app. Editing is conducted using impressive 32-bit processing, RAW is supported, and editing is non-destructive – all high-level features, aimed at the serious photographer. CameraBag 2 includes 100+ filters under the Styles tab, but far more important than this are the editing controls under the Adjust tab. Here you find the standard fare of contrast, saturation, exposure and so on, but additionally, more higher-level controls, such as RGB and luminance curves, selective saturation and grain. When these are used in conjunction with the adjustable inbuilt filters, almost any effect is achievable. What is striking is the quality of manipulated images, thanks to the 32-bit processing; this app produces classy, print quality pictures.
The preset filters that come with CameraBag 2 are very nice, both in terms of quality and quantity. Most are based on various print or film types and techniques, and are (in my opinion) very stylish. Examples include “Cyanotype,” “Leaky Helga” and “Super 1962.”
Don’t Have Siri? Dragon Naturally Speaking App will Type Your Memos
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Okay! I don’t have an iPhone 4S. In other words, I don’t have a personal assistant named Siri. I can’t speak to my phone and receive cheeky answers. If I want to find a place to hide a body I have to do the research myself. But those of us who are “sans Siri” sometimes just want to speak into our phone and make things happen! Is there a voice recognition app for the rest of us?
Voice recognition software is certainly nothing new. It has, however, been vastly improved over the years. One of the biggest names in voice recognition is Dragon Dictation by Nuance. Now that our iPhones will do so much, it was only a matter of time before Nuance came out with a voice recognition app. This free application does a nice job. It’s simple and effective. And it works!
You know that I personally test and use all the apps that I review, and this one is no different. However, since I couldn’t think of anything important to say with which to test the app, I had to come up with something with which to test it. So I tested the app using an episode of the Digital Photography Cafe, with hosts Trevor Current and Joseph Cristina. I basically started an episode at random and hit the “Tap and dictate” button on the app. You can see the results in the photo to the right.
Perfect? No. But certainly pretty close. If you see a mistake you can click on the keyboard app and make corrections. Once you have it right you may send it via text or email, copy it to another application, or post to Facebook or Twitter.
So it’s not Siri, but what can you do with Dragon Naturally Speaking? In my opinion, it is helpful for just what it says it does: dictation. It can’t tell you where to hide a body and it can’t even play an Arctic Monkeys song. But it can do one thing and do it well: dictation. Read More→
Take Fisheye to the Next Level with Snappr iPhone App
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It is no mystery that you can get almost any effect or filter that you could imagine for your iPhone camera. And if you read these reviews very often, it shouldn’t be a mystery that I love the retro effects that I can get through a number of the iPhone apps that I have reviewed. Further, you should not be surprised that there is a good deal of duplication when it comes to iPhone photo effects. But sometimes you see something a little different–perhaps unique–that catches your eye. Such is the case with Snappr by Revolver.
Snappr is an app that simulates the use of five different fisheye lenses. Choices include Sunk It, Orca Liber, 4Skin, Bvlgaria 75, and Nemo. The app is simple to use. You have a large viewfinder in which you touch to take a photo. When I tested this app I expected more to happen when I took a photo but found out that only something that resembled one of those old pull down blinds that said Mike Kennamer’s iPhone showed that I had just taken a photo. In retrospect, that seems to be plenty but I can’t explain why I took some many photos of my knees while learning to use the app. Maybe I was touching it in an effort to get the camera to focus and didn’t realize that the camera would focus on its own and that I was taking pics of my knees. Anyway, it is a functional camera with flash and automatic focus that works quite well. A simple touch is all that is required to take the photo.
The fun, however, comes in the lens selection which allows you to get a number of different looks in your photos. You will see some of my test shots here and how each lens impacts the effect. Once you finish taking your photos you can view them, save them to your camera roll, and/or export them to email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram. Depending upon which apps you have loaded on your camera, you may also export to PhotoStudio, Dropbox, Camera+, and more.
This is a fun little app, and reasonably priced at $1.99. It is definitely worth checking out if you like cool, vintage effects.
OSXcellence – Inpaint Review
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“DAMN!” – you’ve taken a world-beating image, but just as you’re about to Google “Wanderlust photo competition,” a terrible reality dawns on you. There is some pesky passer-by’s blurred head in the bottom corner. What are you going to do?
Teorex, the makers of Inpaint, would no doubt suggest that you head for their app.
Inpaint (temporarily on special offer at £0.69/$0.99) is an app specialising in removing unwanted objects from your image.
The name implies Inpaint’s method of operation – paint a red overlay onto the objects you wish to remove, and hit the “Inpaint” button to get the app working. The cloning is reasonably snappy, only taking 20 seconds or so, and the results, at first glance, are respectable. Areas in the image around the objects to be cloned are copied, in a manner not unlike Photoshop’s dust cloning tool.
