Nisa Ozcelik
Capturing breathtaking, ethereal images with silky-smooth water, dreamy light trails, or star-streaked night skies is no longer limited to professional photographers with high-end cameras. With the right long-exposure app, anyone with a smartphone can unlock the magic of motion-blur photography, adding depth and artistry to their shots. Whether you’re looking to transform car lights into dynamic streaks, capture the motion of waves, or create enchanting light paintings, long-exposure apps make it easier than ever to achieve these effects. In this guide, we’ll explore the best long-exposure apps available today, each designed to enhance your photography skills and turn everyday moments into stunning visuals. Dive in to discover how these apps can help you master the art of long-exposure photography right from your mobile device.
ProShot
Price: $6.99/In-App Purchase: Up to $4.99 for iOS
ProShot stands out as a comprehensive photography and filmmaking solution, offering manual controls, a unique interface, and a range of features. Whether you’re a professional or a beginner, ProShot caters to all with its DSLR-like settings, including Auto, Program, Manual, and Custom modes. The app provides control over exposure, flash, focus, ISO, shutter speed, and more. With options for raw shooting, light painting modes, bulb mode, and various customization features, ProShot ensures you capture the perfect shot. Privacy is prioritized, with no data harvesting, making it a secure choice for your images and videos.
Key Features:
- Customizable Shutter Speed: ProShot allows users to control shutter speed manually, giving photographers the flexibility to capture beautiful long-exposure shots with smooth motion effects for light trails, water movement, and more.
- Advanced ISO Control: With ProShot’s adjustable ISO settings, users can manage light sensitivity to capture bright, clear long-exposure photos even in low-light conditions, essential for capturing star trails and night photography.
- RAW and High-Resolution Output: ProShot supports RAW photo format, enabling high-resolution captures that retain rich details, ideal for professional editing and printing of long-exposure shots without quality loss.
- Built-in Intervalometer: Perfect for creating time-lapse photography, ProShot’s intervalometer lets users set timed shots, allowing them to capture sequences for dramatic motion-blur effects or stunning nightscape compositions.
Slow Shutter Cam
Price: $2.99
Slow Shutter Cam transforms your device’s camera into a powerful tool for creative photography, and it ranks among the best long-exposure apps. Recognized by Apple, it offers Motion Blur for ghost images, Light Trail for painting with light, and Low Light for capturing more photons in dark conditions. With unlimited shutter speed, manual ISO, real-time live preview, and a variety of effects, Slow Shutter Cam enhances your photography beyond traditional smartphone capabilities.
Key Features:
- Dedicated Motion Blur Mode: Slow Shutter Cam offers a specialized Motion Blur mode, allowing users to capture smooth, streaking effects in moving subjects like flowing water or busy city streets, creating a professional, artistic feel.
- Light Trail Capture: The Light Trail mode enables photographers to capture the continuous movement of lights, perfect for creating dynamic night scenes with car lights or fireworks, adding creativity to urban or nighttime photography.
- Adjustable Shutter Speed and ISO: With manual control over shutter speed and ISO, Slow Shutter Cam lets users customize exposure settings to capture low-light and long-exposure shots with precision, ensuring clear, balanced images in various conditions.
- Real-time Preview: The app provides a real-time preview of the long-exposure effect, allowing users to see how their shot will look before capturing, making it easy to adjust settings for optimal results.
- High-Resolution Output Options: Slow Shutter Cam supports high-resolution captures, ensuring that long-exposure shots retain maximum detail and quality, perfect for post-editing or large-format printing.
Slow Shutter Cam on the App Store
Also Read: The Best Camera Apps for iPhone
Also Read: The Best Camera Apps for Android
Manual Camera DSLR (Lite)
Price: Free
Manual Camera DSLR Lite Version provides DSLR-like manual controls, turning your phone into a professional camera, and it stands out among the best long-exposure apps. Despite limitations in photo and video resolution, it offers features like manual ISO, exposure control, RAW photo support, and 4K recording. Burst mode, face detection, and various focus modes contribute to its capabilities, making it a handy tool for enthusiasts seeking manual control over their photography.
Key Features:
- Complete Manual Control: Manual Camera DSLR (Lite) offers full manual control over settings like shutter speed, ISO, and focus, allowing photographers to customize each shot and achieve precise long-exposure effects for creative motion blur and light trails.
- Custom Shutter Speed Settings: With adjustable shutter speed options, users can experiment with different exposure lengths to capture everything from light streaks in night scenes to dreamy, blurred water movements in daylight settings.
- RAW Photo Support: The app’s support for RAW image format means users can capture high-resolution photos with rich detail, enabling deeper post-processing capabilities to refine long-exposure shots without losing quality.
- Professional-Grade ISO Adjustments: Manual Camera DSLR (Lite) provides flexible ISO adjustments, which helps photographers manage brightness in low-light conditions, ensuring clear, balanced long-exposure images in diverse lighting environments.
- Real-Time Exposure and Focus Controls: The app features real-time adjustments, allowing users to tweak exposure and focus on the go, providing greater control and enhancing the ease of capturing perfectly exposed, long-exposure images.
Manual Camera DSLR (Lite) on Google Play
Spectre Camera
Price: Free/In-App Purchase: Up to $4.99
Spectre Camera, developed by the makers of Halide, leverages AI for impressive long-exposure photography. The app excels in making crowds disappear, creating light trails, and capturing ghostly water effects. With features like an intelligent shutter, a live RGB histogram, and cutting-edge technologies, Spectre ensures stunning long-exposure shots with ease.
Key Features:
- AI-Powered Long Exposure: Spectre Camera utilizes advanced AI technology to analyze scenes and optimize exposure settings automatically, making it easy for users to achieve stunning long-exposure effects without needing extensive photography knowledge.
- Live Preview of Effects: The app provides a live preview of long-exposure effects as you frame your shot, allowing users to visualize the outcome and make real-time adjustments to composition and settings for optimal results.
- Multiple Shooting Modes: Spectre Camera offers various shooting modes, including Light Trail, Motion Blur, and Ghosting, enabling users to experiment with different styles of long exposure, whether capturing moving lights or creating ethereal effects with subjects.
- High-Resolution Image Capture: The app supports high-resolution image output, ensuring that long-exposure photos retain intricate details and quality, making them ideal for sharing or printing without compromising clarity.
Spectre Camera on the App Store
Also Read: The Best DSLR Camera Apps for Android
Camera FV-5 Lite
Price: Free
Camera FV-5 Lite brings DSLR-like manual controls to mobile photography, offering adjustable parameters like exposure, ISO, focus, and white balance. With exposure bracketing, intervalometers, and support for RAW and JPEG formats, it caters to photography enthusiasts seeking creative control. The advanced electronic viewfinder and various overlays enhance the shooting experience. Camera FV-5 Lite is one of the best long-exposure apps.
Key Features:
- Professional-Grade Manual Controls: Camera FV-5 Lite offers comprehensive manual controls, allowing users to adjust shutter speed, ISO, and focus manually. This level of customization is essential for capturing stunning long-exposure images tailored to individual artistic visions.
- Extended Shutter Speed Options: The app provides an impressive range of shutter speed settings, from 1/8000 of a second to a maximum of 30 seconds, enabling photographers to experiment with various long-exposure techniques, from star trails to silky waterfall effects.
- RAW Capture Support: With support for RAW image format, Camera FV-5 Lite allows photographers to shoot in high-quality resolution, preserving the details and dynamic range in long-exposure shots, which is ideal for post-processing.
- Intervalometer Feature: The app includes an intervalometer function, perfect for time-lapse photography, allowing users to set a specific interval between shots and capture sequences over extended periods, enhancing creative possibilities for long-exposure projects.
Camera FV-5 Lite on Google Play
ProCam 8 – Pro Camera
Price: $9.99/In-App Purchase: Up to $7.99
ProCam 8 offers a versatile range of shooting modes, including photo, burst mode, slow shutter, and more. With manual controls for exposure, shutter speed, ISO, and focus, the app provides flexibility for capturing the perfect shot. The app supports high frame rates, 4K video recording, and features like HDR, time-lapse, and video editing, making it a comprehensive tool for both photography and videography.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive Manual Controls: ProCam offers extensive manual controls for shutter speed, ISO, and focus, giving users complete creative freedom to adjust settings and capture breathtaking long-exposure images tailored to their vision.
- Flexible Shutter Speed Range: With a wide range of shutter speed options available, users can experiment with exposures lasting from 1/8000 of a second to an impressive 30 seconds, enabling them to capture everything from fast action to beautifully blurred motion.
- Live Histogram and Real-Time Exposure Preview: The app features a live histogram and exposure preview, allowing photographers to assess light levels and exposure in real-time, making it easier to achieve perfectly balanced long-exposure shots.
- Advanced Night Mode: ProCam includes a dedicated Night Mode that optimizes settings for low-light environments, ensuring that long-exposure photographs taken at night are sharp, well-exposed, and free from noise, perfect for capturing starry skies or urban landscapes.
- High-Resolution RAW Support: With RAW image format support, ProCam allows users to capture high-quality images with enhanced detail and dynamic range, providing the flexibility needed for post-processing long-exposure shots without sacrificing quality.
ProCam 8 – Pro Camera on the App Store
Also Read: The Best Free Photo Filter Apps for iPhone
ProCam X – Lite :HD Camera Pro
Price: Free
ProCam X-Lite provides professional-level control over exposure, focus, ISO, and other features. With burst shooting, manual controls inspired by DSLR cameras, and support for 4K video recording, it elevates your mobile photography. The app offers real-time filters, RAW capture, and customizable settings, giving users a DSLR-like experience on their smartphones.
Key Features:
- Extensive Manual Settings: ProCam X provides full manual control over critical settings, including shutter speed, ISO, and white balance, allowing photographers to customize each shot for stunning long-exposure results tailored to their creative needs.
- Versatile Shutter Speed Control: The app offers a wide range of shutter speed options, from fractions of a second to multiple seconds, making it easy to capture a variety of long-exposure effects, from smooth waterfalls to vibrant light trails.
- Live View and Exposure Histogram: ProCam X features a live view display along with an exposure histogram, giving users immediate feedback on exposure levels and composition, enabling them to make real-time adjustments for optimal long-exposure photography.
- Time-Lapse and Interval Shooting: With a built-in time-lapse mode, ProCam X allows users to capture sequences over extended periods, ideal for creating captivating long-exposure effects in a time-lapse format, such as changing clouds or flowing water.
- High-Quality RAW Image Capture: Supporting RAW file formats, ProCam X allows users to take high-resolution images with extensive detail and dynamic range, which is essential for post-processing long-exposure shots without compromising image quality.
ProCam X – Lite :HD Camera Pro on Google Play
FotorGear
Price: Free
FotorGear serves as a complete photography and videography solution with features like manual control over exposure, real-time photo filters, RAW file support, and Peak Focus for precise focusing. In video mode, it supports up to 4K 60fps recording, anamorphic lens attachment, and cinematic video controls. Whether you’re a photography enthusiast or a videographer, FotorGear provides a comprehensive set of tools for creative expression.
Key Features:
- Customizable Shutter Speed Settings: The app allows users to adjust shutter speed settings for up to 60 seconds, enabling a wide variety of long-exposure techniques, from capturing flowing water to creating artistic light trails.
- Live Preview and Effects Simulation: FotorGear provides a live preview feature that simulates long-exposure effects in real-time, allowing users to see the potential outcome before capturing the shot and make necessary adjustments for optimal results.
- Multi-Exposure Capabilities: The app offers multi-exposure options, enabling users to layer multiple images together creatively, perfect for achieving dynamic long-exposure effects or blending different scenes for unique artistic compositions.
- Photo Editing Tools: FotorGear comes equipped with a suite of editing tools post-capture, allowing users to fine-tune their long-exposure images with adjustments for brightness, contrast, and color, enhancing the overall quality and artistic impact of their photos.
Comments
Loading…