What the New iPhone Apps Store Brings for Photographers

I woke up this morning and was very excited to see that the new iPhone Apps store was up and running in my iTunes. It’s Christmas in July!

I understand there are over 500 applications available for iPhone 2.0s (as well as older iPhones once they are upgraded). The applications are helpfully broken down into categories, one of which is “Photography.”

There are currently nineteen apps in the Photography category - here is what the top part of the first page looks like.

I was really happy to see that some of The Digital Photography Show’s favorites now have native iPhone applications. Both are for online photo sharing sites.

SmugMug’s entry got the honor of being the first app to be highlighted in the App Store’s “What’s Hot” listing. Their free SmugShot allows you to upload your iPhone’s shots directly to your SmugMug galleries, and, as a bonus, automatically geotags them using the phone’s built-in GPS. Visitors to your gallery can click on your shot and be taken to a Google Map of where you were. Sweeeet! (Unless you have stalkers, in which case you might want to turn that feature off. Sorry, Britney!)

SmugMug’s galleries look gorgeous in their custom-built iPhone interface, too.

Also checking in with an app is Phanfare, with their free app. Their product also allows you to wirelessly upload your shots, although there doesn’t seem to be any geotagging capability. There is, however, functionality for posting your pic on Facebook.

Phanfare’s description in iTunes says their app lets you “display on your living room TV through XBox 360 and PS3.” That sentence seems to be missing a word, and I don’t know how that function would work. Bluetooth? It’s not described on Phanfare’s web page about the app. They do, however, have a neat little video that features our old friend Andrew Erlichson showing the automatic uploading to that cloud that everyone seems so fond of these days.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with these and the other iPhone apps for photographers.

Many of them allow you to upload to and explore Flickr more easily (Moblie Flickr, Exposure, MoPhoTo). Flickr has many devotees and I’m sure these will see a lot of downloads.

Other apps give you some annotation gimmicks (like drawing lines and word balloons) on your shots (Mr. Shuffle, TalkBubbles, Squiggles, iGraffiti). Cute, but not exactly necessary.

I only found one app that does what I was most expecting to see - picture editing on the iPhone. It’s called Jade, and it consists of nothing more than a single slider that adjusts “the intensity of the filter” to improve your shot. What that filter is and does, they don’t say, although one reviewer claimed it just increases contrast.

My favorite of the apps is called NearPics. It “lets you see some photographs taken near where you are right now.” This is great for people who can’t be bothered to, uh, look around. No, it probably would be fun, and, since it costs nothing, it’s one I look forward to playing with. I bet it could probably inspire you when shooting onsite to see what other photographers have done in your place.

The bummer about the iPhone apps is that, while some are free, the fee-based ones have no free trials. The Photography apps either cost zippy or run between $3-$10, with one, which allows you to dial your contacts by tapping on their picture, costing $15.

Comments

[David Jay]

That SmugShot app rocks! I love the mapping feature! Rock on!

[scottiphone]

Just to let you know Squiggles 1.1 is out. (It's not under Photography anymore since the AppStore changed categories)
It does have some basic realtime adjustments (brightness, contrast) as well as distortions and grayscale. It's real purpose is to paint, notate, and to allow people to have fun with their photos.
I need to make notes on photos as part of what I do so that was the main focus here.

I'm considering a more professional photography oriented app in the future. Right now there are some issues with the built in camera support and memory limitations.

To see a demo video and images check out the web site:
http://www.squiresstudios.com/software/

[UnlockiPhone]

Unlock any iPhone worldwide from £7.99 with iUnlock from Unlock iPhone HQ. Tailor made iUnlock packs that unlock just your particular iPhone Version, i.e. iPhone 2G on 2.2 firmware using a Windows Machine. Guarantee a successful unlock!

[Unlock iPhone]

Unlock any iPhone worldwide from £7.99 with iUnlock from Unlock iPhone HQ. Tailor made iUnlock packs that unlock just your particular iPhone Version, i.e. iPhone 2G on 2.2 firmware using a Windows Machine. Guarantee a successful unlock!