Peer Review

‎TouchRetouch

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Oct 24, 2021 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

‎“…there's no easier way to remove unwanted items from your images...” — The Guardian “It's in my Top 5 "must have" photo apps.” — Michał Koralewski, Photographer of the Year 2015, IPPAwards “TouchRetouch is a terrific ‘remover’.” — Life In LoFi TouchRetouch is an app that offers you all the tool. This app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers. Cost is $1.99 in the App Store.

Type of Material:

Development Tool

Recommended Uses:

Photo refinements used in homework, research, photo essays, digital presentations, and social media postings.

Technical Requirements:

iPhone--Requires iOS 12.0 or later. iPad--Requires iPadOS 12.0 or later. iPod touch--Requires iOS 12.0 or later. Mac--Requires macOS 11 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip.

Android--Requires 5.0 and up.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

This app allows users to efficiently remove unwanted objects (such as a telephone line, tree branch, blemish, sunspot, etc.) from their digital photos on their smartphones, tablet devices, or computers. The app also is helpful with color correction and composition problems.

Users develop skills in applying changes to digital photos.

Target Student Population:

Middle School, High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

basic computer skills

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

This app specifically focuses on the removal of unwanted objects in digital photos. It has one job and it does this job well. It offers a few different tools to do this a depending on the object being removed such as a line versus a person. The retouching can be done automatically or manually. Tutorials are built into the app for each of the tools.

Concerns:

None.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Retouch offers a line tool for quickly removing lines like telephone wires or poles, a quick repair tool for the removal of small objects, a healing brush for the removal of big objects, and a clone stamp with different mirroring modes. A tutorial for each tool is built into the app and includes clear, specific steps, and a visual animation demonstrating the tool.

The removal of distracting objects from a photo can improve the composition and allow viewers to focus on the main aspect of the photo. This app can be used as a tool for digital photo retouching and understanding what makes a good composition.

Potential for use in courses such as art, digital photography, and technology. Could also be used by teachers or students in classes such as English, science, or social studies to create scenarios for readings, events, or changes.

Concerns:

None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

TouchRetouch has an intuitive user interface that is simple, organized, and easy to navigate. The app can launched as a photo editing extension right from the iOS photos app or directly from the app itself. Both ways are easy to do and convenient. There are five specific tutorials within the app addressing removing unwanted objects, removing lines, removing small objects quickly, removing blemishes, and using clone stamp that provide clear steps, animated demonstrations, and further details if desired.

It used to be that a desktop computer with expensive photo editing software and someone who knew how to use that software was required to do what this app can now do on your phone in seconds. And, the minimum cost is a one-time purchase and not a subscription.

Concerns:

None.

Other Issues and Comments:: Handy tool that can be used in multitude of ways. Low cost for one-time purchase.
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