Recession got you down? Unable to afford your Photoshop upgrade for $199?

What, you don’t have Photoshop? Neither do I! Instead of sending $699-$1,000 to Adobe, I decided to instead pay a mere $2 for a new photo editing app called iRetouch.

Created by iMapl (who developed Magic Touch), iRetouch allows you to edit a photo in detail whether it’s shading color images in black & white, toning, croping or even adjusting the image size.

But what makes iRetouch unique is that it allows you to edit specific regions of the image (instead of the entire photo) making the app very flexible for gurus as well as easy to use for newbies.

Since the “devil is in the details,” here is what I enjoyed about this app, as well as what I felt was lacking.

The Good

For those of you who are familiar with Magic Touch, you will notice a few major improvements, outside the fact that this app is a lot more stable than Magic Touch.

The first is the ability to change your “brush” shape (and not just its size) from a circle to a square. This might not seem like a big deal to photo buffs, until one has to adjust the color in a corner (something circle “brushes” are horrible at).

Another cool feature I loved was the ability to erase effects without distorting the image (note: you can adjust the size of the square/circle brush, which is really helpful).

Instead of creating a multiple redo/undo (which can become cumbersome, especially if you discover a mistake you made ten edits ago) you simply hit the eraser and erase the effect on the picture.

Last but not least was the ability to insert humerous “photicons” that can add some life to your image.

The Bad

While I enjoyed iRetouch overall, one thing I did not enjoy was the inability to switch from the Basic Tools editor to the Touch-up Tools mode (and vice versa) without closing the app.

Also I was dissappointed about the lack of camera mode, something I enjoyed in Magic Touch (and now Photogene which has it as well).

Hopefully iMapl can find a way of adding that back in, as taking pictures within the app is always a bonus.

Last but not least, I was not too thrilled with the clone stamp in iRetouch. While the feature is a lot more stable than Magic Touch, I felt it was not as useful, as it kept “doubleing up” whenever I attempted to select a specific region.

I also felt that an app this powerful should have some way where you can select a region to be highlighted, zoom somewhere else and “paste” your clone stamp elsewhere without having to drag the stamp zone across the screen.

Conclusion

Overall this is a great app, one I would recommend for photo gurus, especially bloggers (who often search for that perfect photo to accompany their post).

Note: Stay tuned for my review on the Blog Herald, as well as the chance to download this premium app for free!

More iGoodness below

If Photogene can liberate us from using Picasa on the desktop, then what about uploading and managing images on Picasa Albums?

Fortunately there is an app called gPhoto (by Ashongsoft) which gives users the ability to upload and delete images.

You can also create entirely new albums, although I found that feature to be slightly buggy (note: you may have to restart the app as it never refreshes to inform you that it’s done).

While you can establish security settings on new albums (whether you want it hidden, private or public), you can not manage security settings for current albums (which is a serious drawback if you ask me).

gPhoto also allows users to view comments made upon their images, but unfortunately lacks the ability to create comments (something the Picasa Web App can do).

Conclusion: Semi-perfect

While it’s good to see gPhoto launch with a stable Picasa app (as their rival Picassolino entered iTunes full of bugs to the ire of users), hopefully they will add additional features like Picasa activity streams, landscape mode, the ability to search public random photos and to find nearby photo friends based on your location.

This app cost $2 in the app store, although hopefully they will continue to improve (lest I have to migrate towards Flickr–and yes there is an app for that!).

More iGoodness below

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then nothing spells fluke better than a digital image with noticeable errors on it.

While some may be content to simply “leave it natural,” the more enlightened will attempt to touch up the image before sharing it with the masses.

Instead of loading up Picasa on your PC/Mac, laptop or netbook (note: does Picasa even work on a netbook?), you may want to fire up Photogene and gPhoto instead.

Photogene features

Regardless whether you are a newbie, a novice or Jedi master of the photo arts, Photogene makes it dead simple to quickly edit an image without becoming overwhelmed by it’s features.

Users can do everything from croping to straightening images…

…to adjusting lighting and shadows…

…to adding affects like sepia, saturation and my personal favorite, night vision.

Users can also flip and rotate images…

…although if they feel like they have made a mistake they can always undo a previous action.

Probably the only major features Photogene lacks when compared against Picasa is the ability to convert an image to black and white, as well as soft focus (one of my favorite affects from Picasa).

While both programs can do text upon images, Photogene goes one step further by providing speech bubbles which should please any comic book fan.

Unfortunately (at least for now) there is no way for Photogene to upload images to your Picasa Web Album, although fortunately for us, gPhoto takes care of that problem. (note: to be continued on a second post).

Update: You can read about gPhoto over here.

Does Picasa stay or does it go?

While I have enjoyed using Picasa over the years, the time has come to part ways with the program.

After all, the path towards a PC-less life begins with a small iStep.

Update (3/5): Changed thumbnail.

More iGoodness below