From GhostBird Software, the developers of PhotoForge:"It's been two years since the launch of PhotoForge for the iPhone and over a year since the release of it's iPad counterpart. Today we are very excited to announce the upcoming arrival of PhotoForge2. Completely re-written from the ground up, PhotoForge2 has some of the most powerful photo editing features available in the App Store.
Is PhotoForge2 a paid upgrade? Yes, PhotoForge2 is a totally new app and will be a paid upgrade. That being said, we are working on something special for existing users."
Check out the video below to see previews of some of these amazing new features.
Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 8:35AM | Glyn Evans
For a limited time only, PhotoForge and PhotoForge for the iPad has 60% off its regular price.
PhotoForge is described as being "a highly optimized editing and painting application designed for the iPhone, iPad 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" and "PhotoForge is a superb photographer’s tool, providing digital darkroom capabilities that are second to none. It is also a tool for creating incredible works of art and illustrations. PhotoForge allows you to put together an image, combining filters, brushes, and effects. They may be hand-painted, or a composite of photographic images mixed with painting. The filters and effects can be layered to produce even more dynamic results."
This app falls in to the same category as apps like Iris Photo Suite and Filterstorm, providing high end photo editing on your iDevice.
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 10:42PM | Glyn Evans
PhotoForge and PhotoForge for iPad are currently on sale with 60% off their regular prices.
"PhotoForge is a superb photographer’s tool, providing digital darkroom capabilities. It is also a tool for creating incredible works of art and illustrations. PhotoForge allows you to put together an image, combining filters, brushes, and effects. They may be hand-painted, or a composite of photographic images mixed with painting. The filters and effects can be layered to produce even more dynamic results." - Developers description.
"PhotoForge is the most powerful app of its kind in the App Store and a must-have for artists, creatives or anyone interested in image editing." - MacWorld.com
Description from the AppStore: 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.
PhotoForge is a superb photographer’s tool, providing digital darkroom capabilities that are second to none. It is also a tool for creating incredible works of art and illustrations. PhotoForge allows you to put together an image, combining filters, brushes, and effects. They may be hand-painted, or a composite of photographic images mixed with painting. The filters and effects can be layered to produce even more dynamic results.
Over at iPhone Photo Video the editor has written a short personal comparison between Photogene and PhotoForge.
Having used both of these apps myself, it was interesting to read that another editor is of the same opinion as me. "PhotoForge outshines PhotoGene in the depth and breadth of editing tasks, only PhotoGene handled all the tasks that I need to perform during everyday photo editing".
For the past few weeks I have been playing with PhotoForge from developer GhostBird Software, and had originally planned to write a review, but then due to the complexity of the app decided a video review would show off its features best.
Well in the end I have done neither, as whilst preparing to shoot my hands on video the developer GhostBird Software produced its own excellent video showing all the apps features, so here it is.
During the preparation of this post I also came across an excellent review by Andy Cook over at All About iPhone.net, which, whilst is a lengthy read, covers the app really well.
Having watched the video, read the review and played with app, I have to say this app really is Photoshop in your pocket, but do you really want Photoshop in your pocket?
For me the answer to this question is no.
Trying to do Photoshop style editing like cloning on a 3.5" screen really is not practical and saving edited photos is slow due to the fact that this app is pushing the boundaries of what the iPhone's processor is capable of.
A lot of the apps features and filter options are really good, and matches any of the other photo apps available for the iPhone, but I did find the colour picker and cloning tools were poor, as my sample photo shows, when trying to remove the balloon by cloning the sky, the results were very blotchy.
All-in-all this is a well designed, well thought out app that is let down by the fact it is trying to do to much, on a handheld device, and for me I have to say "if you want Photoshop type features, then stick to Photoshop."
Despite my negative comments this app is well worth a look, and I have to commend the developer for their attempts to produce a Photoshop app that fits in your pocket, which they have come very close to achieving.
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.
PhotoForge is a superb photographer’s tool, providing digital darkroom capabilities that are second to none. It is also a tool for creating incredible works of art and illustrations. PhotoForge allows you to put together an image, combining filters, brushes, and effects. They may be hand-painted, or a composite of photographic images mixed with painting. The filters and effects can be layered to produce even more dynamic results.
ADJUSTMENTS:
Curves - Perhaps the most powerful and flexible image transformation tool, essentially enabling you to create your own filters.
Noise Reduction - Digitally reduces color noise present in the photo. (Apply multiple times for more reduction)
Sharpen - Sharpen images to remove the softness introduced during digital photo capture
Auto White Balance - Removes unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo.
Auto Exposure - Corrects exposures by adjusting light intensity.
Manual Exposure - Manually adjust photo exposure with a single slider
Brightness and Contrast - Manually adjust the brightness and contrast of your photos with these sliders.
TOOLS:
Brush tool - Experiment with 8 different brush strokes. Choose from unlimited sizes, colors, and transparency options.
Smudge tool - Smears the pixels along the direction of the brush stroke. Use the Smudge tool in the same way as you would your finger when working with a pencil or charcoal.
Clone Stamp tool - Works by ‘sampling’ pixels at one location in an image, and painting them in a different location. Essential for retouching images.
Eraser tool - Able to erase away portions of brush strokes, filters or effects applied to the image. For example, this tool will allow you to colorize black and white filtered images, among countless other uses.
Magnify tool - Allows you to zoom in and out, as well as pan, without damaging the editing work. Landscape editing is supported.
Eye Dropper tool - Selects the colors of individual pixels in an image. Use the Eye Dropper by moving your finger over the image, and reading/selecting the tonal values at different points.
Fill tool - Enables you to fill the visible area of the image with color.
FILTERS:
Black & White
Dreamy
Enhanced
Lomo
Sepia
Night Vision
Heat Map
Pencil
Neon
Blur
Emboss
Sunset
Blue Sky
Television
OTHER FEATURES:
Load photos from your camera and your photo albums
Start painting from a blank canvas
Edit in portrait or landscape mode
Hide the toolbars in full screen mode
Resume previous sessions if interrupted
Unlimited undo option allows you to revert your editing mistakes
Save to 4 different output sizes; 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1600x1200 (Change through settings menu)
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 9:39PM | 
From GhostBird Software, the developers of PhotoForge: "It's been two years since the launch of PhotoForge for the iPhone and over a year since the release of it's iPad counterpart. Today we are very excited to announce the upcoming arrival of PhotoForge2. Completely re-written from the ground up, PhotoForge2 has some of the most powerful photo editing features available in the App Store.
