Photos now has a mass mailer built in:
- Open your Camera Roll.
- Tap the icon that has a photo with an arrow on the bottom left.
- Tap the photos you want to send.
- Press the Share button.
- Press the Email button.
Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts
Mass Mailing Photos
Battle of the Photo Fix Apps
One weakness of any camera is that exposure isn't flawless. To get some shots looking really good you have to doctor them. iPhone's camera in the new 3Gs is pretty solid, but you still have those times you'd like to get the exposure right. If you want to email these photos directly from your iPhone, you need to be able to fix these on the fly. This post examines some of the quick fix apps for the iPhone that allow you to improve exposure before emailing a photo on it's way. While there are a lot of apps that do this, these are simple apps dedicated fixing photos typically with the push of a button, like iPhoto's enhance button. Most work by automatically lightening the mid-tones without burning out the highlights, adjusting contrast, saturating colors, sharpening and modifying color, or some combination of these filters.
This photo really gives these apps a workout. Watch the faces closely. Both are in shadow with uneven lighting, but the lighting is very different on each. Only parts of each image are underexposed so the test goes well beyond just lightening the images.
Jade You don't even have to press a button and it modifies the photo. There's a slider to tweak the filter. Jade can handle some very dark images well, but can leave skin looking mechanically enhanced on these images.
BetterPix This correction app has a Flash button and slider to fix exposure and as well as a Focus button and slider. The effects of this filter can be a little more subtle. The Focus filter can come in handy.
PerfectlyClr has a patented filter. It corrects when you load the photo. It also has a five slider tweaking set to monkey with the image and well as a FixDark button that does some extra work on the deep gray tones.
iFlashReady has three buttons: Flash, More Flash and High Flash. It also can turn images sepia as well as black and white. This is the only app without a slider to control the filter. The three settings seem to be well chosen.
You can judge the results for yourself:
Jade
BetterPix
iFlashReady
PerfectlyClr
PerfectlyClr FixDark ModeMy Conclusion All apps performed well on some photos. PerfectlyClr and iFlashReady have much stronger filters for lightening and taming tones than Jade or BetterPix. Both PerfectlyClr's FixDark button and iFlashReady's More Flash button do a solid job without making this image look unreal. PerfectlyClr can work a little harder but I think iFlashReady's More Flash button maintains a little more natural look. A downfall of PerfectlyClr is that gives you a shrunken final product with a maximum picture size of 800x600.
Mailing Full-Size Photos & lots of them
Hold your finger over an image or thumbnail in your Photo Library and A little Paste Bubble pops up. - Slide your finger up to it and release it. It will turn blue and copy the full-size image to the clipboard.
- Open an email.
- Tough and hold inside the body of the email.
- Press the Paste button.
- Open your Camera Roll.
- Tap the icon that has a photo with an arrow on the bottom left.
- Tap the photos you want to send.
- Press the Copy button.
- Open an email.
- Tough and hold inside the body of the email.
- Press the Paste button.
Tripod Mount
Keeping the camera still while shooting video, especially if you're in the frame, has always posed a problem, since the iPhone has no tripod mount. Here's a fix for that.
This is not a detailed set of instructions, but just a visual idea on how to create a tripod mount for your iPhone. The trip to the hardware store cost me $2, but the holder, a Griffin Window Seat, cost $29 so this is not the cheapest option. But it's extremely secure, portable and fits on most micro tripods. I'd recommend a micro tripod with wider legs for more stability.
I made this by running a carriage bolt through the hole in the back of the Window Seat bracket and then bolted on a hex connection nut that's 1/4" wide with 20 threads per inch. This is a standard nut that's the official US tripod mount size. I drilled a hole through the top of the nut for the carriage bolt to go through. This nut is actually a little short for connecting to a larger tripod, but another hex spacer nut the same size, a short bolt with the head severed and a lock washer would make an extension to fit any tripod.
I drilled a hole in the plastic for the camera to peek through. If the hole it too big, it may crack the plastic mount. If it's too small the lens will be blocked. Mine is not precise, but it works.
Tips:
- For videos with you in them, the iPhone retains whatever focus distance you start with, so you'll need to focus on something the distance you plan to be from the camera. The exposure will change automatically. Just start recording and turn the camera around. You can edit the beginning off later.
- Since the screen is where you can't see it when shooting, record with a mirror in front of you. That way you can see the screen and the camera at the same time.
Camera: Adjusting Exposure
There's no switch for this, but it's possible in some images. If the exposure is off, tap on something in the frame that is about the same distance as your subject. Tapping something lighter will darken the image. Tapping something darker will lighten the images. In the example the exposure is thrown way dark by the light coming from the window. By tapping on the iPhone screen on the floor just in front of the window the focus and exposure are readjusted to lighten the interior.
If you're taking a shot of two people and one has on dark clothes and one has on light clothes, tap on the appropriate person's clothes to lighten or darken the image. It's important that what you tap on is the same distance from the camera, or the key parts of the image will be out of focus.
iPhone Video
The 3Gs adds excellent video capability with beautiful motion and nice audio.
Recording
- Open the Camera app and slide the switch right to video.
- Press the record button. Note that focus and orientation are locked at the start of the video so make sure the camera is oriented correctly and that what you want to focus on is in the middle of the screen before you press the Record button. The macro will focus down to about six inches.
- Press the Record button again to stop recording.
Playback
- Press preview button on the left to view the video.
- To edit drag the ends of the timeline in. Press Play to make sure you have edited correctly, then hit the trim button.
- To Share hit the Share button with the arrow. You can email, send to MobileMe, YouTube, or by MMS (if enabled.)
Photo Album Order
I have a Smart album in iPhoto that feeds images shot with my iPhone back onto my iPhone. So I'm never without those images. As this album grew by the hundreds it was getting more and more annoying to have to flick through the list to get to the most recent images. The iPhone has no control for ascending or descending order. However I found that iPhone will follow the sort order of the albums in iPhoto that you sync to your iPhone. So I changed the sort order of the Smart album in iPhoto to View/Sort Photos/Descending. Now the newer images are at the top of the album on my iPhone too.
App: Jade Fixes Photos
iPhoto's camera is one of the better available on a phone, but there are no controls: you can't adjust for backlighting or underexposure. You take what you get. And if shooting conditions are less than ideal, the results may not be what you want. Jade is the app I have been waiting for. There are a few other image editing apps already available for the iPhone. But I wanted one that's really simple and can quickly and accurately clean up some of the issues we face with iPhone cameras: underexposure, washed out colors, lackluster contrast, haze from the lens coating wearing off. This is it.
Jade automatically corrects for these and does a decent job. You open it and select a photo. Jade goes to work and makes the correction. It works better at this than iPhoto's Enhance button, which is more than I was hoping for in an iPhone app. The Filter slider position will vary based on what Jade has done. You can slide it more if you like. In very underexposed images, sliding right will lighten the image more. Press the Save button when done. You get a 640 x 480 emailable or Web-postable image.
The app has not had good reviews at the App Store. I think people don't get it. They're expecting PhotoShop, or even worse: they're expecting miracles. If you have worked with something as simple as iPhoto, you know that improving an image is a real art that typically requires time and finessing, yet often leaves you with only a better image, not a great one. I'm seeing Jade get sensible results without even touching the slider. To compare, just tap the screen to see the original. You may still get a lousy image, but then you may have still had a lousy image after PhotoShopping. Some images are just not fixable. I suggest you do a side by side comparison with your desktop image editing app. I think you'll find Jade holds it's own.
Jade is especially adept at lightening dark photos without blowing out highlights. When photos are a little washed out or hazy, Jade can add a nice snap. The advantage is that you can do all this with a photo you've just taken with your iPhone camera and email it without being near your computer. And Jade is no simple piece of software. It's available http://jade.datamind.biz/ for iPhoto and Aperture as well.
Negs? There seems to be some bizarre texture sometimes added in formerly underexposed areas. I hope this is addressed in an update soon.
App: Face Melter
Face Melter is a great example of how a developer can take control of some of the powerful technology that's built into the iPhone's OSX and let you control it with a very simple interface. This liquid art app by Nico Becherer uses some of the built in features of Apple's Core Image. (Core Image is an invisible image engine built into OSX, just waiting for developers to toy with.)
Use of Face Melter is simple: Smudge with your finger and unpinch or pinch to magnify or demagnify an area. The Back button is a liquid undo that allows you to unsmudge with our finger. This can be useful for restoring the edges of the canvas if you've pulled them too far in. To unmelting the image: just shake your iPhone like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can use images from your albums, camera roll or call up the camera and shoot from inside the app.
Face Melter is $2. If you (God forbid) hand your iPhone over to your kids for entertainment, this one is probably more entertaining than any game. Even the really young get the hang of this quickly and love abusing the faces of loved ones. But I cringe at the thought of a tot shaking a little too hard and an iPhone flying out a pediatrician's office window.
While powerful, Face Melter has its limitations. It's designed to warp your Contact images and limits output to screen size. I'd like to see it work with the 2 megapixel camera-size images that the iPhone produces. The shake feature is a little cumbersome at the moment. It takes about the same amount of time as pressing the undo button and unsmudging the entire image.
For the price, this is a very cool little app.
Tip:
- Fill the screen with faces when taking pictures that you're planning on using with Face Melter or Contacts.
- The effect looks cooler when you put people against a plain background as in the example photo. You won't get a melted background, just a melted face.
- Use a Pogo Stylus for better control.
Better iPhone Self Portraits
Taking a self portrait with your iPhone seems like a crapshoot, but here are a few tips that can substantially improve your photos.
- Pose in ample, indirect light. It may not seem it, but indirect light coming from a window will be brighter than any artificial light source. The more light the sharper the picture will appear. Noise and reduced contrast in low light scenes makes images look less focused. If there's too little light your image may also be blurry.
- Your iPhone should be between your light and your face.
- With the screen of your iPhone facing you, hold down the shutter with your index finger. Turn the camera toward you and release. The shutter button sits about 1/2 inch above the home button if you're working by feel.
- Hold the camera at eye level about a foot to arm's length from your face. The further away from your face you hold the camera, the smaller your head will be, but the less distorted it will look.
- Look in the mirrored Apple on the back of your phone. When you can see the right side of your chin, your image will be centered.
"If Found" Message
A simple way to put an "If Found Call..." screen on your iPhone is to create a graphic it, save the image to your iPhone and then uses it as your wallpaper. This way it's the first thing on your startup screen, the finder would see when they turn on your iPhone.
You can create a screenshot of the text in a word processing program or create a slide in Keynote or Powerpoint. Or for a simpler way, draw it on a posterboard and use your iPhone to take a picture of it.
Camera: Avoiding Under Exposure
A little understanding of autoexposure will go a long way in helping you take better photos with your iPhone camera. Examine the two images above. Both shots are of the same buildings taken just seconds apart. So why is one darker than the other? It's simply a matter of brightness. Though it may not seem that way to your eye, the sky is substantially brighter than these shaded buildings. The reason we don't perceive that at first is that your eye and brain have their own built-in autoexposure controls.
When the differences in light in the scene are as great as they are in the darker image the camera makes it's choice based on what's brightest. So the sky won. The lighter image was taken at a lower angle with no bright sky visible in the scene so the camera exposed for the buildings. When you shoot follow these tips to avoid underexposure:
- Make sure your subjects are well-lit if you include sky in your image.
- Light sources like lamps and the sun should not be visible in the scene. These will darken the image.
- Highly reflective backgrounds that are white or silver can darken your subject too. Place your subject against medium toned backgrounds.
- Pointing the camera down on a subject as opposed to up will generally give you better exposed shots.
The Camera Doesn't Lie
Your iPhone camera is extremely useful for capturing evidence. All photos contain date and time information to help you prove your case.
- Shoot that dent in the rental car when you pick it up to prove it was already there.
- Snap new purchases in your house as proof for insurance in case of a robbery.
- Shoot apartment damage when you first move in to protect your security deposit.
- Snap your luggage at the airport so you can show the airline what you lost.
- Take a photo of the kids before shopping or public events in case they get lost. Not only do you have a photo that can be passed around, but you won't have to tax your mind at a time to panic to try to remember what they're wearing.
- Shoot damaged packages you get in the mail as proof that it was broke when you got it.
- Not as critical, but extremely useful is to shoot a descriptive photo of where you parked your car.
Faster Notetaking w/ your Camera
While the iPhone's keyboard is easy to use, your camera is often a faster way to take notes. Taking photos of a whiteboard or blackboard can save you a lot of typing time. The 2 megapixel camera has enough resolution that you'll be able to see everything.
Don't clutter your pockets with business cards. Take a photo and hand it back. When you have time later at home you can enter it into your desktop contacts. Or if you go to a great restaurant, snap the menu. You can use your camera to capture screenshots or anything that you'd use a scanner for. The advantage is that you can even "scan" posters on the wall that you can't get into the scanner. Decent OCR software may even be able to characterize notes for you.
Visual To Do List
Your camera roll makes a very handy To Do list. When you're out of a food item, take a photo of the package before pitching it. When you go to the store browse your camera roll thumbnails for what you need and delete what you put in your cart. This is especially useful for things like ink jet cartridges that you never can remember the number of. The iPhone camera can be used at about a foot away, so you can accurately capture readable serial and model numbers.
Trouble: Photos
Too Many Photos Sometimes you'll get an alert that say you have have too many photos. This is often accompanied by your camera roll scrolling slowly. The problem is that the camera roll is really set up top be effective with about 100 photos. It's a good idea to sync and download them to your desktop before that point.
Photo Total Comes Up Short It's common that the Photo Library total is less than the sum total of the albums.
Camera Specs
As phone cams go, the iPhone is one of the better cameras available. Here are a few of the specs:
- 3 megapixels (dumbs images down to 640x480 for email and Web Gallery. Even smaller for Contacts.)
- auto focus F2.8 lens (focused from 2 feet to infinity, good in low light.) Focuses in center of frame. To change focus, tap the area of the image you want focused.
- CMOS Sensor (holds still better in low light.)
- Does GMP tagging.
Over 100 Import Camera Bug
There's a bug in importing photos. If you have over 100 on your camera and try to import, things will get snagged. The solution is to highlight less than 100 images and choose the Import Selected button in iPhoto. Import and delete in sections and the images will import fine.
Camera Orientation Not Switching
If your portraits are coming out sideways the accelerometer in the iPhone (which is used the get the orientation tag from) is not changing position. I don't think the issue is faulty accelerometers, but the fact that the iPhone must be at a 90 degree angle to the earth to make sure the accelerometer moves.
To see if the accelerometer has changed, just look at the little camera in the shutter button. If it's not oriented to landscape, your image will not be oriented correctly. To check this out, point the camera your feet and then turn the view to vertical still pointing at your feet. The orientation of the little camera on the shutter button will not change. Start titling the camera up. At about 45 degrees you'll see it change. Checking the little camera before pressing the shutter should end orientation issues.
Better Nature & Travel Pix
Nature and travel photos require a different approach than people pictures. These are the time-tested techniques used by the pros:
- Shoot just after dawn and just before dusk. When natural light is low in the sky it's at its most splendid. There's drama from the shadows being longer than the objects that cast them. Early morning light can lean towards pink. Late day light almost always looks warm. The worst time to shoot is noon on a sunny day.
- If you have to shoot in the middle of the day, hope for overcast skies to soften the light. Just after a rain is a great time to shoot. The air is clean. Leaves and other objects are wet and more saturated in color. The light can be magical.
- The best time to shoot skylines and silhouettes is just after the sun goes down. The lights in the buildings go on and the sky still has color and a glow. Silhouettes will be at their blackest against a colorful sky.
- Stoop down a little when you shoot for a slightly more dramatic perspective.
- In dim light, try to brace yourself and camera to avoid blur. Lean against a wall or tree for stability. Prop your elbows on a stump, fence post or the ground.
- Post-process if needed to boost saturation, contrast and sharpness. A click of iPhoto's Enhance button and dragging the sharpness slider a little to the right often is all that's needed to make your photos stand out.
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