It would appear that mobile apps are taking over the world as we know it. There is quite literally an app for everything nowadays. Seldom does a situation arise in which an iPhone-wielding know-it-all can’t comment, “there’s an app for that”.
Some of the most successful apps on the market allow the Average Joe to transform their smartphones into ‘professional’ cameras. With minimal skill or effort, you can take incredible photographs, using the many photography apps that are available to download. Some apps will cost you nothing, some just a few pence, whereas others may cost a few pounds.
But really, it’s about knowing which are worth investing your time and money into We’ve cherry-picked 5 of the best photography apps for the iPhone, so you don’t have to trawl through the thousands of mediocre ones out there. So, in no particular order, my top 4 photography apps for the iPhone:
360 Panorama
Taking panoramic photos on your mobile device is something that many app developers have attempted to allow us to do in the past, yet few have come close to the success of the guys behind 360 Panorama. We’ve had apps in the past that allow us to take a number of shots and painstakingly stitch them together to produce a panoramic image.
360 Panorama uses the power of your iPhone to stitch your images in realtime as you spin your camera 360 degrees. You can use the iPhone’s gyroscope to control your camera and to view images.
Hipstamatic
For those with absolutely no natural photography ability, Hipstamatic is perhaps the app for you. The easy-to-use application is one of the reasons behind the recent comeback of Lomography and Polaroid cameras – everyone loves vintage these days. Hipstamatic really is ‘new age fun with a vintage feel’. Choose from a number of different film effects and lens and flash simulations, point and shoot. Even with a slight delay, you usually end up with some pretty tasty shots!
Big Lens
Turn your simple 5 megapixel iPhone into a full-blown SLR with this one. Well, not quite, but you’ll probably be able to fool a few people that you used a professional camera rather than your mobile phone.
This app allows you to edit your regular shots and create various effects by changinging the periphery blur levels, setting aperture or adjusting background light. The end result is pretty impressive. You can add some real depth with your photographs with Big Lens (as the name would suggest).
Instagram is probably the most successful photography app available at the App Store. Much in the same way that Hipstamatic does, this app allows you to add a number of effects and filters to create images with a definite vintage feel. Again, it doesn’t take an enormous amount of skill to capture stunning images.
Instagram combines the social media, giving you the ability to share your images with friends, by uploading your shots straight to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare and Posterous, straight from your phone.
This article was written by Barry Magennis, who specialises in recruiting for graphic design jobs in the UK.
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What are the best apps for android though?
I suggest you get yourself a Gmail email address and sign up for Google+. It’s full of information and people who will talk about it ’til the cows come home. Me, I’m an Apple user.