40 Days of Russian Darkness With iPhone Night Mode

Amos Chapple bought an iPhone 11 Pro and traveled to Russia’s Murmansk, the biggest city in the Arctic circle. From December to January the sun never rises in the city, and Mr. Chapple went there to test the iPhone Night Mode feature in a photo essay.

On the first morning I woke up in Murmansk, it really hit me what a revolution this generation of phone represents…As I walked down the corridor I remember thinking I’d just had more trouble organizing the equipment I needed to brush my teeth, than I had preparing for a 12-hour day of professional photography. No SD cards to check, no stacks of batteries to charge, no bag full of lenses… Total freedom.

These photos are gorgeous.

Hurry, Pixelmator Photo on iPadOS is Free Right Now

Normally US$4.99, Pixelmator Photo is free right now. It’s a photo editor that promises a full collection of nondestructive color adjustments, full support for RAW images, and machine learning that can improve your photos like a pro photographer. It’s an exclusive app for iPadOS. Here are some of the other features: Batch edit photos using the entire collection of editing tools available in the app; Enhance automatically takes care of all the subtle improvements that go into every great shot — white balance, exposure, shadow, and highlight detail — so you can focus on adding your own creative finishing touches; Presets for film emulation, vintage looks, and more.

VSCO Redesigned its Feed to ‘Slow Your Scroll’

Photo app VSCO has redesigned its feed so that images are bigger. You’ll see single images at a time, instead of the old style where each image was smaller and alternated.

We believe this redesign will help you explore your VSCO feed in a new way, allowing the subtleties of each image to be front and center as you scroll. At VSCO, creative expression often starts with inspiration and sometimes that requires taking the time to appreciate the details as much as the complete work itself.

I think it’s an improvement and I’m glad to see it.

The iPhone 11 Camera is Completely New

In Part 1 of a multi-part series, Sebastiaan de With wrote an article about the iPhone 11 camera and how it’s completely new.

It’s true: The great advances in camera quality for these new iPhones are mostly to blame on advanced (and improved) software processing.

I’ve taken some time to analyze the iPhone 11’s new image capture pipeline, and it looks like one of the greatest changes in iPhone cameras yet.

Deep Fusion Appears in Latest iOS Developer Beta

Apple’s Deep Fusion technology blends multiple photo exposures together in a way that gives you more details than regular HDR. It requires the A13 chip so it only works on the iPhone 11 models. It appeared in the developer beta that was released today.

On wide lens shots, it will start to be active just above the roughly 10 lux floor where Night Mode kicks in. The top of the range of scenes where it is active is variable depending on light source. On the telephoto lens, it will be active in all but the brightest situations where Smart HDR will take over, providing a better result due to the abundance of highlights…

The overall result, Apple says, results in better skin transitions, better clothing detail and better crispness at the edges of moving subjects.

This is some “next level” stuff for iPhone photographers, and I can’t wait to see comparisons of Deep Fusion: On versus Deep Fusion: Off photos.

Hipstamatic Has a New App Called Hipstamatic X

To celebrate its 10th anniversary Hipstamatic will release a new app this Tuesday called Hipstamatic X.

The anniversary app will bring some of the simple, original analog charm of the first app as well as a stable of old-school cameras, from Pinhole to Tintype. It will also include a new Eazy Camera, which uses machine learning to automatically apply an appropriate filter. The app is currently available through TestFlight until Tuesday, when it is released for download on the App Store.

I look forward to downloading it. Before I became a VSCO girl I was a Hipsta boy.

Winners of 12th iPhone Photography Awards Announced

The winners of the 12th iPhone Photography Awards have been announced, chosen from thousands of entries.

The grand prize winner is Gabriella Cigliano of Italy for her entry “Big Sister,” shot on an iPhone X in Zanzibar, Africa: Last year I spent a month in Wasa, Tanzania, teaching a class of young, curious and amazing guys. Before heading back to Italy we stopped in Zanzibar, where this photo was taken.

Stabilize Your Phone, Switch Shooting Positions and More with This Innovative Gimbal: $99

Check out our deal on the VILTA-SE (Special Edition) 3-Axis Smartphone Gimbal Stabilizer. As the name says, it’s a 3-axis, handheld gimbal for stabilizing your iPhone (and Android device) videos. This model allows you to seamlessly switch your phone between landscape and portrait modes, adjust your shot’s focus manually via the built-in focus wheel, and stow/transport it with a magnetic locking mechanism. It’s $99 through our deal. The promo video below shows the device in action.


Camera+ 2 Gets a 2.0 Update With a New Design

Camera+ 2 has been recently updated to 2.0. The main focus is the camera itself. In the new design, the app is divided into three categories: Presets, Shutter modes, and Settings. Presets give you instant access to specific shooting modes, like Action Mode, Slow Shutter, and Macro. Shutter modes define how you want to shoot, with a timer, stabilizer, and Smile. Settings give you preferences like showing the grid and horizon level. Besides the new updates, Camera+ 2 offers RAW capture and editing, manual controls, depth capture and editing, and integration with your photo library. You can read more about it on the company’s blog. App Store: US$2.99

How to Take a Good, Impromptu Portrait

Have you ever been somewhere and had someone walk up to you and ask you to take their photo? Aimée Lutkin has some tips to help take a good, impromptu portrait.

You can get better photos with a little direction and a few adjustments. If you have a terrible photographer in your life, forward this post to them. If it don’t, you might be (probably are) the culprit. Here’s how to improve your flattering photography game.

Darkroom 4.1 Adds Photos Extension, Editing in Files

Darkroom 4.1 adds more ways for users to edit images, including a new photos extension and the ability to open photos directly in Files. What’s new: Photos Extension: Edit your photos with Darkroom right within the Photos app; Import to Darkroom: As an alternative to the Photos Extension, hand over your photos from apps using the new Share Extension; Copy to Darkroom: Easily copy your photos from external storage services like Dropbox or the Files apps to the camera roll and edit in Darkroom; Drag and drop to Import: Photos now can be dragged and dropped, on iPad only, to Darkroom to be copied and edited; Imported Smart Album: One convenient place to track all the photos you imported and/or copied to Darkroom; Open: Right from the album picker you can tap on the “Open” to access any photos accessible through the Files app, and 3d-party services that integrate with it. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)