If you’re looking for a little something special to make your travel photography pop, then check out the iPhone app called Color Effects. It’s free and for certain types of photographys, the difference is striking. Just check out this example!
The effect is very striking when you have a space of bold color, like this Canadian flag really demonstrates.
How it Works
So how it works is that you open up the color effects app, and then pull an image off of your camera roll. The app converts the image to greyscale (with a slight degradation of quality on the iPhone 3GS I’m afraid), and then you just use your finger to “color in” certain portions of the image.
Pay attention to the “auto” correction feature, which can be turned on or off by flipping the tab on the upper righthand corner. Turn this off if you want to go free-form, but turn it on if you want help creating fine lines or are trying to color in tight spaces.
I’ve found that the auto fix works really well on stark contrasts – say an iPad being held up to a blue sky – but when the colors are fairly similar, or there is a jagged edge, it isn’t as helpful.
Experiment
I found the best way to try this tool out is to experiment. As you can see, the above shot of the boat with the Canadian flag worked quite well and was very popular on Instagram. Some other shots have mixed opinions.
This photo is from one of the Hebrides Islands in Scotland. I tried both the blue sky and just the grey pole. Lesson learned is that the portion in color has to be 25-50% of the photo and rather bold in color. This is too small and not bright enough.
This image turned out pretty well because of the contrast - and the unique shape of the area in color.
I was excited to try this one out but unfortunately the close up of this photo highlights the deficiencies the 3GS camera.
Try this app – it will bring out the child in you, like an old coloring book!
