Technology Explained, Practice
Daniela Bowker
Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! ...

When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?

Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! Saving images for the web
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring

There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.

Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring
Feature Articles, Theory
Daniela Bowker
Seeking balance in your photos

Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition. 

Seeking balance in your photos
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Training your photographic luck

Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...

Training your photographic luck
Feature Articles, Practice
Daniela Bowker
The ups and downs and ins and outs of ...

Photographing buildings doesn't have to mean wide-angle lenses and fretting about correcting for the keystone effect. Any lens, and angle. Don't believe us? Let us show you!

The ups and downs and ins and outs of photographing buildings

sparring partner

Very cute slideshows from Cute Slideshow

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I’ve hundreds of photos on my iPhone but, bizarrely, I don’t tend to do much with them, except for contribute to Haje’s Locks on Toilet Doors project, or document the bruising on my recently injured foot. When I was asked to review a new app that would let me turn these loved-but-languishing photos into slideshows, and even set them to music, I got a bit excited.

Very cute slideshows, but you can't export them

The app’s called Cute Slideshow and it’s made by Cute Logic. You can put together a slideshow of up to 1,000 images from your camera roll, use 20 different transitions, add text, and choose a sound track from your iPod music library. It took me about ten minutes to put together a slideshow, complete with music, that paid tribute to my shoe collection. I was very proud of my slideshow and I was impressed by how easy it was to make something so fun.

I’d really like to be able to show you my slideshow, too. But I can’t, and this is where Cute Slideshow falls down.

Unless you’ve an iPhone 4 or a fourth generation iPod Touch, your slideshows are stuck there on that piece of kit. Even with an iPhone 4, you can only display them on an external screen using a cable. To turn Cute Slideshow from something that I think is quite cute into something that I think is rather groovy, I’d really like to be able to export my slideshows.

One of my friends, who has been my mental sparring-partner for the past eleven years, raised all sorts of problems when it comes to exporting slideshows. ‘What about platform compatibility?’ he asked. ‘And coding for YouTube is a nightmare,’ he told me. ‘Could there be rights issues with the music?’ Well…

The interface is very simple, though

Pick one or two platforms that’d be compatible to play slideshows; don’t most of us have access to a selection, anyway? I’m not a coder, so I don’t know how much of a problem coding for YouTube is, but as a consumer, having a product that doesn’t do quite what I want it to isn’t very useful. As for the music rights issue, there’s no difference with this than any other slideshow or time-lapse or video that you or I might set to music: it’d depend on how we used it.

I want to love this app, but it feels as if it doesn’t go far enough. I’m sure that there are plenty of people who’d be happy viewing their slideshows on their iPhones or iPod Touches, or be able to hook up their iPhone 4 to their big screens. For me, though, it feels a bit half-baked.

What my sparring-partner and I did agree on, though, was that this would be a great app for the iPad.

So the verdict? Great start, but this cake needs a bit longer in the oven.

Cute Slideshow is available from the App Store for £1.79 or US$2.99.