PIMP YOUR FEED

Author: glennzb,
Publish Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2020, 8:59AM

Every year, phone cameras defy reality and get better than the year before.

For the right price, you can now by a phone that can take wide-angled pictures in the dark, from hundreds of metres away.

Some phones can even remove unwanted passersby from the background of your shots, or take myriad pictures of all kinds all at once, letting you choose whichever you think is best.

And yet...

Those damn influencers. Why do their best lives still look so much better than your best life? How do their photos always look so... arty. Surely they're not more creative than you. That can't be right. Especially when so many of them seem to be kind of... you know... thick.

If you're looking for a secret weapon to lift your social media game, don't buy a new phone; the answer might lie in an app...

When I was asked to review Adobe Photoshop Camera, I was quick to point out a) I don't usually review software and b) I don't really know anything about photography. They said, "Perfect." This is exactly the app for know-nothing social medial noobs like me who simply don't have the time or the inclination to touch up, tweak and preen their pics.

Essentially, Photoshop Camera is a comprehensive suite of filters, lenses and editing tools with one crucial point of difference; you can apply the effects before you take the photo, or alter the shot later. No matter if you're clicking off selfies or portraits, landscapes or meals, you can take pictures directly from the app itself, posting straight from Photoshop Camera too.

The other beautiful aspect of the app (excuse the pun) is how automatic it is. Sometimes your photo doesn't quite capture what you were intending. This might be a brightness issue, or contrast, or focus or any one of a million other technical things you shouldn't have to worry about. This picture of my beach walk the other day is not a bad picture...

But then I open it in Photoshop Camera and just let it do its thing. Straight away, the whole scene is slightly more vivid, the colours less washed out. More importantly, now there's more detail to be found. The trees, grass and bushes to the left are now green and distinct, no longer lost in shadow. You can even tell the subject in the middle is wearing a blue hat, whereas before you could barely see her head. But wait, there's more....

Photoshop Camera features an expanding, downloadable library of filters. If I apply Blue Skies to the photo, this is what happens. I've gone from mid-winter to late summer with a couple of swipes. I didn't have to isolate the area of sky I wanted to enhance, the app is clever enough to work that out for itself.

Of course, I find making selfies more interesting (and less realistic) to be a major challenge. Nobody wants to see a true-to-life image of me - I wouldn't inflict such a cruel and unusual punishment on anyone. This is where Photoshop Camera really comes into its own.

You ever feel like you're going through a Billie Eilish phase? She has her own library of lenses here. This one, like many of the effects in Photoshop Camera, actually moves and can be saved as a video with the stick men appearing to move out of the screen towards you. Probably disturbing enough as it is.

As I've pointed out already, you can apply this after you've taken the shot or while you're posing, giving you the opportunity to react to those green guys in real time if you want.

This is me having some ideas, I guess. I don't know really - I just like balloons. Oh yes, there's hours of mindless fun to be had here.

Personally, I find Photoshop Camera's ability to touch up existing pics a bit more useful but each to their own.

There's other stuff worth playing around with too, options that let you create art, not just photos.

This is a pretty average picture of a bird that was hanging around while I ate lunch yesterday - and that's after I touched it up with the app. Sure the detail and colours look pretty good but composition-wise... not much of a snap. Do you know how hard it is to get birds to stand still while you wave a smartphone at them? Complete nightmare.

However...

A touch of the old "Color Echo" and hey presto! That's actually something kind of cool I would have never have usually thought of trying to create myself. That's what Photoshop Camera seems to be able to do; turns idiots like me into artists!

Admittedly, I tried the app out on a couple of pretty flash phones but if you don't have the latest, greatest and most expensive camera tech in your pocket, Photoshop Camera might be a far more inexpensive way to add some pizzazz to your gallery.