Instant110 is evidence enough that there are still nice surprises in store for fans of instant photography on iPhone. Although there are already many apps promising to deliver the same results, the latest photography app by Cameramatic’s developer is a polished product that, at the same time, offers very basic functionalities, a clear interface and great ease of use.
Main Features
Full resolution available;
8 lens effects;
5 borders;
3 chemical effects;
Square format;
Send to other apps;
Access to EXIF data;
Random effect option;
Send to email or share on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr.
A slightly washed out look with vibrant colors is very easy to create using one or more of the many apps which are provided to iPhone and iPad users. There are tons of presets around to obtain similar results, but in some instances, the best option you have to make sure effects will go well with your photos is creating your own, fine-tuning every setting to make sure the result will be as you like.
For this brief tutorial I am using PhotoForge 2 on the iPhone, as it has everything I need for my purpose. You can follow exactly the same steps on the iPad.
1. Open your photo of choice in PhotoForge 2. I am using a random photo I have taken a few days ago while testing the macro lens for iPhone.
Step 1 - Choosing the photo
2. Go to Adjustments by tapping on the three-slider icon and select Brightness/Contrast. Move the brightness slider control up to around +5; do the opposite with contrast and move it down to about -50. Depending on the overall brightness and contrast of the original photo, you may want to adjust these values for obtaining the right degree of fading on the image of your choice.
Step 2 - Fading the photo
3. Now let’s produce some color shifting. Remaining in Adjustments, Select Curves. Set the curves in RGB mode for each of the three colors, Red, Green and Blue. Try to achieve something close to what is shown in the screenshots.
Step 2 - Adjusting colors
4. For this style, we want a faded overall look, but at the same time we are looking for vivid colors. Always in Adjustments, select Vibrance. Move the slider up to +25.
Step 3 - Toning up color
As a final touch, we are going to add some vignetting. In PhotoForge 2, you can add a vignette simply using the Vignette tool included in the app’s FX section. However, I prefer the vignette to blend a little more with the photo, so I am using Layers to achieve a slightly better result.
5. Go to Layers by tapping on the three-layer icon and create a new blank layer above the photo’s; select a white fill color for it. Change the layer’s blending mode to Multiply. Leave opacity to 1.
Step 5/1 - Creating a new white layerStep 5/2 - Changing the layer mode to multiply
6. Go to FX and select Vignette. Pick a vignette style that goes well with your photo. In my case, I choose Vignette 2 and I move the intensity control up to around 0.60. For a more “enclosed” feeling, you can raise intensity even more.
Step 6 - Adding vignette
And that’s it! You can save the photo to your photo album or share it with whomever you like. PhotoForge2 saves the complete history of your post-processing, so you can go back in any moment and if you do not like the final look of your image you can make further adjustments to contrast, curves, vibrance, and so on. Step 7 - Final result
There are no official quality standards and guidelines when it comes to Polaroid — and more in general instant — photography: some photographers apply to it the same rules that they are comfortable with and use in other genre of photography; some others completely change their style according to the medium they are using and prefer to consider instant photography as a world of its own, where general rules are not applicable. This is one of the reasons in Polaroids anything seems to be acceptable, even things that often wouldn’t be well-received in full-fledged photography. Many instant photographers for example are very much in love with the cheap look of Polaroids, and even those who converted to more up-to-date formats try to replicate it digitally. A cheap digital photograph isn’t like a cheap analog one, and if it’s true that in the case of Polaroids anything is acceptable, it’s also true that in the case of digitally imitations perhaps it is not.
Main Features
Full resolution available;
Zoom, pan and rotate;
Nine instant film types (+nine more with in-app purchase);
Four instant frames (+four more with in-app purchase);
Undo button;
Share via email and Facebook.
Appotography Opinion
FotoRoidis another of these apps that try to simulate the Polaroid effect on the iPhone. Differently from a few other apps in the same group, you don’t have any simulation of the developing process, so if this means for some people part of the magic will be lost, for others it will conveniently mean quicker results. You can use pictures from your camera roll or use the built-in camera. Using the camera, the app crashes easily. Saving can also cause the app to crash.
FotoRoid combos: please note the annoying black border
Several films and frames are available, ranging from expired to black and white to overly saturated, etc. Some filters are OK, but the quality on average is quite poor. More than a few filters in FotoRoid just look ugly on almost any photo you will come up with, and just in very rare cases they will give you decent results. Some may argue this is what makes Polaroids what they are, but considering we are talking about digital photos instead of genuine Polaroids, on this point I beg to differ. When you have to adapt your photography to the app, it means the app has serious issues. To adjust the photo to the frame, you can use your fingers to pan, zoom and rotate. These features, although very useful, don’t work very smoothly in FotoRoid and getting exactly what you want can at times become frustrating. A feature to save the original photo is also not available for the present moment, but in the case of this app it would be useful to have it. Not to forget, an annoying black border is added around the frame to each saved picture.
FotoRoid is free, but to better enjoy the app you have to purchase film and frame upgrades in order to broaden your possibilities — in-app purchases unlock either frames or films, or they disable ads. The problem is: are these upgrades worth it, in terms of quality and also of what they allow the user to achieve? To be totally honest, I don’t think they are.
Overall
Name: FotoRoid
Developer: Gen Kiyooka
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: free!
Vote: 2/5
Some developers achieve good results with one or two projects, but then they start developing a lot more apps and the quality and originality of what they have to offer sometimes is lowered.
ClassicINSTA brings nothing new to iPhone photographers. To be honest, it’s very difficult at this point to bring a breath of fresh air in the overcrowded field of iPhone instant photography. But seriously, unless you come up with some very peculiar idea, it’s hard to compete.
Main Features
Up to a resolution of 1536 x 1536 pixels;
Ten different cartridge types;
Three different camera designs (classic, modern, pink);
Two photographic borders;
Vibration on/off;
Possibility to add date or customized text to the photos.
Appotography Opinion
It’s definitely not worth the time and the money of users with already many apps to choose from to purchase the umpteenth collection of so-so filters, which is exactly what ClassicINSTA is right now. Even for those having to pick one app to simulate the instant camera effect, this is definitely not the best available choice. Despite the effort to spice things up adding three interchangeable skins, ClassicINSTA remains, compared to other instant photography apps, quite average. The cartridge filters aren’t anything particularly memorable; some of them are quite insubstantial, like ColorShock or Rainbow; a few of them don’t really look very different the one from the other. It would have been more sensible to have less filters, like just five or six, and work more on them.
Here are examples of shots taken with the various cartridges included in ClassicINSTA:
ClassicINSTA - CLS original cartridgeClassicINSTA - CLS modern cartridge
Not everybody who has an iPhone is necessarily looking for apps that are mainly oriented in photo editing. Some people mostly like to take snapshots as a way to keep in touch with friends, family and acquaintances, letting them experience moments of their lives with them.
Instagram was especially conceived for those who, willing to share their photos with others, want at the same time to add to their pictures that irresistible analog flavor that only instant cameras in the old days could deliver.
Main Features
Maximum resolution 612 x 612 pixels;
15+ filters available;
Square format;
Possibility to share the photos via Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
Appotography Opinion
Instagram works both with built-in camera and with camera roll. This app will very likely please users whose main interest is sharing snapshots with their friends. For those willing to use it simply for photography purposes, the app will be kind of disappointing though. The filters are very limited in number and in possibility of customization; however, their quality is more than decent in the imitation of real analog instant cameras.
Improvement is absolutely necessary regarding the images resolution – now merely up to a ridiculous 612 x 612 pixels! More than a few times the app crashed when we were trying to take a picture; refresh of user’s data is another issue we noticed. Browsing through the photos uploaded to the Instagram community isn’t very easy; the latest photos should be emphasized, not only the most popular; some kind of moderation should be applied to the uploaded photos, as many users end uploading photos that are not their own or snapshots of copyrighted material just to get comments and faves to end in the popular selection. This is not only completely wrong, but it also defies the purpose of the Instagram community.
Instagram is fully integrated with popular social networking services as Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Tumblr but the user can also share the pictures on the dedicated community created and managed by the app developers. The app is optimized for photo sharing: once it’s been correctly configured, it really takes nothing to share the pictures through the featured services. Registration is required in order to use the Instagram.
Anyway, the app is totally free: if you are curious why don’t you try it yourself?
Name: Instagram
Developer: Burbn, Inc.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.1.2 or later.
Price: free!
Vote: 3/5
Everybody likes instant photography, especially on the iPhone. Most apps that promise to the user the same experience of an actual instant camera are as a matter of fact big letdowns.
ShakeItPhoto, a very basic replacement to the default iPhone camera, differently from other similar apps, gets very close to what it promises.
Main Features
Up to a resolution of 1016 x 1040 pixels;
Shake to speed up development.
Appotography Opinion
ShakeItPhoto is a very nice and simple app that will make die-hard fans of the original Polaroid camera happy. In fact, much more than the official app, ShakeItPhoto gets close to delivering the feel of Polaroid instant photography, from the truthfulness of the filters to the shaking motion required to develop the photos faster to the effects reproducing real instant cameras’ sounds. The success of this app depends mainly on the fact ShakeItPhoto stays true to what it promises. First of all, it is very easy to use as it doesn’t offer any additional gadget or special feature to its basic function which is to take a photo – or change an existing one – adding to it a Polaroid-like filter and border. This means it will be excellent for iPhone camera users that usually prefer straightforward tools rather than gimmicky ones with gazillions of confusing variables, but it will also be a decent expansion for those who often like to use more than one app to edit their photos.
ShakeItPhoto conveniently works both with photos taken on the spot and and with the camera roll. There’s space for improvements on higher resolution.
Overall
Name: ShakeItPhoto
Developer: Banana Camera Co.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 2.2.1 or later.
Price: £0.59||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 4/5
Polaroid-imitating applications are not a novelty. There are quite a few in the App Store, some with only very basic functionalities, some with many gimmicks and features to keep everybody busy for a while. The renown instant look in all its variations is an everlasting favorite of the public and thus an inexhaustible money-making source. Even those who have never used an actual instant camera in the Polaroid brand to take a photo, know them by name and by their looks.
The Polaroid Corporation recently woke up from their torpor, ages after the App Store had reached the saturation level with instant photography apps. The original Polaroid® appeared in the app store with its own application developed by Montreal-based Penté Group. But is it really worth it? Let’s look at the app in detail.
Features
Multiple cameras: InstantCam™ offers four different camera modes, B&W, Vintage, Colorize and Digital, to recreate the looks of old and recent Polaroids
Camera and library mode: to take a picture on the spot or edit previously taken photos
Shake or blow: like with the original Polaroids, shake or blow to develop the photo
Add text: annotate photos in handwriting-looking text on the bottom border with the built-in editor
Compatibility with Polaroid Studio: create custom albums to organize the photos and share them online. Requires a Polaroid Studio account
Appotography Opinion
In theory it’s all very good, but actually the InstantCam™ app is a big letdown. And letdown is a compliment. It’s been proved more than once than big brands and companies are not necessarily equivalent to great quality. It’s usually the opposite, as big brands tend to take advantage of their name instead of worrying about substantial matters. Using the original “Polaroid Instant Camera application for iPhone” reinforced this thought even more.
Not only the quality of the photos isn’t particularly good, the effects aren’t particularly striking – hardly mediocre I’d say – , but also the final picture resolution is a mere 302 x 307 pixels. I mean, really… what were they thinking?! Yes, those we posted are not resized images; they are the actual images. Absolutely ridiculous. Also, the final image has an added white border around the Polaroid-style frame (around 8 pixels) to grant the drop shadow effect on the Polaroid frame the that is very annoying to look at and very troublesome if you have to, for example, use the photo against a background that isn’t white. Of course, you could get rid of those additional pixels importing the image in Photoshop or some equivalent photo editing program, but what would be the point?
Even paying a small amount of money for such a useless app is quite outrageous, especially with all non-original Polaroid apps out there that deliver the same and more, in a much better and effective way.
Overall
Name: InstantCam™
Developer: Penté Mobile
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.1.3 or later.
Price: £0.59||$0.99||€0.79
