If you want to amuse your family and
friends with a giggle, this should do the
trick. It lets you superimpose an animal’s
head onto a photo taken with the app, or imported
from your device’s photo album. The app includes 17
animal faces that come from creatures that either
inherently look daft (like a goat or a monkey) or have
features that have been slightly exaggerated. Once
your photo is in the app, you select the mask, adjust
its size and position it where you like. When you’re
satis ed, you can share your unsettling creations
either through email or on Facebook.
Very basic but easy to use and likely to
produce fair few smiles among its users. ANIMAL HEAD PHOTO MASHUP ● iPhone | iOS 3.1.3 | £0.69/$0.99 | v1.7
● Android | OS 2.1 | £0.63/$0.99 | v1.1
This is a typical image distortion app that
has about as much to do with plastic
surgery as it does gardening. Even so, you
can achieve some amusing e ects if you start with
the right photo and have the patience to work out
how to get the best results from the limited tool set.
The results aren’t as good as those suggested by
the images in the o cial app descriptions, mostly
because it’s hard to get convincing contours with
ngertip smearing. However, you can share your
results with other users if you get something you
think is particularly funny or clever.
The feature set is limited but it can produce
some surreal e ects with relative ease. PLASTIC SURGERY SIMULATOR ● iPhone+ | iOS 4.3 | £1.49/$1.99 | v1.4
● Android | OS 2.1 | £1.17/$1.88 | v1.2.1
This app is by the same developer as Animal
Head Photo Mashup but it takes the theme
of that product further by allowing you to
overlay more than just creature noggins on your
pictures. Here the options include human and animal
eyes, ears and noses, as well as moustaches, hats,
glasses and fruit. You can snap a photo in the app
or import one that you’ve previously taken. You can
also create something from just using the masks.
The much wider selection of masks inevitably
increases your opportunities for silliness. Moreover,
expansion packs are promised for the future.
The abundance of masks provides plenty of
opportunity for bizarre creations. PROP BOOTH ● iPhone | iOS 2.4 | £0.69/$0.99 | v3.1.3
● Android | OS 2.1 | £0.63/$0.99 | v1.0
If you don’t know how easy it is to make
yourself look like a completely di erent
person, try this app. It takes the old
fairground attraction of distorting mirrors and turns
it into a camera e ect that can have surprising
results. Twenty di erent distortions come with the
app and the e ect of each can be viewed in real
time through your device’s camera. Furthermore,
you are not restricted to still images: the app will
record videos of your contorted face and change
your voice on the soundtrack. The results can be
uploaded to Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
A great tool for creating weird avatars for
social networking sites. Good fun. TALKING FUNNY MIRRORS ● iPhone | iOS 5.1 | £0.69/$0.99 | v2.01
● Android | OS 2.3.3 | £0.69/$0.99 | v2.3.0
This app makes it easy to get fun e ects
from a headshot by taking advantage of
the movement sensors in mobile devices.
You snap a photo of someone’s face with the app
or import one from your photo gallery, then match
up the facial features with a template by zooming
in or out, moving the image and rotating it. Once
you have the eyes, nose and mouth lined up you
just shake the device and hey presto: the app
superimposes various combinations of facial objects
on the photo, including moustaches, glasses and
noses. To change the combination, just shake again.
This one is sure to cause a chuckle and should
be very popular with children. SHAKIN’ CHANGE ● iPhone | iOS 3.1.3 | £1.49/$1.99 | v1.4.4
● Android | OS 1.6 | £1.21/$1.94 | v1.4.4
The developers of this app have taken a
novelty theme and turned it into something
that is not only professional-looking
but practical. The interface mimics the classic
photobooth that you nd in shopping centres
and replicates the experience of using the booth:
you look into the camera window then press the
Start button and wait for the ash to go o . One
advantage of the app over a real booth is that you
get immediate results. You can also adjust the style of the images, share them and print them o .
Good example of an app that
entices you to use it because of
how smartly designed it is. POCKETBOOTH ● iPhone+ | iOS 5.0 | £0.69/$0.99 | v2.0.1
● Android | OS 2.2 | £1.25/$1.99 | v1.3.1
If you are concerned about a zombie
apocalypse and want to be able to
recognise your friends among the hordes
of undead, this app might help. It’s one of several
in the app stores that can zombify portrait pictures
by overlaying decomposing facial features on them.
To work properly, it needs a picture of a face taken
from directly in front. This can be snapped in the
app or imported. You then line up the markers for
the facial features and start processing. Results are
mixed but the app can generate a few variations
that might produce something suitably unpleasant.
Dead simple to use but you’ll have to be
selective about who sees the results. ZOMBIE PRO BOOTH ● iPhone+ | iOS 4.3 | £0.69/$0.99 | v1.3
● Android | OS 2.2 | £0.64/$0.99 | v1.3
This app works like Talking Funny Mirrors
in that it allows you to manipulate images
using various distorting lters, such as
Pinch, Bulge and Swirl. On top of that, though, you
can also change an image’s texture using e ects
such as Canvas, Chalk and Neon. In typical fashion
the original image can be imported from a device’s
gallery or snapped with the camera in the app. Less
common are functions that allow you to capture
movies as well as photographs and copy images to the clipboard. Settings are minimal but the number
of available lters makes up for that.
Does indeed make your camera
fun and it can be creative too. CAMERA FUN PRO ● iPhone | iOS 4.2 | £0.69/$0.99 | v4.1
● Android | OS 1.6 | £0.61/$0.99 | v4.0
Face swapping apps are plentiful but
FacePLANT (a.k.a. Face Swap - Photoshop
Juggle on Android) stands out because of its
extra features. It only works if it detects two faces
in an image but once a photo is imported you can
give everyone the same face or swap faces around.
The main editing screen lets you move, resize and
rotate the transplanted faces to line them up. You
can then go to a second editing screen and add
additional features like hats, glasses and word
bubbles, and also adjust lighting and colour.
As novelty photo apps go, this one
is about as comprehensive as they
get. Very silly, and very fun. FACEPLANT ● iPhone | iOS 5.0 | £0.69/$0.99 | v1.8
● Android | OS 4.0 | £0.64/$1.04 | v1.3.5
