CRITIQUES

Filterstorm is, in some ways, comparable to programs like Lightroom or Aperture; bringing a feature packed range of editing options to your mobile device. If you want to just push a button or two to get an effect, this isn’t the app for you.  You have lots of control over lots of options, meaning the changes can be as subtle as you wish, but it takes time to get to know it.

The interface is pretty intuitive to navigate, with the basic controls on the left side of the screen.  Photos can be loaded from the photo library or pasted from the clipboard. They can then be dragged around the work area to suit your needs, pinching to zoom, etc.

The undo option lists each edit and you click to choose which you want to go back to, or what steps you’d like to replicate with another image. You can do this in FX Photo Studio, too.

There’s a masking option for most edits so that you can apply the changes to precisely where you want them.  Many effects can be controlled with a familiar slider technique, which in FS4 goes vertically from top to bottom.  Also, as you can see from the features list below, there are a variety of options once you are finished editing, including export size and aspect ratio.

Filterstorm Features List

Ability to apply adjustments to entire image, by brush, gradient, color range, vignette, or selecting opacity.

Send images via Email, FTP, Flickr, and Dropbox

Layers - 5 Max. When you go to add a 6th, the bottom 2 layers will automatically merge.

Export images up to 22MP (iPad2/iPhone4S) or 7.5MP (Older devices)

Save edits as automations to apply to other images

Masking: Gradient masks, Color Range masks, Alpha masks, Vignette masks

Curves: Luminance, RGB, Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

Brushes with size, softness, and opacity controls

Image Control: Brightness, Contrast, Color balance, Temperature, Saturation, White point picker

Cropping, with the ability to specify aspect ratio

Scaling / Scale to Fit

Rotation & Image Straightening

Text tool

Add Borders

Vignetting

Combine multiple exposures

Tone map (Simulated HDR)

Sharpen, Blur

Noise reduction, Add noise

Clone Tool

Unlimited Edit History

EXIF support for JPEG and some RAWs

IPTC support

Tutorials and Tech Support

Tutorials can be found on the Filterstorm website.  Contacting Filterstorm via twitter usually gets a quick response.

Here’s what the Filterstorm website has to say about FS4;

“The Filterstorm 3 update involved a complete re-think of the interface with incremental updates to the back end. Filterstorm 4 is the opposite. The interface has been refined, but the back end has been replaced in order to incorporate the most requested feature since FS1 came out 18 months ago: Layers.

Curves, hue/saturation, and more (but not everything) show you a real-time preview of the change as you drag the sliders and controls. You can now get a split view previewing what a filter will change side by side with how the image currently looks.

Filterstorm's interface is designed to get out of the way as much as possible so you can see what you're doing. The sliders (left image) can be dragged from any point, barely cover the image, and give you fine-tuned precision.

Filterstorm's selective editing abilities have always been its hallmark. Brushing, erasing, gradients, color selection, opacity, and vignetting options give you a large selection of tools to create the perfect mask.

Filterstorm records every action you perform on an image into automation files, and lets you save the steps and apply them to other images. It also comes with a couple of built in ones which you can download here. Some FS3/Pro automations may not work exactly correctly in FS4/Pro2. FS4/Pro2 automations will NOT work on FS3/Pro.

If you have any automations you would like to share, feel free to email Filterstorm support and they may be put up on the Filterstorm automations download website.

Exporting: You can now export to the Camera Roll, FTP, Email, Dropbox, and Flickr. Furthermore, the back end and interface have been designed to be easily supplemented in the future with more export options.  An export settings popover lets you choose the jpeg compression quality, and dimensions of your final image right at the time of export.”

My Final Thought

Filterstorm tends to be my go-to app for cloning and resizing and tidying up an image. Also take a look at Photoforge, Photogene for iPad, Photogene2 for iPhone, and Iris.  For an excellent round up of high end photo editors like Filterstorm, check out the iOS Photo Apps blog.  

For further information regarding the recent (Feb 2012) update, check out Life in LoFi post that details what has been added and fixed.

This app review was written and submitted by sand625.  Visit her mobile digital art blog at http://SandraLock.co.uk/.  If you would like to submit an app review to be featured in the App Critiques section, email django@iPhoneArt.com.

To purchase this app at the iTunes store click here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filterstorm/id363449020?mt=8