Comparison of DIgital Photography Applications
Authors:
Nancy Avila, Annalise Iezza, Soo Yang, Charlene YenMentor:
Ruth Guthrie, Professor of Computer Information Systems, California State Polytechnic University PomonaIncreasingly, people use phone cameras over digital cameras because of their convenience, availability and their capability to take high quality photos. The recently released iPhone 5 includes an 8 MB digital camera. Smartphone and tablet users have many digital photography applications that extend their photographic ability by offering cheap, feature rich applications that enable them to improve their pictures. Features that differentiate photo-enhancement apps can be divided into special effects, usability, and social media. Many photo-enhancement apps allow users to alter photos through color editing, shadowing, contrasting, themes, cropping, etc. Photo-enhancement apps are also designed to be very user-friendly. Specific apps even enhance their appeal by offering seamless integration with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This research project compares three popular photo-enhancement and editing applications. Our team researched existing applications, and web-based forums critiquing these and similar apps. We then developed a benchmark for comparing the different photo-enhancement apps. We also conducted small usability “talk aloud” sessions, to observe people using these apps. Our presentation will discuss the benchmark, results, and lessons learned.