By Graham K. Rogers

I have come to like the iPhone rather a lot as a photographic device. It will never replace my DSLR Nikon of course, but the nature of the device, with its quick access to the camera, means it is more likely to be my camera of the moment, although there are many times when I do make the effort and remove the Nikon from my backpack. What makes the real difference for me when using the iPhone is the apps. There are thousands available and each day some thing new arrives.

The iTunes App Store is currently featuring what are being billed as Extraordinary Photo Apps, although those listed may be a rather subjective choice. Alongside the feature panel is another for an Editor's Choice: Repix. Having this displayed separately from what are billed as "Extraordinary" piqued my interest. I am glad I had a look. This is an extraordinary app in its own right and this is complemented by a well-made video on the developer website.

Repix - iPhone

There are clean controls at the top of the screen: for Import, Undo, Editing, Redo and Export. At the bottom of the screen are icons that look like aerosol cans. Eleven of these brushes are available when the app is first downloaded, for example Cartoonize, Dotter, Posterize and Bleach, as well as an "Undoer" and an Eraser. To the far left of these icons is a link (again looking like an aerosol) that links to the store. There is some cleverness in the way this works (below).

Tapping on the icon for imports, the top of the list is marked, Editor: this takes users back to the working panel. Below are links to Camera Roll, Photo Stream, facebook Photos and Camera. At the bottom of the screen are icons marked About and Guide. The former opens a list of ways in which Repix can be followed or liked, as well as a link to Support.

Pressing "Guide" leads to a well-designed run through of the ways in which the app may be used, as well as a link to a video guide on Vimeo. Like the in-app guide this was beautifully made and clearly showed the way the app worked (on an iPad). The guide and the video (as well as the video on the website) indicate that a great deal of care and love has gone into this.

I tried two test images:the first from the Camera Roll, then one taken using the camera. With the first, I used three brushes to transform the image quickly: Silk, Bleach and Posterize. I exported the result by saving to the Photo album and via email, selecting the largest option of 682KB. The Photo Album image ended up on my computer as a considerably larger inage of 2048 x 1536 (3.1 MP) and a file size of 3.26 MB.

Image taken with the iPhone camera in Repix

I then edited the image using Crop, Saturation, Vignetting and Contrast. All of these options (apart from Crop) are applied by swiping the finger across the screen. The result was saved and again sent by email. Unsurprisingly, with the cropping, the image was slightly smaller. With the camera, the images saved were a little larger, but the original was not saved to the Library. One example sent by email was 1.1 MB as exported. Again, however, the image from the Camera Roll ended up on my Mac with a size of 2048 x 1536 (3.1 MP) in a file of 4.21 MB.

Repix - Store

Each set is shown onscreen in the same way as the main editing panel, with a test image, so we are offered a Try Before You Buy scenario. Color Brushes includes Sepia, Hollywood, Vintage and Freshen; Artistic Brushes are Hatching, Daubs, Van Gogh and Spray; while the Light Brushes include Glow Smoke, Stars, Sparkler, and Glow Line.

Perhaps not all of the brushes available for in-app purchasing will appeal to all users, but the Master's Collection is an economical way to buy extra effects. I bought the Color Brushes. The in-app process was done in seconds and the brushes (already included in the app data) were unlocked right away.

Repix - iPad

I exported this image as an 8-bit TIFF file and when I opened it in Graphic Converter I had a file of 33" x 22" and a file size of 11.9 MB, which is fairly respectable for the iPad. I also then checked the size of the large photo from the iPhone which was some 9.4 MB, producing an image of 24" x 21".

When I first started the app on the iPad, the extra brushes I had bought on the iPhone were not available, but these were installed in a few seconds after I visited the in-app store and used the Restore button.

I did not use the camera feature with the iPad. I never do. However, images from the Photo Stream were easy to import and easy to edit. This is one of a number of apps that do actually work better on the iPhone when used as an editing tool, selecting images from the available sources and then exporting when complete.

Comment

Along with some other apps I have looked at recently, I prefer using Repix on the iPad because the fit of the app to the screen is just right. This recently-released app is well worth taking the time to download and work with as some of the results are more than interesting.

Highly recommended.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.