(Above: PHOTOX’s YouTube ad)
Filters for online photographs have become all the rage since Instagram burst onto the scene. Want your picture to look like it was taken on an old — excuse me — vintage camera? No problem. Need to lighten or darken it up? That’s easy. Those changes are made with a single click on any number of smart phone apps.
But what about removing a distracting object from the background of a once-in-a-lifetime photo? Or what if you didn’t realize there was something in your teeth?
Those kinds of tweaks have been reserved for individuals with access to high-dollar photo editing software and the skills to use it — at least until now.
As is so often the case with entrepreneurs, Alabama native Louisa Imperiale had a personal experience that opened her eyes to a potential business opportunity.
In her own words, here’s how it happened:
In the once-in-a-lifetime photo of me holding my daughter for the very first time, my bra strap was showing! And as much as I wanted to share that beautiful moment on Facebook, I wasn’t about to share my wardrobe malfunction with the world!
So that night in the hospital, after some pleading on my part, my husband took out his laptop and did a quick Photoshop job on the photo. And that’s when I started to think, “This should really be a thing… Why shouldn’t everyone have instant, affordable access to a quick professional touch-up of their photos?”
Imperiale went on to launch PHOTOX, an on-demand photo editing app that places a team of touch-up artists at your disposal in a matter of moments.
Here’s how the process works:
1. Download the PHOTOX app.
2. Select a photo from your phone’s camera roll that you want touched up.
3. Select one of 32 PHOTOX services that can be performed on your photo, ranging in price from free to $10.
4. Receive your “Photox’d” image in as little as 15 minutes.
Here are a few examples of what PHOTOX believes they could have done for some people you might be familiar with:
“Now with just the tap of a button on our smartphones, we can all have professional touch-up artists make subtle, natural-looking edits to the photos of our lives,” Imperiale said in conclusion, “so we can share those memories with our friends and families, stop obsessing over each and every perceived imperfection, and get back to just enjoying life.”
Check out getphototwitter.com for more information.
What do you think about PHOTOX? Is it something you would use? Let us know in the comment section below or by tweeting @YHPolitics.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
