Pocket Plastic

3 Dec 2010

ShakeItPhoto comparison

Longtime fauxlaroid favourite ShakeItPhoto (Nick Campbell, $0.99) enjoyed a major update this past week, with full-resolution support, social sharing, and a revamped image filter being added for no extra charge. It's the last change that has sparked a little controversy in iPhone photography circles, with many users saying they prefer the old look to the new, which is best described as being brighter, bluer, and less colorful – more accurate to the state actual instant photos from the 70s and 80s would be in today.

As previously covered in this post, ShakeItPhoto vs. ShakeIt, I believe the processing of ShakeItPhoto has been broken for awhile anyway; being originally designed for the cameras of the first iPhone and iPhone 3G, it delivered its best photos before the arrival of the iPhone 3GS, which produced darker, over-contrasted results. I had hoped then that the app would be updated to compensate for the different camera module's output, but today we have a brand-new effect designed (presumably) to work best with the iPhone 4.

On the left, photos from the last version of ShakeItPhoto taken with an iPhone 3GS. On the right, the same scenes taken with the latest version running on an iPhone 4. I wish I had access to an iPhone 3G, just to show you how much better it used to be. The iPhone 4 photos were resized to match the 3GS ones.

The old version produced good results in bright daylight, but indoors and in dark places... not so much. You can look at the candy jar in the last photo to see what I mean: virtually no shadow details survive the process. I find the new effect very consistent and pleasing, but many are calling for the developer to consider adding an option to regain the old style.

Side-note: Another similar app, Instant Camera, randomly applies one of several effects when processing its Polaroid-style shots, and I hate that about it. I want consistent results, or completely unique, random results (like you see in Infinicam). I don't want one of three effects without being able to choose. Which is why Nick Campbell's other app, Cross Process, is especially well thought-out by giving users that control, should they want it.

Apps Polaroids ShakeItPhoto iPhone iPhone4
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1 Apr 2010

Waterloo Hostel (Hotel)

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30 Mar 2010

Bathtub water

'Cause our bathtubs drink better than 1/6th of the world"

Tag on table for donating to clean water efforts.

7 Mar 2010

ShakeItPhoto vs. ShakeIt

A version of this article was first published at iphoneography.com on 15/01/10.

It's easy to take the iPhone's versatility for granted these days. With over 100,000 apps available, and its combination of sensors and multi-touch input, it readily morphs into near-perfect facsimiles of countless tools people once had to pay significant money for. Not just software tools like GPS, mind you, but even silly things like wave machines, spirit-levels, and you know, libraries. Naturally, photographers began to clamor for a virtual version of a once-costly, frivolous analog relic: the Polaroid instant camera.

ShakeItPhoto ($0.99) arrived first, although ShakeIt's ($0.99 / free) developer maintains that his app was submitted to Apple for review as many as four months prior. Without this knowledge, many viewed ShakeIt as a me-too effort when it was finally released with an oddly similar name. Some cattiness briefly appeared on Flickr discussion boards and blog comment sections, but the two apps eventually managed to coexist. Anecdotally, ShakeItPhoto became the more popular because it reproduced aspects of the Polaroid experience. After taking a photo, the undeveloped frame eased into view with a satisfyingly mechanical sound. Shake the iPhone, and the photo would sway from side to side, slowly fading into view. In comparison, developing a photo in ShakeIt was like shaking an empty snow globe. No visible response, no indication you were doing it right, and no fun. Eventually you'd get your photo, but the whole process was flat and boring. ShakeItPhoto not only produced consistently beautiful results, using it felt great.

The release of the iPhone 3GS unexpectedly shifted the balance. Long story short, Apple decided to tweak the camera's output to produce photos that it believed most users would find more appealing. More color, more contrast. It also meant that some shots turned out darker than they would have on an iPhone 3G. This pretty much wrecked ShakeItPhoto's processing, and the photos lost quite a bit of their blown-out, faded charm. To this day, it doesn't appear that enough has been done to address this. On the other hand, ShakeIt has received a number of small updates over time to improve its image quality. It still doesn't have any animations or sound effects, but its photos are often more attractive than ShakeItPhoto's on an iPhone 3GS.

Two examples of the underdog's innovation: ShakeItPhoto uses the same white border for every photo. Look along the top edge of the "paper" and you'll notice a speck of dust that's always there. ShakeIt has a number of different photo frames that it randomly assigns. Every now and then, you get an emulsion artifact or a smudge over the photo. ShakeIt also employs a number of different color treatments; which one you get is down to luck (akin to Takayuki Fukatsu's ToyCamera). These little details matter if you're writing a camera emulator for people who like taking photographs. And with instant and toy cameras, it's often the case that the more randomness they encounter, the more people tend to love them.

Nevertheless, ShakeItPhoto remains a great tool in good lighting conditions, and outputs a unique square format size that ShakeIt does not (ShakeIt offers a regular Polaroid-shaped frame, a longer rectangular frame with a uniform white border, and a frameless processing-only vertical rectangle). Its shortcomings can be minimized by applying an exposure fix in apps like Perfectly Clear before processing, although this reduces its usefulness as a camera app. But if you have been otherwise unfortunate enough to still be on an iPhone 3G, its better output should be one point of consolation to you. For now, ShakeIt has pulled level with its competitor, and represents one of the best faux-laroid apps on the App Store. One possible contender for the throne might be Lo-Mob, but that's another story for another time.

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Example photo #1: A dimly-lit bar. ShakeItPhoto's tendency to darken photos is visible here next to ShakeIt's interpretation, which is even brighter than the original photo.

Example photo #2: Part of an Indian temple's decorated gate in bright daylight. ShakeItPhoto provides more vibrant colors and a vignette. ShakeIt, on the other hand, emulates the greenish color cast of some Polaroid films but the effect isn't particularly well-suited to this scene.