Noir Photo – Appotography

Noir Photo VS Dramatic Black & White

More than one user requested, after the publication of our recent review of Dramatic Black & White, a comparison between JixiPix’s app and Red Giant’s Noir Photo. Dramatic Black & White and Noir Photo are essentially similar apps: both try to convey beautiful monochrome effects that are suggestive and extremely pleasing to the eye.

Note: we are only taking into account the iPhone version of Dramatic Black & White and Noir Photo.

Noir Photo VS Dramatic Black & White

UI
Both apps are well-designed and well-rounded products. Both feature similar ellipse tools for relighting by vignette placement on images. Personally, I am more inclined to like the sleek and focused interface of Noir Photo, with the numbered dial controls instead of the sliders. Even so, Dramatic Black & White’s interface works well and it’s very easy to get the hang of.

Processing Speed
Noir Photo does much better than Dramatic Black & White with processing times. With its simple and to-the-point three-dials system, Noir Photo is capable of delivering great effects in seconds. Rendering and saving also work amazingly smoothly. Red Giant’s expertise clearly gives them a huge advantage in this case. It’s nothing new, as JixiPix’s apps are renown for their sluggish processing times. Like other JixiPix’s apps, Dramatic Black & White is much slower than average apps when it comes to saving processed photos, in spite of all the recent enhancements.

Longevity
None among these two apps will make you regret your purchase and both allow the saving of custom presets for use at a later date. It must be said though that Dramatic Black & White, with its more thorough effects editor, does better than Noir Photo, as it allows more freedom in selecting different effects and has a wider selection of adjustments which counts, among other things, Infrared and HDR-like ready-to-use presets. Most importantly, JixiPix’s monochrome app comes with an RGB channel filter editor, which is a fundamental element for proper control over effective black and white conversion.

Quality
Again, Dramatic Black & White, especially thanks to a few additional tools like the RGB channel editor, has something more to offer. Still, both apps are capable of delivering fantastic black and white and monochrome effects. Thanks to the accessible controls, relighting photos with the help of the ellipse tool can be easily done in both apps. The two apps offer full resolution saving. After observation, I can say that in terms of mere quality, these two apps are equivalent.

Noir Photo VS Dramatic Black & White — Similar effects obtained with presets from Dramatic Black & White (left) and Noir Photo (right).

Sharing
Noir Photo’s sharing options are basically non-existent. Dramatic Black & White is not the most sharing-friendly app out there, but it comes with at least the send to email and share to Facebook features, plus it supports AirPrint.

Price
With a price tag of $1.99, Dramatic Black & White is a little cheaper in the App Store and, overall, it comes with more features than its opponent. Which in very simple words means that you will get more for less money. Of course, money’s value depends a lot on your priorities. If you are looking for an app to do its work fast and you do not care for the extra features, then the $2.99 for Noir Photo are definitely well spent.

Conclusion

While Dramatic Black & White offers more in terms of variety and customization, Noir Photo is definitely the winner when it comes to quick processing. Anyhow, Noir Photo and Dramatic Black & White are top apps in their category, delivering great quality photographic monochrome effects for a reasonable price. Both apps offer their users long-lived effects — meaning you won’t get tired of the beautiful monochrome of these apps, even after applying the same effects many times — that are enough to justify the purchase.

Noir Photo on Sale!

Red Giant’s Noir Photo gets a price cut for the weekend. The artistic monochrome converter for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is now 66% off the regular price.

Noir Photo on Sale

Noir Photo is designed to achieve beautiful and evocative black and white, sepia and other monochrome effects with no effort. By setting contrast, exposure and vignetting with the help of easy-to-operate controls, Noir will bring dramatic suggestions to your images. The app is universal and thus compatible with all iDevices. Our full review of Noir Photo is available here.

You can currently find Noir at the special price of $0.99/€0.79/£0.69 in the App Store.

Noir Photo Updated to 1.1

Red Giant’s Noir Photo 1.1 is out. Noir Photo is a simple and effective application working on all iDevices for conveying a mood through photos. Dramatic effects can be achieved just by playing with basic settings, like brightness, contrast and vignette. You can read our full review of Noir Photo here.

Noir Photo Red Giant The most notable feature added in version 1.1 is the fullscreen editing. By tapping on the uppermost right corner of the tool panel (on the dotted corner), it’s now possible to enlarge the work area. This is especially useful when better control on finer detail is required, as it allows more accurate placement of the ellipse affecting the vignette’s adjustment.

Fullscreen editing in Noir Photo Other enhancements in Noir Photo 1.1 include: higher editing resolution and preservation of photo metadata, so that original information is not lost upon saving.

Noir Photo Review

Film noir is a denomination associated with crime films from the 40’s and 50’s. Although the term is commonly identified with Hollywood’s production, examples of film noir can be found before and after the aforementioned two decades and outside Hollywood. As a matter of fact, many of the most renown film noir directors were émigrés, especially from Austria, Germany and Eastern Europe, who arrived in America in the late 20’s and 30’s as a consequence of the political turmoil preceding World War II. You have probably heard of Josef von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, Michael Curtiz, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock. These are just a few of the most representative names that come to mind speaking of film noir.

Categorization of film noir is nothing but a vague notion and in some cases, cinema critics and historians have contrasting opinions. Even if we accept the point of view of those that consider film noir a genre on its own, there is no such thing as common ground when it comes to style and motifs. However, most examples of film noir are characterized by well-defined stylistic traits, first of all the extreme use of low-key lighting and the highly eloquent use of black and white.

Red Giant‘s Noir Photo takes inspiration both for its name and for its idea from film noir’s highly stylized looks. There are those taking snapshots just for fun and those wanting their photos to convey a feeling or tell a story. Noir Photo will delight the latter group.

Main Features

Full resolution available;
Six presets;
Adjustable contrast and exposure;
Adjustable vignetting;
Save custom presets;
In-app guide.

Appotography Opinion

Given the expertise of Red Giant, it’s not a surprise the UI of Noir Photo works so smoothly and everything is so simple and user-friendly. The app presents a very straightforward approach to photo editing: in a single screen, you have access to all the necessary features. A concise in-app guide is included for reference.

Noir Photo universal app by Red Giant Software

You upload a photo from your device. As a starting point, you have six presets ready for use. If you prefer, you can make your own presets by setting each parameter according to your personal need. The app not only allows quick conversion of pictures into rich black and white monochrome, but also easy relighting, which is particularly important for granting photos a highly stylized, expressive effect.

The three dials representing three different parameters, with values ranging from 0 to 100, are at the core of Noir magic: Contrast, Inner and Outer Exposure. Each of these settings will influence your picture’s lighting. By playing with their values, you can have your photo look like average black and white or extremely contrasted and highly dramatic.

Vignetting is another crucial element in Noir Photo. Vignetting changes when you adjust Inner and Outer Exposure values, but it’s by pinching to enlarge and contract it or by moving it around that you actually affect the photo. The four available color tints are the final touch to widen the possible combinations and the effects you can achieve. The preview lets you know in every moment how your photo will look like.

Noir Photo universal app by Red Giant Software

It’s undeniable that Noir Photo’s developer’s expertise shows in the app’s incredible sleekness and in its well-balanced consistency. The interface not only is conceived to allow immediate use, but, as I said before, it actually works very smoothly. What one could object is the fact options are not many, especially for the app’s price tag. Some more freedom in choosing tints or in arranging more light sources, for instance, would increase the app’s value.

Overall

Name: Noir Photo
Developer: Red Giant
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 4.0 or later.
Price: £1.79||$2.99||€2.39
Vote: 4/5