Apps

A new filtered camera app that allows groups of mobile photographers to share in a timed shootout was released for iOS last week by app developer Hipstamatic. The free app, called DSPO, creates a collaboration of images via gallery or slideshow that none of the contributors can view until the session expires. But in a mobile photography world ruled by Instagram, Snapchat, and VSCO Cam, does DSPO stand a chance?

Visual Supply Co., the Oakland-based photography software company best known for their film presets and photo app VSCO Cam, raised an impressive $30 million in a new round of funding less than a year after raising $40 million last May.

There are three things in life that photographers will clear their schedules for: Apple announcements, Nikon/Canon late-night pre-orders for new flagship bodies, and Adobe product releases. So clear your schedules, guys and gals; because Adobe’s Lightroom 6 is here with more speed (FINALLY!), more features, and rich mobile integration.

The popular Mac photography software company, Macphun, released a new application for the Mac that promises incredible noise reduction processing. Noiseless comes in regular and Pro versions, the latter of which include increased capabilities like RAW processing and included plug-in support for your other editing applications and both of which provide what is truly some of the best noise reduction available.

With the constant design changes happening on Flickr, do you ever wish you could forgo all of the complexity when viewing or sharing your gallery? With I Hardly Know Her (IHKH), your images take center stage in this extremely minimalist Flickr viewer.

If you're a Mac user, stop what you're doing and download this. I'm serious. Digital asset management (DAM) isn't everyone's favorite topic but it's an incredibly important part of any professional's workflow. But when things go south, you need to have a recovery plan — that's where PhotoRec, the free text-based app by CG Security, comes in.

It's about time, Snapseed. Google delivers big with the much anticipated 2.0 version of their free and wildly popular iOS and Android photo editor for the first time since 2013. Some of the the new features of the welcomed update include new filters, brushes, and a spot repair tool for quick cloning on the go.

Good news for Instagram lovers: The quintessential social photo sharing platform has announced the addition of two new tools, color and fade, to the in-app editing capabilities. These new tools build on Instagram's version 6.0 release last year which added a number of creative controls to fine-tune your images and eliminated the need for other photo editing apps for making basic adjustments.

Instagram has been around for a few years now and it comes with no surprise people still want to find new and interesting ways to manipulate and push the limits of how it all works. Though the Instagram algorithm has its secret formula no one can seem to solve they still find ways to get around that, this time it's for fun. Thanks to a handful of advertising specialists and social media experts we now have Likecreeper!

If you haven't heard of the app Phhhoto you're certainly not alone. Phhhoto is a mobile GIF/cinemagraph/image sequence creating and sharing platform that was released last year on iOS and will be coming to Android in the future. As of this week it now has over a million registered users and is really starting to take the world by storm. I'll admit I didn't really take it seriously myself until I saw Jeremy Cowart post a couple Phhhotos. After having messed around with it for the last week I can honestly say it has me pretty excited. I'm on Phhhoto and here's why you should be too.

TenOneDesign, makers of the popular Pogo and Pogo Connect tablet pens (among other things), are the first to market with a Mac desktop application that takes advantage of the Force Touch trackpads in Apple's new MacBook and refreshed 13" Retina MacBook Pro. Rather sweetly named Inklet, the application runs in the background to allow users with any capacitative tablet pen to convert the capabilities of the new trackpad into a pressure-sensitive writing and drawing pad -- no Wacom needed (sort of).

It goes without saying, Photoshop is one of the most complex and difficult programs in Adobe's arsenal. I have been a designer professionally for over six years and used it for almost ten. I am far from a master and find myself constantly searching for foreign features that I can use within the software. It comes with great pleasure to bring you this hilarious video of eight legit Photoshop masters attempting to use Version 1.0 in all its glory.

Lens Distortions is a Photoshop plugin that allows you to easily add lens blurs and light leaks to your images for creative effect. With the continual proliferation of digital photography, there is still a great demand for the look and authentic feel of 35mm film. There are certain colors, textures, and tones that are unique to the format many of us grew up with. Lens Distortions Legacy Plugin allows you to build on the replication of analog photography by adding carefully placed imperfections to your photographs.

Having been on Instagram ("IG") for over four years now, it's been incredible to see the evolution from a basic photo taking, filter adding iPhone application to the world's fastest growing social network. Since its purchase by Facebook almost three years ago, IG has fought its way to the top. IG has added feature after feature, competing directly with other social networks, like Vine, to stay ahead. This weekend, Instagram is taking it's last shot to finish them off and it makes me so very happy!esw3

Today marks a special day for the beloved Adobe Photoshop, as today is it's 25th birthday. Even at only 25 years old, Photoshop has had a number of facelifts. From it's initial release, Photoshop was revolutionary in it's tools, and still remains to be the best tool for photographers today. So lets take a look at all the changes this iconic software has seen over these last twenty five years.

As a busy photographer, productivity is key for my work. I'm often finding myself blocking my own access to Facebook, Twitter and Reddit throughout the day, forcing me to work on the tasks at hand. And while I truly believe photography is the best job in the entire world, a lot of our days are filled with simple mundane tasks - which is why I love Gmail's Canned Responses.

Branching off from their web-based portfolio service, Format has launched a free iPad app named Kredo. The app allows users to add and organize their images into portfolios, exhibit portfolios to clients in a sleek-looking presentation, publish their work to the Kredo Discover network, or share their portfolios with anyone else on any device with optional password protection. While up against the trusty tactile printed portfolio and other digital portfolio services, the unique features and dark, minimalist layout may be something worth testing out.

You read that right. It was rumoured late last year that Google was playing around with the Android camera API to include raw capability, and then we reported that this feature was rolled out with the latest 5.0 Lollipop update on many Android devices, but now we finally have an app that lets us access this feature and use it to our hearts content.

During the last few weeks, Instagram has teased in your news feeds that they were removing and deactivating spam accounts. Their message mentioned it would ultimately result in a loss in the follower count on your profiles, as shown above. This had many people running for the hills, imagining their tens of thousands of followers would turn to dust, and the loss of that clout they have built over the years will be all but nothing. The results have been widespread, but here are a few accounts to check in on as I give my thoughts on the whole thing.

If you've been longing to make your photos a lot more interactive, there's a new app launching today that’s set to cure your itch. The mad scientists at Fyuse have come up with some incredibly cool spatial technology that blends photography and video to create a unique and interactive experience, all from your iOS or Android device.

For an app that brings the hipster out in everyone, Instagram showed it can really grow up today. Five new filter updates almost wouldn't matter. So what? We have a million other apps and editing tools and already sometimes too many Instagram filters. But today's update brings something that Instagram has lacked from Day One: subtlety.

As a relatively recent convert to Instagram, a former outsider-looking-in, there are a few things about the app that I don’t particularly care for or make use of. Like most people I know, I’m not at all tempted to make use of the built-in, over-cooked, HDR-gone-wrong filters. When I do post a photo taken on my phone, it’s been edited in VSCO Cam. I’m also not a huge fan of the user interface in Instagram. It’s a little clunky, oft overwhelming, and features a rather uninspiring design. For a better viewing, browsing, and exploring experience I’ve turned to a seemingly unknown app, Primary.

Over the past couple of decades, technology has changed every aspect of modern life both at work and at play. We now live in a digital era dominated by high-end digital cameras, mobile phones, smart tablets and even intelligent watches. However, what we often forget is that each shutter click on these devices captures a slice of history, a moment which felt significant enough to pull out our gadget and press that all-important shutter button. Most of these images stay rooted deep inside our device’s memory never to be viewed again. That is until now, where next month we see the release of ZenCam, an application which enables intelligent printing for portable devices.

If you are much like me, you are getting a new phone roughly every other phone generation. This was leading to an abundance of old hardware collecting dust in a box, so I finally decided that I would put them to use. These tips may not bring back that new phone excitement, but they could perpetuate their usefulness and save them from the island of misfit gadgets.

I’ll never forget the email; I was on a plane somewhere over the Florida coast, on my way to the Bahamas for the Fstoppers Workshops 2014. Just before I left the States, I had signed on with the artist consulting firm Wonderful Machine. The first step in preparation for a press release was to tear my website apart. The critique was tough and they slashed it hard… here I am in one of the most beautiful places in the world, feeling a truck load of anxiety. For years, I had thought I had a clean and straight to the point website, but it turns out I needed to strip it down even more.

Johnson and Johnson has recently released a new app called "Donate A Photo" with a rather simple premise. For every photo you upload the company will donate a dollar towards a charity of your choice. Now you can turn all those selfies and pictures of your cat into donations that help make the world a better place.

Amazing Prime members are getting an extra little perk in their accounts today, free unlimited photo storage. In the service Amazon is calling Prime Photos, users of the Amazon Prime membership program are now able to store images in their original resolutions to Amazon Cloud Drive - available for any device, mobile or otherwise. Pairing this with their free 2 day shipping, Amazon Prime has become an absolute must for photographers everywhere.

Most people I work with manually dump thousands of files at the end of their shoot day (myself included.) A stack of cards, hard drives, and waiting for one card to finish before starting the next. All of this is followed by checking each dump to make sure nothing was missed. A new software app from Red Giant is looking to help this process, without bogging users down with extra steps.

Supermodel Coco Rocha and photographer Steven Sebring have teamed up to release an interactive book, The Study Of Pose, chronicling over 1000 poses captured from 100 different angles in an experimental 360 degree rig. It is an ambitious project that has resulted in a massive, and certainly quite heavy, book with over 2000 pages.

Adobe has released a plugin it promised a while ago to migrate photo libraries from Apple's soon-to-be-forgotten Aperture and iPhoto apps into its own Lightroom. If you're worried about Apple's switch to its own all-in-one photo app, "Photos," or simply want to ensure similar functionality to that found in Aperture, Lightroom has long been an industry-standard alternative. There are, however, a few notes to keep in mind with regard to migrating from these apps to Lightroom.

If you are a photographer, there is a strong possibility that you do a fair amount of work from home. With such an abundance of media and devices fighting for your attention, it can be a struggle to stay productive. Use the following tips to help you stay efficient so you can get out of your house and have a life!

Having just started in photography two years ago I have a strong passion for creatives willing to share their passion and tips with the community. Fstoppers included, its one of the reasons I found all the information I needed with little to no cost starting out. Skillshare is launching an exciting series of classes highlighting how some of the best photographers in the world do what they do best, take incredible photos and share them with the world.

Stock photo giant Getty Images has launched a new mobile application called Stream, free for iPhones and iPads updated to iOS 8. Getty Images Stream is introduced as their first consumer app in which allows users to access the company’s vast library of news, sport, and entertainment images. Users will be able to curate photos within the app, and share photos non-commercially on social media and blogs using Getty’s earlier implemented embed feature.

The latest update to the wildly popular VSCO CAM camera app brings many long-requested features for mobile photographers. iOS 8 allows much greater camera control and VSCO has refined these tools to be useful for both pros and amateurs alike. These tools give mobile photographers the ability to acheive their desired results under situations that were previously difficult for auto-exposure and focus settings.

If there is one thing we learned this weekend concerning Jennifer Lawrence and others, it’s that even the most seemingly safe photos are not safe at all. We happen to be amongst two eras. One where cameras are more frequent than ever, and one where privacy is disappearing rapidly. Here are some tips to keep those two things separate.

You might have heard of Stu Maschwitz before, possibly from his work on these Red Giant video projects, or perhaps the Plastic Bullet app he made a few years ago. His latest creation is a custom set of presets that integrate with Lightroom, and gives the user a set of vintage photo looks to choose from.

Hyperlapse is growing in popularity, despite the difficulty of creating a seamless finished product... until now. Instagram is releasing a new app later today that, if it works as well as it appears in the promotional videos, will make hyperlapsing not only easy, but puts the power to make compelling hyperlapse videos in the palms of anyone's hands. Their new app is appropriately named "Hyperlapse" and it looks spectacular.

DSTRUX launched a new iOS app of the same name yesterday that changes the way content owners control their images' usage across the web. A universal Snapchat of sorts, DSTRUX brings private and controled viewing of images to anyone with an Internet browser.

First-person cameras, such as the ubiquitous GoPro, have been filming hours of footage from their owner’s journeys for years now. These lengthy uncut videos don’t hold much interest to most people, but a team of Microsoft Researchers are aiming to change that by using some remarkable technology they hope to release as part of an upcoming app.

With the announcement of Aperture's retirement, many of Apple's software users are seeking a new home for their image libraries. One of the most obvious choices is Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom. But moving those images from Aperture to Lightroom can be a little tricky. A new app has made it out of Beta and hit the app store that may provide an easier solution.

It was just a couple years into using Instagram myself before I noticed one name pop up regularly: Merek Davis. Having first been introduced to him as "The Mextures Dude," the fascination with him and the incredible inspriation he brought along with him had me hooked. I immediately began downloading free Mextures individually from his website and using apps like Image Blender to add them to my shots to enhance them with these magnificent colors, textures and custom film grains.

500px is today launching a new iOS app called "500px Insights," which will give users access to all the valuable statistics on their 500px pages and allow them to better promote their work and strategically engage with their audience. This is a great step to getting more information about what is likely a huge networking tool for many photographers.

Being a member of the media has a set number of luxuries. One of those being, working with Adobe and getting early access of products, and exclusive news. Thanks to Adobe, I used Creative Cloud for an entire year free by attending a media exclusive Adobe event back in the summer of 2013. However, since I've started paying for it a month ago, my frustrations have hit an all time high.

Pixels has launched a pretty slick little app that will let prospective clients who are purchasing your prints on pixels.com to see them on their walls in different frames before making a purchase. The app, simply named pixels.com, targets a wall and then shows you on your iPad what the framed artwork would look like there.

Created for the creative, MIOPS is a promising new accessory used to easily trigger your camera or flash unit for high-speed photography scenarios. The MIOPS team have launched a Kickstarter to acquire funding for their new high-tech device in which they declare is “not the first trigger in the market, but it is going to be the best.”

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got hard drives full of footage from personal or other non-commercial projects, that don’t serve much use once the project they were shot for is completed. I’ve considered trying to license it as stock footage, but never really taken the time to do it. After checking out the site Nimia and interviewing one of their staff however, I decided to give it a try.

Keeping your photographs organized by means of keywording is not a new idea but a new app is changing the idea of keyword organization. Polymo lets you add your keywords before you shoot, and adds all of the photos into its own "smart album."

While the beta has been out since February and can still be downloaded here, according to a June 26th press release, Nikon will be releasing its new Capture NX-D software July 15th for free. The previous version of Capture NX-2 still goes for $140, so it's nice to see more value added to Nikon's products for us Nikonians out there.