A Guide to iPhoneography

Photography is my favourite hobby 

but tagging along your DSLR on every single trip just isn't going to happen (or be practical at all) 

Phones work alright for those quick snap moments, right? 

But a phone can take you only so far so... I decided to take it up a notch and buy some iPhone lenses from Photojojo!*

I picked up the Sampler Pack ($49), but they have a wide variety of lenses such as clip-on lenses, jelly lenses... all kinds of photography stuff you can find useful! I am not at that level of photography expertise yet, but I've been eyeing up the Instax Mini 8 camera for some time now...

(* I bought the lenses with my own money and this isn't a post Photojojo paid me to write! Actually, there are many more phone lens options out there such as Olloclip and Moment)

Let's compare my regular iPhone camera with camera + lenses!

Here's my photo subject, a weird miniature I had lying around:

Taken with: regular iPhone 4 camera

Taken with: Wide Angle lens

I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the Wide Angle lens. You can see a bit more of the surroundings, but take into account that the first picture was cropped. It's supposed to be great for landscapes, but I have to admit I didn't notice a huge difference when I used it.

But, the great thing about the WA lens is that... the Macro lens is part of it and you unscrew it to achieve really close-up pictures. The Macro lens is one of my favourites (2nd after the Fisheye!) and it's really fun to play around with. Check these out:

Taken with: Macro lens

I just cannot not use this lens when I have a flower nearby.

(It just makes anything interesting, really!)

Both taken with: Fisheye lens

My #1 favourite lens is the Fisheye: 180º of perfect photography and detail. It takes the most fun pictures and it's the best one for portraits!

My compact camera also has a fisheye mode... will it look as good? Here you can see a comparison of the two: fisheye lens + phone and fisheye mode on my compact.

   

Taken: a) phone + Fisheye lens  b) camera + fisheye mode

As you can see, my camera takes better resolution pictures, but the fisheye mode is definitely not it's forte. It deforms the picture, whilst the Fisheye lens on my phone makes it look analog/old school sort of picture.

Here's an example of using it to photograph people!

And last (and definitely least in my books) is the Polarizer lens. This might be my lack of knowledge, but I still haven't been able to figure how this one works exactly. I know that using it in a direct source of light, it makes everything clear while a regular camera would pick up the sun rays... 

but otherwise, I don't know what use I could put it to (any ideas?)

Taken with: Polarizer lens

The picture taken with the regular phone camera was almost the same, although the colours do appear to be more vibrant. However, I don't think I'd purchase this one on its own.

Apps!

Although lenses are pretty great, I think most iphoneographers (I'm owning this word) started with apps such as Instagram and right now most of us use one or two apps to edit our pictures before putting them out into the world! 

I'm just going to quickly mention the ones I use almost daily: 

• Afterlight is pretty great and has a great variety of settings, filters, etc. Make your pictures as dreamy, vibrant, dark... the sky is the limit! - $0,99 (worth it!)
• Pixlr Express+ is one of my latest discoveries and I'm truly addicted. You can edit things like blurriness and other options that Afterlight doesn't have. It has lots of filters although you need to be careful because they tend to go quite strong, which is why I usually edit blurriness and sharpness with this app and then go to Afterlight for filters. - FREE.
• ABM (A Beautiful Mess): this app has very cute and pretty add-ons for the pictures, such as stickers, frames.. and some filters too. - $0,99 (not 100% necessary)

<3 

M.

Do you use any special features/apps to take pictures on your phone? Do you prefer compact cameras or DSLR to phones when on-the-go? Any photography secret or tip you'd like to offer?

Review: L'Oréal "Les Blancs" Collection

Nothing says Spring like pastels! 

If you love pastel nail polishes, this L'Oréal nail polish collection will surely be your favourite release of the year. It's inexpensive, really good quality and the colours are just too beautiful not to swoon!

Para que llegue la primavera, no hay nada mejor que los colores pasteles. Los compré en Druni, donde los encontraréis a 2,95€... y si sois unas obsesas de los pintauñas como yo, 
¡os los acabaréis comprando todos!

856 Peche Neglige - 859 Gourmandise - 852 Pistachio Drage- 851 Nouvelle Vague - 853 Menthe Glace

I couldn't resist and I had to buy them all except for the plain white shade (857 Chantilly Lace), because I already have two whites and I have to restrain myself sometimes when it comes to buying!

In terms of opaqueness, these L'Oréal nail polishes are just one of the best. I used two coats to paint my nails, and only because one coat doesn't smooth out nail ridges, but the colour was perfect and not at all streaky from the first coat!

En cuanto a la opacidad, estos pintauñas de L'Oréal son lo más. Para las fotos, me pinté dos capas de cada, pero con una capa el color estaba perfecto y no se veían rayas (algo bastante común con pintauñas tan claritos). 

Thumb: 852 PD - Index: 853 MG - Middle: 859 G - Ring: 851 NV - Pinky: 856 PN

851 Nouvelle Vague: is a beautiful periwinkle blue with strong purple undertones. It's one of the most saturated shades, and you definitely wouldn't mistake it with white nail polish unlike other shades. In my opinion, definitely the most surprising shade of the collection! If I had to buy one shade of the whole collection, this would be it, as it's the most difficult to replicate.

Nouvelle Vague es uno de los tonos más sorprendentes de la colección, ya que no es ni azul ni morado, sino una mezcla preciosa de ambos. ¡Si tuviera que comprarme sólo un tono de la colección, sería éste! 

852 Pistachio Drage: is an off-white green shade, a very nice alternative to the classic mint nail polish. This shade makes you look oh-so-tan! 

Pistachio Drage es una gran alternativa a los colores mentas (como Menthe Glace) de los que ya nos hartamos hace un par de veranos. Hace que parezca que hayas estado tomando el sol en el Caribe, incluso si el papel suele estar más moreno que tú (como es mi caso).

853 Menthe Glace: This is an aqua shade, and the most saturated shade of the five I'm reviewing. I'm not a huge fan of aqua shades, but this Robin's Egg blue is quite a nice one! However, it's the least original shade of the bunch.

Menthe Glace es uno de los tonos con mayor saturación y de un color azulado verdoso muy bonito. Sin embargo, me parece el menos original de los cinco.

856 Peche Neglige: is a soft peach, with orangey undertones that still manages to look pink in some lights. Definitely one of the whitest shades in the collection and the most sold one at that (when I went to purchase these, there was only one left!)

Peche Neglige es un color melocotón muy bonito. Es uno de los tonos más blancos de la colección y al parecer también el más vendido (¡cuando fui a comprarlo sólo quedaba uno y medio escondido!)

859 Gourmandise: is a purply pink shade, quite white-based as well as easy to wear. It's a common shade too, quite similar to french manicure pinks. It's very pretty, but if I had to choose between all of the shades, this one wouldn't make the cut!

Gourmandise es un color rosita con un tono morado de fondo, pero nada muy aparente. No es un color muy original, y si tuviera que elegir entre toda la colección, éste no sería el elegido.

Price: 5,95€ approx. (2,95€ in Druni at the moment!)
Final score: 10/10

Have you tried the L'Oreal "Les Blancs" nail polishes? Which one do you have or do you want to purchase? 

¿Habéis probado estos pintauñas? ¿Cuáles tenéis o querríais comprar?

<3

M.

Farewell HIMYM

Let's have a moment of silence for one of the 

greatest comedy TV shows ever:

Did you watch the finale? Did you bawl your eyes out like I did?

<3

M.