Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

Yesterday Larry posted about his favorite new iPhone Photography app Pix Remix. It made him go “Wow” and, after following his advice and purchasing it, I had to second his “Wow!” It has now been added to the collection of image editing apps I keep on my iPhone.

Another iPhone Photography app that has a permanent place is ColorSplash. Color Splash comes from the same developer who gave us Juxtaposer (reviewing coming tomorrow). It allows you to take a color image, convert it to black and white, and then, in just a few minutes, reintroduce color in specific areas. The result is an eye-catching combination that adds interest to any shot.

Let’s take a brief walk-through.

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

When you first start the app you are asked if you want to take a new picture or grab one that is already on your photo roll.

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

In this case I grabbed a picture I took of my niece and nephew last week. It is a nice picture (and they are AWESOME kids!) but it just doesn’t “Pop”.

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

Within seconds of loading the image the app converted it to black and white. That alone is a nice effect but we are just getting started.

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

A quick visit to the app’s setting (under “settings” rather than in the app itself unfortunately) allows you to control the size of the “brush”, decide if you want to show the brush in the app, control whether or not the screen rotation occurs and whether or not you automatically save the originals or overwrite them when you are through.

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

Since the image is small and my fingers rather large the zoom feature on the lower right comes in handy. It allows you to pull up specific parts of the image and make them as large as you want. The result is the ability to be precise as you begin adding color back to specific parts of the image.

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

The circles at on the top of the screen let you add color back to the picture. The circle at the left puts back all the original color while the one on the right adds some back, providing more control over HOW much color is shown. (I prefer to add back all the color.)

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

Zooming in on the corner of Talia’s shirt lets me be more precise as I add the red back into her shirt. I can zoom in even tighter or keep that level of zoom and slowly move around the picture.

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

Zooming out frequently lets me check my progress and accuracy along the way. It is a slow process if you are being precise and adding color back to relatively small parts of the picture (like her Crocs) but the care is worth it as the result ends up looking like this…

Gear Diary ColorSplash   iPhone App Review photo

ColorSplash costs just $1.99 and is available HERE in the App Store. It is a “one-trick pony” of an app but that one trick is pretty awesome. The result is a much more interesting and unusual picture than the original.

Tags: , ,



Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him.
  • Jason Reese

    Very cool app!

  • http://twitter.com/ram8727/status/2656682647 alex

    RT @GearDiarySite: ColorSplash – iPhone App Review http://bit.ly/MYfcz

  • Pingback: Poppy Masselos



XBOX One Fallout – No XBOX or X360 Games, No Indies, No Used Games, and More

Xbox One - What about Gaming?

Well, THAT didn’t take long! In fewer than a dozen hours the XBOX One reveal went from being exciting … [...]

Cognition Episode 2 The Wise Monkey Slashes onto Mac and PC!

Cognition Episode 2 The Wise Monkey

A few months ago I reviewed the iPad version of the first ‘episode’ of Cognition, the adventure game series from [...]

Jagged Alliance Kickstarter Closes in On Goal During Final Hours

Jagged Alliance Flashback

Anyone with a history in classic PC gaming is familiar with the Jagged Alliance franchise. Going back to the 90s, [...]

2014 Kia Cadenza Stylishly Conquers the Pacific Coast

Last week I was invited to test drive the 2014 Kia Cadenza along with a small group of other bloggers [...]

Popcornflix Partnership Enhances Digital Movie Xbox 360 Application

The popcorn keeps expanding at the Popcornflix movie streaming service, as Unicorn Media, a leading Internet video solutions provider, announced [...]

Carry Yours Cards, Cash and Phone in Style With Waterfield’s New Finn Leather Wallets

With the advent of such things as Google Wallet and Apple’s Passbook there is a growing interest in virtual wallets. [...]