POTD: Lake Manyara Sunset

I wonder why when you say goodbye

beautiful colours paint the sky.

Shades of orange, yellow and pink too

all come out because of you.

And although I hate to see you go,

I really do enjoy the show.

I've seen you leave so many times

and still it's a favourite sight of mine.

There'll be no sadness, be no sorrow

because my sun, you'll come out tomorrow.

I won't feel hurt, I'll feel no pain

because on your way down, your colours will reign.

• Adoni Marcano, http://www.poetryinnature.com/nature/poetry.asp?poem=5928#ixzz1fwkCps2P

1)      Panorama - Autostitch

2)      Original – Camera+

3)      ToonPaint

4)      Snapseed

5)      Snapseed – Drama

6)      Photo Toaster – Color Burst

7)      Simply HDR

Apps Featured:

• Autostitch
• Camera+
• Snapseed
• Photo Toaster

iPhoneography apps by features

Over the last few months, I have accumulated hundreds of iPhone apps for photography. And honestly, it is often confusing to remember which app has which particular features. Every time I have to edit a photograph, I am struggling to determine which is the best app to do the job. And also most of them offer the same features in a slightly different way to each other. So, now I am starting to build a catalog of features that I normally want for my photo editing and list down the corresponding apps that support them. This is just a nascent piece of work at the moment, so keep coming back to see regular updates on the page.

• Capturing Photos
Below is a list of apps that I prefer to use depending on the type of photo I am planning to click.
• Normal mode
Native camera app
Camera+
King Camera
• Retro
Lumiere
Retro Camera Plus
• Monochrome
1. Streetmate
2. B&W Camera
• HDR
1. Pro HDR
2. HDR Fusion
• Panoramas
1. Autostitch Panorama
2. DerManDar Panorama
3. Photosynth
• Shutter Control
1. SlowShutter Cam
• Stealth
1. nofinder
• Quick
1. QuickPix
2. BurstMode
• Crop an image
1. Camera+
This app is my first choice when I have the need to crop an image. It offers cropping in various dimensions like square golden ratio, 4:3,16:9, and freeform. 
2. Squaready
3. Iris Photo Suite
4. Photoforge2
5. PS Express
6. FX Photo Studio
• Increase/Decrease Sharpness
1. PS Express
2. Iris Photo Suite
3. Snapseed
• Adjust Brightness/Contrast
1. Snapseed (allows selective adjustment)
2. PS Express
3. Iris Photo Suite
• Increase/Decrease Ambiance
1. Snapseed
• Change White Balance
1. Snapseed
• Increase/Decrease Saturation
1. Snapseed
2. PS Express
3. Iris Photo Suite
• Convert into a monochrome
1. Monochromia
2. Noir Photo
3. Snapseed
4. Camera+
5. FX Photo Studio
• Selective Colouring
1. iQuikColor Splash (allows selecting up to 4 colors at a time)
2. Iris Photo Suite
3. Color Splash
• Convert into HDR
1. Simply HDR
2. Dynamic Light
3. Photo Toaster
4. Camera+
• Adding Depth of Field
1. iQuikDOF
2. Big Lens
• Convert into an Artistic image

1. ToonPaint
2. MobileMonet
3. AutoPainter
4. Autopainter II
5. Paint It! Now
6. Art Camera
7. Artographo
8. Sketch Me!

iPhoneography Apps Review - Big Lens

Big Lens is one of the best iPhone photography apps that I have purchased. It is a simple to use, yet very powerful, app. You can either take a photo from the in app camera shortcut or even import your own photo from the camera roll / photo album. You get six command options at the bottom to edit your photo. Aperture option allows selecting a lens from f3.5 to f1.8 - lowest number (largest aperture) gives a very focused macro type effect. The blurred background looks very natural and very much like what you would have got on a SLR pic. You can select from a circle or linear type focus and the app also provides around 9 different types o lenses to choose from. There are 19 filters to change the look and feel of your photo.

Overall I am very impressed with this app and will definitely recommend buying it.

Discounted noteworthy iPhoneography apps today - 22 October 2011

Photo Academy (down from £1.49 to £0.69)
A sort of educational cum reference app for photography.

FX Photo Studio (down from £1.49 to £0.69)
One of my personal favourite photo editing apps. It's got more than 190 amazing filters and an utterly useful masking feature that allows selective editing of a picture. You can apply one filter over the other hundreds of times. It also gives some knowledgeable fun trivia while rendering or saving the file. I love this app and at this price it's definitely worth buying.

You gotta see this! (down from £1.49 to £0.69)
A different perspective to panoramic photography. No personal views on this since I haven't yet tried it but it has decent reviews on some of the photography blogs.

POTD: Sunset at Thames Flood Barrier - 3rd + Reader's Contribution

Building up on yesterday’s sunset picture – taken at slightly later time of the evening. This picture too has been taken with an iPhone and then edited in Camera+ app to convert into an HDR.

Today we have an additional picture contributed by my colleague, Thomas Rippstein. It is the view of NYC from Jersey City, taken early morning with HTC Incredible phone.

 

POTD: Sunset at Thames Flood Barrier

One more of the sunset at Thames Flood Barrier. For people who are wondering what this Thames Flood Barrier is – it is the world’s second largest movable flood barrier (after the Oosterscheldekering in the Netherlands) located near Charlton in London. For more details check on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Barrier.

(taken with iPhone Lumiere app)

POTD: Sunset at Thames Flood Barrier

Last weekend I had been to Thames Flood Barrier and got a few good clicks. Will send these over the course of next few days. Starting off with a sunset picture that I took with my iPhone.

(mildly edited in Simply HDR app)

POTD: One for Love and Friendship

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend."

- Albert Camus

(taken with iPhone in Greenwich Park and edited in Snapseed)

POTD: Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leavesby Leland B. Jacobs

Green leaves,
Yellow leaves,
Red leaves, and brown,
ALL   Falling,
ALL   Falling,
ALL   Blanketing the town.
Oak leaves,
Maple leaves,
Apple leaves, and pear,
ALL   Falling,
ALL   Whispering,
ALL   “Autumn’s in the air!”
Big leaves,
Little leaves,
Pointed leaves, and round,
ALL   Falling,
ALL   Nestling,
ALL   Carpeting the ground.

from: Jacobs, Leland B. 1993. Just Around the Corner: Poems about the Seasons. New York: Henry Holt.

(taken with iPhone and converted into a triptych in “Collage It” software – not app this time)

POTD: Flat Sunrise

I took this picture from my flat window yesterday at around 6:30ish in the morning. I saw a very intriguing beautiful pattern in the sky and it was there for hardly few minutes, but enough for me to capture the moment on my iPhone.

 

(edited for sharpness of the barren tree stems in Iris app and removed an unwanted crane in the frame using Retouch app)

(converted into a monochrome using Noir Photo app)

POTD: And then there was just one...

Before 2004, London had two planetariums – one in Greenwich and the other at Madame Tussauds. The latter was closed down in 2006 and replaced with some showbiz variety shows. The former was shut down in 2004, but resurrected in 2007 – much bigger and much better than ever. It is placed in National Maritime Museum and is largely funded by Peter Harrison. Incidentally, the Queen as a child inaugurated the museum itself in 1937 along with her father, King George VI, and she switched on the stars again in May 2007. You can read more on this on http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/may/19/spaceexploration.uknews

The museum also houses the oldest object that you will ever touch. It is a part of the Gibeon meteorite, over 4.5 billion yrs old, that landed in Namibia, Africa.

Both the pictures were taken with Nikon D5100, 35mm lens. The planetarium picture was edited in Noir Photo app to convert into a monochrome. No edits done on the meteorite pic.

POTD: Graffiti Wall

Also called as the Skateboard Park, Graffiti wall is a popular hangout for kids on BMX’s and skateboards in the Southbank area of London. This riverside mural underneath the National Theatre is perennially plastered with graffiti and sticker art. I read an article on the net saying a South African artist by the name of Robin Rhode was commissioned in 2008 to decorate the 400 square foot area with a mass of geometric silver and black patterns. It took the South African and his 10 assistants a total of 2 days to complete the assignment, but within 24 hours, the work was ruined and overwritten with new set of slogans and tags by general public - it is one of the legal areas of London for graffiti writing/painting.

1. Original

(taken with Nikon D5100; added some sharpness in Photo Toaster)

2. Cinematic Version

(Converted in Bleach Bypass app)

3. Cyclist at Graffiti Wall

 

(taken with Nikon D5100; 35mm lens; unedited)

Yesterday’s Polling Results on St. Paul’s Dome pictures:

Number 4 (Shining Dome - Muted Monochrome version) was the winner, closely followed by Number 3 (Triptych)

POTD: St. Paul's Dome

1. Original Version

(taken with Canon IXUS 310HS) (Courtesy: Ian Woodberry for the idea of taking this picture from 6^th floor of One New Change)

2. Old Photo Version

(edited in Dynamic Light app and then converted into an Old Photo in PicFX app)

3. Triptych Version

(converted into monochromes (blue, gray and green colour filters) in Noir Photo app and then collaged in Photo Wall app)

4. Shining Dome Version

(edited in Bleach Bypass app – applied Muted Monochrome filter)

POTD: Shadows on the Bridge

(taken with Canon IXUS 310 HS and converted into a blue filter monochrome in Noir Photo app)

Tuesday Thunder - St. Paul's and Gherkin

I have a bonanza of FIVE pictures today, albeit of the same place, but in different shades. The setting is South Bank view of St. Paul's and Gherkin. I love this view – am not sure if it was better without the cranes that seem to be omnipresent throughout London nowadays, but nevertheless, I have used them to my advantage in some of these pictures.

Firstly, I should thank Ian and Carolyne for waiting patiently while I took this picture in their company. Next, lets put the feast on the table. J

1. Unedited version. It was dusk time with clear sky and good natural magic hour lighting.

(taken with Canon IXUS 310HS)

2. Monochrome. There was drama in the scene with both water and sky in ample abundance in the frame; also, the tall cranes accentuated the dramatic story. All these elements are compelling enough to convert this picture into a Monochrome.

(converted in Noir Photo app)

3. Cinematic. The shot looked fit to be part of a Hollywood movie – so, I added some cinematic effect to it.

(applied Drama filter in Snapseed and thick vignettes in Bleach Bypass to give the spotlight effect)

4. Artistic. No explanation required here. The photo effused so much of artistic flare that I felt it natural to apply an artistic filter to it.

(applied Clarity and Magic Hour filters in Camera+; added some sharpness in PS Express; concluded by adding a gritty black border in Camera+)

5. Sunset Enhanced. I used Sunset Taker app to enhance the evening colour in this version of the photograph.

I hope you like today's post and there is at least one version which manages to hold your attention – tell me which one!

St. Paul's Panoramas

Continuing with the past two day's theme, we have some more of St. Paul's today – this time in the shape of Panoramic pictures. I haven't dabbled with this part of photography before, and have started experimenting it recently.

On this occasion, I took some pictures from the terrace of the One New Change mall – on recommendation from Ian (you get the credit again J). Basically, I took some 16 pictures spanning from Shard to St. Paul's part of the view and then stitched them together in Autostitch app. I loved the result and hope you like it as well. Then, I took a second panorama of the front side of St. Paul's, which has come out more like a fisheye picture but that's the best I could create from such a short distance.

(taken with Canon IXUS 310HS and stitched together in Autostitch)

(taken with iPhone and collated in Autostitch)

P.S.: Yesterday's voting result: Cinematic version (#3) won hands down, closely followed by the Monochrome version (#2).

Canary Wharf as seen from Greenwich Park

Now that we have established a sort of pattern for Fridays, why break it, huh? At least not this Friday, maybe next…

Please feast yourselves to three pictures of Canary Wharf as viewed from Greenwich park – you get a pretty impressive view from there. I took these pictures with three different cameras – you can vote for one you like the most.


(taken with Nikon Coolpix P80 at telephoto zoom; edited for brightness, contrast, saturation in PS)


(taken with Nikon D5100 SLR, 35mm lens; unedited)


(taken with iPhone and then converted into an artistic image in Camera+ and PS Express apps)

An eyeful of eye

A simple and satisfying click of a very famous landmark of London.

(taken with IXUS 310HS and applied the vintage filter in FX Photo Studio)

(taken with IXUS 310HS, left unedited except for converting into monochrome in Noir Photo app)

Deserted Newspaper Boy

Deserted Newspaper Boy, a photo by girish_nayyar on Flickr.

Clicked with iPhone using nofinder app: edited for central focus in Snapseed

Canary Wharf Sunset

Canary Wharf Sunset, a photo by girish_nayyar on Flickr.

Taken with Canon Ixus 310HS and then edited for selective colouring in iQuikSplash.