ColorSnap Follow-up

When I talked about ColorSnap from Sherwin Williams here a few weeks ago, I said I would try it and let you know what I thought.  I’ve been doing WAY more painting than I would like to this summer, working on a house renovation.  I’ve been mainly using Sherwin Williams paint.

I decided that this would be a good test on the ColorSnap App which I have on my Droid Razr Maxx.  The app has you take a picture and you are able to touch the screen in the picture area in order to select the color within the picture you would like to match.  (Just a side note, the camera on my Razr is good enough that I use it pretty much exclusively for job site photos and most of the pictures that have appeared in this blog over the last four months.)

ColorSnap Image
Note the flash Hot Spot at the left

You would think I could take a picture of a wall painted with a Sherwin Williams paint and be able to get a match, right?  No such luck.  First, it was difficult to get a picture that was representative.  Anyone that has taken a flash picture knows you get the “hot spot” of the flash and everything else fades out from there.  Where in that picture do you poke with your finger to get the color?  Second, the app brought up just one color.  I had no way of relating that.  Maybe the actual color was only one shade different.  With all the variations in the Sherwin Williams color fan, not including the variations that come from the selection of finish, I have trouble discerning the match at times when I put the color chip against the wall.

I tried a couple of times on several walls and was unsuccessful.  I could also get different colors depending on how I took the picture or where I poked the picture with my finger.  I will say that this application has a lot of potential.  I will also say that it’s not there yet.