Getting the movement blur effect in photos using the iPhone camera

There are many special effects I can do with the iPhone camera to produce fun images. Most of the effects are via apps that alter the image later. I have mentioned Hipstamatic that take the image from the start as a variety of old style cameras.

There has been a iPhone camera tweak missing from the many apps I have tried. Allowing me to hold the lens ‘open’ for longer so I can get the feeling of movement. A couple evening ago, a friend mentioned I should try Slow Shutter Cam. He was right, this does just what I need. Well… wanted to play with.

From the image taking screen, Slow Shutter Cam offers several quick adjustment options for tuning the particular shot your taking. Setting the length of time the ‘shutter’ will be open and what triggers the open/closing are both a tap away. You may want to consider looking at a few tripod mount options if your planning on going for a really long shutter opening time: The GLIF has arrived, iPhone is on the Tripod! and Tripod mounting the iPhone 4 .

The settings area allows for turning features on and off like how Slow Shutter Cam focuses. You can turn on/off the screen tap focus as well allow the whole screen to be used for the focus length. Self-timer is a nice feature if you want to be part of the action.

With Slow Shutter Cam on the iPhone, images doesn’t always have to be about things moving. You can move the iPhone camera too while taking the image for many fun effects. The trick is being smooth so I like the fact that you are given the chance to save the image or not… give me time to make several attempts at the final image.

From the developer:

– iOS 4.2 required for full resolution on iPhone 4
– Full resolution not supported on iPhone 3G

Stuff for the Verizon iPhone 4

If you own an iPhone now and are switching to Verizon, your email inbox most likely was full of emails this morning about the ‘stuff’ you can get for the Verizon iPhone available. While most of them have been app information, this is one that hit with me. I have skins on my iPhone, notebook, Wii… anything that doesn’t get out of my way, I have personalized. While it is fun, the skins do a nice job of protecting the big flat surfaces against scratches which is nice when the new hardware comes out and I want to sell to buy ‘new’.

New Verizon iPhone 4 Skins

For me, I’m sticking with AT&T since their coverage is better than Verizon for the areas I travel. Not so say that will always be the case, but at least for today I don’t have to go get in line. For those of you who are grabbing your Verizon version of the iPhone, be safe in the cold weather!!

Getting GameCenter Achievements with your iPhone snow pics

Everyone knows about the GameCenter that comes with the latest versions of the iPhone OS. The usual use of this is to share high scores and play games against others. Now, there is another use… getting achievements by sharing out pictures through your iPhone.

I am putting together a bigger post about the new Photo Social Networks but thought this app should be mentioned outside of that.

There are quite a few iPhone Photo apps to choose from these days. Many are simple apps that make a single or few specialized image tuning. Others, I’ve mentioned a couple I have been using, allow for a lot of fine tuning images. Cropping, rotating, and some filters are nice. The photo solutions that offer a almost endless list of filters can be fun but are generally lacking a UI that encourages using often. I have never been able to put my finger on how to make them better so I have been having to look at every image filter app to see if it is ‘the one’.

A co-worker posted a picture last week, which grabbed my attention. He reported that he used the iPhone app 100 Cameras in 1. It isn’t expensive so I grabbed a copy to give it a try. Right off, the “100 Cameras” is in reference to the long list of picture filters the app provides. I like the ‘list’ view with thumbnails for all of the image filters. Most photo apps on the iPhone either tells you the filter or has a thumbnail of what the image will look like after applying the filter. 100 Cameras provides thumbnails that changes as you apply filters so you know what the final output will be when you choose multiple filters.

It is proving to be fast enough to use (seems to be much faster at applying the filters than other options I have installed) on just about all of my image tuning projects to get an enhanced effect from the snapshot. Even with all of the filter options, there are also sliders to tune each effect. Due to this, you don’t end up with every image trying to look like an old fashion camera picture like many of the other image filter apps do.

With so many filters and being able to quickly see how grouping filters together, I’m using the ‘share’ capability quite a lot. Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and… I like to save to the Photo area so I can share out with my Instagram account. I use those options more than the built-in ‘GameCenter’ feature. My coworker that showed me 100 Cameras in the first place is scoring very nicely amongst folks posting pictures through GameCenter. Right now there are a lot of folks like us trapped with the cold weather so there is a growing number of fun pictures to see.

Google Goggles ads Shopping to the iPhone

If you like using the Google Shopper part of the Google’s Site options, your going to be happy. Google has gone mobile with the online solution as a iPhone app.

You may remember our past mentions of the Google Goggle capabilities on the Android phones slowly coming to the iPhone. You can take an snapshot of something, the Google system will scan the image and return results what it thinks it might be. In the case of Sudoku puzzles (The iPhone and Google app will sold any Sudoku for you), it will solve them for you. In the case of a sign, it will translate the text to a language of your choice. Most of the Goggle functions are being added to the iPhone Google App (Loving Google Goggles on the iPhone!!).

Now, for Google Shopper, they have introduced a whole new iPhone app. As with any Goggle solution, you snap a picture of a product or bar code and Google tells you what it is. This functionality does require Internet access since Google’s servers do all the work.

Now with the free Shopper app, you can see what you would normally see on the search engines shopper site. More detailed info on the item your looking at and companies that are offering that service or product. Choosing one of the links will take you to that provider to purchase if you wish to. Sharing and Star for later referencing is also supported.