Most people use the camera on their iPhone or iPod touch for taking snapshots. But when you're ready to get artistic, Magic Shutter can help you do more. This $3 app lets you control the lens’s shutter and leave it on for longer than the usual split second, thereby creating interesting visual effects -- like those night shots where you see vehicles’ headlights streaming across the image. You can actually replicate this effect with ease but in order to get the best possible results, you have you rest your device on a stable surface or invest in a tripod for it, otherwise, your hand jitter can ruin the shot -- or create even more interesting visuals, depending on your tastes.

The app is easy to use, giving you various options for shutter speed (1 through 60 seconds, or unlimited), as well as aperture and flash. And it'll even let you superimpose two images, adding one over another. (This used to happen in the good old days of film if you’d forgotten to advance to the next frame prior to taking another photo.) This, coupled with multiple exposure effects can lead to beautiful creations.

You can set the shutter speed from one second to infinity and even use the front camera, if you have one.

You can then save your images to your device’s Camera Roll -- although it takes a few seconds -- and send your creations to friends via email or share them on Facebook from right within the app.

If you’d like to experiment at home, check out the YouTube videos on the developer's site -- you can even place your device in front of them so see what you can achieve with the same scenery.

You can superimpose multiple shots over one another.

Magic Shutter's main drawback is the fact that all the help files can only be accessed online, so if you’re out of range of a network, you’ll have to explore the functions on your own.

The bottom line. Magic Shutter is a very fun app for creating beautiful artwork on the fly.