Action shots have never been easier

Trying to capture the precise moment of the kickoff in a football game can be difficult. But with Vhoto for iOS, you can capture the whole scene in front of you in video, and let the app pick out the best pictures.

Vhoto is a free photography app that lets you shoot video instead of taking a picture, then selects the best frames to use as photos. It works with both new and old videos and it also has editing tools to crop, add filters, and more, plus you can share your photos with your social networks.

I was a little skeptical going into this review because most modern smartphones already let you take rapid or burst-shot photos, which give you essentially the same result and at higher resolution. But Vhoto’s all-in-one tool set is incredibly easy to use, and with a built-in social networks, it’s a neat way to capture memories.

Vhoto wants you to shoot video, not photos (pictures)
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Shooting a Vhoto

When you use Vhoto, you’re getting both a video and the best shots from that video. Your video is automatically saved to your iPhone photo library, then Vhoto scans the video with an algorithm that uses facial recognition to pick out people, finds the best lighting, and then displays what it deems are the best shots from the video.

The app takes about 20 seconds during the scan portion, then displays the best shots in a grid. When you touch a photo, you can get a closer view and you can swipe up or down to view the images.

This setup makes Vhoto great for action shots where you also want to have video of the action. As an example, you might be taking a video of your friend skateboarding, but when you’re finished, you can select the perfect shot to share with social networks.

Edit your image

Once you’ve picked the best photo from the bunch, you have a number of basic editing tools to make it look better. Vhoto gives you a selection of 13 photo filters you can apply to the image, all of which are good quality compared to other photo editors I’ve tried.

To fine-tune your photo there are buttons across the bottom that let you adjust contrast, exposure, sharpness, and saturation, all with sliders for precise changes. Vhoto also has a cropping tool that lets you touch and drag corners to get the right shape, or gives you standard sizes for portrait, landscape, and square shots (for Instagram).

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