Photo editing app Darkroom today announced the launch of new highlight and shadow recovery tools, which are available as an expansion of the existing recovery sliders.
Darkroom says that the Exposure, Whites, Highlights, Shadows, and Blacks sliders have been rebuilt from the ground up in a major technical investment that allows users to access edits that were previously out of reach.
A luminance curve adjusts the dark and bright areas of the image, while a histogram-equalization algorithm enhances clarity in the midtones to avoid a flat look. A frequency-domain algorithm detects busy areas in the image and enhances contrast, and all of the new algorithms are spatially aware to allow for tweaks to each part of an image.
The highlight and shadow recovery tools are available for all image types, but Darkroom says they work particularly well for RAW photos as there is more detail to recover.
With the launch of the new tools, Darkroom is discontinuing the Photos Editing Extension that allowed the Apple Photos app to be used to make Darkroom edits. The feature is being discontinued because of memory constraints and resolution limitations.
Darkroom is free to download, but premium Darkroom+ features are available for $5 per month or $30 per year. Darkroom can be downloaded from the App Store. [Direct Link]
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I used to like this app and used it a lot. Bought it a while back for 9 dollars. Then they went to monthly ($5) and annual ($30 bucks!!) subscription services, that's when I found another app.
As an ex-app-dev (failed), I can tell you it costs many tens of thousands $$ just to keep up with Apple OS updates, required coding changes, fix bugs and that's all before adding features. As @PeteBurgh says, it costs a fortune just to stand still. I gave up on my app as, despite good reviews, I could not generate enough revenue to cover the costs of regular updates. @darkroomapp is being honest and fair here IMHO. PS just downloaded Darkroom to try.
Hi, when we switched to subscriptions, we did not remove access to any features you paid for, rather added Flag & Reject and Video editing as add-ons to your purchase for free.
Since the release of Masks, we no longer include new premium features in your "Legacy" purchase, but you continue to have access to what you purchased for free.
I think this is fair to both the user who made a purchase and the developer who needs to make a living.
I used to like this app and used it a lot. Bought it a while back for 9 dollars. Then they went to monthly ($5) and annual ($30 bucks!!) subscription services, that's when I found another app.
Hi, when we switched to subscriptions, we did not remove access to any features you paid for, rather added Flag & Reject and Video editing as add-ons to your purchase for free.
Since the release of Masks, we no longer include new premium features in your "Legacy" purchase, but you continue to have access to what you purchased for free.
If someone told me 10 years ago I would be able to do desktop level photo editing on a phone; I would have laughed them out of the room. These are the things that amaze time and again. The miniaturization of technology is just mind boggling. There is just no limits anymore.
