‘Appy New Year!
Apps can make a world of difference to the quality of low light photography captured on a smartphone. Here are our picks.
Top Camera (iPad/iPhone)
Price: $1.99
Top Camera is an excellent camera replacement app for the iPhone and iPad, offering numerous settings for slow shutter images, including time exposed and how the long exposure is handled. There are other camera setting too, such as a burst mode, timer, and the intense light and colour seen in high dynamic range (HDR) images.
To shoot the fireworks with this app, hit the settings icon, select “Slow Shutter”, and then fire away at the sky.
Magic Shutter (iPhone)
Price: $2.99
Designed specifically for time-lapse and long exposure photography, Magic Shutter does one thing and only thing: it records images over the course of 1, 2, 4, 8, 30, or 60 seconds. There’s also a “Bulb” option also available for shooting as long as you want.
To grab an image in this app, simply hit the settings next to “Shoot” and change the exposure time to something manageable, like 2, 4 or 8 seconds. Once that’s locked in, shoot the image and see how it looks.
Camera Zoom FX (Android)
Price: $4.99
Considered one of the best camera apps for Android, Camera Zoom FX can fire fast shots in burst mode, help you stabilise shots by showing you how steady your hand is, Â and even throw stand-in “friends” – such as the Queen of England – into pictures with you using the Buddy Prop packs.
But if you’re itching to shoot fireworks, switch to night mode by hitting the icon above the flash symbol and switching “NightShot” to on.
