Photo Painting (5): Some More Apps

Popsicolor

Of all the apps, I’ve looked so far, Popsicolor has been the most fun. It transforms images into ink/wash drawings. Not every detail is used, but the app analyses (I guess) colour and contrast to identify “key” lines. Two colours can be introduced into the output by clicking coloured popsicles—ice-lollies—at the top and bottom of the picture; there are 16. There also options for adding black or white ink. There are separate sets of options that adjust the strength, coverage and position of the colours (top/bottom/edges) and blending direction of the colours. The number of treatments that an be achieved is quite large with the different settings available; some of which are mutually exclusive, but many can be combined.

Some images are unsuitable for the Popsicolor treatment. Perhaps, because there is too much detail, or not much contrast or the major features are too small. But there are many where the results are great. They have sort of minimalist retro feel about them.

Apart from being able to save the final result in Photos, Popsicolor integrates with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and the Sincerely postcard service. I have just sent myself a postcard, but will have to wait for its arrival to see the quality of the card. You can also send an email, which includes the image and the details of what settings where used. This could be useful as a reference/recipe to recreate the same look with another image. The same metadata appear in iPhoto, which (I think) is happening via Photo Stream; it can be seen in the image description in the final gallery.

I really had a lot of fun messing with the pictures in my iPad albums, as you might guess from the number of gallery images. Popsicolor is an app that I will definitely continue to play with.