PhotoViva is available for free right now. I did review it a while back here. In a nutshell, I’d say its a fun app thats worth checking out…especially for free.
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There was a time where I only shot black and white film. If you shoot enough black and white, or constantly convert your images to black and white, you begin to actually see the world in a new way. I remember I use to be able to look at the scene in front of me and immediately see what it was like in black and white. Then I went digital and got into HDR, which is more how I see the world today.
Hueless is a great black and white camera app. Instead of having to imagine what the world looks like in black and white, this camera will give you a live preview. Not only that, but it has a couple of features that practically lets you edit while you shoot. Theres a slider on the left of the screen that acts as exposure compensation, effectively allowing you to brighten or darken your image before you press the shutter. If you ever want it to go back to 0, just double tap the slider.
The other great feature of Hueless are the colored filters, which is the icon in the top left corner. If you’ve ever been in the darkroom, you know what these are good for. Try experimenting with the different colors while shooting and see what a dramatic difference they can make. When you select a colored filter, there will be a slider on the right side that allows you to adjust the opacity of the filters.
If you feel like the screen is too cluttered, you can always just tap on the Hueless film roll in the bottom left corner and your view will be unobstructed.
The sharing features seem a little odd to me. You can email, tweet and post to instagram, but only if you allow location services. If you don’t you won’t have access to the camera roll in Hueless. Thats not really a big deal though because all of the images are also saved to your main camera roll.
Examples
None of these are edited with any other apps. I imagine you could get even more out of your photos if you touched them up just a little more. I know my examples aren’t the best I’ve ever included in an app review. I haven’t had time to shoot with this app as much as I’d like, which is why I included Keisuke’s photos as well.
You can overexpose images on purpose by increasing brightness before you shoot.
Below are examples from Keisuke Takahashi, a fantastic iphoneographer in Japan. I met him on Tadaa, where his username is TokyoGyango. Here is his flickr page.
Conclusion
Hueless is great for black and white photography. Its simple to use and post processing isn’t always necessary if you set things up before you take the shot. As with most cameras and apps, this may take some practice before you really master it. My only gripe with the app is the location of the shutter button when holding it in portrait orientation. It just feels awkward. Overall though, Hueless makes for a great black and white camera.
Rating: 5/5
Price: $1.99
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation) and iPad Wi-Fi + 4G.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.
***Full disclosure, I did not pay for this app, I asked for a promo code so I could review it. I’m not being offered any compensation for this review. ***
ShockMyPic is an app I’ve seen a few other people use to make some cool photos, so I had to get my hands on it and see what it was all about. This app is incredibly simple and provides great painterly effects. There is also a very similar Mac version that I’ll be reviewing soon.
Kaleidoscope Camera by Binary Noise Ltd. is a great alternative to the typical camera app. It makes it very simple to create unique images from everyday objects.
Kaleidoscope Camera provides a real time view with smooth interactivity that makes adjusting your image very easy. There are 6 different mirror configurations that range form a spiral to a mandala.
After you take the picture, you are given the option to save to your album, post to facebook, or email it to someone. Theres nothing complicated about this app. Continue Reading
NIR Color is another app by JixiPix. The main screen is just like their other apps, dramatic BW, PhotoArtista Oil, etc. There are presets of color combinations that they think make for interesting looks. There are also some easy to use sliders to fine tune your image. I like how jixipix keeps the same user interface for the majority of their apps. It makes it easy to pick up and use if you’ve tried their others.
PhotoArtista oil is another excellent app from Jixipix. It does a great job of turning your photos into oil paintings. There are a number of presets in different categories ranging from realistic to abstract. The lower you scroll down in the presets, the more abstract the presets get. If you prefer more control, you can fine tune your painting with the sliders.
PhotoViva is an app that allows you to turn your images into paintings with total control. Instead of selecting a filter to achieve a certain look, you choose brushes and paint each stroke. This allows for endless creative possibilities. Not only can you use this app to turn your photos into paintings, but you can also use it just for painting in general.
A-HDR is an app used to create pseudo HDR images by applying filters/presets to a single photo. A lot of the filters are, in my opinion, a good way to overprocess your image. Having said that, there are a couple that seem to work well on the right image. The good thing about A-HDR is you have the ability to make your own adjustments before or after applying a filter/preset.
Easy mode is where you can choose a filter/preset to apply to your image.
Simply HDR by JixiPix is an app that you can use to create pseudo HDR images, which are HDR-like images from a single photo. It’s the same easy user interface as one of their other apps I reviewed, Dramatic BW.
You can choose to start out by selecting a style from one of five categories: High Dynamic Range, Black and White, Contrasted HDR, Contrasted Light, and Shadows and Light. Each category has a number of presets you can apply to the image. I’ll share an example from each category.
Dark Contrasted from High Dynamic Range.
Contrasty from Black and White.
Dark Sky from Contrasted HDR.
You can also make your own adjustments with the few sliders available. Adjust the highlights, shadows, and add a vignette, grain, or tint. Looking at the presets made me think there would be a contrast or detail slider, but they’re missing. I think you have to add grain to bring out texture in the image. There are different styles of grain you can apply, making me think they’re to be thought of as textures. There are also a lot of different tints you can overlay on top of the image to change the color a bit.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can randomize the settings by tapping the dice in the top right of the app.
Early Sunrise from Contrasted Light.
Sunset from Shadows and Light.
Pros
- Very good selection of presets.
- Ability to make adjustments at any point of the workflow.
Cons
- There are very few adjustment sliders making me wonder how all of the looks in the presets are achieved.
- Lack of a contrast or detail slider.
- Vignette tool is kind of ugly.
Conclusion
I’ll be keeping Simply HDR and using it once in a while because it does a really good job compared to similar apps. Simply HDR provides a lot of useable presets, making this app very easy to use. My only suggestion to the developer would be to provide previews on the presets of the image being worked on instead of unrelated images.
Rating: 5/5
Price: $0.99 for iphone, $1.99 for iPad, 5.99 for Mac
***Full disclosure, I did not pay for this app, I asked for a promo code so I could review it. I’m not being offered any compensation for this review. ***
Photoforge2 is a photo editing app I’ve been meaning to review for a while. It just got updated the other day which made me want to dive in again and see if it was better than the last time I looked at it. There are a lot of features, but not many that stand out as exceptional compared to other apps.
I’ll admit it, I’m spoiled by photoshop CS5 and all the awesome plugins I have. I keep trying to find apps that come close to those photoshop plugins, at least in terms of flexibility. When it comes to black and white conversion, nobody can touch Silver Efex Pro2 in my opinion. Thats what I want on the iphone. Dramatic Black and White comes closer than the others and is the best black and white app I’ve used to date.
The UI is clean and straightforward. You can choose a preset from 3 different styles and there are a lot to choose from. If you’re feeling lucky you can tap the dice in the top right to get a random effect. If you like control, you can adjust everything even after choosing a preset. There aren’t a lot of controls, but enough to make a difference. Especially useful is the ability to adjust red, blue, and green values.
Oddly enough, my favorite feature of the app is the spotlight (vignette.) You can adjust the size, shape, center, and opacity. Its the most versatile vignette tool I’ve seen so far. I’ll let you in on the real reason I’m geeked about it in another post.
There isn’t really anything else to cover, the app is really that simple. This is the first image created with the app. I didn’t edit with anything else beforehand because I wanted to showcase this app alone. When used with other apps, I think the results would be even greater.
Conclusion
Dramatic Black and White is more versatile than Simply B&W or other apps where black and white conversion is an afterthought. This is definitely an app that I’ll be keeping on my iphone and using not only for black and white photos, but also for more complex color photo edits with layer blending apps.
Rating: 5/5
Price: $1.99
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.2 or later. Also available on Mac.
***Full disclosure, I did not pay for this app, I asked for a promo code so I could review it. I’m not being offered any compensation for this review. ***
