Making a Color Splash

The people at MacPhunn who gave us FX Photo Studio for the Mac and iOS devices have come out with another useful app called Color Splash Studio.  Color Splash Studio is only for the Mac OS X and is a very specialized app.  For only $1.99 (as of this writing), it is well worth it IF you do not use a photo editor like Aperture 3, Lightroom, Elements or Photoshop.  In other words, if you are happy with iPhoto or similar Mac photo editor, this simple app will give you something iPhoto does not do…selective color.

I showed how selective color is done in Apple’s Aperture 3 earlier this year.  It was quite easy.  Color Splash Studio now makes it just as easy for those who are using iPhoto and wanted to try it. Below, I took a photo of a hydroplane racing at this year’s Hydrobowl in Geneva, New York and quickly created his selective color version (see above for the original photo) using Color Splash Studio.

Selective color using MacPhunn's Color Splash Studio Mac app.

Once you select or import a photo into Color Splash Studio, the image comes up de-colorized.  Using a brush which you can set its size (diameter), softness and opacity, you paint in places you want with color. The brush detects edges well and is easy to clean up if it does miss. There are also tools to work with enhancing either the color or de-colored layers.  I added a little color saturation to the boat in this photo.  Click here for a video review of the Color Splash Studio to see it in action.

In conclusion, if you do not have software that does this already on your Mac, for $1.99, you can not go wrong with Color Splash Studio to give your photos a real pop!