iPhone Diva Lynette Sheppard’s 10 Must Have Apps

I've been asked by beginning iPhoneographers and professionals alike for a list of my fave apps. The problem, as I always tell them, is that I switch preferences day to day. My favorites are usually the one(s) I've just used. I'm not fickle - I just fall in love with new apps and/or old standbys on a moment to moment basis. However, if you could only have 10 apps (how crazy is that?), these are the ones I think you should start with:

Perfectly Clear        Best 1 stop shop to fix pix, superior noise removal

Snapseed                The baby photoshop - best optimizer by far

FXPhoto Studio        Special FX including frames

Pic Grunger              Vintage and grunge effects

Autostitch                Panoramic - best

Pro HDR                    Can shoot and do HDR or process from library

TouchRetouch           Content aware healing, removal unwanted objects

Simply BW                Absolute best B and W app - like a teeny Ansel Adams living in your phone

Autopainter              Cool painting app

Blender                    Great app for combining images

This will keep a photographer busy for years. And likely whet your app-etite for more.

The photo today showcases ProHDR and TouchRetouch in particular. When I drove past this Moloka`i Hawai`i church with the great Jesus Coming Soon sign, I stopped and took the photo in Pro HDR. This app combines a darker image exposed for the sky with a lighter image that opens up the church.

I then exaggerated the HDR with Simply HDR. (You could do a similar effect in Snapseed, using the Drama filters.)

I love how the image pops now, but those pesky telephone wires were bothering me. I took the image into TouchRetouch and erased them. Often TouchRetouch will easily remove an object or shadow within moments. This was quite a bit trickier, especially on the face of the building and took me a painstaking 20 minutes. But it worked, I'm happy with the final frame. I did all the processing on my phone (my iPad was home.)

FYI, the free version of TouchRetouch has a watermark on each image, so you'll want the one where you have to pay a whopping 99 cents. So so worth it!

Note: if you look closely, you might see the auntie sitting on a bench to the left of the church.