One of my first posts on this blog was about which iPhone Photo-apps I prefered. Well those things change when apps get updated and new apps are developed, so I thought I’d share my best apps at this moment.

Snapseed

I downloaded Snapseed quite a long time ago (in technology terms) and I immediately liked the GUI. Professional and really easy to use at the same time. I can’t say that this app is the best in terms of amount of filters or in number of parameters you can change, but I think it’s one of the best apps in quality and GUI.

Photoshop Express (link to app store) – From my previous post
I guess Adobe don’t need any further presentation. In the image-industry they are one of the biggest, and the Photoshop-software have been around for quite awhile. With Photoshop Express you get one feature that I think is necessary if you’re keen on getting the noise out of your pictures, Noise Reduction (this feature is actually the single feature that I use in this app but Noise is almost always a problem when you’re using mobile phone cams so I use it on almost every pic I share).

Below you have the same picture, with and without the reduce noise function in Photoshop Express.

iPhone-image of Visby sunset without reduce noise function (Click image for large version)

Same picture as above, but now with reduce noise (Click image for large version)

A note to using this function is that, when you reduce noise, also loose details so the result will, as always, differ depending on what you want to show. Photoshop is free but you have to spend a few bucks on getting the Reduce Noise Function

Instagram (link to app-store) – From my previous post
If you like filters and sharing images with the rest of the world you’ll love Instagram (my nickname at Instagram is pedrohansson). I’m surprised how creative and actually really beautiful images that are shared at Instagram. And many of those just using their iPhone (1) What I think separates Instagram from many other “filter-apps” is their strength as a company. You can feel the quality.

© Pedro Hansson – iPhone-Image using Instagram-app
Upplands Väsby Sweden

Pro-HDR (link to App-store)
One of the apps that I’m using the most. The iPhones built-in functionality for HDR is quite good but this app is so far ahead in terms of control and image quality. If you don’t know what HDR is and are interested in getting some new ideas for your photographic session I suggest that you look into it. In short HDR is using several exposures (over- and under exposed) to create one image. By using several exposures you can use the lighter information in the under exposed image and vice versa. HDR-apps can also being used for creating motion and ghost-like effects.

Another side-effect with HDR is that you can find colors that otherwise aren’t possible due to over- and under exposure-difficulties.

A side effect of using two images is that you need keep the camera absolute still, otherwise you get some blurry effects.

© Pedro Hansson – iPhone HDR-image of
South Kensington Station in London

I hope you can use some of the app-tips above. Happy for comments. What is your best photo-app and how do you use it?

(1) A portion of the images at Instagram are shot with professional equipment

iDarkroom (link to App Store)
This app is quite like Pixlromatic, i.e it comes with a bunch of filters to use. The user interface is fast and friendly and it’s really easy to like. The cost for this app is 7,00 SEK (about $1) in App Store so I guess it’s well spent money.

Screen Capture from iDarkroom

PhotoToaster

This is, together with ProHDR and Photoshop Express the photoapp I’m using the most. I started off with using the “junior-version” but upgraded to the full version later. What I really enjoy with PhotoToaster is that it has some really nice filters to enhance the picture without making them look “too funky”. Focus on many of the filters are almost like a pre-set Photoshop app.

Powercam

The last app on this list is PowerCam. This is app that I only use when I wan’t to do Tilt-shift images. With Tilt-shift I don’t just mean the effect when things will look like a miniature world. I use it more frequently when I wan’t a nice bokeh (from Wikipedia: the blur,or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image). This app does that better than any of the other I’ve tried on the market.