ColorSplash for iPhone (Review)

We've called the 2.0 megapixel camera in the iPhone mediocre and it still is. However, the software applications supporting photography on the iPhone continue to amaze.

ColorSplash by Hendrick Kueck (iTunes Link) is an app that allows you to make some very dramatic changes to your photos for its $1.99 price tag. The software uses a process called desaturation to convert your photos to black and white while letting you leave behind color in select details. The results are stunning.

ColorSplash includes a nice, built-in tutorial to get you going quickly--spend a few moments with it and you'll be a ColorSplash expert in no time. Once you've read through the tutorial, you can select an existing photo in your photo library or take a new one with the camera.

ColorSplash then loads your image and immediately converts it into black and white. You can then selectively add color back into the image using one of four available brushes: hard- or soft-edged, transparent, or opaque. Your finger acts as the brush, and the iPhone touch screen is your canvas. The app offers two viewing modes: Normal, which shows the image in black and white with part color and Red, which shows all the colored areas of your image in a vibrant opaque red. The latter mode allows you to easily see and edit border areas between color and black and white sections of your image. The Pan and Zoom feature makes coloring individual areas easier to edit, getting you closer to the pixels that need to be converted--an important feature given that your finger is normally too large for detailed work.

ColorSplash automatically saves your work in "sessions" in the event that you exit ColorSplash--say, by accidentally striking the home button or receiving a phone call. You can save multiple sessions and completed images are saved to your iPhone camera roll.

The only ColorSplash feature we really did not like is its setting management, which is accessible only via the iPhone's Settings app. It's annoying to leave the app just to change brush sizes could and enable auto-rotate between landscape and portrait.

Why use ColorSplash? One reason is that it turns your photos into aesthetically pleasing art by allowing you to apply color to objects, like this Hibiscus flower, within black and white photos. Another reason is that this is a common technique used by advertisers and photographers to draw the attention of a person looking at your photo onto a specific object in this case a vibrant orange flower.

ColorSplash is easy, fun and provides amazing image results.