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.
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This is another cinemagram. I like it because I think it would make for a cool photo. The changing of the pupils and slight eye movement aren’t extremely interesting, but maybe just enough.
I noticed this app tends to add a little noise and movement in random areas that I haven’t selected to show movement. If you look between her eyes you may notice it too. I get annoyed when an app destroys pixels for no good reason.
“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind”
-Elly Roselle
Saw that quote yesterday and thought it was worth sharing.
This image was created with TinyWorld. I bought it a few months ago but have barely used it. Its a neat little app that lets you create tiny planets. Theres a live preview when using the camera in this app so you can get everything lined up just the way you want it. You can also do what I did here and apply the effect to a photo from your camera roll. The only thing I don’t like is the blurring of the edge isn’t too subtle. I think this still makes for an interesting image though.
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.
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. ***
