Mike's NBC-TV stories

Photo Enhancing Apps

Next to text and calling, the next most used feature on our our smartphones these days is the camera and new and more powerful photo apps keep making it easier and easier to capture and share great images. Here are three of my new favorites.

photoappsMost of our iPhone and Android phones have front and back cameras. The very cool FrontBack app lets you take photos with both of them…just a few seconds apart. Shoot your reaction to what the back camera is showing. You can save or email the photo or share with social media. It’s free.

If you’re a serious photographer and an iPhone user, you’ll like the free Pocket Light Meter app. This lets you use you iPhone as a light meter. Point it at a subect and it will give you speed, aperture and ISO settings for you to set on your digital or film camera.

FXCamera is a photo editing app for Apple and Android that lets you use filters and special effects to make your smartphone or tablet photos really pop. You can add captions to them as well and – my favorite feature – a Voice Picture setting that lets you record live audio or narration of what you’re shooting. Naturally, you can save it on Facebook.

Mike is a veteran journalist whose video "PC Mike" reports have been distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations since 1994, making him one of the most experienced tech reporters in the country. His tech stories and videos have appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, the Today Show, The New York Times, USA Today and in numerous national newspapers and magazines. In addition to the PC Mike tech blog, he also publishes the Roadtreking.com RV Travel Blog in which he travels North America in an RV reporting about interesting people and places.