SelectEffect was specifically designed to offer professional effects in a more user-friendly way. The app claims high-quality effects with just a few taps.
It’s at version 1.4 now. It’s got some good-looking effects and it’s very easy to use, but I don’t think it’s a must-have app yet.
There are many good one-click filter apps in the App Store, so a new one needs to have something unique to make it stand out. SelectEffect has a great-looking, clean, and easy to use interface. Tools are big and everything is very easy to figure out. For a one-click app, the interface is well-thought out and gets you quickly from input through processing. All effects are previewed live in the thumbnails. Once selected, the intensity of each effect can be adjusted using a slider. I found myself leaving the intensity at default or cranking it up to 10 most of the time — there’s that much room for adjustment in the effects.
The effects look good. Despite the small number currently available, there’s a broad range of effects. Color effects look real with good saturation. Effects are clear and well rendered and more subtle recreations of retro photography. There aren’t a lot — only twelve in version 1.4. There are only eight frames, which are all very simple and basic. The current selection of effects isn’t anything groundbreakingly unique.
In both the app’s description and the app itself, the developer is stressing that he will take the most asked-for effects, recreate them, and add them to SelectEffect and he provides an email address to send attachments to. Hopefully, future updates should have more of these user-requested filters.
On an iPhone 4S, it reduced the image size from 8 MP down to 1750 x 1308 pixels — that’s about 2.3 megapixels. Image size is great for sharing to Flickr, as well as the built in Facebook and Twitter shares. Resolution is more than you need for online sharing. However, that’s still a pretty significant downsizing SelectEffect applies to photos. It also strips out most EXIF data, including geotags.
I don’t think it’s worth all the five-star ratings it received in the App Store. For me, this is at best a three-star app for now. But the developer is enthusiastic and hopefully will continue to not only add new effects as promised, but also make other improvements to the app as needed. The interface and easy one-click workflow are good, but with apps like FX Photo Studio boasting almost 200 effects at full resolution, it’s difficult for me to get excited about SelectEffect right now.
SelectEffect is $0.99 in the App Store. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later.
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I’ve got a few free copies of SelectEffect I’ll be giving away later today, Friday, January 13, around 2:00 PM Central Time over on Life In LoFi’s Facebook page.
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