Appotography – Page 42 – iPhone Photography Reviews and Tips

Percolator: Retro-style Effects That Will Surprise You

There are apps that can make a difference in your personal collection. Apps that will make you reconsider the way you look at your photo library. Apps that, although their sphere of activity may seem limited to the exceptional and to the peculiar at first, can be surprisingly adaptable to a multiplicity of uses. Percolator is one of them.

Main Features

Up to 2048×1536 pixels resolution;
4 levels of accuracy;
5 different effects;
Dark and light backgrounds;
Zoom and pan.

Appotography Opinion

The strength of Percolator by Tinrocket resides in its extreme capability of stylization. Any photo — it doesn’t matter its original look, its subject, and so on — will be turned with extreme ease into a colorful retro-looking mosaic. Edited photos will thus gain a new life and a surprising verve.

“The main algorithm used in Percolator was developed in 2004, as a small piece of a larger project. This algorithm places circles in the empty areas of images, from the largest possible circle down to the smallest. The software computes a fast solution to a problem area known as circle packing.”

This is, in nuce, how percolator was conceived and the way it works. There is a chance knowing it won’t be very useful to your actual purposes. All you really need to know is Percolator is an app capable of delivering effects to add astonishing stylization to your photos very quickly and with minimum effort.

Percolator by Tinrocket for iPhone

Both if you choose to take a shot or if you load one from your camera roll, you will be able to radically change the look of your photos in a really quick way, without having to to do anything more than scrolling among the available settings, which are not many, but are anyway definitely enough for your purposes. You can pick one of the different styles ready for use, you can refine the accuracy of the effect in relation to your images, you can choose to apply a dark or light background depending on your specific needs. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds; excellent quality results are granted.

Percolator works particularly well with highly contrasted, colorful photos. However, experimenting with the various setting might surprise you and give you interesting outcomes even with other photos. In general, even in photos whose colors are washed out, colors are improved and revamped. Of course, better exposed photos will give you better results.

The only aspect that perhaps could be improved in future updates is offering the user a more comprehensive experience by adding a few sharing options, which for now are totally absent.

Percolator is an entertaining app that not only will let the average user play with photos is a surprising and refreshing way, but, if used in a clever way, will also provide the creative type new and interesting ideas.

Overall

Name: Percolator
Developer: Tinrocket
Compatibility: iPhone. iOS 3.1.3 or later.
Price: £0.59||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 5/5

ColorSplash Review

Have you ever wanted to try something in the middle between color and black and white? Have you ever wondered how to achieve that cool effect so popular in a certain type of photography, which consists in bringing out one element in the photo, leaving all the rest in the background? Do you feel sometimes too many elements in your picture appear distracting at the expenses of its main subject?

ColorSplash by Pocket Pixels allows you to desaturate portions of your image just using your finger. The final effect, if used correctly and on the right images, is indeed very dramatic and eye-catching.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
Restore from previous sessions;
Masking on/off;
Undo;
Four adjustable brushes;
Retina display support;
Possibility to share the photos via Facebook, Flickr, Twitter or email.

Appotography Opinion

ColorSplash has a fair usability. The developers conveniently offer video tutorials to help newbies understand how the app works and how to make use of its functionalities, from getting started to sharing.

ColorSplash by Pocket Pixels for iPhone

You load your photo or take a shot: the app will automatically desaturate the whole picture. You choose the right brush among those available (hard and soft edged, transparent and opaque) and then you can proceed to paint with your finger over the photo in order to define which areas of your image you want to retain the original color and which ones will appear in black and white. By zooming and panning you can make the process smoother. To make things even simpler, you can check the accuracy of your work at all times by enabling a mask. An undo function will allow to correct mistakes as you work on the image and you can always restore from previous sessions – an important feature that I think should be added in almost every photo editing app, but that unfortunately is still not as common as it should be.

ColorSplash has its pros and its cons: the app delivers exactly what it is supposed to; as far as actual usage is concerned, perhaps this is a limitation, since other apps include among their filters similar features, but at the same time I feel this is also a good aspect about this app, because you do not necessarily have to purchase a massive filter collection just to selectively desaturate an image. Some additional features could be added in order to play around more with the image saturation, but overall the app works well as it is now and it’s indeed very easy to use.

ColorSplash is also available in free version, so you can check it out before purchasing.

Overall

Name: ColorSplash
Developer: Pocket Pixels
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.0 or later.
Price: £0.59||$0.99||€0.79
Vote: 4/5

Best Camera: Simple And Straightforward, But Not Too Up-To-Date

Best Camera is an old acquaintance of the App Store. Ubermind’s app is easy and especially good for beginners that don’t need many different options and huge collections of filters, but still want to make their photos better with just a few touches. Best Camera got a recent update, so we seized the opportunity to review it at once.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
14 filters available;
Disable single filters at any time;
Share via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, email.

Appotography Opinion

Best Camera is a great app for users that are looking to apply very basic modifications to their photos. Ubermind’s app features simple functionalities and allows you to share your photos either via email or Flickr, Twitter, Facebook or on the bestcamera.com community.

Best Camera for iPhone by Ubermind

The interface of this app is very pleasant and it still holds very well, even if you compare it to most of the more recent apps. It’s quite an impressive result and evidence if you develop a good app it will be valid for a longer time than you might have expected.

Best Camera for iPhone by Ubermind

You either take the photo or load it from your camera roll, then you can enhance contrast, saturation, turn your pictures into black and white or sepia, add a simple white border or black vignette, and so on. You can apply as many filters as you like to your photo and very conveniently disable each of them separately at any moment, but you are not given many customization options. It’s true that from the settings you can choose a 50% intensity for some of the filters, but you cannot adjust single parameters more than that; you cannot choose the right format to crop your photo (the app will automatically crop your photo); you cannot define intensity of vignetting. Despite these limitations, Best Camera works quite well and it’s amazingly easy to use. But honestly, despite the recent update, Best Camera remains a little behind many of its more up-to-date colleagues, which for the same price or even less offer you much more choice and much more freedom.

Overall

Name: Best Camera
Developer: Ubermind
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.1.3 or later.
Price: £1.79||$2.99||€2.39
Vote: 3/5

ToonPAINT: Neat-Looking Sketches From Your Photos

ToonPAINT by Toon-Fx was conceived as a tool to allow even people who don’t have a knack for drawing to come up with nice looking stylized pictures. Using image processing algorithms, ToonPAINT creates for you an easy to customize sketch.

As with all apps in the same league though, you have to make sure from the start you understand the difference between actual drawing and processing an image to make it look as if it was drawn. Usually, results are much better if you know how this kind of apps work and how and when they can come in handy.

Main Features

Up to 850×565 pixels resolution (3GS);
Zoom and pan;
Restore from previous session;
Undo/redo;
Basic and advanced settings;
Integrated guide;
Share via email, Facebook, Twitter.

Appotography Opinion

ToonPAINT is very simple to use and straightforward; yet, you have some reasonable control over your image. The effect is similar to what you would be able to achieve with a tracing tool in a vector editing software. ToonPAINT doesn’t actually turn images into vectors though; it only imitates the vector tracing style.

You start either with a picture you have previously taken or you take a snapshot with the built-in camera. With sliders you can adjust parameters — edges accuracy, amount of black/grey, etc. — but if you want even more control, you can switch to advanced settings and have at your disposal some more flexibility. After you apply the toon filter and your picture of choice is turned into a sketch-like image, you can proceed to apply color, if you wish. With a brush and a no-frills color-picking method, you can enrich your monochrome images. Getting the hang of the coloring process won’t be a problem, if you are already quite gifted in finger painting; it will be a bit harder if you are a total beginner, but the undo feature, with the possibility to zoom in and out and pan, will definitely help you. After you are done, you can save of share on Facebook and Twitter.

ToonPAINT by Toon-FX

At this stage, ToonPAINT is a cool little app you can use, for example, in combination with a strip creator app for developing your own instant comics. Many users in fact say they use this app especially for this purpose. However, there are a few things that could be improved even more to make ToonPAINT more functional. For example, it would be useful to have a preview in advanced settings to know exactly how your choices are actually affecting the image before applying them; a full-fledged undo command, to be used not only in the painting stage; full resolution, to make use of the images also outside your portable devices.

ToonPAINT allows the user to obtain very neat results, probably among the best on iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. If you want a photo-to-sketch app, Toon-Fx’s app is what you need.

Overall

Name: ToonPAINT
Developer: Toon-Fx
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.0 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 3/5

Instagram and 8mm updates

Instagram and 8mm got an update. Here is what’s new in the updated version for both apps:

8mm

Added projector sound; you can also choose mute or microphone only;
Enabled video geo-tagging when location service is on;
Fixed audio sync issue;
Fixed video orientation bug when device orientation is locked;
Fixed app crashing during phone calls;
Improved gallery loading speed.

Instagram

Tag topics in your posts: type a topic with a # in front of it to add your own photo to the stream for that tag;
Manage comments-delete comments on your photos, or your own comments on other photos;
Flag and block problematic users;
Korean and Portuguese translation and updates;
Bug fixes.

Phoster: Graphic Designing In A Couple Of Clicks

Is there truly anybody who hasn’t tried to act as a graphic designer these days? From creating a custom avatar for social networks to setting up your own blog, almost anybody with a working Internet connection at some point felt the urge to create slick graphics to use them in the most diverse ways.

Bucket Labs delivers to the App Store their excellent Phoster, a tool with a lot of potential that will let any user believe he can become a graphic designer in just a couple of clicks.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
50+ adjustable templates;
AirPrint support;
iOS retina-display support;
Share via email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr.

Appotography Opinion

Let me get this straight from the beginning: Phoster is fun. Even if you don’t actually need to make posters, fliers or invitations and print them, still this app is a joy to use. Phoster works really well both on iPad and on iPhone and it is quick and intuitive and printer friendly. Creating a clean-cut poster and integrating your photos into it require just a few minutes, all thanks to a neat assortment of pre-made templates and very easy to follow customizing steps. Forget about all those apps with cheesy and awfully awkward layouts: Phoster is what you need.

Phoster by Bucket Labs — The various stages of your poster's creation.

All the user has to do is choosing among the templates; an image from the camera roll can be added to the chosen template; by zooming in and out or rotating, it can be adjusted to the layout. To customize your work further, you can change font size and color and, obviously, you can input your own text. After you’re done, you can add one of the effects and save — or print or share — your creation.

Of course, you cannot expect to use Phoster for everything. Phoster is mainly aimed at the creation of posters/fliers/invitations. Bucket Labs’ app is excellent for people that want to create slick graphics without having any particular training or skill, but it is also a nice pastime and a good shortcut for those who are already into design. A little more customization — moving the text around, possibility to change colors of templates’ without resorting to other apps, etc. — would truly make this app perfect.

Overall

Name: Phoster
Developer: Bucket Labs
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.2 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 5/5

Lo-Mob: Awesome Retro Lo-fi For All Tastes

Photography as we know it dates back to the first decades of XIX century. Low fidelity, although maybe with slightly different connotations from more up-to-date ones, has always been an intrinsic factor to visual representation.

Lo-Mob by Aestetis brings dated lo-fi to the App Store, with an interesting collection of filters imitating techniques from several different ages in photography history. The results are quite interesting. Lo-Mob was one of the first apps I got many months ago when I first decided to make the most of my iPhone photography. So far, I am not disappointed.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
40+ different filters;
Switch on/off individual filter parameters;
Integrated manual;
Share via email, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Flickr.

Appotography Opinion

Lo-Mob combines a nifty look with actual handiness. The interface is quite clean and simple; accurate description comes with each filter, which you can choose from a scrollable menu once you either take a photo or upload it from your camera roll; a user’s manual is also available in-app for beginners. The effects are enough to work with and all of them have adjustable parameters. Frame, vignetting, color and blur: you can switch either of these on and off to customize your photos or just choose the presets as they come with the app. Some filters only have a few of these selectable elements, not all of them. You can anyway choose from the settings to disable permanently each parameter individually, without having to do it every time. To adjust your photo to the frames more effectively, you can zoom and pan with your fingers. When the result pleases you, you can either save or share via email or through some of the most widely known social networks.

Lo-Mob by Aestetis iPhone

The filters range from simulation of instant squared formats to 35mm slides and much more, with an assortment of color virages and outdated black and white. As you can see, the imitation is quite accurate, making edited pictures look believable in their retro look.

Lo-Mob by Aestetis iPhone

Some aspects could definitely be improved. Processing times can be irritatingly long for a photo app. Also, the app sometimes crashes when you switch from an image to the other or from a filter to the other. It must be said, it doesn’t happen all that frequently. Although not absolutely necessary, some more features beside basic zooming in and out could be added to better adjust images to frames. The quality of some of these frames in itself isn’t excellent, especially at higher resolutions.

Despite these flaws, Lo-Mob remains one of the apps I enjoy using when I want to change dramatically the looks of my iPhone photos. Given the possibility to use any filter’s parameter as an independent element, Lo-Mob is also good to just add a frame or a little toning without using each filter as a whole.

If you’re into vintage and lo-fi, Lo-Mob is a great addition to your collection of photographic apps.

Overall

Name: Lo-Mob
Developer: Aestetis
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.1.2 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 4/5

DXP: Mix and Blend Your Pictures

Dear addicts of photo editing, I know it’s hard for you sometimes to do all the things you’d like to on your Apple devices. A full-fledged computer with a proper software is what you are most comfortable with, but transferring photos to edit them properly is not something you can be bothered to do all the times. Among other fancy effects, many apps come with ready-made textures that make up for your unsatisfied editing cravings. However, being able to use your own personal textures is all another story, right? Also, being able to mix pictures is not an easy thing to do on iPhone/iPod Touch.

DXP stands for “double exposure”. Tandem Systems’ app goes beyond the simple double exposure suggested by its name. With its range of blending modes and other options, it will provide you with some very interesting features that to this day most apps are not able to offer. Blending pictures effectively could almost be considered a branch of photography on its own. In fact, choosing the right blending mode can sometimes change the final look of your pictures. DXP will help you achieve the right effects.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
Take photos in different formats (4:3, 3:2, 1:1);
Grid on/off;
Flip and rotate;
18 blending modes (multiply, overlay, screen, hardlight, saturation, etc.).

Appotography Opinion

Basic but adequate features for effective picture blending are included in DXP. You can work either with shots taken with the built-in camera, with photos you have in your roll or with both at the same time. The blending modes’ intensity can be adjusted to generate different effects to suit your needs; you can desaturate or turn your pictures to sepia hues; you can make other adjustments, like choosing to adapt the superimposed images to fit the first layer or having the app crop them; you have a “push to/pop from stack” feature that will make it simpler to work with layers without having to handle them all at the same time.

DXP by tandem Systems for iPhone

DXP brings iPhone photography to another level, giving the user that doesn’t feel satisfied with pre-packed effects more freedom, opening new possibilities of expression.

There are a few changes which would improve the usability of DXP: the possibility to not have the layers merge as soon as you choose to turn them into black and white or sepia; more flexibility in the “push to/pop from stack”, in order to process a larger number of layers without risking to mess everything up; a wider choice of masking features; more customizable image rotation and layer cropping; at least an email sharing option. Also, I reckon up to a few updates ago an undo feature was available in DXP. I’m not sure why right now it isn’t available anymore. It was quite handy, because it allowed to make corrections without having to start over.

At the moment, for blending images properly, DXP is the best app available in the App Store. This app also comes in a lite version that you can try for free, so check it out!

Overall

Name: DXP
Developer: Tandem Systems
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.1.3 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 4/5

PhotoArtista Oil: Let’s Pretend We Can Paint!

Whoever spread the notion that photos can successfully be digitally turned into paintings with a couple of clicks should be spanked very badly. This is how I see it; everybody is free to disagree. But so far I haven’t found a single successful way to make a photo look like a real painting with digital filters, not even from the most renown developers. Be careful: I haven’t said a “realistic” painting.

Even the best results obtained with ready-made filters are nothing like actual paintings, photos of paintings or even like photographs of actual paintings taken from photos. Or… whatever. They retain that certain lousy artificial quality that is terribly unattractive. To obtain an effective painterly effect, first of all you need to work a lot on your photo, concentrating not on reproducing useless trivialities like the embossing or the direction of the strokes or similar, but on trying to recreate a general feeling, an atmosphere, that is usually very subtle; you have to work on bringing out that certain something, if you know what I mean. So far, even the best filters are more focused on the trivialities I was talking about than in defining and trying to reproduce this something, that is what truly differentiates painting and photo. Let’s be honest though: we cannot ask too much of mere filters. When technology will reach a higher degree of sophistication and artificial intelligence will be improved, maybe the visible results will be more convincing.

I’d like to add that painting and photography can be considered sisters in the realm of visual arts, but they are definitely not interchangeable, especially after the achievements they both have conquered over the years. To fulfill their role, they should take different paths and give different interpretations, even of the same subjects.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
Different painting styles ready to use;
Adjustable brush, brightness, color and canvas;
Add borders;
Possibility to create and save custom presets;
Share via email.

Appotography Opinion

With PhotoArtista Oil, JixiPix tries to give anybody the ability to become an accomplished oil painter with very little effort. I’ve read comments of some people using this app boasting about the fact with PhotoArtista Oil they could fix even the most outrageously horrible photos they had taken. I’m not sure how the developers should feel reading comments like these; I hope they’re not particularly proud of such publicity.

PhotoArtista

PhotoArtista Oil by JixiPix iPhone

PhotoArtista Oil works both with camera roll and with shots you take with the built-in camera. As with other apps in the same range (PhotoArtista Haiku, PhotoArtista Sketch and Vintage Scene), you have an array of presets ready for using from which you can start working. You can simply choose one of those presets and save your photo or you can adjust several variables to make your picture suit your personal taste. You can modify intensity and type of strokes, canvas texture and color, color tones, apply edges, and so on. If you want to use again the preset you have created yourself, you can save it.

Processing times are extremely long and unnerving; deciding to choose a style and then changing your mind can make you waste 5+ minutes of your life. Each time, not in a lifetime. This can be OK for you, I don’t want to imply you are in a hurry… I’m just saying.

Overall, the results are good, but not astonishing — but this depends of course on your personal idea of astonishing. The canvas in particular doesn’t look very realistic, especially if you choose to look at your picture at full resolution. If you are not very careful with your parameters, the strokes will not look natural at all. Not to mention that you shouldn’t expect the app to make a good job equally with any single photo you throw at it. Anyway, if you want to turn your photos into paintings at all costs on your Apple device, this is perhaps as good as it can get.

Overall

Name: PhotoArtista Oil
Developer: JixiPix Software
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: £1.79||$2.99||€2.39
Vote: 3/5

iSupr8: Super 8 Makes a Comeback

History time: Super 8 was released by Kodak in 1965 as an upgrade from the previous 8 mm format. Differently from the previous format, its perforations were smaller thus allowing a larger area to be exposed. It also allocated space enough for magnetic sound recording.

Born as an improvement from basic 8 mm home movies, Super 8 acquired a legendary status, also thanks to achievements of indie film-makers that resorted to making use of it as a means to keep production costs lower. It’s not a surprise then that more than a few experimental film-makers continue to use this format extensively and that even Hollywood’s J.J. Abrams is going to pay his tribute to it with his upcoming Super 8.

Together with many other developers, New Zealand-based MEA Mobile jumped on the revival wagon, releasing iSupr8, that according to them, is an app “designed by vintage film enthusiasts” as an “effort to revive and increase awareness of a commercially dying format to a new generation”. For this app, MEA Mobile developed Tru8™, a post-processing algorithm capable to grade each pixel separately according to exposure, adding at the same time other effects like film flickering, projector framing and other realistic elements. All in the name of the most accurate authenticity of looks possible.

Main Features

Record in 360p, 480p or 720p (on supported devices only);
Tru8™ processing;
LED enabled (on supported devices only);
Share via email and Facebook.

Appotography Opinion

Note: A more recent review of iSupr8 is available here.

iSupr8 doesn’t work in real-time and doesn’t process videos previously taken. You take your video on the spot and once you recorded it, it is stored in your rolls gallery. From there you can either decide to process it or to trash it. Processing times are perfectly average for this kind of apps. Memory usage is also quite in the norm, meaning this app won’t cause much troubles, overloading your device beyond its capabilities and crashing continuously. The interface is clean and stylish, making the use of the app an enjoyable and rewarding experience from this point of view.

iSupr8 by MEA Mobile for iphone and iPod Touch

There is only one filter you can choose from, so if you expect a filter collection this app is not for you. The emulation of original Super 8 is very good though, especially in the fact the developers wisely decided to take another path from that already chosen by their colleagues: they didn’t overdo it, adding all kinds of visual mumbo jumbo, with too much dirt and scratches and extreme overly saturated or desaturated tones. As far as the final outcome is concerned, iSupr8 holds very well.

This video was shot in some of the worst possible conditions, at night and with snowy weather. Keeping in mind these considerations, the results aren’t half bad.

Despite all my previous comments, I don’t feel like giving a higher rating to iSupr8. There is a very serious issue I find with this app and it concerns the viewfinder: accurately framing your subject is absolutely frustrating and sometimes it requires a lot of testing and retakes, unless of course you’re careless enough to not mind about what will be in your final video. Some other apps in the Photography category used to have, or have still, this same issue. Just to mention a famous example, Hipstamatic developers too at first had released their app with this same problem — but partially corrected it adding a “precision framing” alongside the “classic” and imprecise one. Original Super 8 cameras did have some issues with framing, and as a matter of fact many users complained about viewfinder’s lack of accuracy. Each camera had different troublesome framing, some being a little off vertically and some other horizontally. iSupr8 is a bit of both and getting your video right is not the most intuitive task, in spite of the app’s overall simplicity.

Emulating the feel of the original Super 8 is one thing; reproducing also issues and deficiencies of old cameras is another.

Overall

Name: iSupr8
Developer: MEA Mobile
Compatibility: iPhone (3GS, 4), iPod Touch. iOS 4.1 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 3/5