My Favourite iPhone Photography Apps.

Before I had my iPhone, I went everywhere with my DSLR. I was always afraid that I might see something I wanted to shoot or document, and didn’t have a good camera with me.

Now that I have an iPhone and the lens is a whooping f2.4 lens, it gives me so many excuses not to lug that giant of a camera everywhere. There are so many great shots that I’ve taken with my iPhone, I don’t think I can ever move about without it now. The last time I was in Melbourne, I even shot an entire afternoon in the city with just my iPhone. My DSLR was tucked tightly in my bag on my shoulders.

I’m not a big fan of fancy iPhone Photography Apps. I’ve tried several, but found that I didn’t really like to do alot of editing on my phone. So now I use apps that give me great effects without much effort. Here are the apps that are hot favourites on my iPhone -

Instagram

This is my #1 app for shooting portraits.

My fave colour effect is “Early Bird” and I use it 99% of the time. It gives a hazey effect to pictures and makes everyone’s skin glow and we all look so good, even without make up.

The only problem is every shot must be uploaded to the Instagram server for it to be “live”. So if there’s no 3G or wifi connection, the shots are stored in the phone’s cache memory till they are uploaded and cannot be shared until then. Grrrrr… And sometimes, the Instagram server is koo-koo, and it takes forever to upload the shots.
 

Hipstamatic

This is my favourite iPhone photography app, hands down.

I love the vintage feel that it gives to my photos. And I love the wide variety of lens and film effects that come with it.

My favourite lens at the moment is Libatique 73 with the simple plain Blanko film.

Another advantage I like about Hipstamatic is that it shoots FAST. It takes up to 9 continuous shots in one breath. AMAZING. Such a feature is very important especially when you have children in the family that don’t always like to have their pictures taken and you have to shoot continuously before you capture that one shot of them smiling.

Quick tips on using this app -
(1) At your iPhone Settings for Hipstamatic, set View Finder Mode to “Precision Framing”, and switch ON for Disable LED Flash.
(2) When shooting, tap twice lightly on the small viewfinder screen. It will enlarge and become a larger frame. It’ll be way easier to compose a shot that way. Shoot by tapping once anywhere on that larger viewfinder frame. Great for camwhoring!
 

Leme Leme

The effects in Leme Leme are similar to those in Instagram but I mainly use it to shoot vibrant colours and when I want a HDR effect.

The HDR effect is gorgeous.

Try it!
 

All the apps above shoot in a 1:1 squarish frame. When I need to shoot things with no effects in a standard 4:3 frame, I use Camera+.

This is an amazing app. It comes with editing features, like sharpening, colour and tone control and photo effects. The shots are tack sharp because the app allows you to select your focusing point on the screen.

This shot of champagne in a glass was shot and “Clarity” (to sharpen it) was added.

It works wonderful in low light environments too.

Camera+ also allows me to process shots taken with other apps with its effects. I love that.
 

Photosynth

This is one of the nicest apps I have in my phone. I love this app because it helps you shoot several shots and then merge them into a panoramic shot.

After cropping -

It is idiot proof and helps you align your shots as you shoot away. It’s just brilliant.

After cropping -

Brilliant, right?
 

I have other photo editing tools in my phone, like 美图秀秀, moreBeaute2, Pixlromatic, Snapseed, etc.. for the days where I really want to edit a picture in my phone. Which is rarely. I’m too lazy.

What iPhone photography app do you use? Please share if you have a wonderful one!

Have a great weekend everyone! And don’t forget to vote for me -
 

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