People love to take pictures and the advancements in digital photography make snapping multiple pictures a breeze. Most of the time, you will see people taking pictures with their phones or tablets instead of a standalone camera because you’re hard-pressed to find a newer smartphone with less than a 5MP camera in the rear. While the cameras are good, the camera apps can be pretty lacking.
Having a good camera app to manipulate your images or take better images will greatly increase your images and help you become a great photographer. The list below is a mix of different apps to improve your photography. Let’s get into it.
1. Camera ZOOM FX
Camera ZOOM FX adds some power to your camera. You will have up to 6x (digital) zoom. The camera on my Samsung S4 only allows for 4x. Most of the cameras out there do not let you add effects right from the app. Camera ZOOM FX does through many different add-on expansion apps.
When taking a picture, something that always needs to be adjusted is the subject in the photograph usually needs to be straightened out. Camera ZOOM FX has a setting to show different grid layovers to help you line up whatever you are taking the picture of. This will save time later on so you don’t need to edit it before you use it.
2. Perfectly Clear
A while back when I found Perfectly Clear, I was a little skeptical about its claim. What Perfectly Clear does is lets you take a picture, then run it through its processing and cleans the image up automagically. Some of the mishaps Perfectly Clear can clean up is darkness and de-ghosting. De-ghosting is that comet-like trail left when trying to capture a picture of something that’s moving.
When taking a snapshot of someone, Perfectly Clear has a Portrait mode. This mode determines the best time to take photo so you can avoid things like closed eyes. No one like to be blinking in a picture.
3. Camera FV-5 Lite
Camera FV-5 Lite offers more control over your Android camera. This is a replacement camera app like most of the others on the list. The added features you’ll gain from Camera FV-5 are exposure compensation to help manually adjust the amount of light you are letting in while you take a picture. This technique/feature will then rely more on the shutter speed. Another cool feature is support for long exposure. Have you ever been out and wanted to take a picture of the stars streaking through the sky? Long exposure is how you do it.
4. High-Speed Camera [Silent,GIF]
High-Speed Camera is an app meant to take burst images and turn them into a silent animated GIF. However, you can use it solely to take action images if you’d prefer. Some cameras don’t have a fast burst feature or take a limited number of images. High-Speed Camera will take a 50 images super fast. I think my S4 only takes 20 normally and not super fast either. If you choose to use the GIF feature, you can. That would be an added bonus.
5. Pro HDR Camera (Paid)
Cameras on most Android devices are better with each model. Instead of buying a new HDR camera, you can get an app for a few dollars and get yourself a lot of the same features and quality. A HDR camera, if you aren’t familiar, adds dynamic range to your pictures. Dynamic range is the ratio of light to dark in a photograph. How this is achieved is the camera will take three images instead of just one. The images are at varied exposure settings. This is a great and cost effective way to get really great pictures from your smartphone.
Download Pro HDR Camera
Final Words
In the end, an app can only help you become so good at photography. If you want to become a great photographer, you need lots of practice. Do you have a lot of practice at mobile photography? Let’s know any of your tips or favorite applications in the comments below.
Image credit: intro
Trevor is a freelance writer covering topics ranging from the Android OS to free web and desktop applications. When he is not writing about mobile productivity, He is coaching and playing the world’s greatest game… Soccer.
Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox
