QuickAdvice: Turn Photos Into Dreamy Art With MobileMonet
MobileMonet ($0.99) by East Coast Pixels, Inc. is a fun and easy way to turn your photos into art! I never get tired of all the wonderful ways that developers invent to let us non-artistic types create really cool works of art from a simple photograph in just seconds.
It really couldn’t be easier. Open MobileMonet, and choose or take a photo. The app turns this photo into a black and white sketch. If you like, you can tweak the sketch by moving the sliders for Line Intensity, Grey, or Black. Line Intensity is just what it sounds like; basically you can make the lines thinner or thicker. More Grey adds more grey shadows; slide to more Black for more black shadows -- very dramatic. Or, just keep it simple by not tweaking the sketch at all. I actually like the default mode.
Next, tap the paint brush, and just start swiping the screen! The colors from the original photo come back, but in a softer, dreamier way. The more you swipe, the more intense color you get. That’s really all you need to do, but if you want more precision, you can tap the hand icon and then zoom in and out (double tap or pinch). Tap the eraser to, well, erase any stray color.
Want more control? Tweak your picture some more by tapping the palette icon. You get three sliders: Vibrance, Brightness, and Colors. Slide to maximum vibrance to make the colors especially dream-like. Brightness is self-explanatory. Sliding the Colors knob to the far left adds a lot of shadowing.
Like many of the fun, artsy photography apps, there is a flickr group devoted to MobileMonet. Check it out for many beautiful examples of what this app can do.
The developer tells me they are working on an update with “more dials and knobs and a few unexpected twists ;)”. I can’t wait!
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