Basic features like crop and rotate should at this point be included in most apps, with the only exception of those that strictly try to imitate instant cameras and their mechanics. Unfortunately even cropping and rotating aren’t all that common, so sometimes you end using three different apps instead of one just to make your picture look alright. Which is OK if you’re an iPhone geek or if you have a lot of time to devote to your mobile photography, but it’s definitely not convenient if you just want to make your photos look nicer.
FX Photo Studio is comprehensive and at the same time simple enough to make both the casual iPhone camera user and the geeky type happy. MacPhun’s FX Photo Studio is one of those apps whose aim is to offer the user a wide variety of photo editing possibilities within a single product.
Main Features
- Full resolution available;
- 180+ effects, including borders (more available with in-app purchase);
- Crop and rotate;
- Gamma correction;
- Shake to randomize effects;
- Create and save custom presets;
- Hide/unhide effects;
- Undo/redo;
- In-app hints and trivia;
- Share via email, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Tumblr.
Appotography Opinion
With FX Photo Studio, MacPhun offers a well-conceived and user-friendly multi-purpose utility, with special focus on photographic post-processing effects. The interface of FX Photo Studio is one of the simplest and yet most functional you will be able to find. Despite the assortment of tools and effects, the simplicity of use of this app is impressive. Everything is optimized to allow even the newbie to obtain good results with the minimum effort.
To use this FX Photo Studio, you can take a photo within the app or use pictures previously taken. You can adjust basic parameters, like gamma luminosity; you can straighten your photo by rotating and cropping; you can add single or multiple effects. Effects are divided into categories, ranging from vintage to pop, from overlays to borders, etc., and each of them is adjustable to suit your needs. More filters beside those you get with the initial purchase are available in-app (you can get each effect pack separately for $0.99 — €0.79 or £0.59). You can filter your photo over and over and create custom presets which you can save for future use. To make things even simpler while browsing through the effects collection, you can add effects you use more frequently to your favorites and hide those you don’t use at all. FX Photo Studio, unlike other photographic suites as Tiffen’s Photo FX, also has a great choice of sharing options, including email and most popular social networks, to make use of your photos outside your Apple device.
You can have a better idea of how FX Photo Studio affects your photography by looking at these pictures. The same image was edited each time with a different filter:
Being not a fan of corny effects in the photo booth style, my complaint about FX Photo studio concerns the inclusion of some effects in the app. Flowery frames or fake water ripples, decorations in the unbearable 80’s style, bubbles and stars, embossing and superimposed ghostly faces cheapen photos rather than embellishing them, at least according to my taste. This is why I have used FX Photo Studio a lot less frequently than other apps in the same league — again, like Photo FX or Camera+. But if you’re into these things, you’ll probably be puzzled reading my criticism. To this I can only reply: to each his own photography!
Enjoy the app!
Overall
Name: FX Photo Studio
Developer: MacPhun
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch. iOS 3.1 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 4/5
Thanks for the review. Those frames look cheesy for me as well, but they are among the first and date back to the time, when the app was just launched. We can’t delete them, cuz many people actually like bears and flowers. But on the other hand we have given the option to hide effects, which you don’t like:) So just swipe a finger over the effect and hide it forever.
BUT, the effects you do like, you can add to favorites or save mixes of effects to presets. And then share those with the world around.
PS Glad to see the review – wanted a profound judgement from your blog badly:)
This is seriously becoming my favorite app review website. Purchased this app after reading this review, and loved it. The same happened a couple more times. Thanks!
Alexander, we’ll definitely be reviewing your other apps in the next future, so we hope to see you around and have more occasions to exchange ideas =) Thanks again for the feedback!
You are welcome. Again, I enjoy reading your reviews, no matter they are about our apps or not. The approach and analysis is very professional:)
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