5 Best Mobile Apps For Android Photography

Photographers are in the catbird seat. Camera technology is much more affordable than ever before. Even if you can’t spring for a Hassleblad or Leica, both considered to be the Cadillac status of camera gear, you most likely can afford the camera that lives inside your cell phone.

For the purpose of examining what a smaller budget can buy, mobile devices offer decent quality. Using an IPhone or Android camera phone is advantageous: it takes up very little room and the varied app market is readily available. With a quick download at a modest cost, and in many instances free, apps are ready to use instantly. Add the apps to the cost of a mobile phone (anywhere from $200 -$400) and you can easily enjoy becoming a fully equipped mobile device shooter. Compare that system to a full version of Adobe Photoshop ($489) or even its pedestrian equivalent, Adobe Elements, ($62), and the cost of a camera (from $200 to $7000), it’s plain to see the savings add up. Apps take considerably less time to learn and the phone comes in handy too!

Five awesome apps for mobile Android phones are:

Snapseed: Free! Ten adjustments tools: align, crop, grunge layers, contrast, saturation and vintage effects that can be cumulatively applied.

Instagram: Free! Comes with 20 filters, square format, selective blur.

EyeEm: Free! Rectangular shape format similar to 35mm, adjustment colors, grunge effects, and cropping tool.

RetroCamera: $2.99 Lomography, Polaroid, Pinhole camera, 35 mm film edges and light leaks effects.

Vignette: $2.60 Has numerous settings such as Holga and Diana styles, Instant camera, retro, film grain, pastel colors, light leaks, colored filters, soft-focus, monochrome, b&w, filter intensity, self-timer, time lapse and customizable filters settings.

All of the above apps have share capability. Since all the editing is done in the device, users can quickly share to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or app specific galleries. 

EyeEm for example, has periodic meet-ups within certain cities. You can create your own meet ups and start a photo live event. Part of the fun of photography is sharing works, and the affordability factor is consumer favorable. Here’s to making art – and being snap hAPPy!

New Kid On The App Block

Instagram isn't the only kid on the app block. I recently started using the EyeEm app and what I like best about it is the use of the rectangular frame. It reminds me of 35 mm, albeit a bit longer and narrower.

I am still in awe over the quality of images the Android takes. The ease of use factor is phenomenal. Combine that with being able to tweak on the run is what makes apps so appealing. EyeEm has similar filters that Instagram has such as vintage, b&w, and a set of processed color filters that range from a cyanotype effect to a faded light effect. In addition to color shifting, EyeEm has a grunge effect which gives the image an antique feel.

The danger to using too many creative filters is the image then becomes more about the process than about the content. Many critics might argue phone photography isn't as serious as that coming from a camera. I think capturing a scene with a mobile device doesn't have any less intent than that of one made from a camera.

Photography isn't inherently serious or not. It's a technical process whereby the tool is the one you happen to have. Yes, indeed the fancier the lens the better the image quality, but where visual reference is concerned today's mobile phone devices do a decent enough job when the user familiarize themselves with the feature of that device.

Ben Lowry, a pro photojournalist, uses apps to accentuate images. Lowry employs mobile photography for documenting life in Sarajevo and uses the Clara filter from the EyeEm app. Lowry states the Clara filter is "Best for shooting outdoors in sunny conditions."

Using apps with digital photography is analogous to knowing the difference between film ratings of ASA 100 to ASA 800. The app is a setting of sorts just as the film speed must be appropriate for each specific light scenario. Photography is all about technique even when the technique is that of additional editing to the original source file.

The following images were taken on a Motorola Android paired with the EyeEm app: