Wondrous picture wizardry

Adobe continues to extend the reach of its acclaimed photo-editing tool Photoshop with improvements to the Photoshop Mix mobile app, which will go as far as cutting out a portion of one image and super-imposing it over another.
More devious users will be able to convince co-workers they’ve just returned from a beach holiday in Bali when all they’re seeing is a snap of you in your swimsuit (in your bathroom) pasted over a seaside landscape.
But you wouldn’t do that, would you?
The app is now in Version 2.8.1 for iOS, so I tested it on the powerful iPad Pro 10.5-inch and was impressed at its speed in editing and combining multiple photos into one picture.

I could easily remove or replace any item within the image, such as that drunk who wandered into the frame, and selectively retouch and fix flaws. 
The app also lets you share your finished masterpieces with friends and family and post them to your social network of choice. You can even send them to Adobe to be sold as stock images.
It’s fun experimenting with different blend modes and “fill” opacities within each layer, trying one or the next or combinations until you get just the right look. Photoshop Mix includes some of the most popular blend modes from the main program, Photoshop CC.
You can adjust colours and contrast and apply preset “Looks” (filters) to your pictures. You can enhance the entire image or just a portion with the touch of a finger. 

There’s no need to worry about ruining the original image with editing mistakes, because the editing is all “non-destructive”, leaving the original pixels intact. 
You make the changes in consecutive layers, and if you take a wrong turn, you just dump that layer and you’re back at the previous stage.
You need to register for an Adobe ID number to use the app.
To get you started, there are two tutorials built in. The first is a guide to highlighting, using a picture of roses in a coloured vase. You learn how to turn the vase black-and-white and then super-impose a raindrop pattern onto it, with the droplets coming from a second image of a rain-streaked window.
The second tutorial will have you cutting out a doughnut and then pasting it in a crocodile’s mouth. Admittedly doughnuts aren’t usually a staple of the crocodile diet but, as they say at Photoshop, “You get the picture.”
I went on from there and cut out a colleague’s portrait taken indoors and stuck her in a field of sunflowers.
You can use the Apple Pencil stylus with the app, which makes cropping more precise and the end result more realistic.
Download the Adobe Photoshop Mix free of charge from App Store.

KEY FACTS

- Vendor: Adobe Systems Inc
- Size: 220.6 megabytes
- Category: Photo and Video
- Compatibility: Requires iOS 10.0 or later, okay with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
- Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, Turkish and most European languages
- Age rating: 4plus