Stunning night photos with your iPhone
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Forget about lousy photos on your social media feed once the sun goes down. A new Brooklyn-based app called PABLO uses night lighting to create incredible imagery right on your iPhone.
Its creators' timing couldn't be better. Michelle McSwain and Ryan Warnberg named the app for Pablo Picasso, one of the first known light painters. They trademarked the PABLO app just as Kanye West was coming out with his album "The Life of Pablo" album, and now they're benefitting from all of the attention he's getting, as their light painting app is taking off.
McSwain, the CEO and co-founder, says the app is perfect for people who are bored with using filters on their photos, because it offers more technique. Warnberg, the CMO and co-founder, says PABLO allows you to create long exposures on your phone.
Not sure what a long exposure photograph looks like? If you've ever seen a photo of a car driving by at night with its tail lights blurred, that's long exposure.
McSwain is the photographer behind the app.
Warnberg brings the digital marketing experience.
Karim Morcos, is the chief technology officer, based in Cairo, Egypt. Karim created the technology that brought PABLO to life, an algorithm that actually hacks into an iPhone camera and simulates the long exposure, so you can capture light trails like you would on a DSL camera.
They also took it a step further, enabling you to see your image created in real time. The light painting itself is simple and lets your phone do a lot more in the dark.
Warnberg says if you've ever had that horrible feeling of taking a picture at night and realizing you've left your flash on? PABLO solves that by unlocking nighttime photography. It just takes a little practice and a few tips.
You need to be somewhere relatively dark, so that the light you're drawing with is the most prominent light.
McSwain also suggests using a tripod, or something like a coffee mug, to stabilize your iPhone.
Grab a light source. Anything from sparklers to LEDs, even a flashlight, candle, or lighter will do.
Draw in the air with the light and it leaves a trail.
The reason your eyes don't see the light trail? McSwain says it's because they're constantly updating the information that passes in front of them, so only the camera can capture it.
PABLO is free and currently available only on iOS.
An Android version is due out by November.