Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 8:10AM Tiffen's Photo fx has just been updated to version 3.0, and gets the following new features:
Photo fx in iPhone photo app updates Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 2:30PM Following on from the success of "The iPhoneography Showcase of..." series and following comments about Steven Mc Garr showcase, I am introducing a new feature to the blog.
This new feature will be called "My photo, by...", and its aim is to share details on where and how a photo was taken and created.
To get the ball rolling, here is my photo titled "Soldiers Bride"
Back in September 2009 my wife and I went to London for a short break. At the time it was London Fashion week, and one day whilst walking through Horse Guards Parade we spotted a group of people and an attractive lady wearing a wedding dress, so decided to stop and see what was going on. I was a little confused that there seemed to be no groom, as I thought this was a wedding day shoot, and even more confused when she walked up to the guard and began to pose. Then the penny dropped, of course it was fashion week, and I had just stumbled across a fashion shoot, and so as this was in a public place I grabbed my iPhone and snapped away.
I was quite chuffed that I'd stumbled across this photo shoot, but of course new that the shots would not be that good as I would have liked, as I could not get very close to the model.
Anyway that's how the photo came to be, and here is how it went from this...
...to the final photo the "Soldiers Bride".
I took the original photo (which was shot on my iPhone 3G) and cropped it using Cropulator. Then because I new by cropping the photo it was going to affect the image sharpness, I loaded it in to Tiffen Photo fx and applied a Soft/FX filter to soften to photo, before finally loading it in to CameraBag and applying the Magazine effect.
If you want to see more of the "Soldiers Bride" or my other CamerBag shots, then check out My CameraBag Tumblr site.
So this is how I got my shot. If you would like to share your shot with the rest of us, then send me an email and I'll reply with details on how to submit.
CameraBag, Cropulator, Photo fx in My photo, by... Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 10:00AM There have been several post recently on various blogs listing peoples top iPhone apps, so I've decided chuck my hat in to the ring and post my current crop of favourite photo apps, so here goes.
1. CameraBag
CameraBag [AppStore Link] lets me enhance my iPhone photos with 10 different effects filters, and whilst this app needs a much needed update for iPhone 3GS users, it still delivers what I am looking for on my iPhone 3G.
2. iFlashReady
iFlashReady [AppStore Link] lets me enhance/lighten the poorly exposed photos that I sometimes get from my iPhone.
3. ShakeItPhoto
ShakeItPhoto [AppStore Link] gives me that instant photo experience, and is currently my favourite iPolaroid app.
4. Spica - Super Monochrome
I love high contrast and grainy/gritty black and white photos, and Spica - Super Monochrome [AppStore Link] give me that.
5. AutoStitch
For me AutoStitch [AppStore Link] is the easiest app for creating panoramic photos on you iPhone.
6. EffectsLab
Originally I did not like this app when it was first released, but after spending time playing with it, EffectsLab [AppStore Link] has become my pocket Photoshop of choice, allowing me to manipulate almost all aspects on my photos.
7. Polarize
Polarize [AppStore Link] is another instant photo app, but has the added bonus of letting me add market pen notes to my iPolaroids.
8. HiCon Pro
If I need to add some extra contrast and saturation to a photo quickly and easily, then HiCon Pro [AppStore Link] is the first app I turn to, and on most occasions delivers what I am looking for.
9. Photo fx
Photo fx [AppStore Link] and Cool fx have slipped down my list of used apps, but they both still remain in my top 10, but I now tend to use them in combination with other apps like Spica Super Monochrome to add that extra dimension to my photos.
10. Cool fx
Like Photo fx, Cool fx [AppStore Link] has slipped down my list of used apps, but they both still remain in my top 10, but I now tend to use them in combination with other apps like Spica Super Monochrome to add that extra dimension to my photos.
In addition to these editing/effects apps I also use Mobile Fotos [AppStore Link] for uploading my photos to Flickr, Tumblr [AppStore Link] for uploading to my Tumblr blogs and occasionally PicPosterous [AppStore Link] for my new Posterous blogs, although I do prefer to email my photos to Posterous rather than use their iPhone app.
Ah, and there's one last thing. There is an app that would have made it in to my top 5, but it is currently only available to a select group of beta testers (of which I am one), and so can't be listed just yet.
You may or may not agree with my list, or even the order they are in, so please feel free to post your favourite apps in the comments section below.
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 8:36AM 
If you do a check for apps updates today you will notice that Photo fx has received an update, as Tiffen address the complaints it has received following the apps last update.
In this update Tiffen have brought back the Bleach Bypass and Cross Processing presets they mistakenly removed from the Color Looks filter, and removed the DFx advert from the apps launch screen.
In addition to these they now show the cost of the in app purchase options , but this is only after you have selected the filter. What I would like to see with this is a $, £ or € sign on the filter icon on the filters homepage so that you know which filters are paid for extras before selecting them. That said I have to say "thank you Tiffen for listening to your customers".
Photo fx in iPhone photo app updates Friday, August 14, 2009 at 6:00PM Tiffen Photo fx has just been updated to version 2.0 with the following new/updated features:
Added the following new filters at no charge: Temperature in Classic fx; Grain in Wild fx; Close-Up Lens, Depth of Field and Wide Angle Lens in a new Lens fx filter group; B&W Looks and Color Looks in Fun fx.Photo fx in iPhone photo app updates Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 3:45PM All three Digital Film Tools apps have recently been updated with the following features.
Photo fx
AppStore Link: Photo fx - Price £1.79 ($2.99)
Cropulator
AppStore Link: Cropulator - Price £0.59 ($.99)
Light
Cropulator, Light, Photo fx Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 10:59PM 
I was just looking at the UK AppStore this evening, and ColorSplash and Photo fx are the top 2 best selling photo apps for the iPhone, and rightly so.
If any of you are interested I have create Facebook groups for both of these apps, for you to share your photo's and discuss these apps, so if interested go check them out.
The ColorSplash facebook group can be found here and The Photo fx group can be found here.
ColorSplash, Photo fx Monday, February 2, 2009 at 6:30AM Could Photo fx from the makers of Tiffen photographic filters be the best photo enhancing app for the iPhone? Well read on and find out.
Photo fx, the low down
Launch Photo fx and after the splash screen you are presented with three options, Load Photo, Take Photo and Options.
Options: Selecting the options menu gives you the choice of setting the size of your photos when saving them after you have finished applying the filters. Also in this menu you can turn on (or off) the option to save photo's taken with the camera from with in the app, so you have the original unfiltered photo available should you need it.
Take Photo: As with all apps that offer this option, this simply takes you to the camera interface.
Load Photo: Select Load Photo and as you would expect you are taken to the iPhone Photo Album where you can select an existing photo to load and edit. Once selected, your chosen photo is loaded in to the app, where you have 26 adjustable filters at your disposal, comprising of, Black and White, Black Pro-Mist®, Center Spot, Color-Grad® , Color Spot, Day for Night, Enhancer, Fog, Glow, Halo, High Contrast, Infrared, Looks, Night Vision, Old Photo, Polarizer, Pro-Mist®, Reflector, Star, Soft/FX®, Tint, Two Strip, Three Strip, Ultra Contrast and Vignette.
To simplify things these 26 filters are organised into 5 different filter groups, Face fx, Outer fx, Fun fx, Classic fx and Wild fx. With in these groups you will find various options, from the simple slider or sliders that allow you to make adjustment to brightness etc. to presets and effect positioning. All these options depend very much on the effect being used, for example if you choose Color Grad, then not only can you adjust the colour of the graduation, but you can also adjust the horizontal position of the graduation effect, and if you choose Vignette, you can adjust the amount of vignetting applied.
If you want to apply quick and easy effects, then look no further than Looks. Found under Fun fx, here you will find 27 predefined filters/effects, yes 27 predefined filters/effects! from a grainy 8mm effect to a sunset as well as various colour and mono effects.
When you have finished tweaking and adjusting you pic, it's time to save your master piece to the camera roll, and this is done simply by tapping the floppy disk image in the bottom right hand corner of the apps screen, where you will be asked if you want to "Save the image?", select Save, and that's it you're done. If you are working in low res mode, then the save will be quick, but if you are working with full size images then the save with take a few seconds.
Photo fx in action
So just how well does Photo fx perform? Well I can tell you very very well. Unlike feedback we've seen on this blog about Darkroom! Photo fx did not crash on me once. With any app this is important, but more so on a photo editing app, as the last thing you want after spending time tweaking your photo, is to loose your work to a crash.
To push this app to its limits I applied a range of 8 effects to my test photo using the low res output settings, and then applied the same effects using high res, and at no point did I experience any problems with this app. In actual fact loading photos from the album was quick, processing the selected effect was quick and even saving the end result was quick (in low res anyway).
Above: Original photo
Above: Polarizer effect
Above: Color-Grad effect
Above: Infrared effect
Above: Black and White effect (basic)
Above: Dreany effect (one of Looks presets)So what did I think?
Photo fx has such a vast range of filtration options, that this review has not really done it justice. Some of these options are tucked away under categories like Black and White, where if you go inside you will find additional filter effects like Red, Yellow and Orange, and this is common with some of the other categories. In the short time I have been using Photo fx I have been impressed, no, I've been very impressed, and in my opinion this app is well worth the price tag of £1.79 ($2.99), and I can not recommend it enough. In actual fact it is these array of options that for me makes this app stand out from all other photo apps, and I believe Tiffen has set the bar on photo manipulation/filtering apps for the iPhone with this app, but don't take my word for it, go get yourself a copy now, you won't be disappointed.
Price: £1.79 ($2.99)
