Saturday, January 22, 2011

Photo Factory

When I was working for large companies resumes were a time consuming necessary chore.  When I hired people to work for me in my department of a small company I realized that a great resume is better written on the back of a matchbook.

New Apps often go to some length to list a number of effects etc.  It's not that they aren't good effects it's that the App it might replace also has a large number of good effects.  Does the proposed App have something new, does it do something better, is it easier to use.  The matchbook resume.

Photo Factory advertises "...a powerful editor with many filters...straightforward...easy to use...powerful."  OK you have my attention.

I grabbed a copy of this App on the day it was free. It sells for $3.99 but is a universal App so I guess that's about right.  Frankly I'm more suspicious of free Apps anyway.  The $3.99 isn't going to hurt me but the time I waste trying to make a poor free App do what I want will  just flat piss me off.

The developer has a demo here:    http://www.mavapps.com/

The App opens to a screen showing the chosen image with FX choices on each side.  There are 4 groupings: Favorites, Transform, Colors and Frame with multiple effects within each group.  The one which caught my attention right away is Transform.  In this group are a number of perspective manipulation tools.  In this image I angled the paper and added a shadow on the bottom.


This effect looks to me like I'm viewing the image from the side.  I did have to smudge the horizontal lines to smooth out the pizelation but not a biggie.

This got me considering using the App to simulate a shift lens or a lens board I might raise to photograph tall buildings.  The results I think are pretty darn good considering the alternatives (and of course the price).



Here's how the App looks on my iPad.  Transform group, I dialed in a -20 as shown and the results seemed to tip the paper top towards me.  It looks like there are 28 different filters within this group.









There are several new filters in this App along with many which are similar to other Apps but have a new twist and are quite easy to use.  New filters, new applications for established filters and easy to use.  Throw your hats on the ice folks, hat trick.