iPhone App Review: iTake-5
Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 3:50PM iTake-5 from Digital Arts is billed as a simple straightforward app for optimizing photos the iPhone way using Digital Arts' professional Xe847® image optimization technology to generate 5 different versions of your photo, so that you can quickly choose the best one.
The idea is simple, iTake-5 generates 5 versions of your photo with different colour casts and displays them in pairs, so you can choose the one you like better until you have narrowed your choice down to 1 photo. This all happens in just a matter of seconds, you are done.
Features:
- simple, intuitive, fast, fun, efficient
- tap between a pair, and versions are merged into a new one
- solutions, not features
- nice 3D animated graphics
So how does this app work, well first off launch the app and after the loading screen you are present with a clean and simple interface, with two large buttons/icons. The top left icon is a camera lens, and as it suggests, takes you to the camera interface where you can take your shot and load straight in to the app. The second icon says "PHOTOS" and this takes you to the photo album so you can load an existing photo from your camera roll. Once loaded you are presented with a nice simple interface with the first 2 photos shown side-by-side (which can be viewed in either portrait or landscape mode), then just touch the photo you prefer out of the 2 and then another one will slide in with a predefined filter applied. Continue this process until you finally have the result you want, you can even touch between the 2 displayed photos to combine their effects in to one, then simply touch the photo you are left with and it is save to your camera roll. 
Above: Interface with 2 images side-by-side
Above: The final image, just touch to saveFor me this app is a real photographers app, as someone who in the past ran a photo processing lab, I very often see colour casts that this app will be able to fix quickly and easily, for example how often have you seen a landscape picture with nice magenta tinted fluffy clouds? or a nice sunflower with blue tinged foliage? well this app should allow you to correct this in one of the easiest ways.
Final thoughts
Overall this is a well designed and thought out app, with very little to complain about. The only gripe I have, and this is a minor one, is the price, which at £2.39 ($3.99) for me is a little too high, but as has been raised in the comments of a previous post, it is better to sale less apps at a higher price, than lots of apps at a lower price, as this allows for better end user support. Whilst in general I agree with this, I think it would be good idea to have released this app at a special introductory price of say £1.19 ($2.99), and then raise the price a week or two later. This would allow those people that may be sat on the fence (even after reading this review) to try out the app, and hopefully post positive feedback in the AppStore, to the developers benefit.
OK, back to the app, which as I have said has "very little to complain about", and in use is sleek and smooth, from the loading screen to the visuals when touching images during the selection process. After playing with the app for a short period there is only one thing missing, and that is the ability to pinch and zoom in on a photos, which would have aided viewing the different effects, but overall this is a worthy application that will form part of my iPhoneography kit.
If you've read this far, then the good news is that I have 5 promo codes for this app to give away, so if you want the chance of getting one, just post your request and I will select 5 lucky winners after 6pm GMT on Friday 20th Februaury.
Price: £2.39 ($3.99)
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Reader Comments (16)
Hi there, I'd love to give this a try. There aren't too many iPhone apps out there that give you fine control over color correction.
I am on the constant lookout for good iPhone photo applications and would like get my hands on a promo code. Thanks!
Very nice app. Pick me for the promo code. :)
Thanks for your thoughts on this application. After watching the video, I agree with you about its great user interface.
I really like the thought of being able to load existing pictures into this application. I cant wait to try it out.
PS: Cant wait to see if I am selected for the promo code giveaway!
I agree with it all & bought it instantly. I do however also agree about the steep price & think it should have had an introductory sale of $1.99 for a week or two. Then be raised to a full price. As well I hope more functions will be added at a later date. Plus there was no settings / options button & not even an info button. So well seeing that is won't confuse others it left me wanting to see & read more yet nothing was there. Either way very well done app, quality product! excellent interface & animated screen... shows that alot of time & experience went into this app showing it is raising the bar like many other quality apps are. It does what it does very well & should satisfy all that buy it.
Interesting!!
I want a promo code too!! :)
Hmm, this looks like quite the interesting photo app. I'm loving the idea of process of elimination to choose the best picture. :)
Wow you're doing a lot of giveaways again Glyn, way to go! xD
If it wasn't for you, I'd never know half these amazing apps ever existed.
Thanks for the giveaways Glyn! iTake-5 looks like a fun app, I like having the ability to choose my favorite photo out of 5 with variations.
Thanks again Glyn for working so hard behind the scenes to get these promo codes to give away. I like the limited time raffle style giveaways too. Much more fair than first come first served. Put my name in the hat too please.
I watched the video for iTake-5 and it looks quite fun! I check on your site every day Glyn and it's the best. Thanks so much and keep up the blogging! ;)
Your reviews convinced me on PhotoFX and ColorSplash; I would love to try iTake5 out!
The promo codes have now been emailed out, so enjoy:)
3 euro, high? are you really that cheap?
but spending the same amount for the latest sugarbabes ringtone would be ok or what...
Thanks for the promo code, I've had a couple of hours to play with this app and thought I'd offer some comments.
First off, it should be repeated that this app will generate 5 variations before the selection process even begins. That means the output does not tailor itself to your choices the way that the Variations mode in Adobe Photoshop does for example (choose a warmer option and the next one will be even warmer, etc). It also means you'll get the same 5 results each time you load the same photo. Those looking to explore creative color options with this app should look elsewhere; there are no shortage of apps right now to do crazy color tweaks to your photos. However, the ability to choose a mix of the two photos is a very nice touch, and helps to overcome having "only 5" results.
That said, I found it useful for correcting some photos where a glaring deficiency was present, such as the shot being too dark, or suffering from an unnatural color cast. On most well-captured photos, you're likely to see only very subtle differences. In fact some variations are so subtle that they are hard to make out on the iPhone's screen.
My feature requests for future updates would be to allow the user to zoom into the two presented options for a closer look, and also to give a "Loading..." indication when the final photo is being saved (right now, it can look a little like the app has hung). Also, an Undo/Go Back button would be useful, especially since choosing the in-between blend of two photos does not always turn out the way one might imagine.
Mathias, the price complaint was in comparison with other more feature rich apps like Tiffen's Photo fx, which is only priced at £1.79 ($2.99).