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iPhone apps that look good by James Rogers

Almost everyone has iPhones, and there are some definite advantages for post-production in a ‘standard platform’. That is to say, the display — all iPhones are more or less the same. You can't really manipulate the contrast and colour on an iPhone, which as it turns out, is quite an advantage. If you are looking for a standard way to look at a colour picture (as in everyone is more or less seeing the same thing) then you could do a lot worse than to get people to look at it on their iPhone.

Now to be clear, I am not suggesting the iPhone screen is the best thing since sliced bread, nor will it displace a highly calibrated broadcast monitor. However, if you have ever experienced the delicate but frustrating business of getting approvals on colour when one person is looking at it on their PC, and the other on a Mac, and a third on a TV — then you will begin to realise that confining it all to a common platform (like the iPhone) is quite handy. 

At least, with everyone looking at their iPhones, you know there will be some relationship between what they are seeing. It may not be a broadcast monitor, but it can cut down a lot of colour confusion.

For those with a technical bent, or those wondering just how good the iPhone’s colour representation actually is, there are some nice colour charts right here.

Although debatable as to whether they make you more productive, there are some great applications available for the iPhone which are useful for explaining quickly which way you want your colour to go. First on the list would be Mill Colour from (who else) The Mill. This is a simple, but powerful program that has a series of preset grades you can apply to any image in your iPhone, you are also able to do basic trimming of Gamma, Brightness, etc. Best of all is that it is free. 

There is also Photoshop.com Mobile, which unfortunately is not available from the Australian App Store (you can get it from the US store if you have a US account). The "Photoshop.com" part of the name is a bit of a misnomer, as you do not need to be online to use it. Again, free, straightforward, but quite powerful. A similar app is PhotoCurvesFree which lets you use curves much like you would in Photoshop, and available to Australia. 

If you like to paint/doodle, you should check out Brushes (curiously filed under "Entertainment"). It was good enough to paint the cover of the New Yorker; which should be a recommendation good enough for anyone.

The iPhone may not be the ultimate colour tool, but as a common denominator, it is easier than trying to figure out why your client doesn't see your beautiful hues.

Above: Mill Colour

Above: Photoshop.com Mobile

Currently there is no easy way to check the title safe area on a quicktime other than to have it burned into the quicktime or mpeg.  Postmodern have created a tool that allows you to put a jpeg on your desktop and move it over your current quicktime. Adjust the quicktime window to the size of the title safe checker and you can easily see whether your graphics are in title safe area. You’ll also be able to check if the quicktime is correctly scaled to 4:3 or 16:9.   For a lot of people this will mean no longer having to travel to your post house to check the titles on your masters.  Keep it handy to call on often. (Only for MacOSX 10.6)

titleSafeChecker.zip

Above: PhotoCurvesFree

This site requires the latest version of QuickTime