Mobile Photography & Art – My Top Five Apps by Karen Axelrad – Berlin, Germany
My go-to apps are Snapseed which is the one I recommend if you only have one app, Hipstamatic for black and white street photography and for experimenting, Stackables app for texture and formulas that are easy to edit, and Superimpose for tweaking two edits. But all these apps have been discussed by others, so I thought I would elucidate on my five favorite less-known apps.
All images ©Karen Axelrad
Dianaphoto
For random double-exposures which are then enhanced with various filters. Scroll through your camera roll for an accidental coupling then lock one or both photos and try various filters out. The results are fun and surprising. I also save some silhouettes to use as one of the photos and then scroll for the second.
‘Painted Silhouette’ DianaPhoto, Hipstamatic, Superimpose, PhotoshopFix, Stackables
Nova (formerly Ansel)
Nova turns your whole camera roll into black and white so you can preview the photos in monochrome. Either start with one of the templates and then modify it, or manually tweak the photo. I particularly like Mix which allows you to move quickly through different color filters to get the right look.
‘Jump 5′ – Nova
SeeThis (formerly You Gotta See This)
It allows you to make multi-row panoramas without blending. I was so worried it wouldn’t be updated for the new iOS that I wrote to the developers, and happily it was just updated. It is sometimes referred to as the David Hockney effect as he invented this idea using polaroids.
‘Gallery Weekend’ – See This, Snapseed, Stackables
SlowShutter
Use a mini tripod, a selfie stick, or take a deep breath to take a long exposure which will distort the moving figure in the foreground while leaving the background sharp. This app can do something a dslr can’t do, and that is take a long exposure on a bright, sunny day while maintaining a blue sky and vivid colours (you would need gray filters to do that with a normal camera).
‘Melding with the Art’ SlowShutter, Snapseed, iColorama, Stackables
iColorama
An amazingly versatile app that is constantly being supplemented with new features. It’s a bit of a learning curve, but the Facebook groups are very helpful. iColorama can be used at a basic level to tweak colours or to make complicated masked paintings, distortions and everything in-between.
‘Mannequins Transformed Again’ iColorama, Mextures’
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