Larry the App Guy: My App Reviews

Lzed said:
Proseezion by John Konstantaras
https://appsto.re/ca/Wy-Leb.i

Proseezion, the high-end camera app designed to get the best possible photo quality. The innovative research behind the app makes impressive photos without that processed look. Instead, the images look like they were created by a superior sensor. Detail is greatly increased: even more than RAW in difficult situations. Noise is almost impossible to find: even in extremely low light. The innovative image stacking technology means this can all be done without torturing a single capture, which usually results in that processed look.

Main features:
ADJUSTABLE REAL DYNAMIC CONTRAST RANGE
A true innovation, the sensor’s Dynamic Contrast Range (DCR) is adjustable which means the images real dynamic range is under your control! The DCR control range starts at Normal contrast and is adjustable to +/-1.00 with two decimal points precision. Giving you the true dynamic range you need without that HDR look.

EXPOSURE AND DYNAMIC CONTRAST RANGE PANNING ADJUSTMENT
With a single on-screen panning gesture you can set both dynamic contrast range (N+/-1.00) and exposure (EV+/-4.00). Panning vertically you set dynamic contrast range and horizontally exposure. A real time histogram with Zone Scale helps you expose the scene correctly while the live preview simulates the result. Panning with two fingers allows you to control one exposure aspect at the time (N or EV). The values are shown in real time with an option to reset them to zero.

MANUAL FOCUS
While you can tap on the spot you want to focus, you can also long press and focus manually on a critical area. To help you fine-tune, Proseezion zooms into the selected spot.

OPTIMUM ISO
Proseezion automatically selects the lowest possible ISO for the shot to ensure optimum results.

HORIZON ANGLE INDICATOR
An aviation style horizon indicator ensures that your photos will never need rotation.

FULL METADATA WITH DATE AND LOCATION
Your photos will have full metadata to review the settings, location, date, EV and N values used.

SELF TIMER
5 second timer allows you to get out of the scene before any shot and ensures that your photos will not be shaken.

SQUARE FORMAT
Some photos are best shot in a square format and an option for that is included.

LAST PHOTO VIEWER
You can view the last photo taken and share, use or print it.

MOVABLE SHUTTER BUTTON
The shutter button is moveable and allows you to place it in the most convenient spot for each shot.

ECONOMY MODE
In economy mode you can save space keeping high-end quality.
OS >= 8.0

An interesting app and one I will keep playing with.

This app takes multiple images and merges them into a single image, similar to TaruCamera or Cortex Camera but unlike those two apps the save resolution is not changed. In some ways this is more of a new Averaging App that merges lots of images into one.

The app is not quick, there is a 5 sec period before it will start (after touching the phot button) and then will take three sets of 12 images or 36 total. How long taking the images will take is dependant on the light level, ie bright outdoors is pretty quick, maybe 5seconds or so, if it is indoors or darker it takes maybe 15-20 seconds and in really dark even longer so a tripod is pretty much a requirement, even in bright light.

Because of the multiple images you can get some interesting result when it is windy and the app shows very little de-ghosting.

Like the Averaging apps that will take a large number of images this one if a car drives through the scene do not show at all. With Taru or Cortex you sometimes get several ghost images showing.

Price has been bouncing between $2.99US and $0.99US. Developer is another that seems fond of very short sales and I have seen some complaints about that but I got it for the $0.99US a few weeks ago.
Currently the price shows as $0.99 but for how long I don't know.

It's biggest draw is because of the number of images it does take there is virtually no noise even in very dark.

And no zoom...

Samples
View attachment 94082
It is currently +18 (+64) and wind s to 27kph or 17mph
This image as well as the next were taken through the living room window.

View attachment 94083

Then I decided to go outside on the deck
View attachment 94084

View attachment 94085
And one of our Orchids
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Got it, too, but now asking myself why. I hardly use a tripod and if, there is still Hydra, AverageNightCam, Taru … [emoji1] but the results look good - as long you have a steady stand. [emoji4]
 
Lzed said:
Yes you could recreate the masks but what's your time worth... :) for $0.99 its not worth bothering. There are some masks that I wouldn't use, or have not found an image I like them with but thats all part of it.
I may take some of the masks and save them blank and try in Superimpose and yes I probably would like it better in there but this once you get used to is fairly fast and easier. I find it much easier to leave my iPad in portrait for this app, so it doesn't cut stuff off.
Click to expand...

The amount of time it would take to make my own masks is a good point. However, they would be my own, which is an important point if you are making images you want to put your name to. The main point of it, though, is to get into a full size resolution app. I don't see the point of working on an image only to end up with a low resolution output.
Masks are just photos of carefully chosen subjects. I should keep it in mind while out photographing.
 
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GroovyGouvy said:
Got it, too, but now asking myself why. I hardly use a tripod and if, there is still Hydra, AverageNightCam, Taru … [emoji1] but the results look good - as long you have a steady stand. [emoji4]
Click to expand...
Our bedroom has blackout drapes that I close when I go to bed, if I turn off the bedroom light there is very little light, only a soft bluish glow from the control panel on the beds air pump which is less light then a nightlight. So I thought I would see what I get out of Proseezion, Taru and Cortex. IPad was just sitting on the bed and screen looked completely black. With base settings in Proseezion images where completely black, only when I upped the exposure was it able to see something. What I did get in the end was a dimmer version of what I could see and very low noise but some. Taru and Cortex both were garbage, very noisy and didn't look anything close to real. The AverageCamera apps did far better but then I could take a lot more images to average out so virtually noiseless as always, just took much longer then this or Taru and Cortex.
Never thought to try Hydra which also does good in low light, if I remember I will try it tonight.
 
Well I tried Hydra, nothing in regular photo mode, completely black. HDR was garbage, lots of noise though you could see slightly more.
AvgNightCam did quite good, looked about the same as eyesight and low noise. Just took a lot longer.
AverageCamera Pro also did quite good and again took longer and low noise. Between the two Averaging apps AvgNightCam did the best.
The best by far was NightCap, almost no noise (only when you zoom all the way in) and looked the best of all of them.

Not a big surprise with this. NightCap is a great app. The Averaging apps I got originally to see how it did with moving water and I like both for that and you can get some other interesting images with fast moving clouds and they also work well if you use a flashlight to light stuff up and you can control the look, ie if the light is getting too much just turn it off and over a few frames it will look good.

Will have to try some of the same stuff with Proseezion and see how it does. I do like it for scenery shots with not much movement. Still waiting for a nice sunset, have not had any recently. Been either completely clear of complete cloud cover and either way means not a really nice sunset.
 
ImageArt said:
I have Paintstorm but I only use it on my iPad Pro. It is a very power hungry app and I make sure I close everything else if I use it. I haven't used it much but intend to try and get into it more in the future.
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It's more for desktop cos it take up the iPad memory very fast and you have to downsize the image to post here cos the file will be in the region of more than 10mb
But with the Apple Pencil this app is like painting on a canvas
Will load up an image when I downsize it
 
This was done on my desktop using PaintStorm Studio and download it to my iPad4 for further tuning in IColorama
Have to downsize for the actual image are more than 40mb to post here
By using the desktop there are no lags but the con side you have to use the mouse to paint whereas in the iPad Pro the Apple Pencil act like a brush
Still learning to get the feel of this app and need to invest a new iPad Pro with Pencil to get the feel of painting with a brush and not a mouse to act as a brush
IMG_3606.JPG
 
Kmenglee said:
This was done on my desktop using PaintStorm Studio and download it to my iPad4 for further tuning in IColorama
Have to downsize for the actual image are more than 40mb to post here
By using the desktop there are no lags but the con side you have to use the mouse to paint whereas in the iPad Pro the Apple Pencil act like a brush
Still learning to get the feel of this app and need to invest a new iPad Pro with Pencil to get the feel of painting with a brush and not a mouse to act as a brush View attachment 94277
Click to expand...
That is wonderful. I love the effect.
 
Hi Larry,

My name is John Konstantaras and I am the creator of proseezion. I recently entered mobitog and I am really happy someone found my creation.

Lzed said:
An interesting app and one I will keep playing with.
Click to expand...
I am really proud about that.
Lzed said:
And no zoom...
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Thank you for pointing out. Since quality was the main (and only) concern for proseezion and real zooming is impossible, I thought that a simple crop would do the job. I will have it in mind for v2.
 
Hi Brian,

My name is John Konstantaras and I am the creator of proseezion.

FundyBrian said:
The point of this demo is twofold. First, I saw better colour and detail in the dark chair wood on the screen that what I ended up with in the photo. Second, my second photo is just a slightly different angle and although I tried to make it the same as the first it has a different white balance. So then I wondered, how is white balance controlled? I don't see any white balance control.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your observation. In version 2 I will include manual white balance. I didn't include it from version 1.7 because I thought it was too complicated. Thankfully there are advanced users that would appreciate it.
FundyBrian said:
I also noticed that after each photo the settings revert to zero, which would be a nuisance if trying to make a series.
Last, I forgot to make a comparison photo with a familiar app! Next time.
The level and camera settings are quite tiny. I would like to see the actual ISO and shutter speed being used displayed on screen.
Click to expand...
You are right and you just made some valuable additions to v2.
 
manta1900 said:
Would it be better to have EV+6 instead of EV+4 limit? (never thought someone would go that extreme) :D
An option to take more frames? ("normal" and extra maybe) ;)
Click to expand...

I think you will find people here on MobiTog who will take apps farther than the maker never imagined they would go. Sometimes great things are discovered at the extremes. This no doubt sometimes means outside of the intended purpose of the app. After all, one of our purposes here is to continue to push the envelope of what is possible on the iPhone.
 
zenjenny said:
Hmm. I'd love to know your process (and others). A new thread?
Click to expand...
Process? Me? I was just thinking of taking one day out of each month and going out with masks on my mind rather than pictures, shooting anything that looks like it might make a good one. I figure I can think about pictures or masks but not both at the same time (at least not without swallowing my gum and falling down).
 
terse said:
Process? Me? I was just thinking of taking one day out of each month and going out with masks on my mind rather than pictures, shooting anything that looks like it might make a good one. I figure I can think about pictures or masks but not both at the same time (at least not without swallowing my gum and falling down).
Click to expand...

Well, err... that's what I meant. What makes a good mask? What do you do with the image when you get home. You know, things anyone who knows anything about photography knows - and I don't o_O
 
zenjenny said:
Well, err... that's what I meant. What makes a good mask? What do you do with the image when you get home. You know, things anyone who knows anything about photography knows - and I don't o_O
Click to expand...
Things with strong and/or interesting silhouettes or shapes. Actually, the same things I look for as possible elements in a collage. Then I transfer ones that look like they might be useful to the iPad. I usually crop them to remove distracting stuff, or sometimes erase the background in Leonardo. Then I dump them in a folder so I can find them again.
 
manta1900 said:
Hi Larry,

My name is John Konstantaras and I am the creator of proseezion. I recently entered mobitog and I am really happy someone found my creation.


I am really proud about that.

Thank you for pointing out. Since quality was the main (and only) concern for proseezion and real zooming is impossible, I thought that a simple crop would do the job. I will have it in mind for v2.
Click to expand...

Hi John, really good to see you found the forum.
As Brian already mentioned you will find that people on here have a tenancy to push things a bit, maybe more then other forums but still it does help both the users and developers.
The one big thing where I live is there are actually very few times where there is no wind and this year seems to be both warmer than normal (been averaging around 10 degrees warmer for the past couple months) and its been windier then normal.
Because of the wind I would like to see the app simply take the images a lot faster then it currently does and maybe that would make it possible to handhold which would go a ways to making it more useful. I find I can brace it against something and images come out not to bad but tree movement is the big one with the wind.
The other reason for wanting faster is down to my health issues, I have severe arthritis and finding standing still is really difficult. That's one reason I do use a tripod a lot
 
terse said:
Things with strong and/or interesting silhouettes or shapes. Actually, the same things I look for as possible elements in a collage. Then I transfer ones that look like they might be useful to the iPad. I usually crop them to remove distracting stuff, or sometimes erase the background in Leonardo. Then I dump them in a folder so I can find them again.
Click to expand...
Good explanation. zenjenny, you need images with a strong contrast. I will often take photos with the sky as a background or I take a piece of white paper with me and then put it behind a flower so the flower stands out. You are fantastic with Union and you can get brilliant results if you try a background photo with a colour foreground and a mask and then a different blend mode.

I took this photo on Tuesday at Hampton Court, cropped it, went into iColorama and converted into a mask using Style>Threshold. Use the slider to change the amount of black and white.

IMG_8931.JPG

IMG_6415.JPG


I used a texture as the background and then added the leaf mask and changed the blend in Union. I flattened it and then added the second mask and another colour foreground. I then took it into Imaengine just to get some more interesting detail and then blended the two in iColorama.

IMG_6428.JPG
 
ImageArt said:
Good :notworthy:explanation. zenjenny, you need images with a strong contrast. I will often take photos with the sky as a background or I take a piece of white paper with me and then put it behind a flower so the flower stands out. You are fantastic with Union and you can get brilliant results if you try a background photo with a colour foreground and a mask and then a different blend mode.

I took this photo on Tuesday at Hampton Court, cropped it, went into iColorama and converted into a mask using Style>Threshold. Use the slider to change the amount of black and white.

View attachment 95696
View attachment 95697

I used a texture as the background and then added the leaf mask and changed the blend in Union. I flattened it and then added the second mask and another colour foreground. I then took it into Imaengine just to get some more interesting detail and then blended the two in iColorama.

View attachment 95699
Click to expand...

Thanks, Ted & Ann! And very helpful step-thru, Ann :notworthy: I'm going to put these helpful tips somewhere um, helpful. I know, I'll consult the all-new, all singing/dancing Help Pages!
 
ImageArt said:
Good explanation. zenjenny, you need images with a strong contrast. I will often take photos with the sky as a background or I take a piece of white paper with me and then put it behind a flower so the flower stands out. You are fantastic with Union and you can get brilliant results if you try a background photo with a colour foreground and a mask and then a different blend mode.

I took this photo on Tuesday at Hampton Court, cropped it, went into iColorama and converted into a mask using Style>Threshold. Use the slider to change the amount of black and white.

View attachment 95696
View attachment 95697

I used a texture as the background and then added the leaf mask and changed the blend in Union. I flattened it and then added the second mask and another colour foreground. I then took it into Imaengine just to get some more interesting detail and then blended the two in iColorama.

View attachment 95699
Click to expand...

I need to save to save this for future reference. I wish there were a way to bookmark posts so you could find them easily.
 
Starzee said:
I need to save to save this for future reference. I wish there were a way to bookmark posts so you could find them easily.
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How to like a post more than once?
How can we bookmark particular threads, posts so we can find them again? I often have trouble finding my own back posts or even threads if I can't remember the exact name.

Example: signs, something about signs. A search for "signs" doesn't find it. That's because "Sign Spotting" doesn't have 2 "s" in sign. How many time have I tried to find this again? Wouldn't it be great if I could just set a bookmark to it?
 
ImageArt said:
Good explanation. zenjenny, you need images with a strong contrast. I will often take photos with the sky as a background or I take a piece of white paper with me and then put it behind a flower so the flower stands out. You are fantastic with Union and you can get brilliant results if you try a background photo with a colour foreground and a mask and then a different blend mode.

I took this photo on Tuesday at Hampton Court, cropped it, went into iColorama and converted into a mask using Style>Threshold. Use the slider to change the amount of black and white.

View attachment 95696
View attachment 95697

I used a texture as the background and then added the leaf mask and changed the blend in Union. I flattened it and then added the second mask and another colour foreground. I then took it into Imaengine just to get some more interesting detail and then blended the two in iColorama.

View attachment 95699
Click to expand...

It really does look like a good thread topic. Maybe to save in "resources"? Or somewhere it can be found again later. Especially when someone doesn't know the name of the thread, etc. There is so much good information buried in these MobiTog threads. Much of it can never be found again.
 
terse said:
Process? Me? I was just thinking of taking one day out of each month and going out with masks on my mind rather than pictures, shooting anything that looks like it might make a good one. I figure I can think about pictures or masks but not both at the same time (at least not without swallowing my gum and falling down).
Click to expand...
LOL!!! I can relate. I keep saying I'm going to shoot "bits" for collages and then keep forgetting. :rolleyes:
 
FundyBrian said:
I think you will find people here on MobiTog who will take apps farther than the maker never imagined they would go. Sometimes great things are discovered at the extremes. This no doubt sometimes means outside of the intended purpose of the app. After all, one of our purposes here is to continue to push the envelope of what is possible on the iPhone.
Click to expand...
You are so right. :notworthy: I am in the same mission (but in the other side of the fence), I make the guns, you fight the war (photography). :rog:
No wonder your user image looks like a test pilot for space missions. :lol:
 
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