photoediting
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Artifact for iOS puts the power of Photoshop in the palm of your hand
So, you got a shiny new iPhone 4S, and with its spiffy new camera, you're itching to dabble in some Dada-esque picture composition. But, what if you're an on-the-go type with no time to fix your pics on a laptop? Worry not photog friend, Artifact is here to let you photoshop right on your phone and give Adobe some competition. The app works on any device running iOS 4.1 or later, and lets you splice photos together with the greatest of ease. Once you've got two images to combine, simply open one to create a canvas layer, then open the second to have it it appear as a transparent layer on top. You can adjust them --individually or locked together -- by rotating or with pinch to zoom, and painting selected areas of the top layer with your fingers combines them for good. It's a really slick interface, and one you should see for yourself, so head on past the break so see Artifact in action.
Perfect Photo editor for iPhone is free this weekend
Perfect Photo is a photo editor for the iPhone that was easily worth the US$2 asking price, but this weekend you can grab it for free. Perfect Photo has 28 tools including red-eye removal and a capable healing brush. There are the usual cropping, saturation, sharpen and shadows tools. The sharpen tool is particularly nice because it splits the screen and shows before and after images. The app also includes filters to posterize your images, or make them look like pencil sketches or vintage photos. You can take pictures from within the app, save them to your photo album, or share via email, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr. I took the app for a spin and found that everything worked quickly and reliably. I did notice that the top resolution supported, 2592x2592, falls short of the 3264x2448 resolution that the iPhone 4S provides. The developers say the app will be updated to support the higher iPhone 4S image quality. There are some other negatives as well. The app has some ads, which in a normally paid app is not cool. Also, while the effects are being rendered, the app displays some educational trivia about nature and other topics. I guess it is supposed to occupy you while a filter is being applied, but I'd like the option to turn it off. I also would like a frames option, which would enhance some photos that you want to share. I think the Perfect Photo is a worthwhile tool. I'd like to see this app lose the ads, but as it is I think it's far more capable than the photo tools Apple added to iOS5. %Gallery-138483%
Google+ learns about trending topics, photo filters and how to appease Google Apps users
Still having a blast adding people into circles? Well hold on tight, because Mountain View just introduced some worthy upgrades to its social network. First up is a new feature dubbed "What's Hot" which, much like trending topics on Twitter, highlights popular content being shared on the social network. Photography aficionados in the audience can gussy up snaps with more photo editing features dubbed "Creative Kit", including a multitude of filters -- some of which (for a limited time) pertain to Halloween. And finally, those of you who use Google Apps within an organization can now partake in all the Google+ fun -- provided your IT admin isn't a social networking-hating luddite. Links explaining all that and more await you below, but before you go, why not hop past the break for some vampiric renditions of Larry and Sergey, and a few other celebs. [Thanks, Rich]
Adobe releases Photoshop Elements 10 & Premiere Elements 10 for Mac
Today Adobe announced new versions of its consumer flagship photo and video editing applications. Photoshop Elements 10 adds new features including 100 paint and effects patterns, depth of field simulation, and the ability to find photos that contain certain objects, like your dog or a hat. Photoshop Elements 10 also heavily borrows sharing features from Apple's iPhoto '11 software including the ability to tag Facebook friends right from within the app and instant upload to Facebook and Flickr. Adobe Premiere Elements 10 further borrows features from Apple's iMovie '11 video editing software such as still photo panning and zooming (Ken Burns Effect), automatic color enhancement and correction, and movie themes. Premiere Elements 10 does add some cool new features that iMovie '11 lacks however, including the ability to tag Facebook friends in your video, the ability to quickly find certain objects in your shots, and the ability to export to AVCHD to burn HD-quality movies to standard DVDs. Both Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10 are available today for US$99.99 each, or $149 for both. Existing users can purchase upgrades of the applications for $79 each or $119 for both. Currently Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10 are only available in store or online. No word yet if either app will hit the Mac App Store, though Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 Editor is currently available on the Mac App Store for $79.
PhotoForge2 for iPhone has many Photoshop-like features
It's amazing how many useful features are making it to iPhone apps. In particular, photo apps for the iPhone get more and more remarkable as time goes on. PhotoForge2 is a US$2.99 app that allows you to load your photos at full resolution, and it includes high-end features like layering and masking, curves, levels, sharpening and noise reduction, white balance, RAW image import, the ability to edit GPS and IPTC photo data, channel mixer controls and much more. This would be a nice collection of features for a Mac app. It's rather amazing this is an app running on a cellular phone. In practice, the app works rather well. I found the controls easy to manipulate on the iPhone's small screen, and I could zoom all the way into my image to see individual pixels. The app has 30 different filters, including a good black and white translation and sepia tones. You can send photos via email and the various social services. Check the gallery for some screen shots of editing sessions and a look at the GUI. Alas, no app is perfect. Photos can't be loaded unless your phone has location services switched on. Frankly, this is a silly requirement. Apple requires developers to get permission when accessing location data, even data that is already tagged on your phone, but I think there are ways around this; the developers say they have some workarounds coming, perhaps as early as this weekend. When editing. changing settings can also be frustrating. When adjusting curves and levels, for example, you can barely see your image because the controls cover it. There is a software switch to hide the controls, but that makes the adjustments a needless iterative process. Also, an in-app purchase of $1.99 is needed for some additional features. I really dislike that practice and would prefer to get everything, even if it raises the price of the app. %Gallery-124111%
Flare from The Iconfactory: Awesome photo editing app for Mac
One of the joys of photography with the iPhone is that there are a huge number of apps for the platform that let you work with your photos to apply cropping, add filters and effects, and then share those photos with others. Sure, we have apps like iPhoto and Photoshop Elements, but to me they're not really in the same ballpark as the iPhone apps when it comes to quickly editing a photo. Flare is a new Mac app (US$19.95, now on sale for $9.99) from The Iconfactory and ARTIS Software that brings drag, drop and click editing to photos much in the manner that the current iPhone photo apps do. Available in the Mac App Store, Flare is easy enough for photo newbies to use, yet powerful enough that professional photographers will want to have it in their kit of goodies. After launching the app for the first time, you're greeted with a simple startup screen with three choices: "Drag a photo here to get started with Flare," "Read the User's Guide" or "View a Tutorial." I think most people will do what I did -- I just dragged a photo to the box in the startup screen and started playing with the app to see what it could do. After that, I clicked the User's Guide button to get more details, which took me to a very complete online explanation of what each and every effect, filter and process does to your photograph. %Gallery-119002%
Stereoscopic copy-paste finally brings that clone tool into the third dimension (video)
With the right software anybody can be photo editing guru, eliminating redeye, removing unsightly blemishes, and maybe adding an image of Godzilla lurking in the background just for fun. However, if you've been unlucky enough to try to do the same in 3D you know just how distinctly unsatisfying that experience can be. Maybe not for long. Thanks to NewScientist we just caught a glimpse of an October presentation made by Swiss engineers Joren van Baar and Wan-Yen Lo called "Stereoscopic 3D Copy & Paste." It is, basically, exactly what it sounds like, tools that let you define various objects and planes on a stereoscopic image, similar to how you might grab a shape with the magic wand tool, and then duplicate it and move that shape around on both parts of the 3D photo. The software handles re-creating shadows, automatically tackling occlusion too, and while the results aren't perfect, particularly if you're trying to change perspective or partially occlude an object behind something that's transparent, it certainly trumps trying to do it by hand. Check out the video below and take a moment to be thankful that you didn't have to buy gifts for all those kids above.
World rejoices as Photoshop Express for iPad is fixed
Well, that didn't take too long. After a rather horrible debut Friday Adobe has fixed Photoshop Express so it can now open in the landscape mode. How exactly was this app tested by Adobe and Apple? You'd think since most photo editing is done in the landscape orientation it would have been operated that way. I'd expect that kind of bug to be discovered immediately. Since Adobe is a premier graphics company you'd also think they would choose a logo for the product that doesn't resemble a roll of toilet paper. Anyway, the app now works properly and it's free. You can crop, sharpen, blur, make frames and do other basic adjustments and send your edited pix to Photoshop.com or to Facebook. The app also works on an iPhone and an iPod touch. Have at it, and unlike the iPhone 4 antenna, you can hold your iPad anyway you want.
Adobe Photoshop Express: mobile manipulation mastery gets prettier UI, iPad support
You're probably well aware that we like to tinker with Photoshop from time to time, and while we're constantly building up our database of funnies, it's quite difficult to do so on the road. For times like these, there's the newly-rebranded Adobe Photoshop Express, a completely free (!) application designed for both iPhone and (new for this update) iPad. The newest version (v1.3) weighs in at 6.5MB and provides users with the same abilities to mildly edit their photos as before, via crop, color, filter and border controls. Better still, it'll let you access your entire online photo gallery at Photoshop.com, so if anyone's down to try it out and send us their best gadget-related mutations, drop a link in comments or tips. Only catch is there's still no support for layers or compositions culled from multiple images, but hey, it's free! Don't say we never encouraged you to live a little, okay? Update: Hey, it's out for Android too! Thanks, Wes!
