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 Hipstamatic has been a bit of an odd duck on the App Store. While it was one of the first photo apps to gain a strong following, it has already been used to take over two billion photos. But, it has been somewhat forgotten now that social sharing has taken center stage. Don’t get me wrong, it still has a large and very vocal following, and also a very creatively talented following, but it doesn’t have the mindshare of an app like Instagram. Somewhat forgotten even though it’s still going strong with over four million monthly users. The reason for it losing mindshare could be that Hipstamatic lacks an integrated social stream like Instagram and others. Well, that is until oggl is released later this week.
Instagram was a great idea, and a very wonderful creative stream of photos, for a short while anyway. But now it’s filled with duck faces, selflies, and bad pictures of food. While oggl is open to anyone, it is expected that it will maintain a much higher quality clientele than what is currently seen in Instagram. While Instagram is mean to share, oggl is mean to inspire. Some of the artists on there already are truly astonishing.
Expected to be on the App Store on Thursday, oggl takes the high quality filter system that Hipstamatic pioneered and adds a sharing community on top of it. They do this for free, ad-free, and the artists retain full rights to their photos. How can they do this? Add-ons of course. The Hipstamatic community is pretty crazy for new lenses and films, the add-ons that add new effects to photos in Hipstamatic. So you can buy them in Hipstamatic and access them in oggl, or you can subscribe to oggl for $0.99/month or $9.99/year and get access to all of the lenses and films ever made.
Now the bad news, oggl will be granting access slowly, over time to those that request it at http://oggl.com/. The slowed down access is to ensure that the service quality isn’t degraded as it ramps up. So, head over there now and request access.
This is an interesting move, if not completely unexpected one for Hipstamatic. It should be a great community for photographers and creative types. That is if they can keep the duck faces to a minimum.
 Hipstamatic is about to storm on to Instagram‘s social network in a new update that lets users share their photos to Instagram directly from Hipstamatic. Part of the reason why Instagram is so popular, boasting over 15 million users, is not just because it’s been on the pulse of the filtered photograph trend, but because of its social features. Not only is it easy for users to share photos to their friends on their existing networks, but its own Instagram network has become big in its own right, serving 10 million daily page views of the Instagram website and its photos.
Hipstamatic was about a year ahead of Instagram, and is popular in its own right, with its developers claiming that over 50 million photos are taken from the app on a monthly basis. Now, the app can share photos directly to an Instagram account as well as Twitter, Facebook (with the ability to tag friends directly in Hipstamatic), Tumblr, and even Flickr. As well, photos seen in Instagram with the #Hipstamatic tag can now be viewed directly in Hipstamatic. The new “tag equipment” option will also let users share the information about the photo’s equipment and filters along with the photo itself. The free update is available now.
$1.99  iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-12-09 :: Category: Photography
This week at 148Apps.com we delved into the latest from the developers of Hipstamatic, the “disposable” Hipstamatic D-Series app. 148Apps founder Jeff Scott says, “I got a chance to try out the new app and can report that Hipstamatic D-Series does indeed bring back the nostalgic memories of sharing a disposable camera and swapping double prints into the digital age. It’s a great idea and well executed. There’s even the anxious need to burn the last shot by taking a picture of your foot, just to get the roll developed quicker. It’s indeed very fun.
Delve further by reading the full run-down on 148Apps.com.
FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-12-15 :: Category: Photography $1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-12-09 :: Category: Photography At GiggleApps.com, reviewer Amy Solomon took a close look at the first interactive book from The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library, There’s No Place Like Space. Solomon says, “There’s No Place Like Space, although a creative, fun and educational book, is not written by Seuss himself, although it is written in a Seuss-like style. I enjoy this book, as does my son, but my husband and I did comment to ourselves that the text is not as well-written as the classic books by Seuss.”
Read the full review at GiggleApps.
$4.99 $5.99
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-11-16 :: Category: Education  Finally, 148Apps.biz site editor Rob LeFebvre reported on a new report from mobile analytics company Flurry. LeFebvre writes, “Flurry shows the fact that developers are making more money on iOS than on Android, even as the numbers of Android OS enabled smartphones continues to increase, commanding as much as 53% of the market, according to an NPD Group study released yesterday as well.”
Intrigued? Read more on 148Apps.biz.
As your advent calendar continues to count towards December 25th, don’t forget to vote for our 2011 Best App Ever, and keep track of the latest news, reviews and contests via our Facebook and Twitter streams.
Love it or hate it, the iPhone is a big player when it comes to on the go photography. Many people no longer buy point and shoot cameras as they already have their iPhone with them everywhere they go. Apple has dedicated a section of the App Store to Camera and Photography apps. There are even photographers who have dedicated columns to “iPhoneography.” If you happen to fit into the group of users that loves taking photos with your iPhone, but want something to help make those photos more unique, we have four apps perfect for taking your photos further.
Hipstamatic:
Hipstamatic was one of the first apps to take the iPhone camera and give it a retro feel. Now this app has become a must own for many people. Hipstamatic gives you plenty of options when it comes to combining various lenses with film types. The abundance of combinations is staggering, while the end results are fun and enjoyable to those that dig the retro feel. If you love old school photos, this is a must own app.
$1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-12-09 :: Category: Photography TiltShift Generator – Fake Miniature:
If you have ever seen a photo in which the real-life subject looked like miniaturized model in a fake world, this is most likely due to the use of a TiltShift lens. While the actual lenses to produce this effect cost thousands of dollars, you can mimic the effect right off your iPhone. By adjusting various parameters, you can take an ordinary iPhone photo and turn it into a miniaturized photo, without all the expensive camera gear. If you just want a simple way of adding a bit of lens blur to a photo, this will handle that as well. This is a powerful, yet easy to understand app for any iPhoneographer.
$0.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-09-01 :: Category: Photography Pro HDR:
HDR, or high dynamic range, is becoming all the rage these days. HDR photos are actually a combination of two or more photos taken at various exposures. These exposures are then combined in software to reduce over exposed areas, while brightening under exposed areas. Pro HDR makes this complicated process fast and easy. You even have control over the final image before it is saved. This app takes normal iPhone HDR to a new and even better level!
$1.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-12-21 :: Category: Photography 360 Panorama:
Panoramic photos are another style of photograph that often requires complicated software to stitch two or more photos together. 360 Panorama gives you this power right on your iPhone. Just fire up the app and follow the onscreen instructions while you take some photos. The app will seamlessly combine the snapshots into one beautiful panoramic photo. You can even create 360degree photos, thus giving you more power over your creativity.
$0.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-07-30 :: Category: Photography
 My wife and I decided to eschew family Christmas traditions and make our own this year by visiting Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando. The experience itself was wonderful, in spite of surprisingly large crowds when we visited on Christmas Eve (no fault to Disney there, but even THEY seemed overwhelmed by the numbers that visited the park). But what amazed me the most about our trip is how essential our iPhones have become to every aspect of our travel. From navigation to photography to even Disney park preparation, our iPhone 4(s) had us covered every step of the way.
Our single-purpose GPS is way out of date (I’m the cheapskate and can just never bring myself to pay for map upgrades) so we decided to try out MotionX GPS Drive on this trip and the results could not have been better. MotionX GPS Drive has recently received a much-requested upgrade adding full-voice support for street names, so this new feature was added just in time for our trip. Mind you, neither the app nor the full-voice is perfect. “Exit 83-A” was commonly referred to as “Exit 83uh” and other street names were mangled from time to time, but as a whole the new voice functions worked well. And then there was the time when we needed to travel to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at African restaurant Boma. When I selected “Boma’s at Animal Kingdom Lodge” from the app, it began navigating us, but our destination ended up at the main gate of some Orlando resident’s palatial estate. A little fine-tuning was needed, but the app finally got us where we needed to go. MotionX GPS Drive is also a steal from a financial perspective – $0.99 for the app with guided navigation for $2.99 for 30 days. MotionX wisely does not auto-renew, so you only need to pay the navigation fee when you really need it, which is a very nice touch.
$0.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-09-25 :: Category: Navigation  Once in the park, we had two go-to apps – Undercover Tourist and Hipstamatic. If you’re unfamiliar with Undercover Tourist, it’s an app designed to give you information about anticipated crowds at the various Disney parks and queue wait times at rides within the parks. Unfortunately, Undercover Tourist pushed an update right before our trip and it broke the app on my iPhone 4. I was hopeful when I saw a new update released, but mine still crashes. My wife, ever reluctant to update apps, still had an older version on her phone, so we were able to use it. The crowd forecast for December 24th (color coded: red for heavy, yellow for moderate and green for light) showed green so we thought we had it made. Like I said earlier, the crowds seemed to surprise even Disney, so I can’t really blame Undercover Tourist for a mistake in its data. The good news is that the queue estimates were generally accurate and helped us, particularly early on, decide where to go and what to do. And since the app is free (there is a paid ad-free version) there isn’t much I can complain about.
FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-08-08 :: Category: Travel  Finally, what would a trip to the Magic Kingdom be without lots and lots of pictures? Sure, the iPhone 4 has a much-improved camera, but I’m a sucker for the retro surprises generated by Apple’s iPhone App of the Year Hipstamatic. I suppose it’s because my first trip to the Magic Kingdom happened only a year or so after the park opened, but I love the washed-out, 1970s style prints that Hipstamatic generates on the fly. Changing virtual lenses and films was a great way to while away the time spent in long, long lines (the Haunted Mansion line was longer than I have ever experienced), and the photos the app took are some of my favorites from this trip. There’s a reason Apple selected Hipstamatic, and it’s primarily because of its easy of use, versatility and overall fun-factor.
$1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-12-09 :: Category: Photography So, we’re back home now, but there’s no mistaking that the iPhone 4 changed our Disney experience for the better. For one thing, it was the first time we didn’t have to lug around a heavy, cumbersome camera throughout the park; but beyond that, it made the day more pleasant, more organized and a lot more fun to remember.
iOS has brought users a great all-in-one stop shop for taking photos, manipulating them, posting them online, and composing a whole blog post over that spectacular shot. In fact, because the iPad and iPhone have such great apps, there are some pros that don’t even carry a laptop with them onto photo shoots. Everything they need for quickly getting photos to the world can easily be handled right on these magical devices. Let’s look at just a few tools that make this possible.
Shooting The Photo
The first major change is just how the iPhone takes photos. Long gone are boring, under/over exposed, bland photos. Now we have HDR embedded right in the included camera app. If this is not powerful enough for you, apps like TrueHDR and Pro HDR can take your HDR photos to higher levels than what is already available.
Maybe you like adding a bit of flair to your photos — this is where wonderful apps like Hipstamatic come into play. I use this app all the time when I am shooting fun setups with all my Lego People. The various lenses and films all add up for some fun, and unique shots that I have thought of recreating with my DSLR and Photoshop.
Processing Without Photoshop
The next part of any good shot is the post-processing step, and yes, just about any photo worth its weight in metallic paper is photoshopped in some form or another. This may be as simple as removing dust particles or increasing saturation levels, to full-blown photo manipulations in layers that a slice of Tiramisu would be jealous of.
Apps like Filterstorm, or Photoshop Express, allow for some basic photo-editing while away from your computer. Filterstorm even allows you to make adjustments in that all too familiar layer workflow so many of us are comfortable with. Are these apps going to allow you to completely avoid using Photoshop on a laptop? Of course not. However, what you do have is the ability to post process while sipping on a beer at the local pup without all the worry of dropping a pint on your precious laptop.
Uploading Those Shots
Uploading photos does have a few gotchas, as there is not one single great app to handle the huge number of uploading services. There are apps to handle some of the most popular sharing services like Facebook, Smugmug, Flickr, Twitter, and Picasa, however. Worst-case scenario is you have to email your photo to a client or a photo sharing service. This is undoubtedly one of the bigger downfalls of doing photography with the iOS devices, rather than a laptop.
Composing A Photo Blog Post
Once your photo is captured, processed, and uploaded, you just might want to quickly write up a small blog post about the photo. There are apps to allow you to do just that as well, but again, this will be limited to your choice of blog host. Some services may even support one iOS device over another device, as is the case with SquareSpace only supporting the iPhone at this time. There are applications like BlogPress and WordPress that can be used to update blogs, too. A tip here: if you can’t post from an app, type it up, email it to someone you trust, and have them add the blog posting. We all know that content is the key to keeping your viewers coming back.
iOS is not perfect, but it is getting better with every release. More companies are releasing apps that easily allow photo manipulation, sharing, and blogging for those who are constantly on the go. How has your iDevice changed your workflows while travelling? Are you one of those few who now leave your laptop at home in exchange for the lighter iOS devices?
Apps Discussed In This Post:
Continue reading iPhotographer: Photo Posting For The Photog On The Go »
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