Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Time to Take the Best Photos Ever

HDR is a photography term that stands for High Dynamic Range. What this means is that an underexposed (dark) photo is combined with an overexposed (light) image to create a much better image. There are many apps on the app store that have the ability to do this, but I have found that Pro HDR is by far the best and most reliable app for doing this. Pro HDR allows you to either take an HDR image, select two images from your photo library, or select a single image from you photo library (of course, the single image cannot be made into an HDR image, but is just enhanced). To take an HDR image, you must hold your phone EXTREMELY STILL because the app takes a light image and then a dark image and moving the phone between shots will end up causing the app to combine different photos. If you hold the phone still enough (I recommend letting it sit on a flat surface, consider buying a GorillaMobile tripod, or brace yourself well) the app can combine the two photos to create a stunning picture. Once this picture has been created, you can adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, tint, and warmth of the picture, and you can also add basic filters, frames, and text, and you can also crop the picture. Pro HDR automatically adjusts the picture for you, but I would recommend increasing the saturation and decreasing the brightness for a better picture. If you can't keep the camera still, you can always take an HDR image with the camera app, which doesn't require you to be too still. But overall, I would definitely recommend this app to any person, even if you aren't interested in photography, because you'll never want to go back to taking normal photos ever again! Check out my pictures below:





Monday, August 20, 2012

Did I just hear you say free?

Yep, you sure heard it.  Free.  Free apps.  Sometimes we just don't have any money to spare for those developers at Apple.  But thankfully, there's an app for that.  Well, actually there are many, but I only use a couple (I will discuss one now and one in a later post).  Don't worry though, there is nothing illegal about Apps Gratis!  All it does is provide a list of paid apps that for some reason have become free for a day, and it sends you alerts to remind you to check and see what has become free.  What I like most about this app is that it is organized in a very user-friendly way.  There are no ads or confusing buttons, and also the app does not pick out random horrible apps that have become free; rather, it selects unique, more popular and creative apps that are more likely to interest you.  Also, this app has other features, including a list of apps whose prices have been lowered. And best of all, Apps Gratis is free too!  Here are some screenshots for you:


Sunday, August 19, 2012

You've Got to Have a Calendar!

I know, you're probably thinking "The iPhone comes with a calendar!"  However, as you might already know, Apple's calendar app is very frustrating and not intuitive at times.  Out of the many calendar apps I have tried, I would say that the best one has been Easy Calendar, available in the app store for $1.99, but well worth the money.  In short, the name says it all.  Really.  This extremely intuitive app lets you view the week or month as a whole, and it is very easy to add events.  Easy Calendar is much easier to use than the default calendar app, and I would recommend it to anyone, busy schedule or not. Here are some pictures of the app: