App Review: Add some extra flare to your iPhoneography with Lens Flare

Lens Flare is the result of light interacting with the optics of a camera lens optics, and Lens Flare aims to emulate this effect for your iPhone photos.

AppStore Description: Lens Flares are the result of light interacting with camera lens optics. They add a whole new layer to your photos - an interplay of light and imagery. Lens flares can be used to enhance existing light sources in your photo, such as the sun, or add a completely new source of light.

Take a new photo with your camera, or choose an existing photo. Professional sample images included. Landscape photos work best, especially with the anamorphic lens.

POSITIONING - Position the flare naturally by simply tilting your device, or tap the lock icon to use touch positioning.

LENS OPTICS - Lighting effects modeled after real lens optics:

• Various tinted lens coatings
• Unique anamorphic lens effects as seen in Star Trek, Transformers, etc.
• Edge detection for aperture reflection
• Prismatic lens diffraction

FEATURES

• Incredibly Easy to Use
• Real Time Flare Positioning
• Nine High Quality Lens Types
• Position Flare with Tilt or Touch
• Brightness Control

The App

Launch Lens Flare and after the splash screen you are presented the apps home screen with 5 icons across the bottom of the screen.  From left to right you have an icon that when tapped allows you to adjust the intensity of the flare, an icon to select 1 of 9 styles of lens flare, a camera icon that allows you to take a photo, load a photo from the camera roll, or load one of the 9 sample photos. Second from last you have the save icon, and finally you have the information icon, but this tells you little more than who has developed this app.

Above: The apps homescreen with menu icons across the bottom and padlock icon in the top right hand cornerTo get started with Lens Flare, load or take a photo and then select one of the 9 lens flare effects.  Using the iPhone's accelerometer move the iPhone around until you have positioned the lens flare where you want it, and then when happy lock the lens flares position by tapping the padlock icon found in the top right hand corner of the screen. When locked in position you can now adjust the intensity of the flare, and when happy with your result hit the save icon and you're done.

Above: The 9 available lens flare effectsThe problems

This is quite a nice app that with the right photos can work reasonably well, however it has a couple of major bugs that severely limits its use.

First up we have the dreaded resolution issue, which is a poor 900x600. The next problem is the app can not cope with portrait orientated photos, loading them in landscape and cropping them, making this app only suited to landscape orientated photos!!

So what do I think of Lens Flare?
This is another one of those one trick pony apps, but with the right photo can add that extra something to your iPhoneography, but with its poor resolution and landscape/portrait bug, this app is best left on the shelf, at least until the bugs are fixed.

Above: My "Flying the Flag" photo given the Lens Flare treatmentAppStore Link: Lens Flare - Price £0.59/$0.99