Using an iPhone & iPad in Thailand Tips, App Reviews and News for the iPhone and iPad by Richard Barrow

Be a Citizen Journalist with the Demotix App

If you are a citizen journalist, then you have probably heard of the Demotix website where ordinary people like you and me can send our pictures in and have a good chance of seeing them in print in newspapers around the world. This is what happened to some people during the Red Shirt protests in Bangkok. But, what happens when you are at a news event and you didn't bring your camera? Well, if you have the latest iPhone then you don't need to panic. The quality is good enough to print in any newspaper. Now, with this new Demotix app you can upload the pictures straight away and maybe beat the pros to the punch.

Download for free on iTunes >>>

How to shoot panoramas on your iPhone in seconds

DerManDar for the iPhone lets you capture and share panoramas in just seconds. It’s easy to use and its fun interface will change the way you take photos!

There is a new iPhone app out that is quite exciting for photographers like myself. It is called Dermandar and like it says on its website, it really can help you shoot and make a panorama in seconds. I did just that last night at the Democrat Rally in Bangkok. I took some pictures of the local area and then within seconds I had uploaded the panoramas onto Twitter. The picture above and at the bottom is an example. Click on them to see a larger image.

It is quite simple to use. Hold your camera in portrait mode (above left) and avoid tilting it in any direction. The camera icon at the bottom goes dark when you are holding it straight. Press this icon to take the first picture and then rotate to either the right or left. As you move the two shapes at the top will come together to form a circle. At that point it automatically takes a picture. Continue for as long as you like to either make a wide angle shot or a 360 degrees shot. To finish either press the camera icon again or just tilt your iPhone to landscape orientation. Within seconds a panorama is stitched together and you have the option to save or discard.

You don't need any special skill to do this as it is very easy. However, you do need to make sure people are not moving at the point where two photos are being stitched together. If you look closely at the above pictures you will see a few problem areas. With experience you should be able to get picture perfect panoramas. If you have a free Dermandar account, you can apparently upload to their website and then tweet to an "immersive 3D viewier page". I haven't done that yet but the examples on their website look great. I'm looking forward to testing this app out more on my trips around Thailand. Put a link in comments to any of your own photos shot in Thailand with this app.

Download Dermander for free on iTunes >>>

Camera Plus App for the iPhone

The built-in camera app that comes with the iPhone is getting better all the time but there are still some things that it cannot do. One major problem is exposure control. You can choose where you want to focus, but it will also take the exposure at that same place. I bought the Camera+ app specifically to solve this problem, though of course it does do a lot more. As you can see in the photo above, you have your basic auto-focus square target which you can easily move around the screen depending on where you want to focus. Initially in the corner there is a small plus sign. Click on this and the round shutter icon appears. You can then move this to wherever you like on the screen. In this case you can see it on the right-hand-side. I find this particularly useful when I am taking close-ups of food. I just move the shutter icon around the screen until I get the exposure that I am happy with.

There are more options to help you to take a good picture. The flash is the same as the normal app but you get a bonus of a continuous light if you prefer. There is also a stabilizer and countdown timer. As you can see in the top picture there is also a grid to help you get your pictures straight. When you take the picture, you can save it into the "lightbox" for editing or just save it straight into the iPhone photo album. There are lot's of things you can do like changing the orientation and cropping. You can also add some weird and wonderful effects and borders as well. However, I often use the filters in the "scenes" tab which help enhance your photo.

These two photos are a good example of how well the "clarity" filter works. Of course, in the above picture I could have used the "exposure" trick to get better lighting in the area where the guys are sitting. However, that would have made the background all white. So, I took a picture where the background is the perfect exposure and the area where the guys are sitting is dark. But, not too dark. Now,  normally to get both areas correctly exposed you need to use a HDR app that takes two pictures, one under and one over exposed. However, with the "clarity" filter you can get a similar effect with just one normal picture. Take a look at the result below. Of course, it doesn't work with every situation, but when it does it is really great.

Download the Camera+ app from iTunes for 99 Cents >>>

Map Card – Tweet your location from your iPhone

When I am out and about tweeting during a trip, people sometimes ask for my exact location. You can of course just do a screenshot of Google Maps and send that to them, but there are some iPhone apps that will do a nicer job by combining a photo with a map. I have already reviewed MapCam. My new favourite is GPS MapCard. This works in much the same way. However, it has the option of tweeting direct from inside the app. You can also add a picture from either the photo album or take a new one.

Other options for the map include a choice between satellite image or map, and co-ordinates or street address. You can also zoom in and out of the map, and most importantly, you can move the red marker yourself for more accuracy. Once done, you can either tweet or send by email to someone. It also saves to your photo library. In some ways I like this one better than MapCam and will probably use this one exclusively. Unfortunately, when I got this app from iTunes it was free, but while I was testing it, it has now gone back up to $1.99. They might drop the price again in the future. But, there is no guarantee.

Buy GPS MapCard on iTunes >>>

Sunlight Tracker for the iPhone

Sunlight Tracker is a must have tool for any outdoor photographer interested in knowing the best times to shoot their subjects outdoors.

This is a handy little app for your iPhone called Sunlight Tracker which is currently free in the iTunes store. Using GPS, it takes your current location and tells you the times of sunrise and sunset. More importantly it gives you the times of twilight and also the total length of day. As you can see from the screenshot above, the length of day in Thailand is 11 hours and 37 minutes at the moment. Scrolling to the left or right you can see the details for the past or present. There is also a calendar where it makes it easier to check the times a month or so down the road. What is even more interesting, is that it will show you your present location on a Google map and a yellow line to show direction of sunrise and a green line to show direction of sunset. The red line shows the current position of the sun. What makes it useful to a photographer, is that you can easily change the time of day so that you will get the exact position of the sun which includes both the sun's azimuth and elevation. This make it useful when you are planning a trip to a new location. Of course, a Google map and built in compass will suffice for most people, but as this app is presently free it won't hurt to download. But, be quick, it might go back up to $1.99 soon.

Photo Map for the iPhone

During the recent red shirt protests in Bangkok, I was out and about a lot with my iPhone taking pictures and sending live updates out on Twitter. There were a few times when people asked me for my exact location. In the example to the left, the red shirt protesters were moving their barricade back away from the Sala Daeng intersection. People wanted to know if they had moved it back as far as the Sarasin intersection. Luckily I had an application called Map Camera which not only plots exactly where you are, but also does a split screen to show a live shot too. You can see in the map to the left that my position is marked with a blue dot. As I have a 3GS, I also had the option to rotate the map so that it points the direction I am looking. You also have the ability to zoom in and out of the map and also change its position on the screen. When I purchased this app it was actually free. But, it has now gone back up to 99 cents.

Taking HDR photos on the iPhone

One of the first apps that I bought for the iPhone was the Pro HDR app. I hadn't had the iPhone for very long but I was already experiencing problems with the camera when it came to metering. True the 3GS version you can tap on the screen to show what you want to focus and meter. But then, that often left everything else too dark or too light. The Pro HDR app is an easy way to deal with this. You basically take two pictures which are then blended together. No tripod is necessary but you should have a steady hand. The first shot you tap on the area of the screen which is too bright. Then for the second shot you tap an area which is too dark. Very easy to use and you can see the results quickly. You will be impressed for sure.