The iPhoneography Showcase of Jon Betts

My background is in fine arts and music as performance art; however I've always been interested in photography. A photograph can freeze time, take things out of context, even change history, but most importantly it is a fairly immediate process.

The iPhone has completely changed how I photograph. I carry it everywhere. While it lacks a zoom, it is lightweight and has good macro capabilities. Also, people aren't threatened by its use as it isn't perceived as a serious camera.

I like taking pictures of ordinary things and presenting them in different contexts. The diptych and other multi-image methods of presentation is great for making relationships that don't necessarily occur "naturally". Images can be combined based on color, compositional similarities or as part of a narrative.

While these examples all use ShakeItPhoto, I use a wide variety of apps since the cost of entry is extremely low and each has their own strengths and weaknesses. However, I no longer use apps that don't save full resolution images (other than ShakeItPhoto) as printing is an important part of my process. I also only want to carry around one "camera", so I've stopped using apps that don't support the photo album.

Title: Flag (after Johns) | Apps Used: ShakeItPhotoTitle: Grapes of Wrath | Apps Used: ShakeItPhotoTitle: Green | Apps Used: ShakeItPhotoTitle: Poker Face | Apps Used: ShakeItPhotoTitle: Texas | Apps Used: ColorClaw & ShakeItPhotoYou can check out more of Jon's work here.

If you would like to showcase your iPhone photos here on the iPhoneography blog, then send me an email and I'll reply with details on how to submit.

The iPhoneography Showcase of Alexandre Vincent

“If I want to take a photograph, I take it, it does not matter what it is.” - Nan Goldin

Graduated in Visual Arts (option photographs) in Brussels, I compare myself as a image hunter. I like the instantaneous, the moment, the object, the atmosphere which will inspire my emotions. Fixing those furtive moments is a passion which has fed my days for more than 10 years. I worked with various cameras from the reflex camera to the small compact. But no matter the size of the camera,  for me it is the eye which composes the image. Since I acquired my iPhone 3G (just a year ago), I do not use any more the other cameras. It offers so many possibilities. You can in one moment create images of various formats with various textures, and this is thanks to the many applications. Those which I generally use, are Camera Bag, SquareCam and Polarize.

Here are some examples of my preferred Camerabag images. For those which wishes it, I invite you to see other pictures in the following link: http://web.me.com/alexandrev

Above: Flower GroundAbove: Open Garden HouseAbove: Inside AntwerpAbove: The WorkerAbove: AutumnIf you would like to showcase your iPhone photos here on the iPhoneography blog, then send me an email and I'll reply with details on how to submit.

'iPhoneography' creates eye-catching art

Sion Fullana does it again!

Hot on the heels of Sion and others being featured in American Photo magazine, Sion Fullana has been featured in Londons Metro newspaper [link to article], so well done Sion.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention Valerie Ardini, whose work was also mentioned in this article. Valerie's excellent photography can be viewed here.

New iPhone Photo App: Perfectly Clear – Patented Automatic Photo Correction

Description from the AppStore: Tired of dark, washed-out, flat, and fuzzy photos with your iPhone? With 1 click you can now have beautiful photos automatically corrected to perfection!

The Perfectly Clear app applies multi-patented corrections automatically to your photos. Powered by the same technology licensed to many of the largest photography companies, retailers, and labs around the world, the Perfectly Clear iPhone app makes it possible to automatically reveal the full color vibrancy, sharpness, and lighting that you saw when you took the photo.

Did you know that parts of photos are underexposed because there is only a single aperture? To learn more about what sets our digital corrections apart from traditional corrections, and how we treat each pixel as if it were taken with its own aperture to ensure proper exposure, check our website.

Simply take a photo, or choose one from your library, and Perfectly Clear will automatically correct it.

There are 2 presets that you can choose from to correct your photo. In addition, you can easily and quickly tweak your photo by adjusting 5 different algorithms, each one uniquely powered by deep science to ensure an accurate, and beautiful correction.

1. EXPOSURE: Perfect Exposure is the most important correction and forms the core for all other corrections. Perfect Exposure optimizes the light in every pixel. This patented approach corrects the image to emulate how your eye gathers light thereby replicating what you saw at the time of taking the photo.
2. CONTRAST: Increasing the shadows in a photo helps reveal the textures and shapes in the scene. This provides visual cues of the 3D world in a 2D photograph. Perfectly Clear optimizes the contrast in each pixel, choosing the right amount of shadow to provide those 3D cues without losing details in those shadows, giving you a photograph that is very eye-pleasing with lots of “punch”.
3. COLOR VIBRANCY: Due to the linear nature of digital camera sensors, when more light is gathered, the sensors frequently become over saturated and color vibrancy is lost. That’s why your images often look like a newspaper that has been left out in the sun. Perfectly Clear’s color vibrancy correction puts the rich colors back into your photo.
4. SHARPEN: Perfectly Clear’s proprietary sharpening is a series of very powerful and unique algorithms developed to deliver a crisp looking photo that is artifact free.
5. TINT REMOVAL: Abnormal tint occurs in situations where the sensors of the camera have inappropriately picked up excess green from fluorescent lights, or excess blue from ultraviolet, or excess yellow from tungsten lights. Perfectly Clear's patent pending process will automatically remove these unwanted tints.

TIPS:

• Slide your finger sideways across the photo to compare the before and after results.
• Tapping your finger on the photo will toggle between the before and after image.
• The “Default” preset is applied to each image when first loaded.
• The “Fix Dark” preset is particularly good for images that have very dark and very bright areas.
• For fixing really dark images try turning the Color Vibrancy control off in addition to the contrast control. Tap on the word “Color Vibrancy” or on the word “on” to turn it off.
• If you get a "running low on memory" message, just close it and relaunch.

AppStore Link: Perfectly Clear – Patented Automatic Photo Correction - Price £1.79/$2.99

Editors comments: Reader Matthew Chappell tipped me off about this app that has been out for a little while, but is one that I missed, and below are his comments on this app.

You said a while back to let you know if I found an effective instant fix App to emulate flash/fix exposure! Well I just tried out Perfectly Clear today and have to say I'm very impressed, its great at fixing tungsten lighting if you use the Default settings and just place tint at full if need be. But the reason I bought it was to test its FixDark mode which doesn't really emulate flash like iFlashReady but does lighten the dark areas of my images more than any other App I've tested. It has less noise than Zipix, but more than FlashCam in exchange for revealing a lot more hidden detail, though it does suffer the same blown out colours I found with that FlashCam there is a fix if you tap the contrast slider.

The interface is very nice but the comparison slider line can be a bit awkward to get back on screen until you tap the control panel on and off again!

Hope this heads up helps and here is the App's site http://www.athentech.com/iPhone.html

CameraBag version 1.6 now available

If you are fan of CameraBag [AppStore Link], then a check for app updates will reveal version 1.6 is now available with the new Colorcross effect. Sadly this app still does not appear to support full resolution on the iPhone 3GS, which will put many people off this app.

Above: Sample of CameraBag's Colorcross effect