For those of you who have been following this blog for some time you will have seen my review of iFlashReady, and for those of you who are fairly new to this site you may not have seen that review. Well iFlashReady has recently been updated, and whilst on holiday I used the app quite a bit, and as anyone with either the original iPhone of the iPhone 3G will know the exposure at times can be way off target. This is where iFlashReady comes in handy, so for those of you not familiar with with app, and those who may have forgotten about it, I have decided to revisit the app with a quick review.

iFlashReady basically brightens any dull photos quickly and easily, and can salvage a photo destine for the trash bin to one you can add to your photo album.

Simply launch iFlashReadyand and tap "Choose a Photo to Start", then select a photo from your Camera Roll/Photo Albums and let iFlashReady do its work. You will notice when your photo loads that iFlashReady by default selects the 2nd of the three enhancements and for most this option is adequate, however if not then touching on the Flash/lightening strike icons either side of the default one will produce varied effects. When you happy with the previewed effect, simply tap "Save" and the lightened photo is saved to the Camera Roll, and that's it your done.

Above: Original photo with out iFlashReadyAbove: The same photo with iFlashReady default settingThere are a couple of things that I should point out, the first is the final result can look a little grainy with added noise, but this will very much depend on the photo you are trying to salvage. The second, is this new version can crash after saving a photo, but a reboot of your iPhone should fix this, and is something the developer is actively looking at.

AppStore Link: iFlashReady - Price £0.59 ($.99)

When you load the app, it gives you clear instructions on how to take the two photosI have long been interested in how various 3D effects work, and how to make them. Now I can, with 3D Camera by Juicy Bits (£1.19). It allows you to take two photos, with the second one having a semi-transparent overlay of the first to help you align them. Then once you have taken them, you can select from multiple 3D formats and save the 3D image to your Camera Roll.

There are three different formats of 3D images you can make with this app:- anaglyph, stereogram, and wigglegram.

Anaglyph is the format we all recognise as the typical red and blue images which require the appropriate glasses to view as a 3D image (cheap pairs can be found on eBay among others). The app gives us the option of having the image displayed as grey (pure red and blue) or colour (red and blue with tints of the original image colours).

Above: Sample analglyph greyAbove: Sample anaglyph colourThe next method is the stereogram "parallel" format, where it places the two images side by side, and you must train your eyes to not focus on them, but to relax your eyes so they see through them and they are out of focus. Eventually, you trick your eyes into thinking the two images are in fact the same object and focus on it as one object, giving it a 3D effect without the need for special glasses.

Finally, we have the wigglegram format, which can be created but not saved in the apps current version. However, the developer has said an upcoming version will allow the saving and sharing of this format, and an example from the developer can be found here. What you will see is the two images in an animated format that flicks between them- it is not actually 3D, but gives a sense of depth to the image.

Out of the three formats, I prefer the anaglyph in colour the best. The stereogram format is very good, but it can take a while to train your eyes to view an image in 3D, and some people just can't do it at all. And the wigglegram format is different, but is nowhere near as effective as the others. The anaglyph format can be put to great use with this app, and I can imagine a lot of landscape photos would really benefit from it (as you can see above). The effect is excellent if the photos are taken correctly, and the app makes it very easy to swap between the different formats, even if you just want to see if the photo is best in colour or grey.

Once the 3D image is created, if it is anything other than the wigglegram format, the app can then give you options to save it to your Camera Roll, save the originals to the Camera Roll, send the image directly to Facebook, or send it directly to Twitpic. I found sending it to Facebook worked very well without hickup.

Finally, the developer has mentioned the following additional features to be available in an upcoming update:

• Ability to use your finger to re-align images after they’ve been taken
• Ability to control or eliminate the “black bar” between the left and right stereogram images
• Ability to save/send wigglegram animations
• Ability to take advantage of the increased camera resolution on the iPhone 3GS models
• Ability to upload directly to Flickr

Overall, this is a highly recommended app for those interested in giving their photos a little depth.

AppStore Link: 3D Camera £1.19 ($1.99)

Barry is an Apple fan and developer of Punk Justice for the iPhone/iPod Touch