Issue 12 - Retro Photos

News Apps Features How-To

4 29 145 164

iPhone SWIPE

NEWS • REVIEWS • TIPS

mag

HELLO! Welcome to this sample of Swipe: the iPhone magazine. We’ve put together a taster of what each edition offers, with all the hottest iOS news, reviews of the latest apps and accessories, plus expert advice from the people that bring you Tips & Tricks – iPhone Secrets. We hope you enjoy this small slice of what Swipe has to offer, and don’t forget to check out the full free trial on the App Store. Happy reading!

THE SWIPE TEAM

Apps

This issue we take a look at ďŹ ve new apps that promise to take your average photos and turn them into works of art

Heartbeats MULLERPHOTO Vinegar, INC. VERSION 1.0 PRICE $1.99 ÂŁ1.49 SIZE 10.2 MB

C

elebrity photographer Michael

of stars, sharks and sports. While his photographic techniques are no doubt

>

a closely-guarded secret, using lens emulate them with this app.

Filter tip

Almost immediately it becomes obvious that to get the most from MullerPhoto, packs, which are $0.99 or £0.69 each, is $1.99 (£1.49). It takes the app up to $4 (£3), and although you get the full functionality, you can’t help feel that they should have been included in the original asking price.

MullerPhoto has two main functions:

>

a menu for adding light bleed. This photography which adds random streaks Ordinarily this is an unwanted result, but it’s very effective at creating a retro feel or adding drama to an image. >

Some of the light bleed eects are a bit intense

Here’s our original untreated winter scene...

A melancholy version with the Paris ’75 ďŹ lter...

An arty black and white version...

A ďŹ lter applied plus light bleed...

And this is the light bleed eect applied to the whole image

Controls are simple: take a shot or add a photo from your Camera Roll or Photo Stream, and then tap ‘Adjust’. The image shunts up to reveal a button which you can slide around the panel underneath.

As you move left and right you adjust the hue, while up and down adjusts the applied in real-time and it’s really easy you’re after.

Let it bleed

The icon top right opens the light bleed menu, which simply cycles through a bunch of presets, using the left and right arrows, plus a second icon which applies light bleed to the entire image, rather >

than just the edges.

You don’t have any strength or position of the light bleed, so it’s a case of trial and error

installed it’s possible to generate a multitude of looks from just the one photo, and the end results are really effective. You can then share your image via > You can buy six additional filters for $1.99 (£1.49)

Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, or save it to your Camera Roll, and email or share it from there.

Rather than just make your shots look faded or retro, MullerPhoto’s range of black and white, moody bleach bypass or vivid cross process effects – and all with

SNAP IT UP

“A little pricey, but easy to use and the end results speak for themselves”

SWIPE SCORE

SWIPE SCORE

PORTRAY Heartbeats Vinegar, INC. VERSION 1.0 PRICE $0.99 ÂŁ0.69 SIZE 42.6 MB

S

bad photo, or make a decent shot more interesting. Portray goes one step

>

further and attempts to turns your photo into a piece of natural media art.

At its most basic, using Portray is simply a case of importing a photo and tapping style, such as pencil sketch, watercolor, oil painting and so on. In most cases, you’ll get an image which certainly looks

Wipe on, wipe off

If you want to make further changes you the ability to manually erase or enhance the effect, with control over the brush emphasis in a certain area, or make it more pronounced.

>

On top of this you can actually make more drastic changes by tapping the ‘Lab’ button. This opens up another menu giving you access to the art style, image brightness and tone, the overall color scheme (rather than ink color), plus the style of paper. >

Tap a preset to begin your masterpiece

This pencil sketch eect makes for a nice vintage eect

There are few niggles with the app, though. For starters, there’s little in-line help apart from a very simple guide to the controls. Also there’s no undo, so you have to be careful when brushing the effect on and off. You can’t revert to the original photo if you don’t like what you’ve done, although you can change all aspects of the effect ‘live’. >

You can paint the effect on and off

There are three add-on packs available in the Portray ‘Art Supplies Store’, which add new color schemes, media and paper styles. These are $0.99 (£0.69) each, and they really add to the variety of what you can achieve with the app. It’s a shame they’re not available in one pack for less money, but it only pushes the price up to four bucks for the whole ensemble. >

Tap the Lab button for more options

This ‘Sketchy Pencil’ treatment works well...

... But ‘Rough Charcoal’ is less effective

On the iPhone’s small screen, the results on the Mac, they’re something of a proper sketches, while others just look the contrast cranked up, rather than displacing the underlying image.

The ‘Van Gogh’ effect isn’t entirely convincing

>

This image is wonderfully aged, but it’s no oil painting

The watercolor and oil effects are particularly uninspiring – the results can be nice, but they just don’t look like natural media paintings.

Portray attempts to do something quite succeed. It’s more hit than miss, but just be aware of its limitations.

ART ATTACK

“A fun way to add interest to your images.

You can get pleasing results with a bit of experimentation –– just don’t expect miracles”

SWIPE SCORE

SWIPE SCORE

XHeartbeats NSKETCH Pierre Gougelet VERSION 1.0 PRICE $0.99 ÂŁ0.69 SIZE 5.7 MB

Give your snaps a contemporary feel with

T

artwork from your photos, but takes a slightly different approach to Portray, with more of a sketchy, pop-art look. >

XnSketch can create a variety of eects

Again, the process is very simple: take then scale and crop it to suit. In the edit screen, there are 19 preset styles which scroll across the bottom of the screen; tap on one and the effect is applied.

Hit and miss

There are two other buttons: one brings up sliders for Brightness, Contrast and Saturation, while the other offers control over Edge Strength and Opacity. In truth, these sliders don’t always do what you can be a lengthy case of trial and error.

Once you get the image the way you like, the share button gives you the option of sending it to the app’s library or >