We here at 148Apps would like to welcome you to the new iPhotographer column. What exactly is the point here? That is a mighty fine question.

We will bring you tips, tricks, and reviews geared directly at photographers of all skill levels. There will be tips and tricks on how to perform tasks on an iOS device that just might have you questioning the need for a laptop. We might even delve into some photo techniques and how these techniques can take your iPhone photography skills even further.

Now the question becomes one of credentials. I am an IT professional who ditched his education in computers for life behind a camera. I am a self-taught photographer who is looking to continue to grow my skill set while helping others along the way.

My name is Chris Nitz and I started my own photography business. I have read more articles on shutter speeds, rule of thirds, lighting, and white balance than I can ever care to remember. I have a passion to see the world from a viewfinder. I am by no means a photography elitist or so called expert. I’m here to learn right along with you, and encourage your comments and suggestions at the end of every article.

Let’s get to the meat of this column with a small review. This review is trimmed down, as you will see this app show up in future articles. The app I am referring to is Filterstorm

Filterstorm takes programs like Aperture or Lightroom and brings them right onto your iPad. Filterstorm contains all the goodness of tonal curves, noise reduction, saturation, and so much more right to your finger tips.

Filterstorm’s interface is easy on the eye while maintaining simplicity in navigation. Firing up the app will have the basic controls on the left side of the screen. Loading up a photo is as easy as choosing it from your photo library. Those with a camera connection kit can even bring in photos straight off a memory card.

Once the photo is in the app the real work begins. All edits are made without destroying the original photo. There is even an apply button you have to hit before the changes are made. You can easily test how the changes will look without racing for the undo option.

Filterstorm also gives you options for what to do with your photos once you’re done. FTP, Email, and saving directly to the iPad are all options. While this maybe a small list, it does continue to grow with each new update.

Filterstorm is not perfect, though. While the interface can be tucked away, it still takes up a decent portion of the screen. No Facebook, Flickr, Smugmug, or Picasa integration might have some people crying foul. There are also some funny quirks, like locking a photo into place when you are editing it. This creates a longer workflow process as the changes have to be made, applied, photo moved, and changes reproduced. Good thing there is a way to record the process and store it as a macro.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that the developer is very active with users on Twitter and various internet forums. This program has come a long way since version one and is looking to make bigger changes with upcoming releases.

Filterstorm is by no way shape or form going to take over from the likes of Lightroom on your desktop, but it will give you the perfect option for making quick edits while on the road. Programs that are far more expensive don’t offer this much flexibility. This is worth its weight in megabytes on your iPad. Those of you with an iPhone, this app is currently being migrated to iPhone 4 and 3GS. Look for it to hit the app store soon.

$3.99

Filterstorm

iPad Only App – Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-04-01 :: Category: Photography

[ iPhotographer: Introductions, Filterstorm is a post from 148Apps ]

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From the creator of AppliFX and iQuikSplash, comes another ground breaking effects app – Hue Splash! Selective Color Changing with 2 Taps! This can’t be ANY easier!

SEE VIDEO DEMO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FuFI4JdXzI

? With smart mathematical algorithms, this app is able to selectively changes the original color selected by user to a new color selected by user. See the screenshot for a few sample output photos of this app. No tricks!

? Splashes the photo with ANY HUES (full range of colors is available for your to select).

? And with adjustable amount, pan and zoom feature, you’d be able to fine tune the final result. Adjust further with the brightness and contrast sliders.

? And specify areas to process the the splash – target a portion of the colors your want to change!

? Save the result to your device or upload it to you Facebook account.

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The app gives you fun to browse, view and comment your Facebook friends’ photo albums. Friend list, friends’ album list and photos are cached locally to improve performance and to allow offline access.

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I was part of a school camera club when I was a kid. We took photos for an hour and then headed back to the ludicrously cool dark room to develop our snaps of fairly boring subjects like fields and trees. I always thought we could have made these aesthetically dull pictures a little more exciting if we could have at least experimented with a few new chemicals during the development process but sadly, according to Mr Slatter, that’s not the way it’s done.

Prasie be then that SwankoLab has emerged from the same snap-happy bunch that brought us the excellent Hipstamatic, allowing me to indulge my photographic alchemy right on my iPhone without a teacher to stunt my manic creativity.

A virtual darkroom filled with image-adjusting chemicals awaits when you first fire up SwankoLab. It won’t take much play with the delicious interface before you’re applying saturation and bleaching effects to your existing iPhone snaps. Pick from any of the available bottles on the shelf above your development tray, read what their effect will be and then drop them into the mix. There is a limit to how many chemicals you can use in one sitting (as should be the case with all hazardous materials you experiment with) which is a blessing given how easy it is to get carried away.

Your image is then processed in an attractive yet fairly time consuming manner before being hung out to dry while you preview it. From there you can share your image, name the formula used or trash it altogether. On more than one occasion I did find that an image didn’t develop at all, however. Rather than feel my pride swell as my original image appeared from its bath of property tweaking liquid, my heart sank as I looked at a blank print. Whether it was the photo I chose, the type chemicals I mixed, witchcraft or perhaps FBI censorship, I don’t know. I guess, as is true of any experiment, sometimes it just doesn’t work.

That slight niggle aside, SwankoLab is a fun app that allows you to achieve similar retro effects to your Hipstamatic shots but using photos you’ve already taken and even those imported from your computer which makes it endlessly reusable. Combine that with the many chemical combinations at your disposal and the option to buy more and you’ve got an immensely enjoyable and creative tool at your disposal.

With IncrediBooth and Hipstamatic already under their belts, the guys at Synthetic Corp are quickly becoming the best photography developers in the business. And now they’ve added SwankoLab to the fold, I mean “developers” in more than one sense of the word.

[ SwankoLab Review is a post from 148Apps ]

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Animals’ World HD ($3.99)

Version – 1.0

Review – “Explore the animal kingdom in HD!”

Most of us grew up with picture books of animals. As children these books help us learn about all kinds of different animals. Animals’ World is basically a picture book on your iPad, but the great thing is that it costs a fraction of what a physical book does, and it also offers a lot of other great features that you won’t find in any animal book!

When you download this app and open it you’ll see a screen with a bunch of animals on it. You can scroll through all the various animals that are available by dragging your finger across the screen. When you find an animal that you’d like to take an in depth look at just touch it and the app will zoom in on it.

When you have an animal selected there are four buttons you can press, one in each corner of the screen. In the upper right corner of the screen is a “zoom” button. Touching this will zoom in so that you can see all of the detail of the beautiful high-res images. Most of these images are large enough that you have to drag around the screen to see the entire thing.

In the lower left corner of the screen is a button with a ruler on it. Touching this button will show a silhouette of an average sized man next to the animal. This gives you an idea of the relative size of the animal.

In the lower right corner is a button with a globe on it. This button will show you a map of the globe with all of the areas where that particular animal lives highlighted. You can rotate and view other ares of the globe by touching it and dragging around. At any time if you want to go back to a previous screen, the upper left corner of the screen is a back arrow that will take you back.

The strength of this app definitely lies in the both the quality of it’s images and in the large amount of animals that is included. A couple of things I noticed on the other hand are that the globe is a little bit confusing to rotate, and it would have been nice if the app pronounced the names of the animals for small children that can’t read.

All things considered though, I could definitely see this app being a great way to expose your young child to the world of animals! While it would be nice to maybe see a few new features added, the interface is clean and simple, and there really is a lot of content.

As with a lot of “HD” apps for iPad I think it is probably a little overpriced. With that said, it is definitely cheaper than buying a physical book with animal pictures. If this app sounds interesting then what are you waiting for? Click the link below and check it out for yourself today!

- David H.

Download Now!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Developer – Vivica srl

URL: http://www.vivica.it/interactive/animalsworld.html

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© 2010, iPhone and iPad app reviews. All rights reserved. An expedite fee may have been paid for some reviews. We work diligently to ensure that this does not affect the content of the review and strive to keep the journalistic integrity intact. All reviews are the personal opinion of the reviewer.

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