Photography Assignment Generator Has The Brains But Not The Looks [Review]

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Got camera, but not got a clue what to shoot?
Got camera, but not got a clue what to shoot?

If you’ve explored all the creative possibilities offered by Instagram’s built-in filters, and people have stopped commenting on the pictures you upload to Facebook, maybe the time has come to push yourself a little further. Photo Assignment Generator for iOS can help you with that.

The aim is to boost your photographic creativity a little, and give you that little burst of inspiration.

Sensibly, the app comes in two flavors: one for people shooting with their iPhone, and another for those who are more likely to be using an SLR camera. The “Scavenger hunt” mode is quite nice, randomly generating a list of words to get your creative juices flowing.

Inside the three-dollar SLR version, you’ll find over 100 assignment ideas, divided into eight broad categories. You can either browse to find something that takes your interest, or hit the random button to get a surprise. The iPhone version has fewer ideas and is much cheaper (a dollar).

Every tip comes with several example shots, good ones too. They show you the effect you should be aiming for in several different variations and situations, which makes things easier than if only a single example was shown. It’s a pity you can’t pinch-to-zoom them, or view them in landscape mode.

This is a nice enough app, but suffers from poor visual presentation. If it wasn’t running on the iPhone in front of me, I’d wonder whether it was an iOS app at all. It doesn’t look like an iOS app, there are no standard iOS controls visible anywhere. Sometimes it doesn’t even quite fit on the iPhone’s screen properly, with empty spaces at the bottom, or design elements leaking off to one side.

Scavenger Hunt mode is nice, but euw, the UI is all over the place

It could really do with an updated design – which would probably require a hefty re-code of the whole thing, but I think it would be worth it. The quality of the ideas is let down by the poor design. It desperately needs a makeover. Both versions also feel somewhat slower than they should be. There is a free version available should you wish to try without paying out.

As for the daily reminder set-up – it’s just a screen of instructions telling you to go your Settings app and set up the reminder there. This could do with some love too.

Looks aren’t everything, and you shouldn’t make judgements based solely upon them. This app does look rough, but on the whole, it does its job.

Source: App Store

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