The New Glif

I backed the new Glif iPhone tripod mount and mine showed up a few weeks ago. Studio Neat has come a long way with this product. The newest Glif is spring loaded and pulls back easily around your phone (any size, in a case or not). You then just press down the quick release lever and you’ve attached three tripod mounting points to your phone. The whole thing easily fits in your jeans’ pocket. Quick. Secure. Portable.

If you want to go crazy, Studio Neat also sells a wooden grip with a tripod screw on top and wrist strap. You can combine this with the Glif to have a nice comfortable handle for your phone. I used it in this configuration recently at Disneyland while walking in a crowd. Combined with the iPhone camera stabilization, it took some great video for something I just pulled out of my pocket. As an aside, you’ll see some cranes in the background at the end of the video. You’ll never guess what those are for.

This third iteration of the product is so good that I’m not sure where they can go next. If you have any desire to put your iPhone on a tripod, look no further.

LumeCube’s Life Lite

The LumeCube team has a new photo/video-friendly light that fits in your pocket, the Life Lite. I own a LumeCube and love it. Being able to light my subject from the back or side with a little bit of tech I can keep in my pocket is awesome. I went ahead and backed the Life Lite so now I’ll have two.

iPhone 7 Plus Portrait Mode

The latest iOS 10.1 beta includes the promised portrait mode for the iPhone 7 Plus. I think everyone was pretty surprised how quickly this feature made it into the betas. Several people have published example photos including Matthew Panzarino and MacRumors. My favorite example is Jason Snell’s cat. Jason posted an image that rotates between a standard and portrait enhanced picture of his cat. This shows off the strengths (and limitations) of this software feature. Pay particular attention to the cat hair along the edges.

Austin Mann’s iPhone 7 Camera Review

Every year, Austin Mann does the definitive iPhone camera review. He’s just posted some video, pictures, and thoughts about the iPhone 7 camera that he used to follow gorillas through Rwanda. They’re amazing. Austin is pretty remarkable too. He was a guest on Mac Power Users last year and if you’re interested in getting better at taking pictures with your iPhone, here’s a pretty good place to start.

Camera+2 for iPad

I’ve been getting most of my photo editing done these days on iPad with Apple Photos, Pixelmator, and Snapseed. Camera+ just released version 2 for iPad and it is now firmly in the rotation for me. As the name implies, Camera+ gives you lots of control over the iPad camera but what I really like about the new version for iPad are the photo editing tools.

I’ve always been a fan of Camera+’s “Clarity” filter which, as “push one button to make it better” filters go, a lot better than most. I also like the way you can use the brushes (via finger or Apple Pencil) to apply localized changes.

One gripe with this app though is its lack of Apple Photos extension support. Maybe there’s a good reason but the app doesn’t tie into the native Photos app so you have to make a copy of a photo into the app and then manually save the edited copy back to Apple Photos. That part feels stone-age to me. That aside, I like the Camera+ for iPad update. (Website)(App Store)

Unlocking Hyperlapse

I don’t know how I missed this when it first posted but Austin Mann did a post on Hyperlapse that has the potential to change your game with iPhone videography. I’m going to be trying some of these techniques over the weekend. Maybe you should too.

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Lume Cube

A few years ago I made a rule that I don’t back anything on Kickstarter that includes electronics of any form. However, I’ve thought a lot lately about getting some simple lighting I can use with my phone and camera. This Lume Cube might fit the bill. It seems to strike the right balance between price and quality for the “more than casual” consumer photographer. In other words, pretty sure I’m about to break my rule.

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Fireworks Photography

Just in case you are going to be near some fireworks tonight and want to take pictures, get yourself a tripod and a camera that can keep the lens open to catch all that light. Everyone on Twitter points to Slow Shutter as a way to pull this off with your iPhone. I wrote a few years back about how I like to do this with sparklers. If you want a soup to nuts explanation, read this tutorial at Digital Photography School.