FX Photo Studio HD iPad App Review

Features
Performance
Verdict


FX Photo Studio HD is an iPad app from MacPhun, which is now in its fifth version. It is a photo editing app with a large range of photo effects and filters and supports the iPad retina display. It is available to purchase from the iTunes Store for £1.49.

MacPhun FX Photo Studio HD Features

• 194 effects, filters, overlays and frames - including Lo-Fi, art, frames, vintage, graffiti, tilt-shift, blurs, grunge, textures, black & white, sketches, pixelate and more
• All effects are customisable - you can apply as many effects on one image as you like
• Colour splash - fully customisable brush, powerful zoom to work with details, preview masking and more
• Painting with every effect - apply effects to the whole image or just a part of it
• Share your pictures - upload images from iTunes, Camera roll or your Facebook albums. You can share creations via most popular social networks, including Instagram, Flickr, Facebook and Tumblr

MacPhun FX Photo Studio HD Performance

When you open the app, you are presented with options to take a photo, upload from your camera roll or import from Facebook. When you select a picture you are automatically given the option to square crop, although this can be turned off in the options. You can choose not to crop, in the tools there is a crop option, which allows you to crop at different ratios, such as 3:2, 16:9. Whilst cropping there is also an option included to allow you to rotate your image by 1º or 5º. If you want to rotate by 90º or 180º there is this option within the tools along with resize and adjust. Adjust allows you to change the brightness, contrast, gamma, hue and saturation. If you make a mistake there are options to reset or undo.

The biggest feature of FX Photo Studio HD are the effects, there are a total of 190, which includes borders, textures and more. There are examples of each below.

MacPhun FX Photo Studio HD Sample Photos

At the bottom of these images are two that have been created using presets created by other users. You're able to combine the effects and create a code which can be shared with other users. We found some by looking on the internet, although it wasn't easy to find many. As well as create your own presets, you can favourite the effects by pressing the star next to them and this puts them in the favourite column for easier access. At the bottom of the effects box is a button which shows you your original image.

When you choose an effect, there is an option to draw a mask. This allows you to apply an effect to just a particular part of the image. There are options to invert and load recent mask, so you can apply one effect to one part of an image, invert the selection and apply another effect to the other part of the image. You can choose a black and white effect and erase part of it from an image for colour splashing.


When you've finished editing your picture, hit the share button. This has a vast amount of options, you can save to your photo albums, documents and clipboard or share by Flickr, email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Print and Postcard.

MacPhun FX Photo Studio HD Verdict

The MacPhun FX Photo Sudio HD app offers a wide range of editing options and effects that are unique, with the ability to mask and apply numerous effects to an image. It would be useful if the masking was available, for example, when adjusting the brightness. We'd also quite like to see an option to sharpen our images. With the features available, the app is easy to recommend at just £1.49.

MacPhun FX Photo Studio HD Pros

Well laid out, easy to use interface
Mask option to apply effects to particular parts of an image
Lots of effects

MacPhun FX Photo Studio HD Cons

Some of the effects left little detail in darker areas of the image
No masking for the editing tools
No sharpening option

FEATURES
PERFORMANCE
VALUE FOR MONEY
VERDICT

The FX Photo Studio HD app is available from the iTunes Store for £1.49. For more information please visit the FX Photo Studio website.