Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iDevice Apps, Features, Appidemic
This is the kind of iPhone photography app I can get into. There are probably hundreds of them available, most of which do nothing more than run your photos through the equivalent of a Photoshop filter, then make it easy to share the results. It’s the same with PhotoTropedelic, but I’ll this Peter Max pop art effect over a basic ‘70s Polaroid color shift any day.
What is it?
PhotoTropedelic takes your iPhone or iPad photos—from the photo album, camera roll or a new snapshot—and applies some rather complex manipulations in an attempt to turn them into 1960s pop art. Think the aforementioned Peter Max or the style of the Yellow Submarine cartoon.
The filter can draw from the included “tropedelic” color palette or from the natural colors of the photos. The results can then be wirelessly transferred to your computer, saved back to your camera roll, sent as PDFs via e-mail or shared on Facebook.
How does it work?
I have no idea how it works. I know that you can control a few elements, such as determining the level of detail, the number of colors used, how many stars to include, background type, line width, whether to apply a mirror effect, etc. You can’t however, control how they’re used. You can tell the app to include rays, for example, but it’ll decide what color the rays should be. If you don’t like the end result, you can delete it and try again.
Truth be known, you’ll be deleting and trying again quite a bit. Photos are complex, after all, and no filter is going to produce the results you want every time. Quite often, it wiped out what I felt were important parts of the image and replaced them with the background rays, creating disembodied heads floating against a sea of stars, for example.
Although…I’ve never taken acid, but maybe PhotoTropedelic isn’t making a mistake there.
Regardless, the app tended to work better for me when the subject of the photo was basic and up close. PhotoTropedelic tries to simplify your photo as its first step, but sometimes the colors just become an recognizable mess. The funny thing, though, is that sometimes reducing the colors and detail helped, and other times increasing them produced better results. It may take some work to get what you want, but PhotoTropedelic is fun to play with, so you likely won’t mind.
Is it contagious?
Before too long, I found myself taking pictures specifically with PhotoTropedelic in mind. The app could use more social media options (Twitpic? flickr?) from a consumer standpoint, but professionals will like that the resulting PDF images can be further manipulated in vector art programs.
PhotoTropedelic runs well on the iPhone 4 and better on the iPad 2. The iPad is beneficial, as it allows you to get a better feel for the final results of your image. If you’re using the iPhone, you really need to transfer them to your Mac in order to appreciate what PhotoTropedelic has done. And believe me…with some practice and the right image, you will appreciate it.
Now, how long until someone give us an equivalent Patrick Nagel or Roger Dean app?
Category: Photography
Developer: Larry Weinberg
Cost: $1.99
Download: PhotoTropedelic
Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
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