Community Corner

Free Photo Apps Bring Joy, Frustration

This week, the App Hunter tries out (mostly) free photo apps.

This week, I did an interview with author Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash) for Patch. The problem? His press only provided us with one photo. So, between the preview piece (he’s speaking in Oak Park), the actual interview and reader questions, we only had one photo.

The solution? Photo illustration.

Camera+ ($0.99)
I’ve long ago substituted this app for the regular camera program that comes with the iPhone. Camera+ essentially endows your point-and-shoot with SLR functionality. Example: Touch the screen for the specific area you’d like to focus on. Double bonus: Turn on the “burst” function to capture action (especially sports) and set the timer, so you can be in the photo, too. So, rather than download the press photo given to me, I took a literal screen shot from my phone. It came out crisp and a little weird, which was perfect.|

Earlier:

Plastic Bullet ($1.99)
This simple program turns you into Andy Warhol, selecting either a photo from your library or allowing you to take an original shot with the app. It then creates a quad of different images with different effects—again, think of Warhol’s multi-image Elvis shots. You can then choose one of the images and save it separately to share on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Instant artist.|

CamWow (free)
CamWow does pretty much the same thing as Plastic Bullet, but with a few more features—notably frames that submit your subject to the carnival mirror treatment. The interface isn’t as clean as Plastic Bullet and annoyingly, CamWow charges $1.99 to remove it’s watermark logo from your photos.

Picture Effect Magic (free)
My favorite of the bunch. A clean interface allows you to either choose or take a photo, then subject it to a barrage of color tweaks and 43 effects (Solarize, Mirror, Emboss, Sepia). Yes, there are ads for an upgrade, but they don’t interfere with the user experience. For the Stephenson photo, I first took a version I ran through Plastic Bullet, then subjected it to the Mirror command. The result? See it for yourself.

Patch also has its own , which will connect you to local news, weather, events and business listings in your town.

Submit your photos manipulated with iPhone apps, and we’ll run them! How about one on ?


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