With iOS 5, iPhone users finally have native photo editing. But Apple kept things simple, so all you get is rotate, crop, red eye removal, and auto-enhance doing its thing. Prior to this small selection there was nothing, so the App Store is packed full of alternate cameras and photo editing apps for your shutterbug delights.
A dead simple interface makes this easy
Photo editing stalwart Adobe got into the game with Photoshop Express and their app is a decent entrant. Choose between taking a picture and loading one in from your camera roll to get started, then you get two more choices -- tap the arrow to share the picture on Twitter, Facebook or Photoshop.com or tap the pencil to start editing.
Drop downs say it all
Four fairly obvious buttons cross the top of the app and four more cross the bottom. The Crop button does what it says but it also allows straightening, rotating, or flipping photos. Adjust the color saturation or exposure by tapping the next button, make it black and white, change the tint or adjust the contrast. These adjust as you slide your finger horizontally across the screen, the changes denoted by number or on a color bar.
Nice color palette, no?
More artistic effects include a sketch adjustment, soften or sharpen the focus, and (if you buy the $4.99 add-on) reduce noise. Photoshop Express also includes seven color filters such as Pop that makes four copies and tints them all differently, Rainbow that splashes ROYGBIV across your picture, Soft Black & White and more. Choose borders to add frames or ragged contact sheet style edging. Save your picture to the camera roll then share it if you like though your options here are pretty limited.
We hoped for more filters from the photo top dawg
Photoshop Express is well done, free, and works fairly well delivering lots of edits within its simple UI. More sharing options would be nice and the add-ons (noise reduction, a timer, and multiburst shots) aren't really worth five dollars, but overall it's a solid performance from the leader in photo editing software.
Cats still rule the interwebz
The darling of the Internet, Burbn, Inc.'s Instagram is either a free camera app packed with social sharing or it's a social media app based around pictures. Either way, if you do a lot of sharing, you most likely are familiar with this one. First you set up your Instagram account then link to various social sites and find your friends.
109 people like a girl in the restroom
You first open the app to your feed. These are people whose photos you follow. Or expand your horizons beyond friends by tapping the Popular button. There stroll through a gallery of pictures beloved by the Instagram masses. Tap a picture and it opens bigger and you can like it, comment on it, or choose to follow this person's photo life.
1977 dog likes filters, not cats
The middle button says Share, opening the camera. Add a frame by tapping the square in the upper left, a tear drop in the upper right pops in a pinchably adjustable tilt shift focal point, and the X takes you back to the Popular gallery. You can also add pictures from the camera roll. The eye in the lower right turns on the filters. Nicely, these filters can be applied live, so if you don't have to catch a pic on the fly, you can choose between Lomo effect or the Toaster filter and more before snapping.
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Tiltshifting photo of world's creepiest doll
Approve your picture, then you're taken to a screen to title it, enable geotagging, and determine where you'll share. Instagram has Twitter, Facebook, Email, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Posterous options built in so no one has to miss out.
Sharing galore
The news button lets you see the pictures your friends and those you're following have liked. The Profile button will allow you to adjust your sharing settings, pick a new profile picture for yourself, and do other under the hood stuff.
As far as editing pictures goes, Instagram has seventeen filter options and each comes with its own specialized frame, plus there are the tilt shift and rotate options. As a photo editor, it feels less robust than Photoshop Express, but for sharing there's no competition between the two.
tap tap tap has something remarkable going on with Camera+. If you're looking for a camera with features, this one will fit the bill. The app opens directly to the camera where the digital zoom slider is visible. Tap the screen and a pinkish square appears. Tap it a second time and a pinkish circle appears within the square.
Adjust focus and exposure, separately for best results
Drag the circle about to get the best exposure applied to the whole picture while the square sets a certain focal point. With two finger action, great pictures are a snap. After the shutter goes off, Camera+ saves your shots to the app's Lightbox for editing.
The Lightbox is where you do your work
Tap a photo here and you get an X to delete, a magnifying glass to enlarge and four more buttons. Save sends it to your camera roll, Info provides EFIX data including date, location, exposure, f-stop and more, and Share lets you upload to Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter as well as email and MMS. But Edit is where the magic happens.
Tons of editing magic all the way through
Two rows of buttons appear across the bottom. The top row are controlled by the bottom five. Scenes allows you to sixteen lighting conditions or subjects (improve your food snaps!). Adjust flips and rotates; Crops gives you nine pre-set options including the Golden Ratio plus freeform photo trimming.
All kinds of filters packed in here
FX Effects delivers 27 filters (with nine more for sale) and each comes with an Intensity slider for more fine grain control. Best of all, each effect is recorded in the Info panel so you can revisit a photo to recreate the same effect on other pictures.
The info button gives you the goods
Editing photos after the fact is one thing, but Camera+ helps you out during the taking. Tap the gear next to the shutter button and choose between the Stablilizer, a Timer, or a Burst of rapid-fire shots. Nor is the app limited to photos taken within it. From the Lightbox tap the boxed gear wheel to open your camera roll for quick import.
Camera+ is a sweet app we've taken many a good photo with and we were completely set to fully and whole-heartedly give it the prize. Until we tried the next app.
It seems with each app we introduce, more features are added. graf's PictureShow goes hog wild. Two buttons greet you when you open it: start shooting or import from the camera roll. Tap the shutter button to shoot or tap the lens kit to the far right to take quad shots and more fancy types. The gear next to the shutter button gives you your timer, a grid, and sequence shots.
Lotta teeny tiny buttons there
But PictureShow is just getting started. Once you've taken or imported your picture eight tiny buttons cross the bottom of the app. Tap Style and pick from 23 frames, 10 light exposures, 13 noise filters, and adjustable vignette framing. Tap Special to drop in tilt shifting or HDR after-effects (both with adjustable sliders for fine-grained control). Tap Color to slide-adjust the red, green, and blue, as well as brightness and contrast. Transform offers cropping in five ratios and a freehand option plus flipping the picture along the X and Y axis.
So many different styles you can apply
You can add text to your photo by tapping on that button, and here you can alter the color, size, and alignment of fourteen different fonts. Finally, the kicker, PictureShow has the name of your photo style up top. Tap the name to access 45 preset filters such as LomoGraphy, BlueVintage, IndigoHalo, Noir, and dozens more.
These filters go on and on, on top of everything else
Flick your finger up or down the picture to change styles in the full-screen view or hit the shuffle button to pick a random style. And if you tweak your own style and love it, tap the heart to save that particular picture recipe.
Flick up or down to see the next full screen filter
PictureShow also includes sharing at Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, tumblr, and Blogger, as well as saving to your camera roll or emailing the photo to someone, because after all the work you do, these pictures are crying out to be shared.
Share and share alike
If you're looking for the full package of sharing and editing, look no further than PictureShow. The app is feature rich, infinitely customizable, fun to play around with, and hits the vast majority of sharing options. It could almost replace Apple's Camera app as our go-to picture taker. Camera+ runs a close second as far as features go, though it offers fewer than PictureShow and even fewer sharing options. Instagram is nice for sharing but rather limited in its palette. Photoshop is your best free option, though if you share beyond the majors, you'll be working it run-around style.
docmurdock
October 25, 2011 at 1:05pm
this app is far superior for a number of reasons, but you have to experience it for yourself. Support is amazing, functionality is not rivaled by many higher price apps, and the fact that you can work on photos in a separate light box is a great way for deciding which ones you want to save and which you want to cast aside.
This app is DocMurdock Approved & Recommended.
