Taking photographs, whether we're talking about works of art, documentary reportage, funny stuff to put on Facebook or family snaps, is about ten per cent ability and 90 per cent opportunity. There's an old photographer's saying that the best camera is the one you have with you. And how many times have you seen a photo you've desperately wanted to take, only to be hampered by the slight problem of not having a camera to hand?
The great—photo—no—camera problem has almost been solved these past few years or so by the ubiquitous phone camera. It's almost bizarre, especially for those of us who were baffled by Sony Ericsson's strange (or so it seemed) decision to launch phone cameras a decade ago, that today, a huge proportion of people go about their daily life with a still and video camera in their pocket at all times.
Happily most of the horrors that technology writers — OK, me — predicted, such as people sending unrequested rude photos of themselves to others, certainly haven't become a particular problem. Indeed, mobile phone video has become a significant driver of political change in troubled parts of the world.
But isn't a mobile phone photo or piece of video nevertheless always going to be a low—quality compromise? Important footage from a mobile phone can be dramatic, effective, agenda setting, even. Or just very funny, as a zillion YouTube clips can testify. But it's unlikely to have much artistic quality. Well, hold it there. A new word has slipped into the lexicon: iPhoneography. It seems to apply to all forms of mobile phone photography, the iPhone being just the most popular type.
But, even given that millions of people carry an iPhone, and that the later models, the 3 and 4, have a reasonable 5—megapixel camera on board, meaning huge numbers of people are equipped to capture "the decisive moment", as Cartier—Bresson called it, it still shouldn't be possible to make great photos with an iPhone — not great enough, at least, to have their own —ography. The lens isn't great, it doesn't zoom, it can't take pictures in low light, and you can't alter the exposure settings.
But all that is changing now thanks to apps. Thousands of apps have appeared in the past year or so to enhance iPhone photos out of all recognition and even replace entirely its built—in image handling technology. Stretching the iPhone by use of fancy software is very nearly a case of squeezing a quart from a pint pot.
Some photo enhancing apps are already famous. Hipstamatic, for instance, turns your iPhone camera into a 60s Instamatic complete with oversaturated, film—like images. PhotoStudio provides you (for 59p in the UK) with a darkroom in your pocket, letting you adjust photos for brightness, contrast and colour balance, and also change to black and white, sepia or softened.
An app called Camera Bag lets you choose from a range of old—style film camera effects. QuickPix makes the iPhone camera start up faster and can take stills while you're videoing. Camera+ introduces a stabilisation feature to end movement-blurred photos, a self timer, a two photos—persecond burst mode and the important ability to set your own focus and exposure points by tapping the screen.
100 Cameras in 1 lets you apply 100 different colour and mood filters to both existing photos and new ones. My own favourite iPhone photo app, TiltShift Generator (and several other apps with TiltShift in their name) introduces a bizarre and compelling effect that makes the world seem to be full of brightly coloured toys.
Time Lapse enables you to create time—lapse videos of a building going up or a flower opening. Be sure to secure the phone firmly during the filming, however and, no, I have no idea what happens if someone calls in the middle of your filming session. Yes, there are times when you get into the world of photo apps when you can easily forget that your iPhone is, er, a phone.
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