App Review: SwankoLab and Film Lab
For all the progress we've made in the field of digital photography, improving even the cheapest optics and sensors to the point that they can now be found in every cellphone, capable of capturing clear and useful images with a minimum of user interference, most of us still yearn for the look of film. The mistakes, the hassle, the "natural" looking grain as opposed to speckled noise, and above all, that randomness befitting of a living organism – born of imperceptible changes in the air, the degradation of rubber seals, the inconsistency of a lab experiment performed with contaminated chemicals.
Film is romantic the way vinyl records are romantic. It's a sloppy, fragile art based on primitive science that shouldn't work, but does, and in doing so reminds us of ourselves.
This week, two new photography apps appeared on the scene with promises to restore some of that charm to our altogether too-easy, too-sterile way of seeing photography in the age of the iPhone. They aren't the first to try, but they might be the closest to success yet.
SwankoLab is Synthetic Corp's followup to the bestselling Hipstamatic, another camera app with retro sensibilities. Where their first effort controversially forced users to embrace the philosophy of shooting on film (one could only take photos for processing, not import existing ones), experimentation is the key experience this time around. Modeled after a darkroom metaphor, SwankoLab has you mixing development chemicals in a metal basin, soaking your prints while the software churns behind the scenes, and then hanging them up on a clothesline for display. The photos, too, are excellent approximations of film captures: alternately rich, colorful, faded, and unusual.
As noted in my preview, this approach aims to distance us from what we're really doing: applying artificial alterations to digital photographs. It's never completely clear what adding any two chemicals will produce; add a third and all bets are off. Most importantly, where one would normally move a slider and be able to observe the changes immediately in a modern editor, SwankoLab makes you wait. Experimentation is bound to the process of developing every frame again from scratch – the ambient sounds of the darkroom's flickering lamp and sloshing fluids are a funeral dirge for instant gratification. To make matters even more unpredictable, the order in which chemicals are introduced into the mix affects results, giving rise to thousands of possible combinations. It's a process more akin to alchemy than arithmetic.
Film Lab is the antithesis of SwankoLab's deliberately-paced paean to film processing. Its user interface has no metaphors tracing back to the roots of film; the only ones on display are the software conventions created with the desktop computer: pop-up menus, scroll bars, and buttons. These are implemented without too much thought, as scrolling sideways through all 76 effects is less than ideal, but for the most part it works as you would expect. In a way, it's a relief to encounter this more modern program after having spent some time in the other virtual darkroom. Suddenly, the immediacy of its effect previews, and the overall feeling of control that it offers, strikes you as a thing not to be taken for granted.
Film Lab contains over 70 preset film looks, many of them named after actual film issues from brands like Ilford, Kodak, AGFA, and Fuji. I can appreciate that the developer took the time to study these and create a one-push system to emulate them, but one shouldn't rely on their accuracy. Like doing a vocal impression of a celebrity, this reduces each film to a caricature where certain features are exaggerated. Still, most are very attractive and can do wonders when paired with a good photo. In addition to the ready-made presets, Film Lab also allows for brightness/contrast/color/sharpness adjustments, making it more of a complete solution for 'fixing' a poor shot.
At $1.99, SwankoLab is an easy purchase. Offering a unique take on photo editing, anyone with an interest in photography would do well to try it out. An additional in-app purchase of $1.99 expands the range of chemicals from eight to 17. Comparing SwankoLab's total cost of ownership to Film Lab's 99c price tag makes the latter sound like a bargain, which it is.
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Buy SwankoLab in the iTunes App Store.
Buy Film Lab in the iTunes App Store.
