Posts Tagged
photography
One of the most popular uses for our Android phones nowadays is without a doubt using them as a camera. But sometimes, pictures can be a bit bland and that’s where a caption can save the day. Whether witty, romantic or explanatory, captions can breathe new life into your photos, and thanks to the vastness of the Play Store, this can all be done on the go through your Android device.
In this roundup, I will look at several caption apps available for Android that should help you add some side-splitting witty comment to your holiday photos or name that remote and wonderful location you visited.
As we approach the Holiday season even more, one question has been recurring on my mind more frequently – should I get my Kodak camera out of its hiding place in my drawer and charge it up for the next few weeks, or do I simply keep taking photos with my phones like I have been for the past year?
See, my dilemma stems from the fact that I carry on a daily basis two really good cameraphones, a Samsung Galaxy SIII and an Optimus 4x HD, both with 8MP cameras, longer battery life and simple microUSB charging, HDR mode, always on availability, plenty of options, bigger screen, and most importantly easy bluetooth transfers, editing and internet uploads. The only two advantages my Kodak camera has are the Xenon flash for better pictures indoors at night, and optical zoom.
And I shouldn’t be alone in my dilemma. Cameraphones have gotten so much better over the last few years that we no longer question using them in everyday situations. But holidays and family gatherings remain a special event, and would normally demand better memory-keeping equipment. The question though is whether cameraphones have gotten to a point where they can replace a standalone camera even in the important moments of life.
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced I’ll stick with my phones. For one, I can’t be bothered with another gadget to carry and charge, and for two the phones offer a lot more convenience. What about you?
Originally an iOS app, Snapseed garnered quite a following for its powerful photo editing capabilities and also won a few “App of the Year” awards from Apple. In September 2012, Google bought Nik Software, the developer company behind the app and a mere three months later, we have an Android version of the app available to us for free. On a side note, Google also made the iOS version of the app free along with the Android release.
But before I delve into this review, let me get one obvious explanation out of the way – Snapseed is not an Instagram competitor from Google. Instagram, if you didn’t know, is a photo sharing app that lets you apply color effects to your photos and share them directly from your mobile devices. It thrives on its social sharing and community feature, while Snapseed does not have any social features of its own. It is also a more extensive photo editing app than a way to apply readymade filters to your photos.
So with that out of the way, let’s dig into what this latest offering from Google that everyone is talking about really is.
When you first buy a DSLR camera, you may not get a lot of great shots but you will get a ton of advice from everybody you encounter. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but budding photographers need to learn at their own pace when it comes to both photographic principles and operating a camera. And if you’re starting to learn by yourself, you’ll find a handy guide in Right Click.
Right Click is a simple tutorial app that contains useful information about the basics of photography, a few styles and modes of shooting and finally, a simulator for various manual camera settings found on DSLRs and even some compact models. Let’s take a look at what we can learn from it, and see what’s still missing.
Any android user knows the joys of taking pictures with their phone. As a matter of fact, many people don’t even carry regular point-and-shoot cameras with them anymore because phone cameras have improved so much in the last few years, not to mention the added value of having the ability to quickly and easily enhance those photos before they even leave the phone.
A good app for auto-enhancing then quickly and easily tweaking those enhancements is a gem when it’s found. One such gem is the Perfectly Clear app that offers all these options along with sharing or saving your photos like a champ.
The humble infographic has gone from the boardroom projector to online viral fame in the last few years. There’s no easier way to represent data to interest a person than by making it look pretty. Good infographics are simple to interpret and often cross language barriers effortlessly.
InFoto aims to tap into this, by converting the hundreds of photos you undoubtedly have stewing on your SD card into a pretty infographic that’ll probably get more likes on Facebook than your original snaps.
When I first heard the idea I thought it was a college student’s half-baked end of year assignment he decided to throw up on the Google Play Store, but it turns out photos actually have a ton of data stored within them. The question is: does the app make impressive use of it?
When was the last time you saw a new mobile phone without a camera? Tough one, isn’t it? From a mere gimmick just a few years ago, to a necessarily underpowered addon, to a full-fledged feature, cameras on mobile phones have come a long way. While the iPhone has graduated to become the most used camera amongst Flickr users, every new Android phone that comes out boasts of some new camera technology unique to itself.
Unfortunately, camera apps haven’t really kept in sync with the advances in mobile phone camera technology over the years. So although your phone may be technically capable of a lot of things, the app you use to shoot your photos is most probably showcasing only a fraction of its abilities. And even if it can take advantage of everything available to it, it hides all that control deep within its settings in an attempt to keep the user interface clean and simple to use.
Except for Shot Control, that is.
Pudding Camera is yet another tantalizing Android app for budding photographers. While it lacks some of the extensive features of paid alternatives, it’s a sleek and simple application, featuring a number of filters and camera styles to spice up your snaps. But is it worth giving a go?
If you’re tired of taking mediocre photos on your mobile, this could turn out to be your new favourite app. You won’t need knowledge of photography or even much common sense to use it; and what’s more, it’s completely free.
Having a smartphone has renewed my interest in improving my photos through various apps on the Play Store. It doesn’t matter that my phone’s camera doesn’t have the highest specs; the apps were good enough to hide that fact.
I’ve also tried just about every photography app that catches my attention, but end up removing most of them since they don’t seem to add anything that isn’t already provided by other apps. For a photo editing app to stand out, it should have one notable feature that others lack – and be absolutely excellent in delivering it.
AfterFocus is one of the new photography apps that does just that. In this article, you’ll learn about this app’s interesting features and how it stands out from the rest.
It seems like there’s no end to the buzz around Instagram, the uber-popular photo sharing app initially released to iPhone users back in 2010. First the launch of the Android version two weeks ago, then the surge of new users (10 million in 10 days), and then the acquisition of the company by Facebook. But does the app deserve all the attention it’s getting in the Play Store?
For those of you who came in late, Instagram lets you take photos, apply filters to spice them up and then share them with the world on social networks. The app is free to use and now boasts a community of over 40 million users worldwide. Since it took so long to reach Android users, other developers created photo apps incorporating similar functionality. Let’s shoot a few pictures and see how Instagram holds up on this platform.
