The iPhoneography blog welcomes Star Rush, our first Interview and Showcase Editor

Recently the iPhoneography blog posted a position for an "Interview and Showcase Editor". The process has been slow [on my part], but I am pleased to introduce the first of our new editors, Star Rush.

For those who know Star, then you will be well aware of her presence in the iPhoneography community, but for those who don't, then I will leave Star to introduce herself.

About Me

My name is Star Rush and I live and work in Seattle.

Click to read more ...

Focus on Imaging: It's Perfectly Clear

Above: Brad Malcolm, President of Athentech Imaging.2 weeks ago today, I attended the "Focus on Imaging" Expo at the Birmingham NEC, here in the UK. Whilst there, I met up with Brad Malcolm, President of Athentech Imaging, the people behind the iPhone/iPad app and desktop plugins Perfectly Clear. Now as many of you know, Perfectly Clear has had a turbulent past 6 months, which started when the app was updated from version 1.x to 2.0, which brought us some new and improved features, but also some bugs and major stability problems. As some of you may know, I had the chance to work closely with Brad and his development team, trying to help them resolve some of these crashes, by beta testing both the iPhone and iPad versions prior to their releases, so this meeting was a good opportunity for me to catch up with Brad, and ask him what had gone wrong.

During the meeting we talked about the app, the problems, that I and many of you had been, and still are experiencing, and we shared ideas and thoughts. Brad was very open and frank about the app and the problems, and whilst I can not disclose the content of this part of the conversation, I am now fully understand what happened, what went wrong, but most importantly what Athentech are planning to do to resolve the issues. What I can say is that Brad and his team are 100% committed to these apps, and that version 3.0 of Perfectly Clear will bring this much used and loved app back to the top of its league, and whilst there are no timescales on a version 3.0 release, I am sure it will be sometime before the end of the summer.

Now for those of you who do not have a copy of Perfectly Clear, I have some good news, I have a small number of promo codes for both Perfectly Clear for the iPhone and Perfectly Clear for the iPad. Now you wont find these promo codes anywhere else on the web, these are exclusive to the iPhoneography blog, so if you don't already own a copy of Perfectly Clear, and would like the chance of bagging yourself a free copy, then post in the comments section, which version you would like, and why I should give you one of these rare promo codes [keep it clean please ;)] and over the next few days I will select what I think are the best comments and email the lucky winners a promo code.

Update on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 1:23PM by Glyn Evans

*** OFFER HAS NOW ENDED ***

Due to the limited number and high demand for these promo codes I have ended the offer early, so those lucky enough to have been selected will have received an email from me with their promo code.

Well done to those who won, better luck next time for those who didn't.

App Update: Perfectly Clear & Perfectly Clear for iPad

"With this update, Perfectly Clear has finally found itself back on my iPhone" - editor

After a turbulent past few months, most of the bugs in Perfectly Clear and Perfectly Clear for iPad have finally been resolved and the app updates are now available.

Click to read more ...

Perfectly Clear update, and new iPad app

Perfectly Clear for iPhone: The current situation

Many of you have been asking what is going on with Perfectly Clear for the iPhone.  Well the app is now as stable as it is ever likely to be.  On the iPhone 4 you should be able to easily edit 10 or more photos at full-res without any crashes, although due to the memory intensive processes used, this may not be possible on older iPhones. As for the noise reduction process, or lack of it, Athentech are still working with their partner, and are trying to iron out the issues that are affecting the efficiency of this filter on the iPhone 4. (Please note: The failure of noise reduction filter is an iPhone 4 problem only).

Many of you may have seen that Athentech recently released Perfectly Clear for the iPad, and I have seen some comments about this app being released before the iPhone version had been fixed.  Whilst there is still an outstanding issue with the noise reduction filter on the iPhone 4 version, the iPad version has not just been rushed out.  In fact, the release of this iPad version had been planned to coincide with the initial release of Perfectly Clear version 3.0 for the iPhone, but was put on hold following the issues that arose.

Just as with the iPhone version, I helped Athentech test this iPad release, and after several months of working with the developers, testing and tweaking it, I finally gave it my thumbs up, and so on the 28th October, Perfectly Clear for iPad hit the App Store.

The App: Perfectly Clear for iPad

Perfectly Clear for iPad was released on the 28th October, and below is what Athentech say about it.

"We've taken all the amazing features and functionality from our award winning Perfectly Clear iPhone app, re-designed it and optimized the workflow for the iPad, and added even more powerful automatic corrections and functionality to create the ultimate iPad correction app!

No effort is required to create and then share beautiful looking images with this fun-to-use app. Watch as the Perfectly Clear automatic corrections peel off your original photo to reveal a bright, color corrected, crisp photo with flawless skin and details you didn’t see in your original. Perfectly Clear also provides the ability to fine tune the automatic corrections with easy to use sliders and presets.

The Perfectly Clear iPad app applies over 8 patented corrections and 10 years of scientific research, automatically delivering you a beautiful photo you can’t wait to share. Powered by the same technology licensed to many of the largest photography companies, retailers, and labs around the world."

3 simple steps to Perfectly Clear photos:

1. Open a photo from your photo albums and Perfectly Clear will automatically correct it.
2. There are 6 presets that you can choose from to correct your photo, or you can easily and quickly tweak your photo by adjusting 8 different image characteristics (Tint, Exposure, Contrast/Depth, Sharpness, Color Vibrancy, Perfectly Smooth Skin, Skin Tone, and remove unwanted Noise). View the histogram for an analysis of your correction.
3. Save and share via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Features unique to the Perfectly Clear for iPad:

• Perfectly Smooth - A breakthrough and patented skin correction which renders flawless skin, all with the touch of a button!
• Skin Tone Correction - automatically removes the excess red captured by cameras
• The same powerful noise removal found in our Photoshop plug-in
• Four new presets (portrait, landscape, noise removal, tint removal), for a total of 6 presets, plus the ability for you to create unlimited new custom presets

So what's this new iPad version like?

Well this app is as good as the iPhone version, having no problems processing up to 5 megapixel photos, but unlike the iPhone version, it does have the added benefit of letting you save your own custom pre-sets.

I've not tested the noise reduction filter, as during my testing I wanted to concentrate on the apps stability, but I am assured by Athentech, that the bug that has plagued the iPhone version does not affect this iPad app.

Overall this is a good app, and ideal for those iPad users who edit their digital photos on their iPads, but if you already have the iPhone version, then this app will not really add anything new.

App Store Link: Perfectly Clear for iPad; Price: £3.49/$5.99/€4.99

App Update: Perfectly Clear version 2.1

After a false start, Perfectly Clear version 2.1 has just been released and fixes all the crashing problems experienced by most iPhone users, following the recent introduction of version 2.0.

I have personally been working closely with Athentech Imaging, the people behind Perfectly Clear following all the problems introduced by version 2.0, and as a result Perfectly Clear version 2.1 has been been completely rewritten, and now uses less memory, which was causing the crashing on all devices.

In addition to this major bug being fixed, the developers have also corrected the wording of "Perfect Exposure" on iPhone 4, and corrected the dimensions in the settings screen for saving full resolution photo on iPhone 4.

As previously reported, version 2.x of Perfectly Clear now includes an optional noise reduction filter, which can be purchased from with in the app for £1.19/$1.99/€1.59.

App Store Link: Perfectly Clear; Price: £1.79/$2.99/€2.39

Update on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7:18AM by Glyn Evans

Please note: There is a technical glitch with the noise reduction filter not applying and saving correctly on full-res (5 megapixel) images on the iPhone 4.  This is being investigate, and an app update should be available soon.

Open letter from Brad Malcolm, President, Athentech Imaging

Thank you for your continued interest in Perfectly Clear and thanks for your feedback on version 2.0.  It has been brought to our attention that our app is crashing for many of you when saving photos.

We did actually perform extensive testing on iPhones 3, 3G, and one iPhone 4 (we were only able to acquire one in Canada 4 days ago!) and also iPod touches with various operating systems, all with good results.  Unfortunately testing devices aren’t always representative of real life devices, and the Apple process of testing adhoc builds is certainly not perfect.  In addition Apple is continually releasing new OS versions and stopping support and simulation for developers of older Operating Systems, which further complicates matters.  This is why our testing, and also that of other Companies that you’ve mentioned, aren’t always able to catch all the bugs before releasing live.

Perfectly Clear delivers a very powerful result, which is of course why you purchased it.  We are able to produce such a powerful result because of our patented and unique science.  The flip side of this equation is that Perfectly Clear is very memory intensive, and the Apple OS forces apps to shut-down when a memory spike occurs.  This happens when you are saving full resolution images.  This problem is compounded on older devices (iPhone 3 for example) that have less memory, especially if they are running the latest OS (version 4.x) which utilizes more memory.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and we are working hard on trying to fix this.  It is our goal for your Perfectly Clear app to perform Perfectly once again while delivering the high quality that you expect and deserve.

Some of you also asked why we don’t support the higher resolution graphics on iPhone 4.  We actually do include specical graphics for the iPhone 4 – this is why our build is now double the size as it was before.

With respect to our noise removal, we have partnered with Stoik Imaging.  Both our testing and independent testing by several of our large licensing customers confirmed that the Stoik noise removal is the most powerful and effective noise removal in the market today.  We have also worked with many professional photographers for our Photoshop Plug-in and they love what this noise removal does for their photos and how it is superior to what they can do in both Photoshop and Lightroom.  As a result and after reviewing the other offerings available for the iPhone, we decided to offer this as an optional feature to you.  We are charging for it because we want our partner Stoik to make some money from it so they can continue to advance it to ensure your pictures can look their best.  We are not charging the same price as our app itself ($2.99 USD) – but rather less then a cup of coffee at $1.99.  I am surprised that a few of you mentioned you are not seeing any difference with it on – please feel free to contact me or send me the example photos at support@athentech.com and I’ll be happy to be of assistance.

Lastly, there seems to be some confusion on the new features of version 2.0.  We are NOT charging for the smarter sharpening, the sharing abilities (Facebook, Twitter, email), custom preset, or the auto save of your original photo.  These are free upgrades to all current customers and were ideas from you.  The only extra, and optional, charge, is for noise removal.

Thanks for your patience and understanding, and as always, I welcome your feedback.

Brad Malcolm, President, Athentech Imaging

Editors comments: I am currently working with Athentech Imaging testing their betas on both my iPhone 3G running the latest version of iOS 3 and my iPhone 4, also running the latest version of iOS 4, so rest assured we will get there in the end.

App Update: Perfectly Clear version 2.0

WARNING: Do NOT upgrade to this version as it is buggy and crashes whilst saving on the iPhone 3G running iOS 3.x and the iPhone 4.

If you have an iPhone 4, then please ensure you are running iOS 4.0.2, as this seems to fix the crashing problems.  Currently there is no fix for older versions of iOS.

Please read the updates below for the latest information on this update.

Perfectly Clear has just been updated to version 2.0, bringing some really nice features, like the automatic noise removal, which is an in app purchase, costing £1.19/$1.99/€1.59.

What's New In Version 2.0

1. Powerful automatic noise removal

• Grainy/noisy images are a major problem with iPhone photos. Until now there has been no iPhone app effectively dealing with this. Powered by our partner Stoik Imaging, we're offering this correction -- specifically optimized for iPhone photos -- as an optional feature via the in app purchase. Unlike other noise removal corrections that blur photos after removing noise, our solution is unique in preserving the crisp details.

2. Ability to share images via

• email
• twitter
• facebook

3. Smarter Sharpening

• A revised engine giving you more precise and accurate sharpening. For our Default preset for automatic processing, less sharpening is applied. For your fine tuning needs, the sharpening range has been doubled.

4. Shake out the edit control panel, then shake it back.

5. User defined preset: you can now create your own unique preset for custom results

6. Added settings panel:

• Fewer clicks to save a photo - now when you press the “save button” your photos will be automatically saved to the resolution you set. Note that if you’ve synched your photos via iTunes, your photos will be re-sized by iTunes to 320 X 480 – and this will be the largest size available to save
• Ability to automatically save the original photo taken with iPhone camera through our app

App Store Link: Perfectly Clear; Price: £1.79/$2.99/€2.39

Update on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:34PM by Glyn Evans

UPDATE:  Following some comments on Facebook and some further testing, it looks like Perfectly Clear version 2.0 runs fine on an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0.2.  I was originally running iOS 4.0.1 on my iPhone 4, but following the OS update, which I have just completed, I am now able to fully process a 5 megapixel image with no crashes.

Updating to iOS 4.0.2 should solve the crashing problems on the iPhone 4, and possibly the 3G and 3GS, but if you are running an older iOS, then do not upgrade as the app will not work as advertised.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Update on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 11:57PM by Glyn Evans

UPDATE:  Just purchased the Noise Removal Add On, and this also seems to work fine on the iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0.2, so at present it looks like if you have an iPhone 4 running the very latest version of the iOS, then you are safe to buy or update, but everyone else should wait for the fix.

Stay tuned for further updates....

Update on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 2:21PM by Glyn Evans

UPDATE: I am in talks with Athentech Imaging the developers of Perfectly Clear, and they are investigating the issues being raised by everyone here at the iPhoneography blog and those over at Marty Yawnick's blog, Life in LoFi.

Update on Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 10:25AM by Glyn Evans

Read the open letter from Brad Malcolm, President, Athentech Imaging here

My photo, by Dixon Hamby

I noticed this strip of plastic on the sidewalk and thought it would be an interesting image to work with. It pays to look down sometimes.

First I processed the photo with Perfectly Clear, which I use for almost every image I shoot, and has become one of my favorite apps. Next I used PS Mobile's Vibrant effect, which I like because it isn't too harsh. Then I used FX Photo Studio Simmetry Quad filter, and finally I finished off the photo with CameraBag's Magazine effect to produce the photo below.

If you would like to share your "how to" photo, then send me an email, and I will email back details on how to submit your photo to the blog.

Athentech Imaging makes everything Perfectly Clear

I'm not sure how I missed this app, but thanks to reader Matthew Chappell I may have found the perfect iPhone application to correct those exposure and colour imbalances were all familiar with.

Perfectly Clear is billed as your 1 click solution to fix your dark, washed-out, flat, and fuzzy looking iPhone photos, but how well does it stand up against the competition.  Read on to find out what I think about this app, and how I think it compares to the competition.

The App

Launch the app and from the home/splash screen you are presented with three options:

• Open Picture - which as the name suggests allows you to select and load a photo from the camera roll/photo album
• Take Picture - this allows you to launch the camera app, take a photo and import it straight in to the app
• More Info - this tells you about the app, displaying the same information as per the developers AppStore description

Once you have selected your source and loaded the photo the app auto-corrects your shot, instantly showing a before and after effects of your photo via a vertical split screen view, which can be adjusted by sliding your finger left or right. If you are happy with the auto-sorrection then you need do nothing more than select save, however if you want to make further adjustments to you photo, then tapping the right hand side of the screen will reveal the following options:

• EXPOSURE: Perfect Exposure is the most important correction and forms the core for all other corrections. Perfect Exposure optimizes the light in every pixel. This patented approach corrects the image to emulate how your eye gathers light thereby replicating what you saw at the time of taking the photo.
• CONTRAST: Increasing the shadows in a photo helps reveal the textures and shapes in the scene. This provides visual cues of the 3D world in a 2D photograph. Perfectly Clear optimizes the contrast in each pixel, choosing the right amount of shadow to provide those 3D cues without losing details in those shadows, giving you a photograph that is very eye-pleasing with lots of “punch”.
• COLOR VIBRANCY: Due to the linear nature of digital camera sensors, when more light is gathered, the sensors frequently become over saturated and color vibrancy is lost. That’s why your images often look like a newspaper that has been left out in the sun. Perfectly Clear’s color vibrancy correction puts the rich colors back into your photo.
• SHARPEN: Perfectly Clear’s proprietary sharpening is a series of very powerful and unique algorithms developed to deliver a crisp looking photo that is artifact free.
• TINT REMOVAL: Abnormal tint occurs in situations where the sensors of the camera have inappropriately picked up excess green from fluorescent lights, or excess blue from ultraviolet, or excess yellow from tungsten lights. Perfectly Clear's patent pending process will automatically remove these unwanted tints.

In addition to the slider bars there are a further two preset options:

• DEFAULT: reloads the preset as it is applied to each image when first loaded.
• FIX DARK: this preset is particularly good for images that have very dark and very bright areas.

Above: My Jim Carey photo that I use to test flash emulating apps. Here it has received the Perfectly Clear 'FixDark' preset which easily matches if not betters other flash emulation apps.When you are satisfied with your tweaked photo it is time to save it, and hitting Save brings up the save box with options to save at up to 1600x1200 on the iPhone 3G or up to 1536x2048 on the 3GS.

What do I think about Perfectly Clear?

In a word "FANTASTIC". This app does everything that iFlashReady and AutoAdjust can do for me, but with much greater control.

The auto-correction function produces very similar results to that of AutoAdjust, however the additional adjustments puts Perfectly Clear ahead, and the 'FixDark' preset matches the results produced by apps like iFlashReady, but again the additional adjustments puts Perfectly Clear ahead of the game again.

Above: The original non tweaked dark photoAbove: The same photo given the Perfectly Clear 1 click fixAbove: The same photo given the AutoAdjust treatmentThis app is going to replace 4 of my permanent, as so gets the iPhoneography recommended award.

AppStore Link: Perfectly Clear (Patented Automatic Photo Correction) - Price £1.79/$2.99

New iPhone Photo App: Perfectly Clear – Patented Automatic Photo Correction

Description from the AppStore: Tired of dark, washed-out, flat, and fuzzy photos with your iPhone? With 1 click you can now have beautiful photos automatically corrected to perfection!

The Perfectly Clear app applies multi-patented corrections automatically to your photos. Powered by the same technology licensed to many of the largest photography companies, retailers, and labs around the world, the Perfectly Clear iPhone app makes it possible to automatically reveal the full color vibrancy, sharpness, and lighting that you saw when you took the photo.

Did you know that parts of photos are underexposed because there is only a single aperture? To learn more about what sets our digital corrections apart from traditional corrections, and how we treat each pixel as if it were taken with its own aperture to ensure proper exposure, check our website.

Simply take a photo, or choose one from your library, and Perfectly Clear will automatically correct it.

There are 2 presets that you can choose from to correct your photo. In addition, you can easily and quickly tweak your photo by adjusting 5 different algorithms, each one uniquely powered by deep science to ensure an accurate, and beautiful correction.

1. EXPOSURE: Perfect Exposure is the most important correction and forms the core for all other corrections. Perfect Exposure optimizes the light in every pixel. This patented approach corrects the image to emulate how your eye gathers light thereby replicating what you saw at the time of taking the photo.
2. CONTRAST: Increasing the shadows in a photo helps reveal the textures and shapes in the scene. This provides visual cues of the 3D world in a 2D photograph. Perfectly Clear optimizes the contrast in each pixel, choosing the right amount of shadow to provide those 3D cues without losing details in those shadows, giving you a photograph that is very eye-pleasing with lots of “punch”.
3. COLOR VIBRANCY: Due to the linear nature of digital camera sensors, when more light is gathered, the sensors frequently become over saturated and color vibrancy is lost. That’s why your images often look like a newspaper that has been left out in the sun. Perfectly Clear’s color vibrancy correction puts the rich colors back into your photo.
4. SHARPEN: Perfectly Clear’s proprietary sharpening is a series of very powerful and unique algorithms developed to deliver a crisp looking photo that is artifact free.
5. TINT REMOVAL: Abnormal tint occurs in situations where the sensors of the camera have inappropriately picked up excess green from fluorescent lights, or excess blue from ultraviolet, or excess yellow from tungsten lights. Perfectly Clear's patent pending process will automatically remove these unwanted tints.

TIPS:

• Slide your finger sideways across the photo to compare the before and after results.
• Tapping your finger on the photo will toggle between the before and after image.
• The “Default” preset is applied to each image when first loaded.
• The “Fix Dark” preset is particularly good for images that have very dark and very bright areas.
• For fixing really dark images try turning the Color Vibrancy control off in addition to the contrast control. Tap on the word “Color Vibrancy” or on the word “on” to turn it off.
• If you get a "running low on memory" message, just close it and relaunch.

AppStore Link: Perfectly Clear – Patented Automatic Photo Correction - Price £1.79/$2.99

Editors comments: Reader Matthew Chappell tipped me off about this app that has been out for a little while, but is one that I missed, and below are his comments on this app.

You said a while back to let you know if I found an effective instant fix App to emulate flash/fix exposure! Well I just tried out Perfectly Clear today and have to say I'm very impressed, its great at fixing tungsten lighting if you use the Default settings and just place tint at full if need be. But the reason I bought it was to test its FixDark mode which doesn't really emulate flash like iFlashReady but does lighten the dark areas of my images more than any other App I've tested. It has less noise than Zipix, but more than FlashCam in exchange for revealing a lot more hidden detail, though it does suffer the same blown out colours I found with that FlashCam there is a fix if you tap the contrast slider.

The interface is very nice but the comparison slider line can be a bit awkward to get back on screen until you tap the control panel on and off again!

Hope this heads up helps and here is the App's site http://www.athentech.com/iPhone.html