effects posts

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, App Review

First Look: Best Camera App for iPhone

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Sep 22nd, 2009

The first thing I normally do when someone names their application "The Best..." is roll my eyes and delete the PR email. However, when I saw a press release about the Best Camera app for iPhone, I decided to take a look and I'm glad I did.

Best Camera [iTunes link] is a collaboration between professional photographer Chase Jarvis and iPhone dev firm Übermind. The app gets its name from Jarvis's book "The Best Camera is The One That's With You," a collection of photos taken all over the world by Jarvis with his iPhone.

The US$2.99 app features 14 useful filters and effects that can be stacked; in other words, you can take a photo with the iPhone camera, then apply several filters and/or effects before sharing your handiwork. The filters and effects are on a side-scrolling "dock" at the bottom of the screen, and you apply them by simply tapping on the icons. Sharing includes saving the photo on your iPhone camera roll, sending it out via email, or blasting it to your Facebook or Twitter account.

There's also one more place to share your photo. While filters and effects are nothing new, Jarvis has created a community at thebestcamera.com where photos that have been submitted are displayed on a constantly changing photo wall. These photos are also viewable in the app itself, and by tapping a photo in either location, you can view information about the photographer. On the website, the information also includes a list of the filers or effects that were used on the original photo so you can re-create photos that you find fascinating.

Check out the gallery below for some screenshots of the Best Camera app in action.

Gallery: Best Camera App

Tags: effects, filters, iphone, photography, photos

Filed under: Hardware, Software, MacBook

Star Wars Kid revisited with MacBook

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 24th, 2006

I'm finally done being in pain from laughter to post this hilarious revisit of the Star Wars Kid using that MacSaber app we found over the weekend. Great work, YouTube user mathowie.

[via Waxy.org]

Tags: battle, effects, light saber, LightSaber, MacBook, MacSaber, sound, Star Wars Kid, StarWarsKid, YouTube

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

ChatFX - video effects within iChat

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 22nd, 2006

ChatFX can bring some fun to your iChat video conferences by adding quirky video effects; basically it's like Apple's Photo Booth for iChat. Using the power of Quartz Composer (built into Mac OS X 10.4), ChatFX can apply eight different effects to your video conference in real time, including a green-screen effect for that perfect "sure, I'm still at school/the office" cover story. Using the green screen, you can even place a movie in the background - the sky's the limit with that feature.

ChatFX offers a demo download and sells for $20.

Tags: background, chat, ChatFX, effects, filter, funny, green screen, GreenScreen, iChat, quartz, video

Filed under: Audio, Multimedia, Software, Video

Apple releases Final Cut Express HD 3.5

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 18th, 2006

Apple has released Final Cut Express HD 3.5, what they are calling "a significant upgrade" to their "software solution for video enthusiasts, schools and small businesses". It is now a Universal Binary, and amongst its new features is Dynamic RT for real-time playback of multi-streamed effects and multi-layered HDV. Also, all effects, transitions and motion parameters can now be keyframed and saved as favorites for use on other projects.

A new version of Soundtrack included with Final Cut Express HD 3.5 includes "improved multi-track audio editing and recording tools with tracks, busses, outputs and real-time effects processing just like a professional recording studio". Apple has also improved recording of single and multiple takes for a better way to record and edit dialog and other kinds of performances.

The version of LiveType included with Final Cut Express HD 3.5 has also been upgraded to version 2.1, including 70 new animated objects, 15 new textures and 60 new customizable preset effects for text and titles. With the new LiveFont technology, animated text styles can also now be scaled to any resolution - including HD - "with blazing rendering performance, especially on the new generation of Intel-based Macs". Hint hint.

Final Cut Express HD 3.5 is available now through Apple's online store for $299 USD. Owners of earlier versions can upgrade for $99 USD.

Tags: 3.5, edit, editing, effects, Final Cut Express, FinalCutExpress, HD, LiveFont, LiveType, Soundtrack, Universal Binary, UniversalBinary, update, upgrade, video

Filed under: Software, Cool tools

ChocoFlop - powerful image editing

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 4th, 2006

Even as an alpha image editor, I think it's safe to dub ChocoFlop a true "poor man's Photoshop." It offers layers, real-time preview of filters and effects (of which there are many), a slew of selection tools, blending modes, masks, color adjusting and a whole bunch of file formats it can save to and even more it can read from - including many versions of RAW. For the full details, check out the longest image editor feature list I've seen in a long time.

As an alpha it's free, and the author has stated on his blog that, once it goes official and commercial, ChocoFlop won't cost more than $50 USD. I haven't cracked this open yet myself, but if you've been looking for a powerful image editor that offers quite a bit more than the standard CoreImage-based options out there, ChocoFlop should be right up your alley.

Tags: ChocoFlop, edit, editor, effects, filter, fix, image, mask, photo, Photoshop, picture, touch up, TouchUp

Filed under: Multimedia, Software

Image Tricks 2.0

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 27th, 2006

I'm beginning to think that today is some kind of image editing holiday, as Image Tricks, the freeware image editor that leverages Mac OS X Tiger's Core Image features, has been updated to version 2. New features include 'generators' - the ability to "randomly and manually generate images with mathematical algorithms," a fit-to-size option, PDF export, file size adjustment when exporting to JPEG, and other minor fixes and improvements.

Image Tricks has also been divided into Free and Pro versions. For a mere $9.95 the Pro version will give you six more generators than the free version, and BeLight software has stated they have more generators they can add from their todo list if enough customers show interest.

Check out BeLight Software's Image Tricks product page for more details on its abilities, and the downloads page for a copy of the upgradable Free version.

Tags: Core Image, CoreImage, editing, editor, effect, effects, filter, filters, generators, genereator, image, Image Tricks, ImageTricks, Mac, OS X, OsX, Tiger

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Productivity

ImagePlay, an open source, layered image editor

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jan 14th, 2006

I stumbled across another interesting (and free) image manipulator in Apple's downloads section by the name of ImagePlay. It's actually an open source editor with versions available from Sourceforge for OS X, OS 9 and even Windows, but because of that open-sourceness it doesn't appear to be utilizing all the abilities of CoreImage like ImageTricks does (correct me if I'm wrong). However, ImagePlay does offer a few key features, such as layers, various effects and filters, as well as the incredibly handy ability to offer an estimated file size when exporting various image formats such as JPEG, PNG, BMP (uh, why?), Photoshop, TIFF and even QuickTime.

While it obviously isn't Photoshop, I'm sure ImagePlay can still find its place in plenty of people's Application folders. This handy little image editor is available at either Apple's Downloads section or from its home at Sourceforge for the amazingly low price of $0.

Tags: effects, filters, image editor, ImageEditor, imageplay, imaging, layers, pictures

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