Wednesday, August 17, 2011

My favorite photography iPhone and iPad apps

My favorite and most-used photography apps for the iPhone and iPad are:

  • FlickStackr - if you use Flickr this is a great mobile interface to it
  • Camera+ - great for taking photos from the iPhone, then processing them
  • Photogene for iPad - together with the camera connection kit, I can transfer photos (even RAW files) from my camera to the iPad, edit them on the iPad, and then upload them.
  • The Photographer's Ephemeris - pick a place on earth and a date and calculate the time and angle of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset. Great for planning outdoor photos.
  • iDoF Calc - calculates depth of field
  • LightStudio - useful for pre-visualizing how different lighting schemes will look
  • Strobox - only useful if you do complicated lighting with multiple lights, but great for easily creating diagrams of that to refer back to later
  • Advanced Photoshop magazine for iPad - learn more about Photoshop

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

What would a giant do?

When I first got my iPad I thought of it as a kind of giant iPhone. Over time my mind has reversed this, and I now think of the iPhone as a tiny iPad, with a screen too small to make movies and comics look their best, too small to easily type on, and too small to use for drawing. The iPhone really only has one main advantage over the iPad: it fits in my pocket.

But what if I were a giant? Then I'd have really huge pockets, the iPad would fit in them, and I wouldn't need both an iPhone and an iPad. Brilliant! I love creative solutions like that. All I have to do in order to maximize my gadget efficiency is to become a giant.

And that proves that for any problem, if you just think outside the box a little, you can come up with a clear and simple solution that is completely impossible and useless.