Oggl updates

The past couple of days have been kind to Oggl users, and though perhaps the people who work for Instagram aren’t quite so happy.

Yesterday, Hipstamatic made Oggl user profiles available to be viewed on the web by typing oggl.me/ plus the account username (ie. oggl.me/TRJH1991). Like the app, photos are divided into ‘captured’ and ‘curated’ sections – the difference being whether you took and edited the photo yourself (captured) or it is someone else’s work that you wanted to bookmark (curated).

The big news of the past couple of days however came in the Oggl 1.3 app update. Drum roll please…

You can now import photos from your camera roll into Oggl!

Doesn’t that just go against everything Hipstamatic has done in the past? Is it selling out morally to compete with Instagram?!

This latest feature will divide opinion – Oggl and Hipstamatic Classic are becoming two very different apps. Hipstamatic will appeal to purists, those who think the skill lies in being able to get a good shot without editing effects afterwards. Oggl is more mainstream, and therefore has more potential to sell.

Oggl has been steadily moving towards this point I think – there’s obviously been a plan in place to move things along and incorporate new features slowly, so as to still show that some of the Hipstamatic essence is retained.

Another new feature is that when you’re editing photos on Oggl, you can pinch and crop – again reminding us of Instagram’s basic options.

John S/Dixie/no flash

Oggl does code photos depending on their source – when you tap on a snap your profile or on the photo-feed, the right hand bubble will show a different symbol depending on the source. An import from Hipstamatic will be yellow, from your camera roll it’ll be will be red and white, and photos taken in Oggl will be grey. Imports from camera rolls or external apps will also be marked as ‘post-processed’.

What are your thoughts on the update? Like or loathe the direction that Oggl seems to be going? Let me know in the comments below!

Hipstamatic vs. Oggl

Back in May the people behind Hipstamatic Classic announced Oggl, promoted as “a community for creative people to capture and curate their lives through photography”.

Hipstamatic and Oggl app icons

As previously mentioned in the Hipstamatic vs. Instagram post, one of the main grumbles from some Hipstamatic users is that by setting the filter combinations before you shoot, you risk ending up with photos that just aren’t looking their best. Of course, that is part of the charm with Hipstamatic – you can wander around shaking your phone to randomise the gear and stumbling across a really good photo with a combination you’d never have chosen yourself – but there are those times when you just wish you could changed the lens or film afterwards.

Shoot first, ask questions later
Now, with Oggl, that’s one of the main features. Oggl is a camera-first app, so you take the photo and can then change the gear for different effects. It’s quite nice, knowing that you’ve chosen the right gear to produce the best photo possible. And compared with Instagram there are far more options and combinations as you can import your gear from Hipstamatic Classic.

Oggl capture and edit interfaces

Another bonus working in Oggl’s favour is the option to shoot from the front-facing camera – making those all-important selfies far easier. I’m still not sure why Hipstamatic hasn’t included this in one of it’s updates, although I suspect that it’s to do with the low-res quality of the front camera, and also that it’d kind of betray the spirit of Hipstamatic – no cameras ever shot from the front and back, and selfies are a bit self-indulgent anyway… Besides, if you want to take a selfie, just double tap the viewfinder so it fills the screen, then you can turn the camera around and just tap to take a photo. It takes a bit of practice but isn’t too hard to get the hang of.

Oggl also makes use of the favourites feature, allowing you to choose specific lenses and films to save for situational photography. These can be named (sport, sunset etc.) and are easily selected from the main camera interface. There’s also the option to change the exposure and focus before you take a shot.

Share the love
Now onto the curate features. To rival Instagram, Oggl allows you to share your photos (you can share directly to Oggl from Hipstamatic) with other users, employing hashtags and creating user profiles. Other photographers can ‘love’ your shared prints and follow you if they like your style. It’s all very slick and well designed, clearly based around not just the photos but the photographers as well. I think in comparison to Instagram, Oggl feels a lot more friendly and intimate – it’s just a shame that the market is already so dominated by Instagram (now owned by Facebook).

Oggl photo stream, profile and activity interfaces

In addition, you can connect your Oggl account to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare.

Pitfalls
Whilst Oggl certainly brings something new to the table and will no doubt entice a lot more people into the world of Hipstamatic (there’s a Windows phone version as well), it does lack some of the features that make Hipstamatic great.

Firstly, there’s no software flash, meaning that there are no more Dreampop light leaks or silvery tints from Tasty Pop. Flash is simplified to on or off, using the hardware flash. And then there’s the portrait orientation, which makes it feel like you’re using a phone rather than a camera.

Additionally, the app interface is very functional – there are no quirky design elements that invoke nostalgia for toy cameras, no camera cases just for the sake of being able to change the look… It’s a bit more simple and practical, and due to being able to change the photo effects afterwards, it’s fairly idiot-proof.

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In summary, I’m starting to find myself using Oggl instead of Instagram – when you’re low on time or not sure what gear combo to use, it’s easy to snap a photo and mess around with the affects afterwards. Hipstamatic Classic requires a bit more skill, time and patience, and I think that switching between the two apps will make the heart grow fonder for it.

 

Analogue toys for a digital generation

Graphic designer and iPhoneography fanatic Ted Villa wrote a blogpost entitled “A Semi-Philosophical Reflection on InstaGram and Hipstamatic” a little while ago. If you’ve not read it, click the link for the full article. Here’s a little quote that I think is especially pertinent, explaining the appeal of such photography apps:

“It enables us to mitigate the stark reality of multi megapixel cameras and all of their hard edged vividness. We can soften and humanize our photos and give them a sense of history even though they were taken in a moment on a device that enables 24/7 access to the world.”

Adler/Blanko Freedom13/Tasty Pop

Hipstamatic vs. Instagram

There are countless photo filter apps out there for iPhones (and other smartphones – I’m just not sure which apps are cross-platform), each with their own pros and cons. Instagram is undoubtedly the biggest, with Hipstamatic following somewhere behind. The logos certainly don’t mark them too far apart, so what are the key differences?

The logos: Hipstamatic on the left, Instagram on the right.

The basics
So we all know the drill with Instagram: take or import a photo, choose one of 19 filters, each with an optional frame, add focus and contrast if you want to pimp out the snap and share to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc.

Hipstamatic’s a little bit different, and although I’m biased, takes a bit more skill. It offers different lenses, films and flashes and you select a combination of the three (or two – flash is optional) before you shoot. Once a photo has been taken and developed, you can’t go about changing the look.

Cambridge – Lucas AB2/GS-O/Tasty Pop

More combos than I’ve had hot dinners
I’ve had Hipstamatic since the start, and at the last count, had about 30 lenses, 10 different software flashes (for effect only, the actual camera flash can be turned on as well) and 30+ films – a mixture of colour and B&W. And 21 camera cases, that don’t have any purpose other than to alter the appearance of the app interface.

I’m not going to do the maths, but there are thousands of different lens/film/flash combos, meaning that it is exciting to take a photo and never be quite sure what it’s going to come out like! And there’s the option to shake your iPhone to randomise the selection.

It’d be pretty annoying to take photos of important occasions or events and find the results are never much good, so the bright thinkers at Hipstamatic added a favourites function (or ‘favorites’, the Yanks) a while ago, making it easy to switch between trustworthy combos. And you can name them, maybe depending on what situations they’d work best in: low light, for instance, or sunset, sport, beach, and so on.

Lenses, films, flashes and cases are released in ‘Paks’, sometimes free, sometimes 69p. There are GoodPaks, where money goes towards a cause, FreePaks, that are free and Hipstapaks, where money goes to Hipstamatic HQ. As a general rule there’s a Pak of some sort every month or so, sometimes themed to co-incude with a movie release or something.

Hipstamatic UI: The Americana Lens and Old Glory camera case.

The betrayal
I have to admit, that I stopped using Hipstamatic for a few months earlier this year – I downloaded Instagram and it kind of took over. It’s not that I ever thought it was better than Hipstamatic, just easier. It’s great if you’re wanting to take a quick photo, you can just snap one on the standard camera and then import it later on when you’ve time. Anyone can do it (my mum is living proof of that – she posted her first Instagram picture to her Facebook earlier today), it’s really easy and the effects can be quite nice.

Another plus of Instagram is the front-facing camera option (for all those cheeky bathroom selfies). I’m sure the developers of Hipstamatic will have had countless requests from users to add a front-facing camera function (how hard can it be?!), but four years after the app was released there’s still nothing.

Share and share alike
And Instagram undoubtedly has the edge on the social side of things, despite Hipstamatic trying to play catch up over various updates in the past. Oggl is Hipstamatic’s new social photo app to rival Instagram. The tagline is “capture and curate your life through photography”, and it is a very slick and well-designed app, but I think a lot of people will still share photos to Instagram from it (an in-built option), relying on Instagram’s well-established social media presence to reach the masses. I won’t say too much about Oggl here though, I think there’s another blogpost for that…

So ultimately, if you fancy yourself as a bit of a skilled iPhoneographer, Hipstamatic’s your bag. By all means have Instagram for those post-night out edits, but generally Hipstamatic gives you greater satisfaction when you do it right.