Four Crucial Mobile Photo Apps

Most people spend their app pennies and time with effects apps for photos. Everyone has Instagram, so they can put scratchy, slightly out of focus, over-saturated pictures on their Tumblrs, and it looks so meaningful. This is a thing that people really like doing, and even those of us who disapprove must learn to accept it. Instagram is the top free photography app in the Apple store! So the people have spoken. Go on, download it, I know you want to.

Likewise, Hipstamatic is the #3 paid app right now. Hipstamatic also "processes" your digital pictures to make them look old-timey film-ey. So this is a look that won't be going away anytime soon. But sometimes you need to do things to pictures that are actually useful. For instance, maybe you want to just crop an edge out of a photo; maybe you have a great photo but the focus is slightly off and you want to cheat it a little by sharpening. Or say you're on top of a mountain and you want to shoot 360. Your Instamatic won't help you then! $1.99


• The most recent update to Adobe's Photoshop app is significant. In its earlier iterations, you had to open the app, import a picture, do what you needed and then save out. They've just added a camera mode: you can open the app, use the camera and crop, process and rotate as needed. It's gone from a rather limited tool to a really robust app. And it's great. Easy cropping is key. (Having a tool like this means you end up with fewer accidental nude reflections, for instance!) The worst thing about it? It shows up on your device as "PS Express." It takes a while to remember that "PS Express" stands for Photoshop! Free


• Camera Genius. People have loved this app. What's great about it is the addition of a timer and a multi-shot or burst mode, which really, smartphones should have already, right? It's not totally necessary? But it will actually improve your photos, particularly when trying to capture something that's happening fast. And it makes portraits look better--people's faces look so good one moment and so ugly the next! $0.99


• Pano and AutoStitch are two warring apps that both take panoramic photos. (They "stitch" together multiple pictures.) Each has its true believers! The differences are that AutoStitch doesn't work "live"; it works off pictures from your library. Pano does work live; it guides you when to take the next picture in the series, and the stitching together is a bit more dependent on your ability to control the picture-taking. For $1.99? You should try them both.




• Night Camera: The need for this app is somewhat lessened by the introduction of HDR on the newer iPhones. And all it basically does is ensure that pictures are only taken when the camera isn't moving. This is only useful if you're leisurely shooting still situations; if you're desperate to capture Bigfoot at twilight, the app will hold you up and then, no one will believe you saw Bigfoot. And remember, the number one way to take great photos? Take a ton of them, and throw away the rest.  $0.99

What app is helping you tap your inner photographer?

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The Awl, a New York City-based web concern established in early 2009, intends to encourage a daily discussion of the issues of the day--news, politics, culture (and TV!)--during sensible hours of the working week. An "awl," by the way, is a "pointed tool used for punching small holes," often utilized in wood and leather craft. Choire Sicha is an editor of The Awl who needs to procrastinate a lot. You can follow him on Twitter @Choire.