Wang’s three versions of a photo taken of the geyser area in Yellowstone National Park depict the versatility of Photoshop Express app features. The original photo’s exposure (far left) was imperfect, so she used the exposure function to enhance it (middle photo), and applied a vintage filter (right photo).

3) What is the most useful app for cell phone photographers? 

More than 50 million users worldwide opt for Instagram, the mobile photo-sharing app bought by Facebook for $1 billion in April. Instagram has artistic filters that give pictures a dreamy glow (“lomo-fi”), a sepia tinge (“sutro”), black-and-white contrast (“inkwell”), and more. 

Photographer Calvin Xu (B.S. ’12) uses Camera+ on his iPhone. He likes the advanced camera app’s built-in exposure compensation for bright and dark areas. “It has different filters similar to Instagram and great editing tools for different camera settings,” he says. 

The app’s FX Effects are filters with names such as “grunge,” “so emo,” and “purple haze.” Other features include 6x digital zoom, a clarity option to brighten shadowy pictures, and organizational tool Lightbox, which saves pictures in an easy-to-sort system. ISO, focal length, and shutter speed can also be adjusted.   

Amateur photographer Shiang-Kwei Wang, Ph.D., associate professor of instructional technology at NYIT, is known within the School of Education for recommending apps that can be used as teaching tools. 

“For amateurs or people who don’t have access to a desktop computer, Photoshop Express provides a quick and professional way to fix photos,” she says. 

Its design is based on Adobe’s Photoshop for desktop computers, but the mobile version is simpler to use. 

In addition to basic editing features such as crop and rotate, the app provides several adjustment tools such as exposure, contrast, hue, and temperature. The latest app version (2.5) adds a series of artistic filters to enhance pictures. Photoshop Express also has a quick button to allow users to compare “before” and “after” photos. 

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