downtimeapps
Fauxtographers’ Delight Everybody is an ‘amateur photographer’ these days. If you love Instagram but tend to repeat the same editing routine again and again, get these apps to improve your game.
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Facetune (iOS, Android) You no longer need to wait for the perfect shot. Facetune is a fun and powerful portrait photo editor which allows you to easily achieve magazine-style results. Of course, the provision of such professional tools comes at a price (USD2.99 to be precise). With excellent built-in tutorials, you’ll quickly be colouring, smoothing and reshaping your photos like a pro. The app is better suited for a larger screen.
PicLab (iOS, Android) RATING:
WHAT IS IT?
PicLab is a funky app that can help you make creative pictures and boost your Instagram fun. Add beautiful typography and apply stunning filters and photo effects. The app also boasts an ever-growing collection of shapes, light FX, textures, borders and patterns.
THE GOOD: PicLab’s home screen takes you straight to the camera function, which is
great for those who are always snapping photos on the go. Flash control is on the top left, and the button to reverse the camera is on the top right. Tap the bottom right button to take your photo, or tap at the bottom left to choose an image already stored on your iPhone. Then you get to play around with your photo. To add your own text, just double-tap the dummy text provided. Type in whatever you want; then select your alignment. Scroll through the colours and select the one you want. It’s that simple!
THE BAD:
An interesting feature provided by PicLab is that you can add a mask (one per image) and use a slider to customise its opacity. However, only 10 masks are free. And you might find such limitations with other features as well. Additional masks are available to those who unlock all the features — read as ‘turn in one dollar’.
VERDICT: PicLab is great if you want to make a picture wordy.
90 March 2014
Afterlight (iOS, Android) Afterlight is the perfect image-editing app. Its simple design, paired with powerful and snappy tools, will give you the look and feel you want in seconds. It has 27 fully adjustable original filters, 13 guest filters and a range of real and natural light leaks, created with 35mm and instant films. It even offers simple dust textures that have been scanned by the makers.
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