We had a beautiful Spring day around here with the windows open, a Phillies game on the TV, and a few steaks on the grill. I decided to snap a few photos of the kids playing around. I used my Sony NEX-7 with a 50mm lens to grab these. I tried to use as much natural window light as possible. It always looks better.
The iPhone 5 takes great photos, that's no secret. I often find that I can snap a great photo of the scene even with my giant DSLR hanging around my neck. The iPhone 5 does take great photos right out of the camera but I've been using a few apps lately to take those good photos to the next level. Give these a try:
1. Camera+: I use this to snap a series of photos. I pick the best one and I save it out to my camera roll. I love the the light box feature which lets me scroll through a bunch of shots before saving it to my camera roll. Also the burst feature lets me take super fast photos of my fast moving kids.
2. SnapSeed: Next I import the photo into SnapSeed and clean it up with an immense mount of filters and features. I'm going to write a separate post about SnapSeed because it's just that good. Then I either publish it right from here or I export it to my camera roll to be used in another app.
3. iPhoto: Then I import it into Apple's own mobile editing software iPhoto. It's great to use on the iPhone but even better to use on the iPad. I use this to remove blemishes or spots. My daughter had a piece of spinach on her face... delete!
I don't use all of these every time. And obviously I could use Camera+ for a lot of them, I could use SnapSeed for just about everything and the same goes for iPhoto.
Can you tell the difference between these two photos? Guess which one is an iPhone photo. The other is a Nikon D800.
Give up? Keep scrolling down....
The second one is an iPhone photo.
I'm offline, off the grid, and deep in the mountains of New Zealand. The good news is that I'm busy taking hundreds and thousands of photos as part of Trey Ratcliff's NZ photo adventure.
I'm a few days in and we're having a blast. We've been super busy waking up at 5:30AM and shooting until breakfast. Then a few hours doing some valuable post processing time, lunch, and then off into the sunset for more shooting. Rinse and repeat.
I'm learning a boat load and can't wait to start sharing more tips and tricks I've learned along the 'unexpected journey'. Meanwhile, here's a sunrise shot I took this morning at a super secret location called The Hills. This is an HDR using seven exposures with my Nikon D800.
The Hills in New Zealand at sunrise.
Have you ever wanted to know what it takes to become a pro photographer? Of course you do!
Well I was thrilled to be a part of a whole discussion about that very topic on Trey's Variety Hour. I tried to play the role of curious observer because there are so many questions I know folks have about this subject and it's rare that you'd get such a great group of pro's together to discuss it!
I was joined by: Host Trey Ratcliff, Alfie Goodrich (pro), Nicole S. Young (pro), Scott Jarvie (pro), Gino Barasa (raconteur, gun advocate, and accomplished photographer) and Melvin Little (pro-curious). We had a ton of fun.
Sometimes I get too bogged down in aperture, shutter speed, and ISO that I forget photography is all about fun. At least for me it is! That's why I decided to start reviewing some fun photo apps and programs that I've been using just to pass the time.
I wanted something that my kids and I could play with while I had an iOS device in my hands. Anytime a child can see themselves on the screen they get really excited. That's how I discovered PopBooth for iOS while digging through the App Store.
PopBooth lets you use the front facing camera to snap multiple photos in a sequence like you would at one of those old kissing booths at a boardwalk carnival. Not that I would know anything about that of course. The interface is clean and easy to use. Once you tap the camera button you get a countdown clock before it starts snapping a series of four photographs. There's a white bracket safe area to let you know where to align your faces.
Once your photos are done you can add a series of filters like black-and-white, vintage, and some funky colors. You can also complete some in app purchases to buy more. For $1.99 you can send your PopBooth photo as a postcard to a loved one.
The sharing features are one of the downsides of this application. I found it a little confusing. It's not immediately obvious that your photos are saving to your camera roll as there is no button that lets you do this. Once I exited the app to check my camera roll I found my photographs were saved there. You have the option to share to Facebook, Twitter or email. If you decline to share to any of those and you hit the share button the photo automatically saves to your camera roll.
My other criticism is not being able to edit the comment accompanying your photo when it's shared to the social networks. Once I shared my photo to Facebook it comes complete with a stock comment that I wasn't able to edit.
Minor gripes aside I'm really enjoying this application. And so is my daughter! It's free so grab it today in the App Store here.
