Here is my 2010 list of iPhone photography apps I’m using most often now. After using my iPhone for over a year to capture images for my “iPhoneography of the Day” project, I have made this list of the apps I find most useful to achieve the looks I want for my iPhoneography. Some of the apps are still the same from my list last year and some are new to the list. As I looked over the apps on my top 10 list from 2009 I came to realize how far iPhone photography has come in the last year. If you have an iPhone and you still have not used the camera for anything other than a few snap shots then you need to look at some of the apps I have in my list and go out and let the creativity flow.
Link to my 2009 List
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#1 – TiltShift Generator $.99 This app is my favorite app and I use it more than any other photo app on my iPhone. With this app you can give your images depth by making a flat image have a focus point. Also you can adjust the saturation, brightness, contrast, and add an adjustable vignette to your image. Its the best $.99 purchase you can make for your iPhone. Developers Site
#2 – Snapture $1.99 If you are still using the Camera app that comes with the iPhone thats OK but if you want to expand on the iPhone cameras capabilities then this is a great app. For starters this app will let you take shots in bursts of 3 so you can capture moving subjects easier. It lets you take a picture by touching the screen anywhere which is nice when taking pictures when your not looking at the screen. The only thing this app could use is a self timer function but I rarely find myself needing a timer but it would be nice if this app offered it. All in all this is a good alternative to your basic camera app. There are other apps that do the same as Snapture and some are free but I keep coming back to this app and I use it for almost all of my image captures. Developers Site
#3 – Hipstamatic $1.99 plus 4 $.99 in app upgrades Hipstamatic is a unique app that is unlike any of the other apps on my list. I personally do not like apps like this that are camera apps and give you only the options within the app to use on your images. So your asking why then do I like this app, well its because of exactly what I don’t like about this app is what I like. If you want an app that you can just pickup and have fun with like picking up a old plastic camera then this is the app for you. You can change the lens, film, and flash for different looks to your images. Developers Site
#4 – Photogene $2.99 This app is basically my goto app for adjusting color, crop, rotating, and straightening images. Its a very good app for doing this and a few other things. I have been playing with a different app that does the same and more but at this time I’m still saying this one is better because the other one cost twice as much and for the price Photogene is the better option. Developers Site
#5 – CinemaFX $.99 Still in my list because it has some filter sets that i have yet to find in any other app to this date. I love the Spartan Sepia, Japanese Memory, and TWI Flashback filters which I can achieve in other apps but why when you can just do it with in click in this app. I four see this app staying in my list for a long time just because it gives me looks that I like and its easy to use. Developers Site
#6 – Lo-Mob $1.99 Want that vintage look to your images like a Polaroid or 35mm film sprockets? Then this is the app for you and it does that and so much more. Its the only app I have found so far that gives a realistic emulsion transfer look. I also like the film sprockets that give you the look of shooting 35mm film in a Holga or Diana camera. Developers Site
#7 – ToonPaint $1.99 This app is why I love the iPhone and its capabilities. You can create cartoons from your images and if you use another app called Strip Designer you can create your own comic strips. With apps like these your creativity has no bounds with what you can do with your iPhone images. Developers Site
#8 – Tiffen Photo FX $2.99 I’m using this app less and less these days because there are so many other options with other apps that I like to use. This app is still very good at what it does and lets you have ton of filters to choose from but for me I like the effects I get in some of the other apps on my list better. Developers Site
#9 – Flickit Free The only app I use to upload my images to Flickr. It lets you add default metadata like descriptions, tags, and groups that is uploaded with every image you upload. That alone makes this app a time saver for me and makes it easier to upload my images to Flickr. Developers Site
#10 – PictureShow $1.99 The newest app to my arsenal and I have used it very little so far but from the few times I have it definitely has a place on this list. The options in this app are endless and this app is like CameraBag, CinemaFX, and Lo-Mob all in one. It doesn’t replace those apps but it has a little of all of them and is a good option for someone who just wants one easy to use app that can make their iPhoneography look a little more creative. Developers Site
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There are quite a few apps that could easily be on this list like CameraBag, CameraKit, and Mill Colour but I’m not using these apps very much anymore because of all the new options we have now. In closing, iPhoneography has come a long way so far and we are just in the beginning. What new apps will come out in the future and make it on my top 10 next year? I have a few right now that I’m playing with that could easily make it on the 2011 list.
Tilt Shift Generator I have used for a few days now and I’m very happy with it. Its an app that is going to find a permanent home on my iPhone. For me this app is just easy to use and has a lot of features for one app. The selective focus controls on this app are beautiful and very easy to use unlike some of the other apps that do this function this app has good response to your finger gestures. Within the first few seconds of playing with it I had a great looking image and what I saw on the screen was what I got on my final image. There are other apps that are very good at doing selective focus but with out calling any of them out I have found that using them can be difficult and the look you get sometimes look very fake in my opinion. Tilt Shift Generator I feel has a more realistic look to its selective focus which I like. I was very impressed with the controls for color because unlike a lot of apps that use sliders for adjustments this app actually works very well. One issue I have with this app is that you can not see the entire image when the editing sliders pop up because they pop up over the image and cover up the bottom part of the image, just a small annoyance.
iLeica takes old styled photos that will make any photo come to life. In photography and optics, vignette (vin-ye-ting) is a reduction of an image’s brightness or saturation at the periphery compared to the image center. A similar effect occurs when filming projected images or movies off a projection screen, the so-called hotspot, defining a cheap home-movie look where no proper telecine is used. Version 1.0 comes with 20 filters from dark rounded blacks to lighter whites or blues. Load from your camera roll to add filters to existing photos.
PhotoFlipper is simple and free image rotation/flipping application. I rarely need to use an app to rotate my images and when I do I use a paid app called 
This app does a good job of recreating the lomo style but one major feature left out is that you can not apply these filters to any photos in your photo library. You can only apply these looks to the images that you take with the app and not to any images you may have in your photo library. I hope in the future the developer will add this ability but until they do this app will be lost on my iPhone and never used. If you don’t mind using this app as your camera app and you want that lomo effect than the app is good. Here are some examples of the different looks you get with this app.
Original No Alteration
LC-A Normal
Redscale
Black&White
CameraBag was one of the first iPhone photo apps and it is one that most serious iPhoneographers have installed on there iPhone. Its a very simple app that has preset for different effects. The presets are pretty good and offer a wide variety to choose from and can make any photo have a little style. It one of those apps that does very good at what it does and it should be on every serious photographers iPhone.
QuadCamera is a very unique app and may not be for everyone but for the iPhoneographer that wants to be a little creative this app is for you. This app essentially takes multiple shots based on your time setting then puts them together in a layout of your choosing. Available layouts are 2X2, 4X1, 4X2, 8X1 and you can also pick a from 6 different color styles from vivid to grayscale. One major drawback to this app is that it saves at 600X800.
Demo Video: 
Photogene is an app that does just about everything you want in a iPhoneography app. For one program it has a lot of features that every iPhoneographer will need. I use this app for adjusting the levels, saturation, and color then if I need to I can crop the image as well. If there is one app you should have and need to have on your iPhone it is this one. The $2.99 price is well worth it when you realize this app is one you can not live without.
CinemaFX is a very simple app with preset filters to choose from. It gives you the ability to adjust the filters once applied to fine tune your image effect. It has a wide variety of filter presets and gives the user a lot of choices. The price is excellent at $.99 and can’t be beat. This is an app that I use especially for the spartan sepia and japanese memory presets. For the price this app offers a lot and if you want an easy to use, non complicated, expandable app this one is worth a try.
