Show HN: Shift – Photo filters designed by you | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Shift – Photo filters designed by you

shiftbypixite.com

28 pointsgregalbritton15 comments

Will it also be available for android any time in the future?

Yes it will be in the near future :)

That's pretty cool. Waiting for android

Does the world really need more photo filter apps?

In nearly every case, and in all of the examples, these filters have degraded the images substantially. I guess some people might find these fun, but don't we already have enough photo filter apps?

It's not for merely reproducing what's in front of the camera. It's an artistic tool for producing emotional effects.

Thanks for articulating this - it's a nice way of looking at it. This is one of six Pixite apps that brings another feel to creating 'edits' (or works of art made on mobile devices). All six apps work together to provide a pretty comprehensive platform for creating new things.

Please! Seriously.

what you're describing isn't photography, but graphic design. That's fine, and of course people are free to corrupt their images as much as they want, but we really don't need another app for this, there are already hundreds of them and they all do the same stuff.

As for the OP suggesting these are works of art, yeah right.

These move photography away from being an accepted form of art, not towards it, these filter apps take photography more and more into the world of cheap throw-away effects. There's nothing new here, nothing that creates any real artistic value, it's just pixel pollution.

Along with t clarity slider in LR these apps are doing so much harm to the reputation of photography in the art world.

Good, reputation is overrated. I mean you don't punctuate or capitalize properly, and you don't worry about someone berating you for not maintaining the reputation of the written word as a serious medium for expression.

You're going there, you're criticizing my punctuation and capitalization skills???

As for your point, it makes no sense. I mean, it sounds fine, and it reads just perfectly, the capitalization and punctuation is almost spot on, but there's no substance to it. I don't worry what others think, that would be as dumb as another photo filter app. The written word will manage just fine long after we're both pushing up daisies.

I think you might have been trying to make some kind of snide remark comparing the written word's reputation to the plight that photograph has taken in recent years. That might be something that would be interesting to talk about. Twitter has done to the written word much the same that Instagram (et al) has for photography. There's a lexicon all to twitter, it has its own vocabulary, it's own grammar and so on. Anyone, like me, who does machine learning using twitter is painfully aware of how the authors of twitter have degraded and abused the language as a "serious medium for expression.", Photo filter apps have done the same for photography making it harder for actual photographers to be taken seriously in the art world.

Actually, I think I read too much into what you wrote, I think it just didn't say much of anything at all, just a pretentious attempt at an insult. Let me guess, a liberal arts major :)

No, it's not an insult. I just think it's crazy that anyone sits around fretting about the artistic merits of Instagram photos. I don't see how one person's crummy photo has any bearing on someone else's seriously good photo. You or I can type any gibberish into a text box on the internet, and it has just as much right to exist there as anything else. And it doesn't affect how good anyone else's writing is. So no one worries about it, and I don't see why anyone worries about crummy photos either.

I have a BA in CS :)

Fair enough, we don't agree but this is a free country after all. And besides, who cares what either of us think about this point, history will decide. Photography is definitely morphing into something new with technology playing a larger role over time. The written word on the internet isn't really a good analogy, a better one would be software that takes the written word and embellishes it with similes and metaphors generated from HMM algorithms, or rewriting adjectives with embellished phrases for you, or converting it to iambic pentameter. These are the literary metaphors of photo filters. Can you imagine picking up a copy of Gravity's Rainbow and having to chose between the Ludwig, Aden or Mayfair filter. One has Slothrop not rescue Katje from the octopus. That's what these photo filter apps are doing to photography. Maybe people don't care, maybe there's layers to photography and there's no spill between them, like you say, maybe these layers are isolated from one another. I like it when the name changes so we don't call them photo filters but something more lomo to show it's not meant to be photography. If he were dead, Jeff Wall would be rolling in his grave.

It's a trend. When all your friends share sepia coloured photos, and yours are boring normal colour, they stand out. People don't like to stand out. Also, a nice purpleish filter is perfect to hide skin imperfections!

I know it's a trend, but that doesn't mean we need more stupid filter apps.

Please review the guidelines for Show HN comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.

@dang, what are you suggesting I didn't follow? I don't see your point. Just because I think these me-to apps are a stupid waste of time is just my opinion, some people will share it and some won't, but why does having that opinion violate your guidelines. Maybe you should read them, or be specific about what you're objecting to.

I was respectful, I respectfully think this app is worthless. I suggested alternatives, like not applying filters and taking better photos. I presume you believe me to be gratuitously negative. First, don't use adverbs, second it's not unwarranted, we just need to stop making more of this shit.

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