QuickAdvice: Turn Your Photos Into Art With Pencil vs Camera
Pencil vs Camera ($1.99) by Maple Studio allows users to create unique pictures where it's possible to get pencil sketches on a torn piece of paper to be placed above the original photo.
If there's a photography app that creates a truly unique effect, this is it. Load up a photo from your device library into the app, and then mess with one of the four filters: Pencil, Cartoon, Halftone, and Noise. Each one can be fine-tuned to your liking with various stroke sizes and outline darkness, etc.
There's an amazing plethora of different outcomes possible, depending on your input of how the effect should look. I found it to be tons of fun to just continue moving the slider around and seeing how my picture will turn out.
Each filter will also take a few seconds to load, depending on which you pick. The quickest to load is the Pencil filter, because it is relatively simple. It may be a bit annoying to have to wait a while for each time you make a small change with the other three effects, but the results in the end are worth the wait.
Now, once you settle on a filter and it's finely tuned settings, the real fun comes in - you can 'cut out' a section of the photo and replace it with that filter. This effect makes it appear to be a torn piece of paper with a sketch on it that is placed above the original photo. To do this, select the scissor icon and draw on the photo to get a cutout.
I found the drawing method a bit clunky - it's just not smooth. It seemed a little laggy when following my finger, and I found it could be hard to specifically cut out a precise area. I think the developers should try and work on that a bit more to make it a more pleasant experience. But the end result is pretty neat.
There is a lack of an undo button, so I found it frustrating when I would mess up the cutout and there was no way to undo it. I had to reimport the image and start over. Undo buttons are a must in any photography app!
Once you are finished creating your masterpiece, you can either save it to your Camera Roll or e-mail it, or really just do both.
Unfortunately, the app does not save full size resolutions. I imported a photo into the app that was originally taken with the 5MP camera on the iPhone 4 and the final result ended up a measly 1024x764 resolution. You also can only import photos, there is no option to take a picture from within the app.
The concept of the app is original and unique, and packs it all into a nice and sleek interface that is a pleasure to use. Except for that lack of an undo button. I am disappointed that the app does not save in full resolution for images that were taken with the rear camera.
The fact that it also does not allow you to take photos within the app is a bit shocking, but this is a universal app so I guess it kind of makes sense.
Despite the specifics that need to be worked on, I have to give the app props for uniqueness. It's got potential to be great, but even then it's still worth checking out, and perhaps add a bit of pizzaz to your photos.
