Though I haven’t used PhotoShop for the better part of a year, one of my favorite PhotoShop plug-ins was Extensis’ PhotoFrame. The point was simple: add borders to photographs. The results, due in large part to the variety of borders available, were impressive. Sure, there are those that may scoff, “You’re only adding borders. How much of a difference can that make?” But I guess I’m one of those who appreciate the subtleties of photography—of art.
And so too do Web Urban, the development team behind FotoMuse. With FotoMuse, Web Urban have not only set out to provide users with a variety of borders and layers that they can add to their photos, but, more importantly, they have provided users with a chance to create stunning pieces of art.
However, though the goal is grandiose and the results are often impressive, there are some concerns I have about the current version of the app, which I hope will be addressed in future updates.
Application Description (from App Store):
“FotoMuse is a single place where you can import any photo from your album and make it look like a work of art in under 20 seconds. The images you process in FotoMuse can be anything from dark and grainy to colorful and nostalgic. Crop, resize, and mix your images with artifacts from old photos, vintage edged film, and many other options.”
FotoMuse Options:
- Import photos from Camera Roll. Note: You cannot take photos with this app.
- Adjust color and gray of photo. This is optional.
- Apply one of 17 borders to your photo. This is optional.
- Apply one of 21 layer effects to your photo. This is optional.
- Save new photo to your Camera Roll.
Impressions:
I was eager to let my imagination run wild and test out this app to see what I could produce. However, though the UI (user interface) is simple enough to maneuver through, I did have some legitimate concerns about the functionality of each step and, as a result, think it best to discuss my impressions in conjunction with the related editing step:
Step #1: Import and “Crop” Photo from Camera Roll
Per the developer: You can “Import an image using the Album button on the Capture Tab screen. You will be presented with the option to move and crop your image. This will not effect your original.”
- Cropping: Simply put, the app did not crop the image correctly. To me, the given box denotes where the cropping should occur.
Note my son’s hand/fingers on my wife’s neck in the above picture. The resulting picture is not cropped accordingly.
Though a little of his thumb is visible, the rest of my son’s fingers been cropped out. Add to that the fact that most of my wife’s ear has gone missing as well.
- Also, it’s worth noting that FotoMuse doesn’t simply “crop” the image—it zooms in on it. As a result, there is a noticeable loss in photo quality.
- Finally, if you import photos taken in landscape format, the app rotates them 90 degrees. I realize the rotation might be necessary to ensure proper fit in a given “border,” but it would be nice to have the option to rotate it back to its original position after all editing has been made. Currently, the landscape photograph remains rotated and I had to actually import it into a separate app to rotate it back to landscape position.
Step #2: Contrast/Edit (optional)
- “Color+” and “Gray+” allow you to increase the color and gray, but there is not an option to decrease the color and gray once they have been increased. It’s frustrating as you experiment with photos to not have a decrease or undo option alongside the increase. As a result, if I decided that I wanted to remove the last boost of color or gray I had applied, the only option is to exit, start over, and make sure I don’t press Color+ or Gray+ as many times as I did before.
Step #3: Apply a Border (optional)
- Once the Borders tap is pressed, the photograph becomes the background. Simply swipe to the left and the first border is applied. Don’t like it, keep swiping. It’s that simple. If you decide you don’t want a border, simply swipe to the right and the last screen is the original photo without a border.
- From old film borders to the more avant-garde like torn paper edges, there are currently 17 borders that represent a wide variety of aesthetics. What you won’t find are more traditional borders (e.g. wooden frames). To me, this is a plus. There are plenty of apps out there for people who want borders that look like actual picture frames. FotoMuse provides something unique.
- But do the borders do too much? My only gripe with the Borders option is that they do more than just apply borders. Most of the borders in FotoMuse also contain a filter that alters the entire photo instead of just the surrounding edge/border. To clarify, I’ve provided two photos.
Above: Original iPhone photo, as it appears in FotoMuse
Above: Photo with border applied, as it appears in FotoMuse
I love this border, but I don’t like the brownish tint that is applied to the photo when I apply the border. I think it would make more sense to just offer borders in the Borders tab and save the layer effects (e.g. brown tint) for selection in the Layers tab. It’s also worth noting that a brown tint is already an option in the Layers tab.
Step #4: Apply a Layer Effect (optional)
- Again, the ease of swiping between layer effects is well executed.
- As with the Borders tab, there are a wide variety of 21 layer effects to choose from. These are equally impressive and represent a wide variety of choices.
Step #5: Save New Photo
- Once finished, with the press of a button, you can save your newly altered photo to your Camera Roll.
- It is worth noting that, currently, there is not an option to adjust the image output size.
Sample Photograph:
Though I have some concerns about the app, the ease of use cannot be overstated. The example below took a minute to create. Again, this app allows users to express their artistic sensibilities and the potential results are numerous and unique. I’ve included the example below to provide a very small..very small…sample of what is possible.
Above: Original iPhone photo
Above: Photo with border and layer effects appliedSome additional examples can be seen at Web Urban’s FaceBook page.
Pros:
- The borders and layers that come with this app represent a nice overview of tastes. And though there are only a limited number (17 borders and 21 layers), the developer has promised to” immediately be making some changes within the month on two important, free upgrades:
- A low and high resolution save mode that will add the ability to save large, high resolution files.
- More Borders and Layers.
- The results of this app, from my experience and some of those featured on Web Urban’s FaceBook page are impressive.
Cons:
- Though the developer has promised to address the size output issue in future updates, as the app currently stands, there is a significant decrease in photo quality. From my output tests, FotoMuse output the above photos at 320 x 460. This is a significant decrease in quality/size, as the originals were 768 x 1024.
- The cropping tool that is applied for each picture you import crops too much off the left and right side of the photo (i.e. the crop does not coincide with the picture placement in the crop box).
- Contrast/Edit: Color and gray, once changed, cannot be undone. The only thing I could do was go back into Album and import the original photo.
- I wish the borders were just that—borders. There were some borders that I really wanted to use with my photos, but, once applied, the layer effects that accompanied the border were not what I was looking for. Again, I really wish all layer effects were only present in the Layers tab.
Overall:
FotoMuse is far from a FotoMiss. Simply put, it is a quick and easy way to produce some stunning pieces of art on the iPhone. However, it is hard for me to give a strong recommendation for the $2.99 FotoMuse app in its current version (with the quality issue being a significant reason why). For now, a 3 out of 5.
AppStore Link: FotoMuse - Price £1.79/$1.99
@Matt Burrows
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 8:07AM | 
