iPhone: Lytro’s shoot-now-focus-later feature is pretty cool and if you want something like that on your iPhone, then Tadaa SLR is what you need. It’s essentially a blur-and-bokeh filter app, but the interface makes it almost foolproof.
Snap a photo or upload one from your camera roll and Tadaa will ask you to highlight your subject. You need to “paint” your subject with your finger, erasing the parts you don’t want and zooming in for more precision. I’d suggest you keep the “Detect Edges” option on, but if you want more control, switch that off.
Once that’s done, you can adjust the amount of blur you want and tap on either the highlighted subject or the background to focus on the selected part. There are other settings to tweak too, like highlights and gloss. When finished, upload it to your Tadaa account or social networks. You can also browse through creations uploaded by other users.
While this app makes the ‘tap-to-focus’ process really easy, this is just a software hack and won’t give you the same kind of effect that Lytro does. Still, if you can’t afford a Lytro or don’t want to spend on one, you can make your DSLR camera give you a similar effect.
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5 responses to “Tadaa SLR Shoots Now, Focuses Later For Lytro-Like Photos”
Turn your existing camera into a lytro with this simple hack. Take a picture. Opening it up in photoshop, use the mask tool and the lens blurrtool.
HACKED IT!
Your winning premise assumes that people just have PS lying around… and the time and energy and skills to use it with effect.
How can doing it then-and-there on your mobile pocket computer / camera be anything less than Problem Solved for tens of millions of people who will never ever use PS. But now thanks to the massively powerful pocket hardware, and super smart software designers… they get to be as cool as the nerds with PS and $5k workstations.
Except that 98% of the people using these types of apps won’t even realise that’s what they are doing. To them it’s just another tool in the toolbox, and another way to be creative.
AWESOME isn’t it. Exiting time to be alive IMO 🙂
For android they have app called “after focus” that achieve similar thing. (The basic version is good enough for me)
screamface, kinda defeats the purpose of ‘mobile’, does it not?
Why… ? Why does “mobile” photography have to have any less status than “real” photography ? Have you seen and played with some of the latest phone cameras ? I’m still blown away how GOOD the iPhone 5s camera is in so many situations.
And why not then have the ability to quickly do some post-production, taking advantage of the amazingly powerful computer, and hi-res screen you have with you. Seems smart to me.
To me, things like the subject of this article are the very essence and future of where photography is heading. And anyone who says that is destroying the quality of “true photography”… I presume you are still shooting film, with a fully manual camera, and doing your own developing at home ? No… photography and the equipment has evolved with time and technology. Apps like this and “mobile” photography are simply an evolutionary phase along that line.
Soon there will be no distinction between photography and mobile photography… it will be just photography… same way we dropped the “d” from dSLR. and how we stop saying mobile phone and just call them phones. And the thing in your kitchen that makes bread brown… is no longer called an electric toaster… as it would have been 50 years ago.. it’s just a toaster.
Fast forward 5-7 years from now when the “mobile” cameras will be +95% as good as the current $3K dSLR setup. And before you say it won’t happen… look back 5-7 years to a world before the iPhone, when phone cameras are 640×480 with lovely green and blue tints. Extrapolate that out to the future and see what we get.
I’m excited 🙂