Triggertrap Flash Adapter Enables High Speed Shots

Here’s a cool new invention: Triggertrap, which makes an iOS app for triggering a camera, just announced the Triggertrap Flash Adapter. I wrote about Triggertrap in the second edition of the book because it does much more than just remotely activating the camera’s shutter—you can set up long-exposure or intervalometer-timed shots and set them off by sounds, by vibration, facial recognition, and more.

The Triggertrap Flash Adapter controls one or two (simultaneously) strobe flashes. That enables better high-speed photography (think popping balloons or splashing water droplets). Be sure to watch the video where CEO Haje Jan Kamps demonstrates how it works.

Introducing Triggertrap Flash Adapter from Triggertrap on Vimeo.

Goodbye PhotoForge and KitCam: Yahoo Buys Ghostbird

Yahoo is buying Ghostbird Software, the makers of the PhotoForge 2 editing app and KitCam, an iPhone photo capture app, to improve Flickr. According to a report at PetaPixel, the apps are being pulled from the App Store and won’t be updated. If you own them already, they can still be used. It sounds like Yahoo is buying the company for its engineering talent, and technologies from the apps will probably find their way into Flickr apps.

I almost chose PhotoForge 2 as the example program for the editing chapter of the book, but at the time I was writing it (late 2011), the app’s results just weren’t very good. I liked its interface and approach, but that doesn’t mean anything when the adjustments it makes are sub-par. Instead, I turned to Photogene, which I stuck with in the second edition as well.

I’ve liked Flickr’s resurgence since Marissa Meyer took over at Yahoo, and hope this means even better software for Flickr. But it’s also too bad the apps are being mothballed. When Google acquired Snapseed, I feared that it would also die, but so far it’s still available (and free!). However, the company killed the Mac version, so I can’t completely rest easy that the iOS version will survive long-term.

ShutterSnitch on the iPhone During Vacation

In the second edition of The iPad for Photographers (which is available now!), I focus on using ShutterSnitch to import photos wirelessly from a camera using a Wi-Fi card such as the Eye-Fi to the iPad.

While I’ve been on vacation this week, however, I’ve been leaning on ShutterSnitch but using my iPhone instead. I’ve wanted to stay light while carrying gear around Disneyland, but “gear” also includes stuff to keep a 5-year-old fed and entertained for the day. (That includes lots of snacks, crayons, and paper for standing in long lines. I also have an iPod touch as a last resort, which so far hasn’t been needed.) And I haven’t been doing a great deal of photography. So although the iPad is light and portable, it’s still a bit of heft when my main goal isn’t photography.

My iPhone, though, is with me all the time, and ShutterSnitch works on all iOS devices, not just the iPad. The iPhone gives me three advantages over just taking photos with my camera: its Retina screen offers better previews of my photos; I can edit images using iPhoto, Photogene, or a bunch of other apps; and I can share those images easily.

Most shots have been of my daughter, so after importing photos into ShutterSnitch, I select a few, share them to the Camera Roll, and then send those to a Shared Photo Stream for family members to view instantly. I’ve also shared a few photos via Facebook and Flickr, also from the Camera Roll.

Knowing that I’d be using my iPad and iPhone primarily, I’ve been shooting in Raw+JPEG format. That enables me to have raw files I can work with on my computer, but also have high-quality JPEGs for reviewing and sharing. ShutterSnitch includes a feature to transfer only JPEG files, dramatically cutting down the time it takes to transfer the files between camera and iPhone as well as reducing the amount of storage taken up by the images. I also turned on the highlight indicator to see where areas were getting blown out to white. (I discuss ShutterSnitch and its features in more detail in a CreativePro article that was just published: “ShutterSnitch, the Wireless Photo Assistant for iOS.”)

If I were more photo-focused on this trip, I’d probably stick to the iPad. (That’s my plan for an upcoming photo tour I’m taking in October.) But in this case, it’s been more convenient to use my iPhone as the device for reviewing and sharing photos. ShutterSnitch and an Eye-Fi card enabled me to do it anywhere I happened to be standing.

New Article: ShutterSnitch, the Wireless Photo Assistant for iOS

Over at CreativePro, I look at the excellent PhotoSnitch utility for importing photos into an iPad: ShutterSnitch, the Wireless Photo Assistant for iOS. Although I discussed the Eye-Fi software in the first edition of the book, I tossed that for the second edition and expanded on using ShutterSnitch because it just works.

iPad Travel Workflow

I’m currently on vacation at Disneyland and have barely touched my laptop the whole trip. If I didn’t need it at the end of the trip (visiting folks in Glendale) I probably would have left the laptop home.

While I’m standing in line for a ride, I’m getting caught up using my iPhone and came across this piece by Dan Bailey detailing his iPad travel photo workflow. Good advice there.

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