Looking to make some stylized photos on your iPhone, but are bored with of Instagram’s effects? Well, look no further than Alt Photo, a cool little app from Alien Skin Software, the same guys behind some of the best photo effects plugins for Photoshop.
Alt Photo provides a really easy way to add film-like effects to your photographs, and is extremely well executed – especially for a free app. You start out by selecting an image from your existing photo library or snapping a new pic directly in the app.
Then you simply hit the “Edit” button, and you’ll have access to a selection of 36 base photographic effects, ranging from vintage color and toy camera styles to black and white tintypes.
In the edit mode, you can swipe up, down, left or right to instantly preview your images with various effects applied, and similar effects are adjacent to one another – making navigation a breeze. The app also allows for quick image cropping to 1:1, 4:3 OR 3:4 proportions, as well as an unconstrained crop mode. Crops can then be combined with effects, and you can also adjust the intensity of the effect and brightness levels by tapping the appropriate control and dragging across the image.
Once you’re satisfied with your image, you can quickly save it back to your Camera Roll (in full or cropped resolution) and share it with the world. Alt Photo has built-in integrations with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Flickr, as well as E-mail sharing – and with the press of one button, you can share to any or all of these methods.
While Alt Photo doesn’t really cover a lot of ground that Instagram hasn’t already covered, I’m still impressed with this little app. It doesn’t aspire to be a full-fledged image editor like Photoshop, but there are already plenty of apps for that. It does everything you’d want a mobile app to do – it’s easy to use – and doesn’t try to go too deep. Best of all – it’s free. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to the iTunes App Store and download Alt Photo now.
