This list doesn’t include Instagram or Flickr or Snapseed. Here are some other interesting apps you may have missed out on.
Smartphones these days come with cameras which are capable of taking decent pictures for mobile sharing. But capturing photographs is just one half of the equation, the other being sharing it. You will rarely find anyone NOT sharing photographs on social media sites. When we talk social media, some things are par for the course. You don’t just share images right from your phone’s image gallery. You marinate them in a lot of filters, cover them up inside funky frames, geotag them and so on, before hitting the share button. Instagram is a big name in this field and is found on most of the smartphones around (sorry Windows and BlackBerry users). So in this month’s line up, we are going to look at photography apps which may not be as popular as Instagram, but are worth considering. Some apps in the listing leave Instagram way behind in terms of the sheer number of features they support – and we aren’t just talking more filters.
PicsArt
PicsArt is a photography app for Android and iOS, which allows you to add effects to pictures, make a collage of your photographs, draw alongside on the pictures, add effects to your native camera while taking a live photograph and so on. It allows you to import pictures from your Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Google, Dropbox accounts as well which is quite impressive. PicsArt allows you to connect your Twitter or Facebook account to it. Under effects, it not only allows you to add a variety of filters, but each filter comes with its set of adjustments which can be tweaked according to your liking. This gives you more control over the effects than say the Instagram filters. With options like adding masks, you can even select on which part of the photograph you may want to add an effect. The collage function is a fun way to group multiple photographs. The social angle allows you to follow people on PicsArt and it has dedicated tabs for interesting photographs, recent photographs, trending tags, popular artists and so on. If you are those discerning photography enthusiast who like to fine tune your photographs and feel limited with the stock filters on Instagram, this is the app you should download! Platform: Android, iOS, Amazon.
Pixlr Express
This app takes image-editing to a whole new level with over 600 effects, borders, overlays to play around with. Coming from Autodesk, the same company which makes 3D editing software Maya, you obviously will expect the best. Unlike PicsArt, Pixlr Express does not allow you to import pictures from other services but it allows you to share it directly to your social networks. Pixlr Express’ main focus is image editing and it does not have a social community as such to speak of. You are presented with countless adjustment features such as touch up, focal blurring, sharpening, etc, and there are plenty more. Under Effects you have filters categorised under sub heads, ditto for the other options such as Overlay, Borders and Text. This app is also meant for those who love spending time, fine-tuning their photographs. Those with short attention span will find this app cumbersome. Platform: Android, iOS .
Otaku Camera
Otaku is the Japanese word which describes people with obsessive interests generally around Japanese manga or anime, but can involve other kinds of nerds as well. So Otaku Camera is the one you should have on your phone if you are into comics or graphic novels. It is a very simple app which allows you to comic-ify your photographs with interesting frame designs which will make your photograph look like it is a panel from some Japanese comic. There are a list of frames which you can download for free, if you want more variety. In terms of tweaking, you can only adjust the brightness and the thickness of the lines on the sketch. You can either share it on Facebook or Twitter or just save it to your phone. Platform: Android, iOS.
GifBoom
If you are the kinds who love watching GIF animations online, then this is the app for you. Not only do you get to create GIF animations, but you can also add some filters to the final GIF. The best part about the app is its simplicity. There are five main menus: Home feed, categories, camera, favourites and profile page. You login with your Twitter or Facebook credentials and click on the camera icon. Here you can either shoot in the burst mode where you will see a counter telling you how many images are being captured or you can select the single-shot mode to click images according to your pace. You proceed to select which images you want to include in the GIF, then you can increase or decrease the speed and add various filters to your GIF. Finally you can share its link on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Platform: Android, iOS.
Camera Awesome
Only available on the iOS platform this camera app has some neat features up its sleeves. We really like the composition tool which overlays your screen with horizontal axis, rule of thirds grid and/or golden ratio graph. This ensures that you have your compositions right. You also have some preset effects which applies a particular effect to the scene you are shooting. It has separate focussing and metering points while taking a photograph. After having shot the image, you can pass it through filters and make tweaks according to your liking. The Awesomize feature enhances the image and you get a slider to see the effect. You can further tweak the sharpness, colour temperature and so on. You can then add presets, filters, textures and finally frames. You can share your images on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket or use email to send it to your friends.
Platform: iOS
Lomogram
One of the more famous photography apps on the Windows Phone OS ecosystem. It is very straight-forward. You take a picture, and then pass it through any one of the 43 filters on offer. Each filter has a unique name, which frankly does not tell you much of what it does. Only the accompanying image gives you an idea what the filter will do. Most of the filters cater to the lo-fi aesthetic and each one comes with some amount of vignetting. After adding the appropriate filter, you can overlay it with some elements such as light leaks, textures and so on. Finally, you have an option to frame your lomograph. You can then share the picture on your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and/or Tumblr accounts.
Platform: Windows Phone OS
Retro Camera
It has a collection of retro cameras, each of which comes with its own effect. You can select the camera that you want and the interface is such that it feels as if you are looking through a camera while making your photograph. Each camera has an info card which tells you exactly what type of photograph that camera will take. The actual scene you are shooting will be visible only in a small square with the rest of the screen real estate being used by the app UI is a bit sad. It’s just another simple camera app with filters and some unique user interface. It makes an annoyingly loud shutter sound when ever it takes images with cameras. Some cameras have exposure times of 5s and more.
Platform: Android, iOS
FhotoRoom
This is a paid app on the Windows Store which is a little advanced as compared to Lomogram. It passes the photograph through three functions namely edit fx, style fx and frames. The edit fx allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, crop imageadjust white balance and so on. Style fx comprises various filters with a slider to increase or decrease the applied effect. There isn’t much tweaking you can do here. You can try out the features for free using the Fhotoroom Core app which does notallow you to change your effectsThe app costs Rs 55 to buy.
Platform: Windows Phone OS
Smartphones these days come with cameras which are capable of taking decent pictures for mobile sharing. But capturing photographs is just one half of the equation, the other being sharing it. You will rarely find anyone NOT sharing photographs on social media sites. When we talk social media, some things are par for the course. You don’t just share images right from your phone’s image gallery. You marinate them in a lot of filters, cover them up inside funky frames, geotag them and so on, before hitting the share button. Instagram is a big name in this field and is found on most of the smartphones around (sorry Windows and BlackBerry users). So in this month’s line up, we are going to look at photography apps which may not be as popular as Instagram, but are worth considering. Some apps in the listing leave Instagram way behind in terms of the sheer number of features they support – and we aren’t just talking more filters.
PicsArt
PicsArt is a photography app for Android and iOS, which allows you to add effects to pictures, make a collage of your photographs, draw alongside on the pictures, add effects to your native camera while taking a live photograph and so on. It allows you to import pictures from your Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Google, Dropbox accounts as well which is quite impressive. PicsArt allows you to connect your Twitter or Facebook account to it. Under effects, it not only allows you to add a variety of filters, but each filter comes with its set of adjustments which can be tweaked according to your liking. This gives you more control over the effects than say the Instagram filters. With options like adding masks, you can even select on which part of the photograph you may want to add an effect. The collage function is a fun way to group multiple photographs. The social angle allows you to follow people on PicsArt and it has dedicated tabs for interesting photographs, recent photographs, trending tags, popular artists and so on. If you are those discerning photography enthusiast who like to fine tune your photographs and feel limited with the stock filters on Instagram, this is the app you should download! Platform: Android, iOS, Amazon.
Pixlr Express
This app takes image-editing to a whole new level with over 600 effects, borders, overlays to play around with. Coming from Autodesk, the same company which makes 3D editing software Maya, you obviously will expect the best. Unlike PicsArt, Pixlr Express does not allow you to import pictures from other services but it allows you to share it directly to your social networks. Pixlr Express’ main focus is image editing and it does not have a social community as such to speak of. You are presented with countless adjustment features such as touch up, focal blurring, sharpening, etc, and there are plenty more. Under Effects you have filters categorised under sub heads, ditto for the other options such as Overlay, Borders and Text. This app is also meant for those who love spending time, fine-tuning their photographs. Those with short attention span will find this app cumbersome. Platform: Android, iOS .
Otaku Camera
Otaku is the Japanese word which describes people with obsessive interests generally around Japanese manga or anime, but can involve other kinds of nerds as well. So Otaku Camera is the one you should have on your phone if you are into comics or graphic novels. It is a very simple app which allows you to comic-ify your photographs with interesting frame designs which will make your photograph look like it is a panel from some Japanese comic. There are a list of frames which you can download for free, if you want more variety. In terms of tweaking, you can only adjust the brightness and the thickness of the lines on the sketch. You can either share it on Facebook or Twitter or just save it to your phone. Platform: Android, iOS.
GifBoom
If you are the kinds who love watching GIF animations online, then this is the app for you. Not only do you get to create GIF animations, but you can also add some filters to the final GIF. The best part about the app is its simplicity. There are five main menus: Home feed, categories, camera, favourites and profile page. You login with your Twitter or Facebook credentials and click on the camera icon. Here you can either shoot in the burst mode where you will see a counter telling you how many images are being captured or you can select the single-shot mode to click images according to your pace. You proceed to select which images you want to include in the GIF, then you can increase or decrease the speed and add various filters to your GIF. Finally you can share its link on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Platform: Android, iOS.
Camera Awesome
Only available on the iOS platform this camera app has some neat features up its sleeves. We really like the composition tool which overlays your screen with horizontal axis, rule of thirds grid and/or golden ratio graph. This ensures that you have your compositions right. You also have some preset effects which applies a particular effect to the scene you are shooting. It has separate focussing and metering points while taking a photograph. After having shot the image, you can pass it through filters and make tweaks according to your liking. The Awesomize feature enhances the image and you get a slider to see the effect. You can further tweak the sharpness, colour temperature and so on. You can then add presets, filters, textures and finally frames. You can share your images on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket or use email to send it to your friends.
Platform: iOS
Lomogram
One of the more famous photography apps on the Windows Phone OS ecosystem. It is very straight-forward. You take a picture, and then pass it through any one of the 43 filters on offer. Each filter has a unique name, which frankly does not tell you much of what it does. Only the accompanying image gives you an idea what the filter will do. Most of the filters cater to the lo-fi aesthetic and each one comes with some amount of vignetting. After adding the appropriate filter, you can overlay it with some elements such as light leaks, textures and so on. Finally, you have an option to frame your lomograph. You can then share the picture on your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and/or Tumblr accounts.
Platform: Windows Phone OS
Retro Camera
It has a collection of retro cameras, each of which comes with its own effect. You can select the camera that you want and the interface is such that it feels as if you are looking through a camera while making your photograph. Each camera has an info card which tells you exactly what type of photograph that camera will take. The actual scene you are shooting will be visible only in a small square with the rest of the screen real estate being used by the app UI is a bit sad. It’s just another simple camera app with filters and some unique user interface. It makes an annoyingly loud shutter sound when ever it takes images with cameras. Some cameras have exposure times of 5s and more.
Platform: Android, iOS
FhotoRoom
This is a paid app on the Windows Store which is a little advanced as compared to Lomogram. It passes the photograph through three functions namely edit fx, style fx and frames. The edit fx allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, crop imageadjust white balance and so on. Style fx comprises various filters with a slider to increase or decrease the applied effect. There isn’t much tweaking you can do here. You can try out the features for free using the Fhotoroom Core app which does notallow you to change your effectsThe app costs Rs 55 to buy.
Platform: Windows Phone OS
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