Top Five Photo Apps – Photo App Lounge With France Freeman
Welcome to our Photo App Lounge section of theappwhisperer.com. This is an area on our site where we ask highly accomplished mobile photographers what their top five photo apps are and why.
We recently published the Top Five Photo Apps as recommended by Yannick Brice , Cedric Blanchon, Irene Sneddon, our Columnist and Award Winning Mobile Artist Sarah Jarrett as well as Louise Fryer, Lisa Waddell, Davide Capponi, Ali Jardine , Clint Cline and Elaina Wilcox’s Top Five Photo Apps including accompanying images demonstrating these selections.
France Freeman is a professional photographer, and runs the in-house photography studio for a Fortune 500 company in the Northwest US. She discovered photography with the iPhone in 2009 and was immediately hooked by it’s lightweight mobility, endless creative possibilities, and the sense of community on the internet with other mobile photographers around the world.
France is a featured artist in the book “The Art of iPhoneography” by Stephanie C. Roberts, and she is still taken a bit by surprise when her camera starts ringing.
You’re going to love this article, we’re sure…
Number One – Slow Shutter
©France Freeman
Right now I’m really enjoying Slow Shutter and exploring movement. There are so many creative possibilities with this app and the results can be magic. You can pan with a moving subject to get a blurred background and sharper subject, you can move the iPhone during the exposure to create soft watercolor effects, or you can put your iPhone on a tripod and the only blur will be the things that move. I love using the last technique for self portraits and creating ghostly blurs.
Slow Shutter Additional Example Image
©France Freeman
Slow Shutter Additional Example Image
©France Freeman
Number Two – Juxtaposer
©France Freeman
I do a quite a bit of compositing in my images. Juxtaposer is one of my favorites because it allows you to mask out a portion of an image and then save that as a stamp which you can use multiple times, as I did with the flying bicycles in this collaborative image with fellow iPhoneographer Gianluca Ricoveri. Vintage image from Gianluca, composited with several of my original images, masked and composited Juxtaposer.
Additional Juxtaposer Image
©France Freeman
Number Three – Image Blender
©France Freeman
Another compositing favorite that allows you to blend images using classic Photoshop layer blending modes. And if you want to use only a portion of the image, Blender allows you to mask, resize and rotate.
Number Four – Pro HDR
©France Freeman
This app is great for higher contrast situations. Very often the extremes of highlight and shadow in a scene are just more than a single shot can capture. Pro HDR takes two images, one for highlight, one for shadow and combines the two for greater detail throughout the image. In this backlit, and high contrast image of the old car and restaurant, I wouldn’t have been able to get any detail in the sky without a combined exposure. I often use a Pro HDR shot for my base image and then use additional apps to create the final look I want.
Additional ProHDR Image
©France Freeman
Number Five – Hipstamatic
©France Freeman
Despite Hipstamatic being achingly slow to shoot with, and despite not being to use it to process previously shot images from your library, I still use this app a lot. With multiple combinations of film, lens and flash, you can create endless looks. Some of the looks are very beautiful and reminiscent of shooting with film. I especially love the look of BlackKeys films, and the newer D-Type and C-Type films. For me, shooting with Hipstamatic is often just the starting point adjust further using other apps or composite with other images.
Additional Hipstamatic Image
©France Freeman
Additional Hipstamatic Image
©France Freeman
10 Comments
Marc Simons
Top five photo apps has become my must read.
Robert Lancaster
Wow, what a fantastic set of images!
I use all of the selected apps extensively but not to this degree.
It is quite liberating to see how much I still have to learn and grow.
Richard Gray (@rugfoot)
Great to find another Slow Shutter addict? Some great images. Will they bring it out on Android though? ps what’s France’s handle (IG, Flickr, Eyeem)?
France Freeman
Thank you Richard! Yeah, slow shutter is a somewhat overlooked app I think. The best place to see my iPhone images right now is on Flickr, @FranceMarie . Happy Shooting! -France
France Freeman
Thanks Joanne for featuring 5 of my favorite apps! I’m loving this new column, it’s such a great way to discover new apps, and to discover new ways of using older apps!
For Richard, and those interested in seeing more of my images, you can find me on Flickr, @FranceMarie Unfortunately my photo blog went away with the demise of Posterous so I’m in the process of finding a new sharing spot.
Cheers! -France
Emily Mass
I love these articles. This is one of my favorite columns. Great info.
kachouro
Already TFPA-addicted ^^ !
Phil Bishop
Great Article and GREAT images…
Pingback:
RuthAnne
Thanks for great information about these apps