Hipstamatic (iPhone)

I didn’t play any games last night on any format, instead choosing to spend my time watching Nighty Night and taking pictures with my new toy – the Hipstamatic iPhone app. It’s a camera app that uses different virtual films, lenses and flashes to make interesting, retro-looking photographs.

There’s no way to apply filters to existing photographs, which initially disappointed me, but I soon got into the mindset of treating the Hipstamatic as an actual camera, not as a way to apply filters to pictures. It’s a lovely toy, but be warned that the £1.19 purchase price only gets you a few of the films, flashes and lenses – the total price of the app comes to over three pounds when you purchase everything else. Well worth it, though; I’ve not had this much fun taking pictures in years.

Here are some pictures I took, almost all using the shake-to-randomise function, which selects a random flash, lens and film when you shake the iPhone. You never know what you’re going to get!

The Doctor. (The old one, not little Matt Smith.)

My gorgeous wife and cat.

The Punisher.

The Punisher again, taken with different settings.

The wife, knitting.

Watching Nighty Night.

My watch.

The BFG. And some DVDs.

The ball of yarn my wife was knitting with.

Another picture of my wife.

A filthy charity shop Kenny.

Dark Lord of the Sith.

Leia and Artoo looking cool.

My cat refusing to pose properly.

Some of those pictures are obviously better than others, but they show off the range of effects – and can you imagine how dull a lot of those pictures would be just taken with the standard iPhone camera? I may never use the standard Camera app again.