

As an example, an easy way to do a split toning effect with a curves tool is to slightly reduce the amount of blue in brighter areas - which gives a creamier appearance to highlights - and slightly increase the amount of blue and green in darker areas, which slightly fades the shadows in the scene. Curves change the exposure and balance of an image, and can be used to “crush” the photo’s tonal range closer towards black and white for higher contrast, move shadows and highlights closer to gray for a faded appearance, or even adjust the RGB hue balance at different points along the brightness spectrum. Filters are basically predefined combinations of curve adjustments, hue-specific tweaks, and - perhaps - some faux film grain or other textures overtop. To understand why and what makes it different, you need to know how filters work in pretty much any photo editing app.

One of Darkroom’s greatest strengths has always been its openness. And making adjustments is, if anything, even easier. That makes it really lightweight and easy to bounce in and out of making changes to your pictures. The process of saving a photo is just as streamlined: you can save your edits in place non-destructively, or you can save your photo as a copy. Tapping on a photo from your library opens it, but, unlike many apps, there’s no “Import” step or separate library - Darkroom simply reads the photo in place. It’s a very elegant app to use, especially with small but great features like hiding screenshots in the photo picker. And that attention to detail carries through the app, too: it doesn’t use any interface elements straight out of UIKit, but everything feels very fluid, responsive, and crisp.

Check out the awesome icon, with its carefully-rendered neon glow and “cabling” for a start. In fact, the latest major version of Darkroom has truly solidified the app’s lead.įor a start, it’s a beautifully-designed app that feels right at home on the iPhone. We think Darkroom still represents the best balance of power, ease-of-use, end product, and frequent updates. So, when the team at The Sweet Setup tasked me with writing this review, I braved a miserable forecast and hiked up Sentinel Pass, near Lake Louise, for your viewing pleasure. Of course, there’s one thing any good photo editing review needs: lots of photos. The latter is particularly important for this category of apps, as they typically have access to your entire photo library, and you don’t want them doing anything goofy with that permission.

Two new points of assessment this year that I’d like to highlight are RAW and HEIF support and the strength of the app’s privacy policy.
#How to use vsco app iphone to iphone photos each other manual#
