photo apps

easy release

Easy Release (created by Washington, DC-based photographer Robert Giroux and software developer Morgan Belford) is an amazingly cool iPhone app, and it’s one of those things I feel like, why didn’t I think of it first! Basically it’s an app for model and property releases. To put it simply, what this means is if you take a photo of a person or a place that you want to use for a project, you need to get a release signed so that you won’t get sued later. I did a photo project awhile back where I was gathering a whole bunch of model releases and it was difficult to organize and remember who signed what, and which person was in which photo. But Easy Release makes it, well, easy!

Not to mention, I had to make my own releases, and this one comes with standard pro documents used by, as it says on the website, “pro photo agencies”. Which may be better than something I randomly type up on my computer. It can email you a pdf or jpg copy of the release, and the wizard will guide you through the filling out process, complete with a place for your model to sign! But I think the coolest part is you can link a photo of the person or property to the release by using your iPhone camera. Amazing.

It’s a bit pricey at $9.99 but well worth it if you do this sort of thing often. Check it out!

noticings

Noticings is the game of noticing the world around you. It’s a photo challenge of sorts, where you tag and post your images and get points for meeting certain criteria. The rules are constantly changing, but as they stand now, they are as follows:

Pretty fun, right? It’s a great way to look more closely at your environment and see the cool and interesting things around you, as well as compel you to take more photos in an effort to get as many points as you can! I love photo challenges like this because I find that having a goal and a criteria to stay within forces you to think a bit more rather than randomly snapping photos, and usually gets me to take a lot more thoughtful and better photos.

Check out noticings, sign up today and start taking more photos!

dailybooth

Someone had to invent it, right? Social networking + digital photography = DailyBooth. Basically it’s a website that lets you post a photo of yourself daily, as though you went into a photobooth and took a picture every day. You may ask why? But aside from the obvious (it’s the internet so of course this has to exist), I do think it’s a pretty cool idea. It’s pretty interesting to look back on yourself or your friends a year later, or even years later, see how you’ve changed. Since everything is on the internet these days, why not another way to share your life?

There’s also this cool map feature that updates people’s pics in real time, which I spent an unusually long time watching…

block posters

I found this awhile back but I wanted to share because I think it’s pretty cool. I used it to make a huuuuge poster on my wall in my old house, and it was amazingly easy and quick. Basically, you upload your photo to Block Posters, and they give you some printing options on how you want to slice your photo, how many pages you want to use and what size. Also handy is they’ll tell you the final height and width, so it’s good for planning out your space. Then once you’re ready, you get a pdf of your image sliced up for you all ready to print. The quality is really good and they turn out pretty amazing. So easy! And what a cool way to get a large photo without paying hundreds of dollars for printing!

photosketch

Is this even real? If it is, it has blown my mind. PhotoSketch takes basic line drawings and turns them into totally believable photographs. Now people don’t even have to know how to use Photoshop to make composite images! It gets a bit scientific and technical, but interesting nonetheless. Watch the video and be amazed:

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

chase jarvis: the best camera

Photographer Chase Jarvis has release a new iPhone photo app called The Best Camera, as well as a new book to go along with it called The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You. You can find out all the info on thebestcamera.com.

The app looks pretty good, I haven’t tried it yet but it has a bunch of cool filters with cute names (jewel, paris, slate, candy, light, dark, fade, contrast, warm, cool, desaturate, vignette, square, frame) that make me want to try them. It gets even better though because the app lets you easily share your photos online, which I think is what a lot of photo app’s are lacking. So you can upload to Facebook, Twitter, email, or even to thebestcamera.com which is probably the most interesting option because then it will post the combination of filters you used, and in what order you used them so other people can get the same look.

I love the idea behind the app and the book, because I also believe everyone should take more photo, and why not use your phone? Also, the images from Chase’s book are pretty amazing considering they were taken on an iPhone. I love anything that reinforces the idea that it’s not the camera, but the photographer that makes a good image.

Check out this video and get inspired to start taking more mobile photos:

Here are some images from the book, The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You. Makes me want to make my own iPhone photo book!

nuit blanche: toronto w/ smartphones

I’m iffy about attending Nuit Blanche this year, just because last year was sooo crowded it was basically impossible to see or experience anything. Maybe this year I’ll try and check it out a bit later once all the tourists and families have gone home for the night. In case you don’t know, Nuit Blanche is an all night art festival that’s happening October 3rd, here in Toronto. This year I’m a lot more encouraged to go though, because of this smartphone app, Night Navigator. It’s available for iphones and blackberries.

Here’s a list of what it does, from the website:

Scan complete project details and public transit routes
View maps and get directions
Use GPS navigation to locate the closest projects
Recommend your favourite projects
Find out which projects are creating a buzz
View and send real-time project photos
Access My Night, your personal itinerary planner
Vote for Scotiabank People’s Choice

It also has some photo recognition software called Capturefy, which tracks where you are when you take a photo of the sign, and gives you more info based on your location. Futuristic!

Pretty cool in general, and I’d mostly be interested in checking out other people’s ratings and reviews of what exhibits are worth checking out, it might save a lot of walking, because there’s a lot to see. Keep it in mind if you plan and going out and seeing some art that night.

(via blogto.com)

colorsuckr

I came across this cool online app called ColorSuckr. Basically what it does is extract the colors from a photo and give you a color scheme for artwork and design use. Pretty cool actually, you have to try it out. I love how you can move the colors around and compare them to each other and pick and choose.

Here’s an example, I used this photo:

And I got these colors:

Pretty awesome, right?

Here’s another example:

Definitely a useful tool to have on hand!

iphone photo editing apps

I take pictures with my iPhone all the time, when I’m out and I don’t have my camera and I want to remember something. With all the cool apps these days, you can get some really great photos. I want to call attention to three apps I use all the time, that I think are useful if you want to improve your iPhone photos and get some really great looking snaps with little effort.

The first, and most essential in my opinion, is CropForFree. As the title suggests, it’s free, so this is basically a no brainer. Basically it does what you’d think; it lets you crop your photos. Also, rotate them. Pretty basic, but surprisingly useful. The only thing missing is the ability to crop at an angle, for example, to rotate the crop area to 45 degrees, which is strange because the app starting screen suggests that you can. Even still, it’s a good one to have, and you can’t beat the price.

The second one I seem to be using the most is CameraBag. It goes for $1.99 in the iTunes app store. This app pretty much applies a filter in a certain style and that’s it. It sounds basic, but it’s great if you just want something quick to fix up a photo and you don’t want to spend a lot of time fooling around with manual controls. The filter types are Magazine, Helga (which is like a Holga camera), Lolo (which is like a Lomo camera), 1962, 1974, Instant, Fisheye, Infrared, Cinema, and Mono. Here are some examples of what the filters look like. The first is the original photo I took:

The third app that I use most is called Picoli, and it costs $2.99 in the app store. This allows you more manual control of adjusting your photos, with categories like Brightness, Sharpness, Saturation, Illumination, Contrast, Color Balance. It also has a few filters; Sepia, Color Dither, Grey Dither, Night Vision, Posterize, Sunburn. And lastly, it allows you to Rotate 90 degrees, Mirror left/right, and Mirror top/bottom. Overall very useful if you want to make specific adjustments to your photos. I use this one the most actually because I like having control of Contrast and Saturation mainly. It’s not Photoshop, but it’s not bad on the go. Here’s an example of adjusting the same photo as above to look exactly like how I want it to, all with this app. I wanted more contrast, but I also wanted to darken the hue of the sky:

I’m always trying out new photo iPhone apps, so I’ll keep you posted if I find any others that I think are useful or necessary!

polaroid :(

I love polaroids. Who doesn’t? I was shocked and sad when last year it was announced that the instant film would no longer be produced. I ran out to the store and bought a lot of boxes. I now only have one box left and I’m saving it for a little while. I’m going to have to use it on something special.

There are a lot of people that feel the same. Check out savepolaroid.com where people are looking for ways to bring polaroid back, and polaroid.net which is trying to amass the biggest collection of polaroid photos on the internet. A friend of mine is even involved in something called The Impossible Project, where they’ve purchased an old polaroid factory and plan to reproduce a film that has the same look as polaroid, under a different name of course.

If you didn’t manage to grab any film before it was gone, you can still simulate the look of polaroids at rollip.com, it’s probably the best resource I’ve found online for creating digital polaroids.

I do use and love digital photography, don’t get me wrong, but I’m kinda mad at it for killing instant film. There’s something about polaroids specifically that you can’t help but miss.

Here’s a few random photos from polaroid.net. Go there and check out the thousands of photos that people have submitted. Remember why you loved polaroid.