No selfie camera? Use these apps

Love them or hate them, you cannot ignore the increasing popularity of selfies. Rare indeed is the public place that is bereft of at least one person attempting a photographic masterpiece with his/her phone. Which is perhaps why so many phone manufacturers are bringing out devices with more powerful front-facing or "selfie" cameras. The fact, however, is that you do not actually need a powerful selfie camera to take great selfies. In fact, if you use the right apps, you can take some very good pictures of yourself using the phone's rear camera, which is generally better than the front-facing one in terms of quality.

SelfieX: Automatic Back Camera Selfie

iOS

SelfieX has voice controls telling you in which direction to move the phone (it even says, "I can't see you," when you are out of the frame) and then asking you to say cheese (literally) at the opportune moment. You can use the portrait as well as landscape modes for the photograph. It saves you the hassle of hitting the shutter button.

Back Camera Selfie-Voice Guide app keeps telling you where to move the camera until you hear the magic word "smile".

Back Camera Selfie-Voice Guide

Android

The SelfieX app walks you through the entire selfie-snapping process. You turn on the app and turn the rear camera towards you, and then follow the instructions. The app keeps telling you where to move the camera until you hear the magic word "smile". The camera takes the snap a second or so after asking you to "smile." It only has portrait mode, but rest assured, it actually works.

FaceIt app waits until it feels you are in the "frame", so you end up getting pretty decent selfies.

FaceIt

iOS

You just launch the app, flip your phone around so that the camera faces you and then keep moving the phone until you hear a buzz. That's the signal for you to freeze and grin. What is impressive is that the app waits until it feels you are in the "frame", so you end up getting pretty decent selfies. There are some basic editing tools available too.

Once you get the hang of Selfie on Tilt, it's a handy app.

Selfie on Tilt

iOS

All you have to do is turn the phone's rear camera towards you, and then tilt the phone. And then tilt it right back to have your selfie clicked. It's as simple as that. If you move the phone too fast, you will end up with blurry selfies. Once you get the hang of it, however, it's a handy app.

Smart Selfie app restricts the selfie to 5.0 megapixels, which seems a tad unfair when you consider that 12-megapixel or 13-megapixel rear cameras are common these days.

Smart Selfie

Android

This promising rear-camera selfie app tries to guide you into taking the perfect selfie with voice commands. However, it comes with a rather complex interface and controls. It restricts the selfie to 5.0 megapixels, which seems a tad unfair when you consider that 12-megapixel or 13-megapixel rear cameras are common these days. We would, however, recommend this for multiple controls, ranging from photo orientation, zoom and speed of voice guidance commands.

First Published: Tue, May 02 2017. 06 12 PM IST

Source: No selfie camera? Use these apps