Photography

One of the major improvements to iOS 8 announced at today's WWDC keynote presentation are new features coming to the stock Photos app. Apple is adding a new service called iCloud Photo Library to help store iOS users' photos safely in the cloud. However, that's just the beginning.

Apple touts the iCloud Photo Library as a way to store and easily search any photo from any device. Once enabled, Photos will automatically keep everything on iCloud in its original resolution and format. The files can be accessed on the web or from any iOS device. Searches result in suggestions to check out favorite photos, or those taken around the same time or place.

Quickly opening the camera app can be the difference between snapping a great iPhone shot and losing that moment forever. The camera shortcut on the lock screen helps when the device is locked, however jumping to the camera when using other apps takes time. The jailbreak tweak quickCam eliminates this problem by making the camera available from anywhere.

Once installed, there are no settings to configure. QuickCam works by adding an Activator option that opens quickCam. Just about any gesture can be set to open quickCam from anywhere. For example, quickCam can be invoked from within an app by swiping on the status bar.

While the iPhone 5s shoots 1080p full HD video by default, an upgrade to 2K video recording is now available on the App Store. Ultrakam Pro takes full advantage of the eight megapixel iSight camera on the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s, capturing pixels well beyond the 1920 x 1080 found in HD video. After all, the main camera on these iOS devices can grab a 3264 x 2448 resolution still image.

With Ultrakam Pro installed the iPhone 5s can even record 3K video at up to 30 frames per second. For comparison, 2K video clocks 2240 x 1672 resolution and 3K surpasses this with 2592 x 1936 pixel resolution. iPhone 5 owners can use the app, but will be limited to 2K video at 20 frames per second due to the older hardware. Ultrakam Pro can be found on iTunes and is currently on sale for $6.99.

iPhoto makes it possible to tweak and modify the appearance of photos without permanently changing the original image files. The export function provides several options to control how photos are exported from the iPhoto library. Photos can be exported in their original state or with any modifications that were added by editing in iPhoto.

To start, open the event or album that contains the photos you wish to export. Photos can be selected by clicking a thumbnail. When selected, thumbnails will have a yellow border. To select multiple photos click while holding the shift or command key. All photos can be selected at once using select all (command-A).

Managing photos and albums on an iOS device has come a long way. iOS 7 gives mobile photographers many options to edit, organize and share images without having to copy files to a computer. However, adding iPhone photos to an existing album is a multi-step process that may not be obvious at first glance.

First off, to create a new album open the Photos app and navigate to Albums. Tapping the plus (+) icon and entering an album name will automatically bring up the photo selection screen. Once photos are selected, tapping Done will create the album. But how does one add more photos to this album at a later date?