3 Camera Apps That Are Better Than Hipstamatic
Posted on January 12, 2011 by Miss Britt in Tech
If you read Dooce, you’ve heard of Hipstamatic.
If you use Twitter, you’ve seen a Hipstamatic photo.
If you have a friend on Facebook who has an iPhone, you have no doubt seen the “artsy” photos of Christmas trees and gas pumps created by the Hipstamatic iPhone app. It seems to be all the rage among iPhone photographers.
But I have news for you:
There are better camera apps for your iPhone.
3 iPhone Camera Apps That Are Better Than Hipstamatic
Cost: Free
Want to do basic editing? This app let’s you crop, straighten, sharpen and soften. You can also adjust saturation, correct exposure and add some basic filters to your photo.
Cost: $1.99
Helga filter on the CameraBag iphone app
A simple app that let’s you scroll through a group of filters to see which effect you like the best before saving the new photo to your library. It’s great for creating the mood and atmosphere of the moments you’re capturing.
Cost: $1.99
This app was developed by Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs, whose HDR photography I’ve been following since before the iPhone existed. The app is basically a series of filters and textures that you can apply to your photos. The downside is that there is almost to choose from and the app works better with travel and landscape type photos than on pictures of people.
100 cameras in 1 photo
What makes these iphone photo apps better than Hipstamatic?
All three of these apps have one thing in common: you can edit existing photos. In other words, you take a photo using your iPhone’s regular camera app, and then pull it into the photo editing app and make your changes. You then save a new photo into your library, leaving your original photo untouched.
When you’re using your iPhone on the go, you often only get one shot at the right picture. Screwing around with hipstamatic filters and lenses and hoping you like it – and then asking everyone to get back together when you don’t so you can try again – is annoying. I don’t want to be taken out of enjoying the moment because I’m too busy trying to figure out the most artistic way of capturing it.
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Posted on January 12, 2011 by Miss Britt in Tech
There are some more apps that give you the same possibilities and even more. FX Photo Studio has 181 effects in total with more than 20 lomo effects plus vintage effects, vignette and other. Definitely a great one and it sells better than those mentioned;)
i’m not a fan of the hipstamatic app because most of the photos look crappy instead of artistic to me. seems like these apps would be better because you could start with a decent photo, then pay with it.
Perhaps you just don’t know what you’re doing. All the photos I’ve taken with Hipstamatic have come out beautifully. It’s all about being a competent photographer, then finding the optimal combination of lens/film.
By the by, in your iPhone settings, scroll to Hipstamatic and you can change the viewfinder from “classic” to “precision.” This will let you point-and-shoot, rather than having to stupidly aim your phone/computer/camera. lol
i never said i use the hipstamatic app, i don’t even have an iphone, so please don’t tell me what to do. and i said MOST of the photos look crappy to *me* which makes it my opinion. condescending comments from you aren’t likely to change my thoughts on the photos i see in my internet travels.
That CameraBag might be interesting… I do like the idea of taking the picture, then adding the filter. I have a self-portrait I took in Hipstamatic that I really like but I don’t use it because the filter left a red splotch on my face that I can’t edit out. It would have been better to be able to add the filter afterward.
No Instagram here? Kind of shocked. Instagram lets you edit existing photos, has 11 filters, all of which are way fun, and has a built in community of awesome. It exports to twitter, flickr, foursquare, tumblr, posterous and the Instagram community for one stop sharing. I have Camera Bag and Adobe, but I haven’t opened them since I downloaded Instagram (which is free, btw).
@FireMom, confession: I haven’t checked out instagram yet. I’m resistant to change in my social media world!!!
@Miss Britt, You will love-love-love it. PLUS, it’s FREE!
I like the look of the 100 cameras in 1. However I do like that you can save a new pictuer and keep the original intact. That’s a very nice touch!