Image BlenderCurrent Version: 1.6.1

Combine two images into one with the help of this solid app

by Alexandra Chang, Macworld.com

Falling under the category of single-purpose photo apps, Johan Andersson’s Image Blender makes it possible to combine two images into one seamless photo. The app does this simple task well, and offers users a number of customizable editing options that are fun and easy to experiment with.

Get a Blend: You can adjust the slider at the bottom of the app to adjust how much you want the two images to be blended together.

Image Blender does exactly as its name states: Blends two different images together with a few taps. It’s as easy as picking two images from your Camera Roll and adjusting the app’s built-in blending slider. But if you’re looking to take some time to play around and create more unusual results, Image Blender can certainly keep you entertained.

To load an image into the app, tap on either of the small, white squares in the lower-right and lower-left corners. A tiny thumbnail of your chosen image will replace the white square. You can choose photos from your device’s Camera Roll or take a photo with the app’s built-in camera. (Images taken from within the app will not automatically save to your Camera Roll.) You’ll be able to blend more for one image or the other using the slider located between the two image thumbnails.

Select a Blend: Image Blender offers more than a dozen different blending modes.

Get the most out Image Blender by testing the app’s 18 different blending modes, each of which alters the way your two photos interact. There’s Color, which blends only the color of your second image with the first; Overlay turns the second image into a light overlay; and Hard Light appears to give the blend a darker, more shadowy quality. The blending modes don’t have specific definitions, but it’s fun to test them out to see which you like best for a given image.

For more customization, Image Blender lets you edit the photo masks and arrange the size, location, and angle of one image over the other. I really liked both of these features, especially the Mask option, which lets you select parts of an image that you don’t want to blend. I was able to choose to blend only the toy car (in the image to the left) with my photo of Lake Tahoe.

Mask It: You can select a mask on one image and then adjust the blending strength of the two images.

Once you’re happy with your blended photo result, you can save the image to your Camera Roll or send it to another photo app for further editing. (You’ll be able to see a list of compatible apps with the “Send Image To” feature; Color Splash and Simply B&W are two examples.) While Image Blender does not offer any built-in sharing features, I don’t consider this a drawback since it’s so easy to share from the Camera Roll or via photo-sharing apps like Instagram.

Overall, Image Blender is an easy to use photo app that speedily and reliably does its job. It’s also great for app stacking; for instance, I used Percolator to edit a photo, and then stuck it into Image Blender with an unedited version of that same photo to achieve a completely different look. At only $2, this simple and effective tool would make a great addition to any iPhoneographer’s app lineup.

[Alexandra Chang is a staff editor for Macworld.]