iPhone Photography: Much more than a few Megapixels

The iPhone cameras are far from high-end in the smartphone world and lack the specifications many demand. There is no flash, no zoom and at only 3 Megapixels on the 3GS, it is unlikely to tempt serious photographers. However, this is the first smartphone that has a large number of photography related apps that work with the camera and this make the photography experience on an iPhone so much more than 3 Megapixels. Here are some examples of apps which can enhance your results-

ShakeIt Photo ($0.99 / £0.59)

ShakeIt brings back the world of Polaroid photography to the iPhone and does so effortlessly. It can grab a photo from the camera roll or library and convert it or create a Polaroid snap when you snap a picture. It actually offers some of the Polaroid experience as well because it will take the snap and then roll the photo down the screen with the classic Polaroid whirring noise. You then have to shake your iPhone to develop the photo. This is great and lots of fun, for the first three photos, and then you wish you could just take the snap and have the effect applied in a second.

The best way to use ShakeIt is to take a picture normally and then used it later on to add the effect. In my experience adding the Polaroid effect brings some life to a photograph that is often lost in the clinical digital photography world we so readily embrace today and is easily worth the extremely low asking price.

Take a look at the photos below- the one on the right is taken with ShakeIt and I think it adds a lot more life to the shot.

AutoStitch Panorama ($2.99 / $1.79)

AutoStitch Panorama is one of many apps which claim to stitch together shots to produce a panoramic view of what you can see, and on the whole it works very well. You simply take a few shots, moving slightly to the right or left each time, and then select the ones you want to use in AutoStitch. It will then go off and do its work and produce a stitched together snap covering the whole area.

Some ghosting is apparent and you do need to be as precise as possible to get a clean shot all the way across, but now and again a magical shot appears and makes it work the asking price. I suspect there may be better ones available which do a better job, but at the moment I am fairly happy with AutoStitch.

The photo(s) below was taken at Wakehurst Place in Sussex, England.

ReelDirector ($3.99 / $2.39)- 50% off at the time of writing

I have for a long time now made up home videos and photos of my children and stitched them together against a suitable musical backdrop to create a memory of an important event. The process on a Mac is seamless, but on a Windows PC it is painful to say the least. On either platform it can take a long time to create a quick movie and never did I expect to be able to accomplish the same task on a mobile phone.

ReelDirector does just what I have described above and enables anyone to make a home movie which brings together photos, videos and music. Throw in some fancy transitions and an interface which makes the whole process less of a chore and it is impossible to not recommend it. You cannot mix portrait and landscape media and the rendering times can be immense. For example, a clip with some music and 26 photos stitched together took more than 50 minutes to render!

If you are prepared to wait for the results once you have done the work, this is one of the most impressive iPhone apps available today.