With the Apple iPad finally hitting the shelves this past weekend, what applications could make this tempting for professional photographers, enthusiasts and snapshooters?
Along with nearly half a million first-gen iPads now in the hands of early adapters, a handful of photography-related apps were revealed on the new iPad app store. Here’s an early look at nine apps that are available now. I’m sure there’s plenty more to come as developers begin to see the potential of such features as Multi-Touch technology.
Darkroom Photo App $1.99
Feel the magic of watching a print come up in the developer, but without the enlarger, safelights, or messy chemicals. Agitate the print as it develops, hang it up to dry, jot down your favorite formulas. Comes with eight “magical photo-altering chemicals,” and other stuff that kind of make you think you’re an alternative process pro. Me? I'd rather get out some trays, Dektol and Fixer, and do some real printing.
Zagg PhotoPad Free
Crop, swap color, adjust threshold levels, contrast and saturation in photos loaded onto your iPad. A bunch of filter affects can be applied. In other words, it acts very much like a bona-fide simple image editor.
Camera A/Camera B Free
The fact that there’s not camera in the iPad is causing consternation among the technorati. But there’s an app for the iPhone called Camera B which, when used with just-released Camera A, will let you transmit your images from iPhone to iPad via WiFi or Bluetooth, turning the iPad into a photo capture device, letting you operate the camera on your iPhone from your iPad. But the images are iPhone resolution. A stop-gap measure.
Photo Explorer $0.99
This isn’t so much a photo app as a game app based on photographs. You know those games where you try to guess what’s changed when comparing two photos? Well, here it is, based on the photos of John M. Quick. Spot the differences!
Photogene $3.99
Photogene looks and feels like something close to a real image editing program. You can crop, rotate, adjust color, add borders and text, change resolution, adjust levels and curves, turn color to sepia or black-and-white, and organize a photo album. And you can do it all with your finger, not with a stylus or mouse. Early reviewers are raving about this one. If you are planning on buying an iPad, Photogene looks like a substantial image-editing app that’s well worth getting.
Art Authority $9.99
This one’s a bit of a stretch as a photo app, so bear with me. Art Authority stores over 40,000 paintings and sculptures from major collections and museums from around the world, indexed, captioned and organized—a massive project. There are no photos in Art Authority, but if you are a serious photographer looking for creative inspiration and a grounding in composition basics, why not start with the classics? (Besides, storing this app on your iPad is a lot lighter than schlepping a copy of Janson’s History of Art with you.)
Ubermind Masque Editing App $5.99
Like Photogene, Ubermind has put a lot of thought into multi-touch-based image editing, including an intriguing multi-touch gradient tool, customizable brush and eraser, and a variety of filter effects. Saturation, contrast, blur, and color cast are all easily controllable.
Ligtttrac Free (but not for long)
Similar to the Photographer’s Ephemeris, LightTrac mashes up Google Earth overhead views and lines and arrows indicating the direction and location of the moon and sun at specific times and dates. It includes local sunrise, sunset, twilight dawn and dusk information, and the phase of the moon. Pick a time of day, and it’ll show you the angle of the sun at the displayed time.
