Photography

Locking out parts of the iOS Photos app is now possible thanks to the jailbreak tweak Photego. With Photego installed, a variety of photo-related functions can be secured. Once they are locked, access to these functions is only possible by using Touch ID authentication. Photego is capable of preventing album access, photo deletion, sharing, and more.

Once installed, the tweak can be configured under Settings -> Photego. In addition to a toggle that disables the tweak entirely, Photego can lock out its settings pane for unauthorized users. The list continues from there, with an option to protect images and videos from being deleted. The Recently Deleted folder can also be protected from permanent deletion, and images in the Recently Deleted folder can be prevented from recovery.

Ever notice how groups of photos taken in Burst Mode resemble the frames of a video? This comes as no surprise, as the images are captured at high speed. Now the app Burstio makes it possible to create a video or animated GIF directly from a burst group. The process is straightforward; simply open the app and select the Burst Mode photos to use.

The preview can be trimmed, using the same interface used to trim video length. Once the desired frames are selected, touch Export and a menu will appear. Animated GIF will create a 320x240 animated GIF, which can be saved to the Photo Library or shared. There are also options to save your work as a Full HD Video or an HD Video. Options to increase or slow the playback speed are also provided, for special effects.

It is easy to fill your iPhone or iPad with too many photos that take up precious storage, but it is not easy to quickly delete them from your Photos app. You can store up to 5GB of photos on iCloud for free, but what do you do with all the duplicates, blurry mistakes and pictures of your ex? AppJester has an answer called Purrge.

Purrge is a new app that allows you to quickly search through your photo library and delete multiple photos at once. You can do this by either swiping across multiple photos while in a grid view, or you can view them individually and swipe up to move them to your Purrge trash bin. You can then tap the tiny Purrge logo in top right hand corner to delete the marked images from your phone. The app is so simple to use there is really nothing else to say about it.

With over 10 billion photos uploaded in 2014, Flickr has plenty of data to crunch on popular cameras. Each year the company takes a look at the ongoing trends in camera use amongst its 100 million users. Smartphone ownership continued to grow last year, with Apple and Samsung making significant gains on Flickr.

According to the Flickr blog, Apple has now overtaken Nikon in the race for second place ranking. Canon retains the top spot with 13.4 percent ownership, with Apple and Nikon following at 9.6 and 9.3 percent respectively. For its part, Samsung surpassed Sony in 2014, taking fourth place with 5.6 percent. This leaves Sony in fifth place at Flickr with 4.2 percent ownership.

It's been said the best camera is the one you have with you. For iPhone owners, the camera is always one swipe away. While this can be an excellent way to document people, places and events, images pile up quickly on an iOS device. Just like any other important data, it's critical to back up irreplaceable photos before something goes wrong.

There are many ways to transfer photos from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to a computer or cloud backup. Choosing one or more solutions and using them often will ensure that your images are safely stored. iCloud is a native iOS solution, which comes with 5GB free storage. There are also third-party iOS apps that will back up photos, and several methods to transfer pictures to a computer. Here are the top five ways to back up iOS photos: