**WIN A COPY FOR YOURSELF!!!**

Written By: Daniel Scott

GhostBird Software’s photo editing tool is pure magic.

PhotoForge ($4.99)

PhotoForge is a highly optimized editing and painting application designed for the iPhone and iPod touch. It can be used for image manipulation, retouching, effects, and color correction, as well as a painter’s tool. It is indispensable for creating original artwork, or editing photos on your mobile device.

My Take

Features

Ok, if you work at all in Photoshop it is NICE to see the grayscale/transparent checkerboard, something familiar to see.  All the tools are on the top and bottom of the screen.  Easy to use, just tap the bottom left corner folder icon and pick an existing picture from your library, or snap a new one.  There’s only one color space, RGB of course and it’s off to editing with your finger.

After I played around with a photo, I saved it and emailed the file to myself in order to open it up in Photoshop and check out the pixel dimensions and other things.  Surprisingly, the size is at 584 x 800 and the photo was taken by my iPhone.  Screenshots and actual iPhone camera shots are at 320 x 480 pixels.  I’m not going to do the math for you, but Photoforge just by opening it up and re-saving increases the size to an approximate 8″ x 10″.  On a closer view, I do see the grainy-ness, so don’t expect 300 dpi size to print perfection.  It’s built for mobile use and you should rely on your trusty SLR instead.

Adjustments include Curves, Noise Reduction, Sharpen, Auto White Balance, Auto Exposure, Manual Exposure, Brightness and Contrast.  The one that stands out is the manual exposure.  I can’t tell you enough how much that’s needed with the built in camera.  There are ways to control the color balance if you are in a controlled setting.  But 99.99% of us are not in any control of our light source or any outside influences.  Even though it has one slider and attached to the brightness contrast icon, it’s still a quick fix to take out the crappy florescent lighting or whatnot.

Finish Product

As far as editing tools are as follows: Brush Tool (8 brushes!), Smudge Tool, Clone Stamp Tool, Eraser Tool, Magnify Tool, Eye Dropper tool, and a Fill Tool.  The Magnify Tool is essentially the same as the pinch and pull technique when surfing on the web in the Safari app.   It does however allow you to get in some good detail since the brush strokes scale to the magnification.  That right there should be a strong sell point.  I was struggling with using my finger on a small photo, zooming in helps.

To round off the tools and adjustments, there are one shot preset filters: Black & White, Dreamy, Enhanced, Lomo, Sepia, Night Vision, Heat
Map, Pencil, Neon, Blur, Emboss, Sunset, Blue Sky and Television.

So what to do when you screw up the picture way down the line of your editing?  There is an unlimited amount of undo, even after closing the app!   So it keeps up with the cache you made in processing the enhancements until you save the file and start a new one.  One other side note, once a tool is selected, tap the screen again to close the dialog menu, start painting, the tools move away from the screen entirely.  When you stop after 3 seconds the tool come back at your disposal.  Nice touch!

The Cons

The sliders are a little tough to control and/or they aren’t as responsive while I adjust some settings, I have to wait on the processor to catch up to my commands.  One trick I might add as a quick fix is to utilize a free memory app to, well, free some memory up!  I use (you guessed it) Free Memory to get at least 20Mb freed up. That should help the speed, but I’m sure some more optimized tweaking is in the works to fix that annoyance.

Ok, it would be cool to save out as a png 8 with alpha transparency.  I know for a fact this app could be useful to a web designer fixing or tinkering a website on the fly. Granted this is not built for professional use, having more than a jpg save option would be a nice touch.  If by chance the designer’s laptop battery died, and there’s no electricity in sight, they will take it to extreme measures to fix a small problem in a hurry.

Conclusion

Let’s face it, the raw photos taken with your iPhone are crap.  If you can choose one app, look into PhotoForge.  Good news! The developer’s website is rich in tutorials and content. It’s a 5 dollar app, Photoshop in your pocket, just enough tools to make some crucial editing on the fly.

Contest

What should we ask this time? Oh I know:

What will you use this utility for? Is it something you like doing? Please join ONLY if you see a need for this app and not just trading it for something else. We feel like it’s too great of an app just to get lost for trading / something you won’t use. Ends May 16, 10AM.