App Store Description:

1. Dynamic waters simulation, touch reactive. You can stir the water and that will speed up the developing process.
2. Multistage developing. You can watch the development evolving into different stages before achieving the final effect.
3. Process control. You can watch the progress on a ticking stopwatch or drag the watch arm to fast forward or rewind the development. You can also press the "Stop" button to pause to process.
4. More than twenty processing chemicals. You can use them to turn your pictures into old photos, canvas painting, or halftones, make fantastic hot-mix, x ray, or negative effects, or even add rain, snow, rainbow, or fog to the images. Other effects include sepia, emboss, puzzle, blur, etc.
5. Share your creativity. You can send the final images by email or upload them to Facebook or Twitter.
6. Laboratory sound effects.
7. In-App help.

App Store Link: Palm Lab for iPhone; Price: £1.19/$1.99/€1.59

Editors comments: WARNING, this app is Vihgo [App Store Link] in disguise.  It may have some fancy animations letting you slosh the chemicals around in the developing tray, and have chemical bottles like SwankoLab, but the bottom line is the results are straight out of Vihgo, very disappointing.

My advise is, give this app a miss.

Lo-mob

• the core engine has been rewritten. It’s faster.
• iOS4 fast app switch
• High Resolution export (unlimited mode)
• graphics refreshed
• filters modification now happen in Edit mode
• in edit mode, you can now PAN and ZOOM the picture
• in-app manual for beginners

App Store Link: lo-mob; Price: £1.19/$1.99/€1.59

For those not familiar with either of these app, below are their App Store descriptions:

Pro HDR: Automatically capture beautiful full-size HDR photos on your iPhone 4 or 3GS for the first time ever!

Thanks to Pro HDR, you no longer have to choose between a blown-out sky or a hopelessly dark foreground. Bringing automatic high dynamic range photography to your iPhone, Pro HDR captures an image exposed for the highlights and another exposed for the shadows. It then aligns and blends the images, giving you a gorgeous 3- or 5-megapixel HDR image like nothing you've ever seen from such a tiny device.

Unlike fake HDR apps that merely take a single photo and reprocess it (without actually adding any new detail), Pro HDR massively extends the dynamic range of your camera and produces beautiful results that you have to see to believe. Plus, Pro HDR is the only HDR app with an automatic mode, and the only real HDR app that processes your photos at full resolution for the ultimate quality. We also provide an assisted Manual mode for those times when you wish to choose your exact exposures. Finally, you can take stunning high-resolution photos of all those scenes that are just too contrasty to capture in a single picture.

Not only will seasoned photographers instantly fall in love with Pro HDR, one look at our example images should convince anyone that Pro HDR represents a new era in mobile photography.

Pro HDR comes with these incredibly useful features:

• Automatic in-app HDR capture, where all you have to do is tap to start
• Manual in-app photo capture, where you get to choose the exposure of each image in your HDR
• Photo library support, where you can make HDRs from your saved images
• Proprietary image alignment algorithm that precisely aligns full-size images in seconds
• Seamless image blending creates one beautiful output image nearly instantly
• Live-updating image adjustment sliders to perfect your HDR, with auto adjustment option
• Fullscreen image preview in portrait and landscape orientation
• Save HDR images at the full 3 or 5 megapixel resolution of your camera
• Share your HDRs with the world with built-in email support

TrueHDR: Take better full-resolution pictures with your iPhone 4 or 3GS! TrueHDR expands the iPhone camera's limited dynamic range by automatically aligning and merging two photos taken at different exposures, with a result that has vivid colors and details in both bright and dark areas. You can also use TrueHDR to merge photos taken with another variable-exposure camera.

Features:

• Now supports full resolution, including iPhone 4 camera (front and back)!
• Improved UI and support for iPhone 4 retina display
• New sharing features (Facebook, Twitter, email)
• Better image alignment, and more natural-looking results
• Auto-saving option for original pre-HDR photos
• Supports quick app switching - pick up from where you left off when you return
• In-app camera: capture your starting images without ever leaving the app (NOTE: only applies for iPhone 4 and 3GS, not iPhone 3)
• Photo albums integration: create an HDR photo using saved images
• No tripod necessary: We'll align the images and match up the details.
• Sophisticated computational photography algorithms: we use state of the art techniques behind the scenes
• Inspect your results: pinch, zoom and pan around in portrait or landscape to check out the results
• Detailed instructions page with videos: accessible within the app

Use TrueHDR to unleash the potential of your iPhone (4 or 3GS) and create beautiful, full-resolution high dynamic range (HDR) pictures!

Have you taken pictures, only to find out that the clouds were washed out, making the sky look like a white haze? Or how about pictures where everything in the shadows looked like a dark blob with no details?

The problem with taking only one photo of a scene that has a large range from bright to dark is that you have to choose whether you want to capture the brighter or the darker areas.

With TrueHDR, you can get the best of both worlds - capturing the details of bright and dark areas and then merging them into a single photo.

TrueHDR allows you to take HDR pictures with your iPhone 4 or 3GS camera, or to create HDR pictures from images in your iPhone/iPod Touch photo library that were taken with an iPhone 4 or 3GS or another handheld camera with variable exposure settings.

TrueHDR guides you to either take or select two photos, each capturing a different range of brightness in a scene, and then generates one resulting photo that combines the best of both original images into a realistic-looking picture that is much closer to what your eyes originally saw.

The Apps

Both of these apps function in a similar way, in that you can take photos with the app, or load 2 previously taken photos to create the HDR photo; but how do they work?

Pro HDR

Above: This photo was taken using my iPhone 4 and Pro HDR

With Pro HDR you launch the app, and then either load 2 photos for the camera roll or take 2 photos with the app itself.  If you choose to take your HDR photo from with in the app, you have 2 choices to make.  First you can take the photos in Auto HDR mode (this is a new feature in Pro HDR version 2.0), or you can take the shots in the original Manual HDR mode.

In auto mode the app analyses the scene, identifies the light and dark areas, and then takes 2 photos before merging them together.  When merged you then have the option to tweak the result by adjusting the brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth or tint, and this is all done by adjusting the sliders, before either saving or emailing.

In manual mode you are prompted to select a light area of the scene, followed by a dark area, tapping accept after each choice, before the app takes the 2 photo's, and then just as in auto mode, merges the 2 photos to produce the final HDR image, before allowing you to tweak the contrast etc.

In library mode, you simply load 2 previously taking photos that have been exposed for the light and dark areas of the scene, and have the app create the HDR image, and just as with the camera modes, you can then tweak the brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth or tint, before either saving or emailing.

TrueHDR

Above: This photo was taken using my iPhone 4 and TrueHDR

Just like Pro HDR, having launched the app you are presented with 2 options; take pictures (camera) or choose pictures (library), and whilst Pro HDR only has one shooting mode, with basic settings including output size, TrueHDR has no output settings, but has 2 photo taking modes: Standard mode gives the HDR photos more subtle colours, whilst Enhanced mode gives more vivid colours, but takes longer to process.

Which ever mode you choose to use to create your HDR image, from the apps home screen select Take pictures (camera), and you will be prompted to tap a bright area of the scene before tapping the camera icon and taking the first shot.  Having taken the first of the 2 photos your are prompted to touch a dark area of the scene before tapping the camera icon again, to take the second shot. Having taken both shots, you will see 2 thumbnails appear with the option to clear and take again, or merge.

After both photos have been aligned and merged by the app, you are presented with the HDR image, which you can then save or share via email, Facebook or Twitter.

Just as with Pro HDR, TrueHDR let's you create a HDR image from 2 previously taken photos, by using Choose pictures (library) mode.

So what do I think of Pro HDR and TrueHDR?

Both apps do a good job of producing a HDR photo on the iPhone, and both have some strengths and weaknesses.

First let's look at TrueHDR: TrueHDR does not produce the punchy and vibrant colours that I associate with HDR photography even in enhanced mode, but does produce an evenly exposed and balanced photo, especially in standard mode.  The speed that the app processes the images to create the HDR effect, whilst in standard mode is OK, in enhanced mode takes waaaay too long, which means you need to have patience whilst shooting with this app.

Above: The light, dark and TrueHDR version

Now let's look at Pro HDR: For me this app produces the best looking HDR images, with nice exposure and vibrant colours, and in all 3 modes processes the images quickly, making this app a dream to use.  Of the 2 shooting modes I preferred the manual mode as this allowed me to have full control over the selection of the light and dark areas of the scene.

Above: The light, dark and Pro HDR version

I do have one issue with Pro HDR however, and that is, the app has a tendency to produce a slight glow around the darker parts of the photo, kind of like a halo effect, something that TrueHDR does not suffer with.

So which app is best?

Both apps save at almost full-res, with Pro HDR saving the image at 2573x1930, with TrueHDR saving at 2480x1808 on my iPhone 4, compared to the original image that was 2592x1930, but this is probably due to the need to align the 2 images.

Both apps produce HDR results in their own way, with Pro HDR producing results with higher contrast and more vibrant colours, which I preferred, compared to TrueHDR.  Pro HDR also has the ability to tweak the results, something that TrueHDR lacks, again something I preferred.

So, as to which one is best.  Well this will depend on your view of what a HDR photo should look like.  For me I like the results to be punchy, and so for me it has to be Pro HDR, which despite the halo effect I would rate at 5 stars, with TrueHDR coming in second place with 4 stars.

Oh, one last thing...

Just as I was finalising this article, Steve Jobs announced that the next version of the iPhone OS, iOS 4.1 would include HDR photography built right in to the OS, however looking at the sample shown (see below) they resemble those of TrueHDR rather than those of Pro HDR, giving a more evenly exposed result.

We will have to wait and see just what Apple's HDR process produces, but if the samples are correct, then this could be bad news for the developers of TrueHDR.

App Store Links:

• Pro HDR; Price: £1.19/$1.99/€1.59
• TrueHDR: Price: £1.19/$1.99/€1.59

In addition to the HDR capabilities, there will be support for uploading HD video to YouTube and MobileMe directly from the iPhone 4.

As soon as iOS 4.1 becomes available I will be testing out its HDR capabilities, so stay tuned.

As previously speculated, the 4th generation iPod Touch now includes both a front and back facing camera, with the front facing camera being the same as the iPhone 4's, capturing VGA quality photos (ideal for self portraits) and video at up to 30 frames per second, as well as providing face to face video calling via Apple's FaceTime.

However, the back camera (main camera), based on Apple's spec's, shoots 720P HD video at up to 30 frames per second with audio, just like the iPhone 4, however unlike the iPhone 4 it would appear to only capture 960 x 720 HD stills, which if correct, is very disappointing.

I will wait until I get my hands on the new iPod Touch before passing judgement, but on first impression, this 4th generation is unlikely to inspire any new photographers.

The 4th generation iPod Touch will available next week priced at:

8GB iPod Touch 4G = £189.00/$229.00
32GB iPod Touch 4G = £249.00/$299.00
64GB iPod Touch 4G = £329.00/$399.00

Stay tuned for a full review.

App Store Description:

• Choose from 72 paintings from artists such as Cezanne, Chagall, Greco, Leonardo, Monet, Rembrandt, Renoir and Van Gogh to name a few.
• Select from 40 Photos by various masters of photography including Abbott, Andreev, Cunningham, Fenton, Nadar, Outerbridge, Stieglitz and Weston
• Try one of 30 historical processes, some of which are Ambrotype, Cyanotype, Liquid Emulsion, Kallitype, Palladium, Salt Print, Vandyke and Wet Plate
• Color, tone and brightness replication
• Texture, grain and detail simulation
• Add a vignette to any preset
• Modify images with presets or sliders
• Edit in portrait or landscape mode
• Quickly search for presets
• Integrated Help

App Store Link: PhotoCopier; Price: £1.19/$1.99/€1.59

Above: iPhone 4 Skinned with Lomo-LCA SkinIt, ©Kevin Kethcart

Following my post about skinning your iPhone 4 to look like a Leica camera, blog reader Kevin Kethcart decided to skin his like a Lomo, saying "A few weeks ago iPhoneography.com posted an article about skinning an iPhone 4 to look like a Leica. Well, I've always been a fan of the Lomo LC-A, so I went that route. I used skinit.com to make the skin."

I think Kevin's skinned iPhone looks really cool, so if you have skinned your iPhone to look like a camera, any camera, then we'd like to see it, so please add a link to any photos you may have of you camera skinned iPhone in the comments below.

If you have an iPhone 4, then please ensure you are running iOS 4.0.2, as this seems to fix the crashing problems.  Currently there is no fix for older versions of iOS.

Please read the updates below for the latest information on this update.

Perfectly Clear has just been updated to version 2.0, bringing some really nice features, like the automatic noise removal, which is an in app purchase, costing £1.19/$1.99/€1.59.

What's New In Version 2.0

1. Powerful automatic noise removal

• Grainy/noisy images are a major problem with iPhone photos. Until now there has been no iPhone app effectively dealing with this. Powered by our partner Stoik Imaging, we're offering this correction -- specifically optimized for iPhone photos -- as an optional feature via the in app purchase. Unlike other noise removal corrections that blur photos after removing noise, our solution is unique in preserving the crisp details.

2. Ability to share images via

• email
• twitter
• facebook

3. Smarter Sharpening

• A revised engine giving you more precise and accurate sharpening. For our Default preset for automatic processing, less sharpening is applied. For your fine tuning needs, the sharpening range has been doubled.

4. Shake out the edit control panel, then shake it back.

5. User defined preset: you can now create your own unique preset for custom results

6. Added settings panel:

• Fewer clicks to save a photo - now when you press the “save button” your photos will be automatically saved to the resolution you set. Note that if you’ve synched your photos via iTunes, your photos will be re-sized by iTunes to 320 X 480 – and this will be the largest size available to save
• Ability to automatically save the original photo taken with iPhone camera through our app

App Store Link: Perfectly Clear; Price: £1.79/$2.99/€2.39

Above: Attaching the Jelly Fisheye Lens to my iPhone 4

Above: Taken without the Jelly Lens

Above: Taken with the Jelly Fisheye Lens

So what did I think of the Jelly wide-angle lens?

OK, the images are soft and a little fuzzy, the vignette/edges are yellow/green in colour, and it needs a little modification to make it stick to the glass front of the iPhone 4, but for £1.49 it's not bad, and whilst it wont win any awards, for the money, it was a good buy. If you want to create that fisheye look on the cheap, then I recommend tracking one of these down on eBay.