Digital Media: Using Photo Apps to Create a Glitch Effects

It’s been a while since I talked about photo apps. In fact, it’s been so long you probably thought I had lost my love for digital media and photo apps. You would be wrong. I simply hadn’t found anything new that I really loved and thought did something different. However, if you follow teen TLTer Elliot on Twitter, then you would know that they take a lot of cool photos and lately, a lot of their photos have this cool rainbow tilt effect. So I asked Elliot how they did that effect. If you ever want to know how to do something cool with tech, ask a teen.

The effect I am seeking to create is this rainbow effect that you see in the picture below. It is called a glitch effect. You know how in the movie Wreck It Ralph Vanellope keeps glitching in and out? That’s the effect I’m trying to create on my photos.

Elliot shared with me several apps that they use to create this effect and then I found a few additional ones. I should point out that all of these apps are initially free, but they require in app purchases to unlock additional features. I went with just the free versions because they allowed me to create the effect that I wanted. The two apps I liked best were Instabit and Glitch Studio. Elliot’s apps of choice are Vaporcam, Glitch Effect and Rad VHS.

Using the Glitch Studio app, I created this Old TV effect pic. You can’t see it in the picture, but it also produces a wavy gif effect like a TV screen going in and out of reception if you want to use the image as a gif.

I used the Instabit app to create the next two pictures.

As you can see from the screenshots, there are a lot of features that are locked because I didn’t choose to pay to unlock them. In fact, the Instabit app has a cool VHS style camera feature you can use to shoot old school looking video which I did not try out because at this time I’m simply looking at creating cool photos.

As someone who creates a lot of publicity for teen oriented events who also understands copyright and enjoys digital media, I like creating my own pictures and uploading them to feature in promotional flyers and on social media. I also use pictures in a lot of crafts and programs, because digital media is about the extent of my artistic capabilities. These are a couple of cool tools that I am adding to my extensive collection of photo apps for the specific and very cool effects that they create.

Although I barely touched the surface of what you can do with these apps because I was seeking to create a very specific effect, I recommend them. To create the effects that I wanted there was no cost and they were both incredibly easy to use.

Want to know about more of my favorite photo apps and the effects that I use them for? Check out this post or click on the apps tag below.

Filed under: Apps, Uncategorized