TECH SPOTLIGHT

Instagram, Photoshop Touch allow photo modification without touching laptop

— It’s a lot easier nowadays to get great photos on the go.

I take my camera practically anywhere, because you never know when you’re going to find a great photo opportunity. At worst, I have my phone with me to snap a picture or two.

The problem is in the processing. Sure, you can take a good photo, but it often takes a computer with some powerful software to make that good photo look great. At least, that used to be the case. Nowadays, companies are providing fun and functional ways to edit and share photos without touching a laptop.

I wanted to touch on a couple of photo applications, including one that has been in the news lately, for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Facebook recently said it would purchase Instagram for $1 billion. That’s a lot of money for a photo app, although it’s a pretty cool app.

Instagram is actually a bit more than just an app. It’s more of a cool, photo-based social media network. You will need an account to post photos online, but the account is free. The service then lets you post your photos and look at those of your friends, family and even strangers. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, though, this social network is only available through the app.

The app is available for both iOS and Android products. The first step is to create an Instagram account through the app and log on. Once that’s done, you can search for your friends from your phone’s contact list or from your Facebook or Twitter account. You also can search by name or user name, or you can let the app suggest friends for you to follow.

Once your account is up and running, you will see your photos and those of your friends when the Home button is highlighted at the bottom of the app. The star button lets you view the most popular photos, the heart button provides a log of friends’ activities, and the last button adjusts settings.

The real key to this app is the middle button, the camera. It lets you take a picture, then it pops up several cool filters for your photo. The filters can give the photo a variety of looks, from over saturated to a faded, retro look. It’s these filters that give Instagram its funkiness. One touch applies the filter, and the photo is ready to share.

The new photo posts to the Instagram site automatically. It also will post to Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr, provided you have the accounts set up in the app and have the toggle switches on.

The Instagram app may be costly to Facebook, but not to you. It’s free for iOS and Android devices, and it’s definitely worth the download.

Instagram provides the fun, but Adobe is providing the functionality for photographers and artists who need to edit on the go.

There are quite a few photo-editing apps out there, but none really had the power you could find in products like Adobe’s Photoshop, the industry standard for image editing.

That changed with the release of Photoshop Touch, an app specially made for Apple’s iPad and Android-based tablet computers.

Touch lets you create a drawing or edit an existing photo. It provides incredibly powerful tools to edit photos, tools that really were lacking in all but a very few photo editing apps previously. With Touch, you can edit not just the color, but each channel that makes up the color photo - red, green and blue. You can create layers, add special effects, crop and rotate, and adjust brightness, contrast and curves. With Touch, you get far more precise editing, particularly in the area of color correction.

Unfortunately, Photoshop Touch is available only for the iPad and Android-based tablet computers, and only if they’re running the latest operating system. It’s understandable, though. It would be very difficult to maneuver the controls precisely on a small phone screen. Plus, this is some pretty potent software, and it’s going to need a potent processor to run it.

Will Photoshop Touch replace your computer’s Photoshop or Elements? No, definitely not. What it will do is provide some powerful editing tools on the go. If you’re an artist or photographer, and you need something powerful, this app is definitely worth the $10 price tag.

Whether it’s for fun or for some serious photography, apps like these are making it easier to leave the laptop behind when hitting the road.

Melissa L. Jones can be reached via e-mail at mljones72@me.com.

Where it’s @

Instagram is available for iOS and Android smart phones and computers, and is free to download from the Android Marketplace or Apple’s App Store. Photoshop Touch is available for iOS- or Android based tablet computers only and retails for $9.99. More information on Instagram is available at http://instagr.am . More information on Photoshop Touch is available at www.photoshop.com/products/mobile/photoshoptouch .

Business, Pages 19 on 04/16/2012

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