App Review: Chromocam Dots
Most photographers know what they want, even if they haven't found a way to achieve it. They know what part of a scene they'd like to capture and bring out, what effect they'd go for, if they had the means. A great photo often begins in the imagination, and the tale of whether or not it finally exists in a form that pleases the photographer comes down to knowledge, experience, and a little luck.
Many iPhone photographers use the tools available to create images that resemble what's possible with vastly different hardware. Take TiltShift Generator for example, with its wide aperture-like depth of field blurring effects, or ShakeItPhoto, which puts a kinky instant photo twist on stale digital shots.
Chromocam Dots, the first in a series of planned Chromocam apps, goes in the opposite direction. As stated in the developer's press materials, the aim here is not to emulate a look from some point along the timeline of photographic history, or to recreate an effect from professional-level equipment. Chromocam Dots was made to establish an entirely new art form of its own. The look it generates – a melding of photoreality with solid color circles that looks like an offshoot of pointillism – has little in common with what we expect from an app in the "Photography" category.
The methods by which you create and interact with these compositions are organic and intuitive. After taking a photo, you may adjust parameters such as the size and color intensity of the dots, and the speed at which they generate. Press go, and the photo begins to morph. In reality, the changed photo is created as a layer atop the original, and you can fade the opacity of the dots in and out, brighter and darker, by swiping your finger across the entire screen. Shake the iPhone, and the random process begins anew.
In conclusion, Chromocam Dots is a brave move from developer Dan Lipert, and quite unlike anything yet seen on the App Store. My guess is that he built it to fill a personal need, to bring into reality a look that began in his imagination, and for which the tools did not yet exist. The question is only whether other photographers will see value in his creation, and have multicolored dots in mind when they next compose a shot with their iPhones.
Price: $0.99
Buy Chromocam Dots in the iTunes App Store.
Product website: www.chomocam.com
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