This article was published on August 23, 2010

Palm Lab lets you edit photos like an electronic George Eastman.


Palm Lab lets you edit photos like an electronic George Eastman.

TNW Quick Hit:

Palm Lab is a an iPhone app that that puts a photo processing lab in the palm of your hand.

Love It: Grand user interface.  Bevy of app options.

Hate It: Takes a great deal of time to master the art of old school film processing on your iPhone.

Overall: 3/5

The Details:

Taking and sharing photographs has never been easier thanks to the proliferation of high powered digital cameras and increasingly better cameras on one’s smartphone.  Still, there are many that long for the days of processing photos using toxic chemicals, in a dark room, and all of the fun that brings.

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Palm Lab ($1.99) wants to give you your own photo processing lab right on your iPhone.  Unfortunately for you toxic chemical lovers, only simulated toxic chemicals are provided.  I know, I understand, but don’t feel your pain.

Using Palm Lab you can watch your film gradually develop surrounded by laboratory sound and noise.

Other of Palm Lab include:

  • Touch the water in the developing tank, and by continually stirring the chemical development will increase in speed.
  • More than twenty processing chemicals. Using these chemicals, you can add the feel of old photos, canvas paintings, halftones, hot-mixes, x rays, negative effects,  rain, snow, rainbow, or fog, to the images.

  • Select a photo and a chemical bottle to begin. Watch the progress on a ticking stopwatch. If you drag the watch arm, you can control the process live! Forward or backward!
  • The developed image can be saved to album or send to your friends by email. You can also upload the image to Facebook or Twitter.

Palm Lab is a nice app, and creates nice pictures.  Unfortunately, the process of creating the pictures  takes too much time for my liking and at $1.99, is not an app I would use very often.  What about you?  Are you an old school pioneer of the photographic craft?  Is Palm Lab something you would use, and if so, why?

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