MarcForrest.com

Category: Apple

  • How to take Burst Photos on iPhone 11 & iPhone 11 Pro / Pro Max and iOS 13

    Since the release of iOS 13 and the new iPhone 11 & 11 Pro range, I have had quite a few people ask me about how to take a Burst photo on the phones.

    Burst photos are are a series of photos taken right sequentially after each other, which then allow you to select the best one. This is most handy when you taking photos of high action or fast moving objects.

    As an example below I took this photo in a series of burst photos when trying to capture the lightning in a storm. I took over 150 images in the burst, but just this 1 that captured the lightning strike.

    Previously, in the previous generation of iPhone models (iPhone 10 and below)  you simply used to hold down the shutter button in the Camera App. That has all changed now, and you have to now Swipe Left (towards your camera roll) to activate Burst Mode. As long as you keep holding the button in to the left it will keep taking photos. If you hold the shutter button in (like you used to) the camera will start recording video

  • What happened to Find My Friends app in iOS13?

    Since iOS13 dropped a few days ago, one of the questions I have been asked a couple of times is “What happened to the Find My Friends app?”

    If you haven’t used Find My Friends before, then you probably wouldn’t even notice that the app is completely missing. I use the app quiet frequently to keep tabs of my kids when they out and also when I am travelling and my wife is out in the evenings with the kids. It really is a very handy tool!

    Image result for find my iphone ios 13However, if you use it to track family and friends then you will now find it combined into the “Find My” app. This used to be called “Find My iPhone” which can locate most of your Apple devices (including AirPods!!) The app icon also got a bit of a redesign, hence you may not know immediately where to find that either.

    The app is now broken into 2 separate screens, People & Devices.

    Not sure what Apple’s thinking was about merging these 2 apps into 1, but it did end up taking me a couple of minutes to figure this one out!

  • How to get your Apple Watch Workout Swims to Strava & Garmin Connect (and still get your Discovery Points)

    I’ve been doing quite a bit of swimming over the last couple of months after a back op in July last year. Everyday I do around 1-2km of swimming at the Gym, and am loving it!

    One of the things I battled with in the beginning was recording my swims. I used to have the Apple Watch 1, which wasn’t Waterproof, so I manually updated it. But I recently upgraded to the Apple Watch 3, which is waterproof and logs your swims.

    Once I had that sorted, I wanted to be able to keep track of what I was doing, and one thing that frustrated me with the Apple Health app, where your workouts are recorded to, is that it doesn’t allow you to export your workouts, or share them with other apps. More often than not, the info there is VERY simple, and doesn’t offer you the functionality to delve deeper into the stats, or show you how far you’ve trained over a certain period.

    We all know Strava is the Go-To app for cycling and running, and the stats you get from there are amazing. They also offer the ability to log swims as well, and show you info on your pace & heart rate. Garmin Connect (the official Garmin app for Garmin Watches) also allows you to view a lot more info like speed over distance, number of strokes, average time & heart rate. Combined these apps show loads more info than the standard Apple Health App.

    So I did some digging and came across an app called RunGap. RunGap (iTunes Link) allows you to export and import from various workout platforms and share your workouts. So, as an example when I am finished a workout on my Apple Watch, it can sync over to Garmin, Strava, TrainingPeaks and loads of other services.
    RunGap is a free app to download, but they charge you R49.99 for a 3 month subscription to be able to post to other services. This is well worth it though!!

    To get started once you have logged your workout in your Apple Watch, open Run Gap. You will need to setup the accounts you want to connect to before hand and authenticate with them.

    You will then need to import the workout from Apple Health, and it will show you all the info about the workout in the Details screen.

    You can then select Edit to add notes or rename the workout and then “Share” to share it to the various platforms. You’ll see it’s pretty instant and you can go into the other apps and view the info there.


    This is a really great way to share your workouts to other platforms, and best of all you get your Discovery points for your workout. This is key when doing runs etc, because if you had to log it just in Strava as an eg, you won’t get your points. It has to be logged in Apple Watch

  • Introducing iStore Makers

    Introducing iStore Makers

    As many of you know one of my favorite “passion projects” was a concept called iPhoneograpy I co-founded in 2011 with the team from iStore. The concept was a platform for anyone to enter their iPhone photography into a competition and then have an annual exhibition. iPhoneography grew into something amazing, and soon started gaining a massive following. It has been exciting to see how the concept has grown over the years, and it’s largely thanks to the team at iStore!

    So now, after 5 years of amazing exhibtions we have turned iPhoneography around and enter iStore Makers. iStore Makers is a platform that allows http://www.istoremakers.myistore.co.za/login/anyone to signup and upload photos & illustrations that have been created using a Mac, iPhone or iPad. This opens up a whole new world, and a new channel to showcasing some of the best talent we have in this space.

    Below is an excerpt from the blog post I did on the iStore Makers Blog explaining what it is all about

    So you’ve been part of the iPhoneography family for a while now. For some of you it started way back in 2011 and for others, you submitted your first masterpiece to the competition in 2015. But somehow it feels like you have been part of this forever. What started as a small group of hopefuls in 2011, experimenting with their iPhones and capturing meaningful moments, has now grown to a community of over 4000 iPhoneographers who over the past 5 years have taken  over 18000 epic photo’s and won some even more epic prizes ranging from iPods to iPads to MacBook Airs. Every year we’ve gathered in Johannesburg and Cape Town to proudly show off what you have created at the iPhoneography exhibition. Whether it was a portrait of your dog, something abstract that caught your eye or a proudly South African piece, we’ve loved them all. 

    In fact, we’ve loved them so much that this year we’ve decided to start something bigger and better. It’s obvious that you’re a pretty talented bunch. Not only do you have a knack for taking some spectacular photographs, but some of you are creating beautiful illustrations that are getting us really excited. So we’ve widened the opportunity for you to now submit photographs as well as illustrations on any one of your favourite Apple products. It’s totally up to you. 

    And here’s the kicker. Gone are the days of the annual iPhoneography competition and only catching up with fellow iPhoneographers once or twice a year. We’re taking this thing to a whole new level. You now get to create, be inspired and share all year round. With opportunities to learn more with the latest tips and tricks, get involved in a variety of events and enter tons more competitions, we think you’re going to love it. Because we know you love to make cool stuff. That’s why we’re calling it Makers. And we can’t wait to tell you all about it!

    I’m excited to see where iStore Makers go. Each month a panel of judges will vote on who has the best entry for that month, and there is a R1000 iStore voucher up for grabs each month. Then at the end of the year, there will be an overall judging of all entries throughout the year, with an iPad Pro & Apple Pencil for the winner.

    To check out what iStore Makers is all about, visit the site at https://www.myistore.co.za/istoremakers/

  • How to create a Facebook 360 Pano photo using a DJI Drone

    One of the best things about the DJI Phantom 4 for me is the ability to do some really cool Aerial Panos. I have always been fascinated with aerial photography and Panoramic photos.

    This is one of my most recent Panos we did at Inanda Dam earlier this year
    [pano file=”panoramas/inanda/export.htm”]

    So I decided to put together a few resources on how to get the best Pano

    Apps: Dronepan or Litchi for the DJI Phantom 4
    PSD Template: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtn7inn3jwwkr10/stfoto-facebook-panorama-template.psd?dl=0 – this PSD has the EXIF data needed to upload to Facebook to make it show 100% correctly as a 360 Pano
    Sotware: MS ICE or PTGui
    Site: https://roundme.com
    WordPress Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/panopress/

    This video by Ricky DuNorth takes you through how to get the perfect Pano ready for Facebook. (Thanks Ricky, this an awesome tutuorial!)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjesB3UQtEU&feature=youtu.be