Imagine you’re at the foot of Mount Everest, the sun is just rising, the mist is gradually clearing, but you’re still lugging a heavy DSLR camera to your destination. Even if you manage to get there in time, you’ll have to consider many factors before taking the shot—such as shutter speed, aperture settings, and tripod placement. This scenario often occurs during our travels. So how do we solve it? Now, let CNN introduce you to five mobile photography apps recommended by professionals, so you can travel with ease.
John Barnett, a professional photographer, was troubled by the above issues, so he turned to other tools for photography. He says, “My iPhone is my camera.” Barnett is now the co-founder and producer of Bright Mango, as well as the developer of the Wood Camera photography app. In 2011, he also held an iPhone photography exhibition in Italy. He says, “You carry your phone with you 99% of the time, so it’s very likely to be the tool that captures those once-in-a-lifetime moments for you—something other cameras can’t do.”
Lighting photo taken with an iPhone
1. Slow Shutter Cam
Barnett says, “This is the best app for capturing light trails and blurred motion shots. It’s hard to take a good photo without a tripod or without ensuring the phone stays steady. If I can’t secure my phone, I’ll mount it on a tripod.”
Best situations
Barnett says, “Slow Shutter is perfect for night scenes and motion shots, especially nighttime traffic and flowing water.”
Suggestions:
Set the camera to “Auto” or “Light Trail” mode. Try to keep the phone as stable as possible during shooting, or the image will turn out blurry.
App Store price: $0.99
This app is best for photos that are often underexposed
2. ProHDR
Barnett says, “This is an app that improves the ‘High Dynamic Range (HDR)’ images taken with your phone. Using auto mode and manual mode is indeed easy, but the resulting HDR photos are either underexposed or overexposed.”
Best applicable situations
Barnett says, “ProHDR is best for scenes that are too dark or too bright. It takes two consecutive photos—one dark and one bright—and merges them into a single HDR image.”
“The bright sky might come out overexposed, while the darker parts of the scene might be properly exposed, thus balancing the overall image.”
“Try adjusting the saturation of a finished HDR image—black-and-white HDR photos can turn out great.”
Suggestions:
Barnett says, “You must hold the phone steady when taking the photo, so the bright and dark areas align properly and to prevent blurriness.”
“Remember, the brighter and darker the parts of the scene you choose, the more extreme the resulting HDR image will be. Switch to manual mode, find a balanced scene, and don’t point directly at the sun or the darkest area of the frame. Keep moving until you find the optimal shooting spot.”
“Adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation to make the image look less extreme and closer to what the naked eye sees.”
App Store and Google Play price: $1.99
All-in-one photography app
3. Wooden Camera
Barnett said: "This is a photo editing app that allows you to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, enhance the image, and more. It also offers many other features such as filter adjustments, image quality improvement, borders, tilt-shift effects, and illustrations."
"The Wooden Camera app uses 'lightbox' to improve editing efficiency, so you can import a batch of photos, edit them freely, and share them to social networks, which saves on camera roll space. Additionally, these photos are saved in the 'lightbox' so you can edit and share them again later."
"Wooden Camera can also directly upload photos to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook."
Best Use Cases
Barnett said: "The Wooden Camera app is suitable for all types of photos and comes with a variety of editing options. All lenses are adjustable, and every part of the image can be individually modified however you like."
Recommendations:
Barnett said: "Find a lens you like and try out each option button. Each image needs the right adjustments to achieve the best effect."
"If you want a black-and-white look, just adjust the saturation. All lenses in Wooden Camera can become black-and-white filters by simply setting the saturation to the lowest level."
App Store Price: $0.99
To avoid flooding your friend’s Facebook feed, you can combine ten images into one before uploading.
4. Diptic Photo Collage App
Barnett said: "This app is used to stitch photos together. It has a large selection of customizable collage layouts, allowing you to combine up to nine photos into one."
Best Use Cases
Barnett said: "Diptic is suitable for all types of photos. It works especially well for combining large photos, capturing all the joyful moments from trips or birthday parties. It's like telling a story with a Diptic image."
App Store Price: $0.99
Recommendations:
Barnett: "Don’t get overwhelmed by the 165-plus layouts. Start simple, then adjust the aspect ratio and shape of the layout. Try logging into Facebook when importing photos, so you can easily collage images from your Facebook albums."
An Oscar-winning documentary was shot using this app
5. 8mm Vintage Camera
Barnett said: "The 8mm Vintage Camera lets you shoot 'vintage-style' videos on your iPhone. You can also add effects to existing videos."
Best Use Cases
Barnett said: "The 8mm Vintage Camera is suitable for any scene. The resulting videos look like they were filmed decades ago. It also offers different lenses, giving you a variety of color and grain options."
Recommendations:
Barnett said: "When using this app, note that you can record with sound or mute it to create silent films. You can also use audio equipment to add a sense of realism."