Adobe Photoshop Express

Summary

 Honestly, most photos I see of myself scare the bejeezus out of me. This has nothing to do with me being unattractive – I’m drop dead gorgeous, don’t you know – but rather it ALWAYS comes down to the person taking the photo and their lack of photo-taking skills.

When looking at pictures of others, I imagine that there must be a lot of people out there who share my view on this issue. But why is it, then, that the folks in catalogues, commercials and posters always manage to look so good? Sure, the photographers taking those photos are professionals—but more importantly, those people are rendered more beautiful with the help of a computer.

One of the most important programs used to beautify people is Photoshop. Seeing as you tend to take a lot of photos – of your surroundings, of others, of yourself – when you’re out and about, the Android guys figured it would be useful to have Photoshop for Android phones.

With this in mind, is it likely that the following scenario may soon be a thing of the past: I take a picture of myself, send it to the boyfriend who in turn is so horrified at my appearance that he makes a mad dash for it.

This review will answer that question, as well as inform you of what else Photoshop for Android is capable of.

Section rating:

 
You won’t be able to do any complex editing of images using Photoshop for Android, so if you’re unsure of how well your self-portrait may be received by your partner, don’t send it! ☺

You won’t be able to do any super fancy editing of images using Photoshop for Android. To put it nicely: those of you expecting crazy wild photo effects will no doubt be disappointed. In its Android version Photoshop offers the following photo features:

• Crop: you can use the crop-function to reframe pictures. This can be done using either set sizes (1:1, 3:4, 4:3), or else you can randomly tug and pull at all four corners of your image until you get the result you’re looking for.
• Straighten: this function allows you to turn, push and enlarge your image.
• Rotate: rotates the image by 45 degrees.
• Flip: allows you to turn the image on to its mirror self.
• Exposure: turns the image lighter or darker.
• Saturation: this function controls the image saturation and thus transforms the color of the image.
• Tint: allows you to tint the image in another color.
• Black & White: the image is turned black & white.
• Soft Focus: this allows you to soften the image’s focus somewhat.

Aside from the features which allow you to edit an image Photoshop offers another range of options. This app has three main functions:
Upload: Photoshop has set up a page on www.photoshop.com which allows you to further work on your images as well as distribute them. Really well done! Set as Wallpaper: With just one click you can set your image as the display photo on your phone. Slideshow: An average slideshow without and fancy side-effects.

Bottom line:
During my test run, I understood this app to be kind of rouse your appetite for the photoshop.com website. The app’s functional range certainly can’t be described as being particularly opulent. Still, it’s a fun app. With it, I can do everything I would want to do to an image using my phone while I’m en route. It would’ve been nice if, for example, you were able to insert a speech balloon or something similar into a photo, but that's really the only flie in the ointment.

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Operating this app is great: absolutely intuitive and nice looking design. No matter what it is you want to do with the app, you figure it out easily.

You use your fingers to control everything. What struck me as being quite exceptional is the app’s speed. I was doing the test run using a Nexus One, which is a very good processor… but the app ran just as well using a Samsung Spica.

All of Photoshop’s graphics fit into the concept logically. For instance, if you’re using the flip function you can actually watch the image flipping. And all along the app’s speed is admirable.

Bottom line:
Really great, well thought-out app. If I had been the one designing this thing, I wouldn’t have stuck the root menu under a “menu” button, but that’s really the only bad thing I have to say about this app. The GUI is really well done. This proves that you can have it all with Android, including good, clean design.

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 Photoshop runs fast and smoothly. That being said, it also taps into your resources quite a bit!

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Photoshop can be downloaded for free from the Android market.