Give It Your Best Shot-Mike Maginot's Photo Blog

Filtered Woody Collage

I walk the line between amateur and professional photographer. I value the Kodak moment as much as the decisive moment. High tech or low tech, it doesn’t matter to me. If the job calls for the big guns, I’ll pull out the big guns.

My Grandmother’s Brownie had a one lens adjustment and two operating modes, with or without flash. The way the final pictures looked had a lot to do with the photo lab where they were sent for processing. What you got was what you shot, or maybe not. Most labs can do more with a negative than the average consumer was told.

Del Oro Theatre

Modern day point and shoot photographers frequently treat their photos as if they are finished as soon as they appear on the back of their camera phone or other capture device and they post them online as is, with little or no editing.

The sophisticated phone photographers of today have an entire arsenal of software applications at their disposal and they work just fine in a world where the web is your photo album and your private life is everybody’s business. It’s amazing what you can do with a few megapixels and a few photo apps.

Manhole Uncovered

Filters and frames that make pictures look old fashion or painterly can be a lot of fun. If you’re really serious about image enhancement you can download Photoshop Express, ECP Photo, or Snapseed from the Apple App Store and turn your phone into a portable darkroom. With apps like Instagram you can go global with your pictures and share them over multiple social networks. There are apps to do a simple double exposure and apps to make collages. There is probably an app to take random photos as you go through your day. Haven’t found it yet, but I’m sure it will turn up eventually.

Here’s a list of apps that I have used and like. Most are free. Some have inexpensive add-ons, but all of these work out of the box. Some “free” programs leave a watermark on your photos and only work properly after you’ve paid for additional features. Check the settings menu to see if you can remove the product branding and advertising before you pay for an upgrade. The coolest part about working digital is that you can use multiple apps to get the effect you want. Your best shot could be an app away.