Sree Tips: Taking Better Photos With Your Smartphone
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - More than a billion photos are taken every day around the world, the vast majority of them on smartphones. but how good are the photos on these phones?
Well, if you only use your built-in camera, you are missing the opportunity to shoot better photos.
Sree Sreenivasan, tech expert from our partner network CNET and Columbia University's chief digital officer, was here with some apps you should know about.
He's learned a lot about some of these apps and the power of mobile photography from Greg Lord (@GregLordStudio), a professional photographer who has shown me the importance of using the right app at the right time to capture the best possible photographs. See his Instagram collection: http://instagram.com/greglordstudio
So, what are talking about, exactly?
Sree recommends becoming familiar with some great photo apps that can improve - dramatically - the quality of photos you shoot and put on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Up first is Snapseed (iPhone/Android, free). This is like Photoshop for your smartphone - it can help dramatically improve your photos.
Next is Camera+ (iPhone/iPad, 99 cents). It's a very sophisticated camera app. Once you use this, you will not want to use the regular camera again. You can control exposure, do bursts of quick photos, smarter zooms, and much more. Sree's wife learned about Camera+ and now shoots every photo with it.
Then there is Latergram (iPhone, free). You know about Instagram, the app that lets you post and share photos using all kinds of fun filters. Latergram is a terrific app for those who like Instagram. You have more control of photos, filters and more.
Finally, there is Fotorus (iPhone/Android, free). A daughter of one of Sree's friends recently showed him this app, which let's you do all kinds of fun things with your photos, including making animated GIFs, collages, pic-in-pic, and more.
There are a few others worth mentioning.
Wood Camera [brightmango]: This 99-cent iPhone app offers 32 lenses, 28 textures and 16 frames - try it out.
DBLCam [dblc.am]: This $3 iPhone app takes photos with the front and back camera at the same time and stitches them together.
Focus Twist [focustwist.com]: This $2 iPhone app let's you take a photo that shows has two focus points. You can make the foreground in focus and then make the background in focus in a single photo.
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Sree Sreenivasan is CBS2′s technology expert, appearing every Wednesday morning at 6:50 am to discuss ways to save you time, money and aggravation. You can find him on Twitter and Facebook and on his personal site. E-mail your questions with "CBS New York" as the subject line.
