Mobile Photography & Art – My Top Five Post Processing Apps’ by Philippe Schlossberg
We are revitalising our Top Five Apps section to our Photo App Lounge column. This a section within TheAppWhisperer where we ask highly accomplished mobile photographers and artists to list their top five apps and to explain why they have selected them.
This time it’s a little different, we asked Philippe Schlossberg from Paris, France to list his Top Five Post Processing Apps and to give his reasons why he uses them, it’s very interesting. (Foreword by Joanne Carter).
All photos ©Philippe Schlossberg
“The five apps I mentioned here are all fully iPad compatible and, with the exception of the last two, run fantastically well on iPhone too. Meaning that Procreate on iPhone isn’t really Procreate, they shouldn’t have done it, period. And Affinity Photo on iPhone, from what I read, fortunately, won’t happen at all”.
Snapseed
This one has been a favorite for a long time. I still consider it the best iOS photo editing app. Why? well the developers behind it always managed to keep the UI simple while the tools are very powerful. Any editing step can be modified at a later time, using incredibly easy to use masking brushes. Also, as an option, files can be saved as modified versions of the original.
This means that the edits are fully reversible directly in the iOS Photos app. And if you use iCloud Photo Library, you can pick up your images on another device and keep editing them with Snapseed.
(Image edited with Snapseed)
Hipstamatic
I couldn’t live without it (smile). The potential is huge. I haven’t been an early adopter because I didn’t like the old interface, trying to emulate so called disposable film cameras.
I came to Hipstamatic via Oggl, and a bit later to Hipstamatic itself once they revamped the whole interface (Hipstamatic 300). There are many combos that I do like and use very often, while there are a couple of others that I didn’t buy and won’t buy. Matter of personal taste.
It remains that Hipstamatic combos aren’t just filters in my opinion, they’re generally rather sophisticated and there’s no equivalent on the App Store.
(Image edited with Hipstamatic)
Mextures
I like this app very much. The interface is really good, from blending options for filters and textures to film emulation, again the potential is huge. Add to this that you can generate your own formulas and even share them with other photographers who in turn will share theirs with you. The concept is great.
(Self-portrait image edited with Hipstamatic and Mextures)
Procreate
I know, it’s a painting app but nothing can stop you from using it with photos, a photo being just another layer in the editing chain. I don’t use it enough and I blame myself sometimes about it. The results can be amazing. Why? You have to use their brushes to understand. Adding that the interface is gorgeous.
(Image edited with Hipstamatic and Procreate)
Affinity Photo
Finally, yes, Affinity Photo. I won’t be able to say too many things about it because I’m very new on it. To make it short, Affinity Photo is professional editing on the iPad for the very first time. It is just amazing. Not your usual straightforward application on iOS: we’re talking photoshop-like editing here. Infinite number of layers, Raw editing , full resolution files with adjustable compression.
Affinity Photo is not trying to look like a desktop editing app ported to iOS. It is a desktop app, that runs on iOS too, now. Just a warning: don’t buy it if you don’t own an iPad Air2 or newer, it wouldn’t run. Apple will let you buy it and even install it even on an incompatible device so be careful.
(Image edited with Affinity Photo)
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