iPhone App Reviews – Page 5

Gyro Cropper Review

Even photos that at first glance might look defective can be given a new life with proper editing. Editing often simply means adequate cropping. Gyro Cropper by FANG is a specialized iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch utility to perform easy cropping on images.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
3 cropping tools;
Rotate;
Adjust aspect ratio;
In-app guide;
Send to Squaready or Instagram.

Appotography Opinion

Gyro Cropper offers a simple and effective way to crop photos. The app comes with a set of tools, allowing users to crop and adjust images with the minimum effort.

Gyro Cropper by FANG for iPhone Rotate by Device Posture calculates cropping thanks to the device’s position. By rotating the device, the user gives the app all the necessary indications without having to touch the screen. This tool is especially convenient in instances in which covering the screen with fingers may cause inaccurate results. Although at first it might take some time getting used to, Rotate by Device Posture is not hard to use. In this mode, the app relies on methods that entirely depend on the device’s capabilities to figure out cropping: on iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th and iPad 2, Gyro Cropper uses the gyroscope, on iPhone 3GS and iPad both the accelerometer and the compass, while on iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd and 3rd it uses the accelerometer only. Thus, user experience may vary according to the device you are using. Rotate by Device Posture is in any case the most interesting element in Gyro Cropper.

Rotate by Finger Tapping is more of a classic tool, relying on finger rotation to determine cropping. A number of apps come with similar tools to perform cropping.

Rotate by Drawing a Line is basically a straightening tool and thus it is useful to fix crooked images, especially landscapes. By drawing a line on the photo, the user tells the app how cropping should be performed. A few apps offer this kind of cropping instrument.

Additionally, aspect ratio and rotate by 90 degrees are included to broaden the available possibilities. Both are common in apps that support cropping.

Gyro Cropper by FANG for iPhone — The eruption at Eyjafjallajökull doesn't look very hideous at this resolution.

Gyro Cropper is great for photos in need of quick cropping and for fixing crooked images. FANG’s app is better than most cropping features that come with the majority of do-it-all editors. The app is easy enough to use and its workflow is very smooth. Although flip and rotate by degrees could come in handy in some instances, this app is pretty much a flexible aid for most cropping needs. While people using older devices may encounter issues with less accurate results now and then, iPhone 4/iPod Touch 4th/iPad users will enjoy Gyro Cropper at its full potential.

Gyro Cropper is currently on sale and available in the App Store at the special launch price of $0.99/€0.79/£0.69.

Overall

Name: Gyro Cropper
Developer: FANG Inc.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 4/5

Monophix Updated to 3.1

I have been hoping for this update. Monophix 3.1 is out and with it comes the long-awaited color filter feature.

Monophix is one of the most valuable tools in the App Store for easy conversion from color to black and white. In our previous review, although we recognized the worth and the potential of the app, we also explained how the final score reflected the absence of a color filtering feature. Color filtering is an essential aspect in color to monochrome conversion. To avoid mediocre results, every photographer has to take into account color filtering. In traditional photography different results are obtained by blocking certain colors by using various photographic filters. In digital photography, the same can be easily achieved in photo editing.

MonoPhix 3.1 for iPhone — Different filters can change the look of your black and white photo.

In Monophix 3.1 you have now filters for red, green, blue, cyan, yellow and magenta. The average weight black and white is also still available. This allows better control over final results, depending on the photo and on the effect you want to achieve.

In Monophix 3.1 major improvements to the vignette feature were also made. Vignette is now more manageable, thanks to the intensity slider which was added in this version. For users who experienced this issue in previous releases, the developer informs that the vignette preview glitch was also fixed: with a slider it’s now possible to correct vignette preview distortion.

Thanks to these and other minor enhancements, we feel like reviewing the previous score of Monophix, which now gets 5 out of 5.

Note: version 3.1 contains a glitch affecting the app’s opening screen. Since we have verified the issue does not concern the app’s functioning, our final score is not influenced by it. Anyhow, the developer lets Monophix users know that with the upcoming update to 3.1.1 the problem will be solved.

Overall

Name: Monophix
Developer: UIC Phoenxsoftware
Compatibility: iPhone. iOS 3.1 or later.
Price: £0.69||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 5/5

BoothClub Review

BoothClub is a new photo booth for iPhone that comes with an assortment of effects and themed skins. If anybody thought photo booths are a thing of the past, the iPhone proved them wrong. Photo booths are indeed enjoying great popularity in their new pocket format.

Main Features

2692 x 520 pixels resolution;
3 border styles;
10 effects (+6 more with in-app purchase);
Front camera support (on enabled devices);
AirPrint support (on enabled devices);
Security switch;
Send via email or share on Facebook and Twitter.

Appotography Opinion

BoothClub comes with two different sets of themed effects and two booth skins. The Standard Booth includes 3 basic effects, color, black and white and sepia. The Fantasy Booth features 7 effects (red, orange, golden, yellow, cyan, blue, violet), characterized by oversaturation and colored vignetting, to match different situations and moods.

BoothClub for iPhone A collection of 6 additional special effects are available with the Memory Booth (in-app purchase: $0.99/€0.79/£0.69). Memory effects revolve around a general vintage look, but they are quite varied and range from high contrast black and white to aged paper. From the in-app settings, it’s possible to choose a border style among black, white and gray.

To take pictures, you simply point the camera at your subject (being a photo booth, at yourself, for example) and press the shutter button. BoothClub automatically takes four shots. You cannot set timer or shoot manually, which in some instance can be not very convenient. You can review the last strip of photos taken with the chosen booth after taking it. All strips are saved in the app’s vault. From the vault, strips can be deleted, shared, printed, emailed or, simply, saved to Camera Roll.

Switching from front to rear camera is enabled on supported devices, and so is using the AirPrint option. As I said, a security feature is also available, allowing to input a code to protect photos once they are saved in the app’s gallery. The code can be changed and security can be disabled.

Even without purchasing the extras, BoothClub has a decent selection of effects, especially for a photo booth app. Although not all effects are great in any situation, especially indoors, there is enough to have some fun and try different looks. The interface feels a little confusing at first, especially because each skin has buttons and switches placed differently. Anyway, getting used to BoothClub doesn’t take too much effort. The app offers tips to learn about some of its most obscure features, like the security switch, but even where available, help is not exhaustive. In general, the app feels a bit less intuitive than it could have been.

Overall

Name: BoothClub
Developer: Glowing Butterfly Inc.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: £0.69||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 3/5

FX Photo Studio 4.0 Is Out!

FX Photo Studio version 4.0 is now available in the App Store. The long-awaited update renews MacPhun’s photo editing app by adding several new features and by revamping old ones with improvements to their overall performance, losing nothing of the app’s original ease of use.

What’s new in version 4.0:

7 new effects;
Masking tool;
Improved performance (up to 2x faster);
Square format cropping;
Centering in Tilt-shift and Radial Blur;
In-app camera enhancement;
Restore in-app purchases;
New import/export options.

A number of new effects were added to the already extensive collection of FX Photo Studio, bringing the app’s total to 194. With version 4.0, you are given 6 brand new cross process effects, which were developed in collaboration with professional photographers. A special 3D effect is also part of this update.

The highlight of version 4.0 is, without a doubt, the masking tool. Masking allows to apply effects selectively on images. In FX Photo Studio, you can add selectively as many effects as you wish in a row. There are four types of brush that can be used to paint over images, varying in opacity and border hardness. By zooming and panning using your fingers, painting over photos can be done quite comfortably. It’s either possible to enable mask view or disable it while painting. The ‘invert mask’ lets you easily switch among masked and unmasked areas.

FX Photo Studio 4.0 iPhone

Very cleverly, FX Photo Studio saves your previous mask, so that you can apply a series of effects exactly where you want to. The only drawback concerning masking is the lack of a resize function for the brush. It’s possible to make up for this by zooming in, but on finer detail it may still be problematic.

FX Photo Studio 4.0 for iPhone — Effects applied selectively using masking.

It’s now possible to import photos directly from any Facebook account. Other than sharing them via the previously available options, edited photos can now be printed right away by taking advantage of iPhone’s AirPrint (requires iOS 4.2 or later) or they can be sent directly to Instagram.

The developer of FX Photo Studio revealed that a print-on-demand feature is in the works, so check out for future updates.

Given the new features, significantly expanding FX Photo Studio’s possibilities, I am revising the previous rating for MacPhun’s app, which now gets a well-deserved full score.

Overall

Name: FX Photo Studio
Developer: MacPhun
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch. iOS 3.0 or later.
Price: £1.49||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 5/5

Lithogram Review

Lithogram emulates the looks of halftone lithography on iPhone. Kuviz’s app takes its name from the lithography technique, in which a drawing is delineated with wax or other water repellent substance on a smooth surface, like that of a stone (in ancient Greek, the word lithos means stone) or of a metal plate. After proper treatment, ink spread on the surface will only adhere to the water repellent substance, which forms the positive part of the image. By pressing the inked surface on paper sheets, a series of prints can be obtained. Lithography was for a long time one of the most widely used printing techniques.

Main Features

Up to 1280×960 (photo), 426×320 (video) pixels resolution;
Video recording available;
6 paper textures;
6 halftone styles;
Send via email.

Appotography Opinion

Lithogram allows both photo and video taking. The app uses a a real-time preview to let users see how effects and textures affect what the camera is capturing. It’s also possible to load photos from the Camera Roll, by tapping on the small picture icon appearing at the top of the screen. Saved photos and videos are stored in the Prints gallery. From there, you can delete, save to Camera Roll or email photos and videos.

Lithogram by Kuviz for iPhone There are in total 6 paper textures and 6 halftone styles to choose from. Halftone, which includes both color and monochrome effects, applies different patterns (dots, diamonds, crosshatch and lines) to still images and videos. Papers not only add texture and, in a few instances, a border, but also color presets for giving different tints to monochrome effects.

The effects, however not many, are nicely done, especially if you look at the edited photos at their actual resolution. No significant detail is lost. The effects work best on images with good contrast and predominant subjects, like close-up shots.

There is a problem when sending images created with Lithogram via email directly from within the app: the files are not read as images but as videos. It’s not a big deal, honestly, as you can ignore the fact the computer tries to open them using Quick Time by default. Still, it might be confusing. If you save to Camera Roll and email the images from there, nothing weird happens.

The greatest problem with Lithogram is the saving resolution. The maximum allowed for still images is 1280×960 pixels, while for videos it’s a very disappointing 426×320 pixels. Photos loaded from your device are saved at the same resolution of those taken with Lithogram’s built-in camera, so beware. This is partly justified by the real-time feature. However, we know that other apps like Lumière use the real-time quite successfully even with high resolution saving. Given this is version 1.0 of Kuviz’s app, I am confident improvements will be made with future updates.

Lithogram is currently on sale and downloadable at the special price of $0.99 (€0.79/£0.69)!

Overall

Name: Lithogram
Developer: Kuviz
Compatibility: iPhone (3GS, 4), iPod Touch (4th), iPad 2. iOS 4.1 or later.
Price: £1.49||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 3/5

Simply B&W Review

Simply B&W does exactly what its name states: it turns photos into black and white. Given the overabundance of black and white converters in the App Store, Simply B&W can easily go unnoticed. As a matter of fact, although I am mostly devoted to black and white photography, I had overlooked this app myself. However, as far as the value of Simply B&W is concerned, I am quite sure iPhone black and white hardcore enthusiasts will enjoy this app quite a bit.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
Black or white border on/off;
Color filters;
Adjust brightness and contrast;
Send via email.

Appotography Opinion

Simply B&W is very essential in its features and straightforward in its workflow. You load your a photo from your iPhone and the photo is instantly converted into average black and white. All you have to do to is setting brightness and contrast values and applying colored filters to your photo, in order to make the important elements stand out.

Simply B&W iPhone Colored filters are what mostly affect the look of your black and white photo, since the way the final image will look like depends primarily on color channel settings. By applying a color filter, you pass the color which the filter is named after and block all the others. Filters available in Simply B&W are red, green, blue, yellow and orange, which is, basically, all you need in photography to produce good looking black and white.

Other than that, from the main page, you can go to the app’s settings and enable or disable the border feature (enables/disables a plain black or white border, not adjustable).

What I like about Simply B&W is its minimal approach. You spend a few seconds adjusting just the crucial settings and forget about all the rest. Simply B&W produces high quality, classy black and white. Caring more about editing than about actually taking photos can be detrimental. More than anything else, Simply B&W is a reminder that a good photo is the starting point to any decent looking post-processing.

The developer of Simply B&W kindly provided a promo code for reviewing purposes.

Overall

Name: Simply B&W
Developer: Mr. B. Ware
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: £0.59||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 4/5

Monochromia 1.5: Update Review

Monochromia 1.5 is now available in the App Store. I reviewed Monochromia last month, explaining that, while I regarded this app as one of the best in its genre on iPhone, I truly felt that the impossibility to work properly with color channel settings was something that prevented users from fully taking advantage of youthhr’s monochrome converter.

The developer listened to users or, in any case, he demonstrated to agree that color channels are not a secondary aspect for better looking black and white photos. There is more to black and white than simply desaturating, and not all photos can be successfully turned into monochrome just by giving equal weight to all colors. Sometimes, to make important elements in a monochrome photo stand out or in order not to lose precious detail, it’s necessary to filter colors. In traditional black and white photography, for giving visual preeminence to specific elements of the image, special filters can be applied in front of the lens of the camera. Blocking certain colors instead of others (for example, the red filter blocks all colors but red, the blue filter blocks all but blue, etc.), filters allow to obtain a richer tonal range. The same effects can be accomplished in digital photography with post processing.

Monochromia for iPhone Monochromia 1.5 finally offers a color channel feature, for greater flexibility and better conversion from color to black and white. The possibility to apply filters for individual color channels makes a huge difference. From Monochromia’s developing area, you can now access the color channel settings. Other than red, green, blue, yellow, and orange filters, it’s possible to select normal grayscale and maximum channels.

Given Monochromia’s new features, I decided to review my previous rating accordingly, giving the app a full score.

Overall

Name: Monochromia
Developer: youthhr
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.1 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 5/5

PicTools Review

PicTools is a new photo editing app by ActiveDevelopment, creator of PicFx and PicFrame. Thanks to a well-chosen selection of instruments and to a balanced interface, PicTools has some of the potential of full-fledged photo editors, without being as demanding.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
Crop, flip and rotate;
Curves editor;
Randomize effects;
Layer blending;
12 overlay styles;
20+ effects;
10+ borders;
Undo;
Share on Facebook.

Appotography Opinion

PicTools includes a small collection of photo editing instruments for getting the most out of your photos in no time. The interface of ActiveDevelopment’s app is basic and intuitive: you load your photo to the work area and all the tools at your disposal are neatly arranged at the bottom of your screen. By tapping on each icon, you access the various menus. You can crop and rotate your image and apply as many effects as you see fit, over and over.

Pictools by ActiveDevelopment for iPhone Overlays enables layer blending (12 modes available in all). A selection of presets can help you to get started or to get things done quickly, but you can also load images from your own device, like textures for example, and blend them all. Effects consists of several presets arranged into categories, Antique and Color. If you want more freedom, instead of picking a preset, you can play with the curves editor and build your own colored filters from scratch. PicTools also offers a randomize feature: as its name suggest, Quick uses a random combination of effects and overlays for a speedier editing. For both Overlays and Effects — and also for the Quick feature, that combines the two — you can set opacity, for a subtler or more intense result. By adding a border, which you can filter over as well for a more consistent look, you can add a final touch before saving. Among the other things, it’s possible to save photos in a square format with a black or white background: Instagram users will undoubtedly know how to take advantage of this option.

I will be honest: I’m liking PicTools a lot. Not only it gives you enough to enhance your photos in a cinch, but it is also very simple and user-friendly and it allows great results, without going through all the trouble of tweaking with massive iPhone photo editors. Presets are extremely well-done and they can give you even nicer results if you combine them together with your own settings. PicTools will become a regular guest in my iPhone camera bag.

PicTools is currently on sale. It is now available in the App Store at the special launch price of $0.99.

Overall

Name: PicTools
Developer: ActiveDevelopment
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: £0.59||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 5/5

Grungetastic Review

Grungetastic by JixiPix Software is an app that comes with many textures and enough space for customization, to transform photos into grungy images. We have tried Grungetastic on iPhone, but the app is also available in HD version on iPad.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
Randomize effects;
43 presets;
80+ textures;
35+ borders;
Adjust strength/color;
Send to email or share on Facebook.

Appotography Opinion

In Grungetastic, you can use both the built-in camera feature or load a photo from your device. For quick and easy editing, you can pick one of the many presets included in the app. Presets are arranged into different categories, each covering a style: Grunge, Pop Grunge, and Bleach Grunge. While Grunge is more about simply adding textural elements to photos, Bleach Grunge also adds fading, to convey more effectively the aged and distressed look. Pop Grunge mixes dirt and scratches with more or less intense posterization, for a peculiar and up-to-date graphic look.

Grungetastic for iPhone by JixiPix Software Grunge textures and borders are the same for all style categories. You can apply two separate levels of grunge (two different textures, that is) and a border on the same image and set individually their opacity and color.

For a more distinctive result, you can create custom presets by adjusting the value of various parameters, like tone, threshold and bleach degree. You can save custom presets for further use or edit them to adapt them to your images. For unexpected combinations, you can try the Randomize button.

As with other JixiPix Software’s photo apps, rendering times in Grungetastic can be, on average, quite slow. Especially on very large images, adding effects and saving can be time-consuming. However, the interface works smoothly and the outcomes are fairly satisfactory. Given the amount of material you can work with, if you are into heavy processing and grungy, extreme effects, you will enjoy Grungetastic.

Overall

Name: Grungetastic
Developer: JixiPix Software
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.2 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 4/5

Color Burst™ Review

Color Burst™ is a selective desaturation utility for iPhone. Though the idea at the core of Smart Solution’s app is the same as the one of almost all other color splash apps in the App Store — how many of them are there, by the way? –, Color Burst™ has some significant flaw that makes it not enjoyable and user-friendly.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
3 painting modes (color, hue, gray);
3 hues to recolor photos;
4 brush sizes;
Invert;
Pan and zoom;
Undo.

Appotography Opinion

Color Burst™ allows applying color splashing on photos from your iPhone. From the main screen, you load your photo to the edit panel and select one among the three available painting modes (Color, Hue or Gray): Gray desaturates areas of your image you select by finger painting over them, while Color brings the original colors back.

Other than these two methods, you can choose Hue, which lets you apply a new hue to your photo. It looks like right now you only have three basic hues to choose from: red, green and blue. This is so silly that it is almost surreal; at any rate, I couldn’t find a color picker or any other way to select any other hue other than these three.

Color Burst™ for iPhone Using a special button, you can invert colored and black and white areas with one tap. If you make mistakes, you can undo. For more control, you can pan and zoom and, from the main screen, you can reset your image’s position by placing it back at the center of the edit panel. In border mode, you enable a mask preview for a better idea of what areas you are affecting while painting.

Color Burst™ for iPhone With no doubt, Color Burst™ has some serious issues. Compared to other selective desaturation apps we have reviewed (like, for example, Colorize and ColorSplash, both easy and fun to use), Color Burst™ is probably the less intuitive, stable and flexible. UI and features are elementary, tools available are few, adjustments you can make are very limited. Using this app feels so awkward, especially finger painting doesn’t feel comfortable and accurate enough on larger images and without the ability to freely resize your brush. The lack of tips or in-app manual doesn’t help, especially if you have not tried other similar apps before. Since I have tried Color Burst™ on 3GS only, I cannot say how much better it can get on iPhone 4. Anyhow, in my experience, this app is also crash prone. Considering you cannot restore from previous sessions, it’s not unlikely you’ll have to start over if anything happens while editing.

As I see it, Color Burst™ is definitely not even remotely the best option if you simply want to add, change or remove color selectively from your images.

Color Burst™ is currently on sale: you can download it for free for a limited time.

Overall

Name: Color Burst™
Developer: Smart Solutions
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.0 or later.
Price: £0.59||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 2/5