Verizon iPhone (Pt.2): Photography Apps You'll Love

Heads up, photographers! There’s a new tool with your name on it (and an Apple logo 
on the back). It’s the iPhone 4! While the Android apologists among you may argue that your platform is superior, I would beg to differ. Android always feels like an iPhone prototype to me. And when it comes to apps, the world of iPhone takes the trophy. And that’s the main difference between Android and iPhone. It’s all about the apps.
I’ve been covering just a couple of Photography (and graphics) apps that you Verizon subscribers have been kept out of the loop of. Apps that, as of February 10th, you’ll finally have access to by getting a brand spankin’ new iPhone 4.

If you're a visitor of my home site (timhaines.com - A Rendezvous With the Real), you've already read this post. If you haven't, then you're missing the early bird goodness. Blogs always appear first on my home page, along with other assorted coolness. So check it out some time. For those who aren't in the loop though, these next two apps I'll cover here are apps that pro photographers can use to become SLR super heros!

Viewfinder Pro (iTunes Link): Developed by DIRE Studio

Viewfinder Pro is exactly what you’d expect from its name; it turns your iPhone into a viewfinder monitor, simulating various focal lengths, from numerous lenses, attached to different camera bodies. If you enjoy attaching different lenses to your camera deciding which lens or focal range would frame the image you’re trying to capture, stop reading now. But if you’d like an easy, simple, versatile way to explore various framing options without even taking your big ol’ SLR out of your camera bag, buy this app...buy it right now! Viewfinder uses your iPhone’s camera and overlays translucent isolation regions in your display to simulate composition of your scene based on focal lengths you define, and camera bodies you select. Select a 50mm focal length on a Nikon D3 within Viewfinder Pro, and you’ll see exactly what will be covered inside the frame of a real Nikon D3 and 50mm lens. Maybe you also have a D300, and you want to see what that same 50mm lens would cover. Tap the screen to “change” camera bodies, and you’ll now see its coverage isolated in your viewfinder. Maybe you own a Canon 1D, and you want to decide what telephoto range you’ll need to fill 2/3 of your frame with an object/subject way out in the distance; two taps of your screen, and it’s done. I’ve actually done this very thing! I saw an old water tower on the roof of a building about 400 meters away. I didn’t have to waste time trying different lenses on different bodies to figure out what combination of lens/body I’d need to capture the image I was looking for. I previewed the scene in Viewfinder, simulating 2 different bodies, and FOUR different focal lengths, and decided that the Canon 1D and 100mm lens combination would give me EXACTLY the picture I was looking for. Now, when I went back to that spot to shoot the picture I didn’t have to take 2 bodies and a bunch of lenses. I just took my 1D, and my 100mm lens. Took the shot. Perfect! Done! This app is is a requirement for anyone with a large arsenal of optics and bodies.

LightMeter (iTunes Link): Developed by Ambertation

I’ll give you three guesses what this app does. LightMeter turns your iPhone into an exposure meter. This may sound stupid, but if you’re an old school shooter like me and you use film bodies that don’t have built-in light meters, this is an app you’re going to thank God. Sometimes when I take my Hasselblad to do some shooting I actually forget to bring my light meter. Very frustrating! If I also have a digital SLR with me I meter the scene using the SLR, then use those exposure settings for my Hasselblad. This isn’t very elegant. Lightmeter does the same job without the bulk. And since I always have my iPhone with me, there’s little to no risk of forgetting to bring a light meter with me. 
When you need to meter a scene, open LightMeter, and you’re presented with a menu screen where you select the setting you want to calculate (f-stop, Shutter, and ISO) and 3 slider columns to input the base values you’re working with. So if you want to calculate what shutter speed you’ll need to accurately expose for your scene, you first take a picture of it with your iPhone from LightMeter. Then you go into LightMeter’s interface, tap the “Shutter” button (because you want to calculate shutter speed), adjust the ISO slider to the ISO of your film (or digital camera setting), set the Aperture slider to the aperture you intend to use, and the Shutter slider will automatically slide to the value you will need for accurate exposure. I’ve used this app twice, and it saved my life (okay, not literally). The app works in coordination with your iPhone’s camera, and metering system. The iPhone’s metering system will NOT work as accurately or with the same versatility as a “real”, dedicated light meter. But I have found LightMeter gives me meter calculations that are really close to what my real light meter gives me. Expect a difference of about 1/3 of a stop under or over exposed. This is a very livable margin of error! And it’s a hell of a lot better than not getting the shot at all because you forget your light meter.

If I had to write a blog post on all of the photography apps available for the iPhone I’d wind up wearing my fingers to the bone. But there are apps that help you calculate sunrise, sunset and shadow cast, apps that help you to quickly generate release forms, and even apps that will remotely trigger your SLR! I wish I could have given you a review of one of those remote SLR firing apps, but I’ve never used them and I didn’t want to recommend an app I’ve never used in my own workflow.

So that’s the story. The iPhone definitely has it’s quirks. As an AT&T iPhone user I can honestly say I’ve never had a problem with its performance, and that’s coming from a techie in the New York market. But the iPhone, being a touch screen device, can sometimes be frustrating to operate. The nature of any touch screen device is that it isn’t as cut-and-dry as a device with buttons and dials, and so it can tend to feel like it slows you down. Personally I prefer buttons. But where the iPhone puts every other device and every touch-screen competitor in the dust is the availability, and power of the apps that run on it. Android can’t touch it. Period! Especially when it comes to photography apps. It’s just like your computer; it’s only as good as the software that runs on it. If you need a mobile computing device, and you need one that empowers you as a photographer and/or graphics artist, enter the world of the iPhone.