500px 2.9.2

Social networking has turned each and every one of us into amateur photographers, but if you want to have a taste of some real photography, grab 500px. You’ll be left in awe.

500px is a Toronto based startup aimed at aspiring and professional photographers, encouraging members to upload their best works. 500px is a place where aspiring artists can gain exposure, as well as find inspiration and connect with other photographers.

UI just flows

Easily one of the best looking photography apps in the App Store (if not the best), 500px starts with what the developers call the “flow,” a wall of ever-changing tiles that highlight the best recently uploaded works from professionals around the globe. The iconography is minimal, and the dark background lets you really focus on the imagery.

Not only you’ll enjoy amazing photography from the world’s most talented artists, but you’ll also get to enjoy the images in a beautiful interface made specifically for Apple’s iOS with blur effects, transitions, etc.

A relaxed network of pristine photography

500px is a community first and foremost. The app serves users on the go who want to enjoy crisp photography anytime, anywhere. You can use it for free to view everyone’s works, but you need a subscription to download photos or to upload unlimited photos.

The categories are virtually endless, from nature’s finest moments and culture to architecture and even modeling. Once you start using it you’ll never want to put it down.

The social aspect is similar to Twitter, in that you follow people and they follow you back (hopefully), you can use hashtags, etc. Users can comment on each other’s works, favorite and like photos, and there’s also a sharing function.

Probably the best thing about 500px is the sheer amount of professional-grade photography that you can view at no cost. The app runs smooth on most devices, images load to a crisp resolution instantly, and if you prefer to skip the costs associated with downloading the full-resolution image, you can always go full screen and take a screenshot to use the image as a wallpaper. You can tap on a photo to display details, comments and other activity.

500px also comes with support for 1Password. This means that if you have the password manager installed, the app will offer to store your login credentials to the vault.

Camera for iOS 8

500px recently introduced a cool feature for iOS 8 users, bringing them a built-in camera. You’ll find the button for this new feature in the top right corner. Even though you may find it a bit difficult to tap on it and get the camera activated, the feature does work. More so, it comes with exposure compensation and manual focus, which is a pretty cool way to make use of the camera.

Furthermore, users can now edit their photos with the help of some tools brought in by Adobe Creative Cloud. You can add some of the available presets, but also to make some adjustments yourself by changing the temperature, the tint, exposure, contrast and highlights.

It’s also possible to crop, rotate, flip and adjust ratio for the picture, but also to use some magic tools to automatically adjust the brightness and contrast of the photo.

Add to watchlist:

WallpaperViewerDownloader

• Photowall 1.1
• Blurred Wallpapers Free 1.5
• iStock by Getty Images 1.6.1
• VSCO Cam 4.1
• Wallpapers for iOS 7 3.1
• Wallpapers iOS 8 edition 2.4

Portable version:

• 500px for Android