Use Analog to apply gorgeous old-style effects and borders to images

What You'll Need:

>> OS X 10.6.8
>> Analog (available for $6.99 on the Mac App Store)
>> 10 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

There’s a lot to be said for the relentless progress of digital photography. These days, you can pick up a camera and memory card for a fairly small outlay that will store hundreds of pin-sharp high-quality shots. And recent iPhones are also capable of taking detailed, impressive photos.

But if you’ve been experimenting with photography since before the dawn of digital (or merely have a penchant for what’s now termed ‘retro’), you may feel the soul has gone from snaps. Old-style kit used to provide a warmth and character that’s missing in comparatively dry modern technology.

Give your snaps a classic look with the Analog app.

This is perhaps why the App Store is awash with apps that enable you to bring old-school charm to modern photos. Services such as Instagram and apps like Hipstamatic can apply filters to an iPhone photo, producing a result reminiscent of a shot from decades ago. Analog does roughly the same for photos on your Mac. Its interface is among the best we’ve seen for this kind of app, in terms of usability, efficiency and elegance.

Analog provides you with 20 filters and 14 borders that can be applied to your photos, and you can also crop and rotate your image before exporting it to your Mac or sharing it online. But Realmac’s also taken things a little further than most of its contemporaries. First, editing is non-destructive, enabling you at any point to rework your edits; secondly, some of the filters and borders aren’t pre-defined, but are instead algorithms that ape the randomness of old. We were positively giddy on clicking relevant filters and seeing the effect change a little each time we did so.

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Bring Retro Effects to a Digital Photo

• View the full image

  Load an Image

  Get started with Analog by dragging an image to the main workspace, either from Finder or directly from iPhoto. You can also use command+O and locate an image using an Open dialog. If you change your mind about your selection, use File > Clear Canvas.

• View the full image

  Choose a Filter

  Select Filters by dragging the slider in the sidebar to the left (or using Command+1). To choose a filter, click it or navigate to it by using the keyboard cursor keys. Note that Imagine, Hegfa, Kyoto and Helsinki will change slightly with each app (through a click or re-selection).

• View the full image

  Pick a Border

  Along with a filter (we’ve gone for Lomia), you can also define a border. Click the sidebar slider or use Command+2 to see the selection, and pick one in the same way as choosing a filter. Again, some are slightly randomized during each selection.

• View the full image

  Access the Toolbar

  Hover over your image and you’ll see Analog’s toolbar, which has four buttons. The first is for toggling effects, and the others are Crop, Rotate (click to rotate an image 90 degrees clockwise; ctrl-click for counter-clockwise), and Share.

• View the full image

  Crop your Image

  Click the Crop button. Effects will temporarily vanish and you’ll see a rectangular box with drag handles. Resize it using the handles, and hold shift to retain the box’s ratio, and/or option to resize from the center rather than a single corner or edge. Click the tick to confirm.

• View the full image

  Amend Your Crop

  Click the Crop button again. You’ll see the original image and your crop, which can be edited. Click the pop-up on the left to access pre-defined settings: Original removes the crop; the other values provide popular ratios. You can use the middle icon to rotate it 90 degrees.

• View the full image

  Toggle Your Effects

  When using filters and borders, it’s useful to be able to do a before/after comparison. You can do that by clicking the leftmost icon in the toolbar, pressing M or going to View > Toggle Processing. Do the same again to bring the effects back.

• View the full image

  Share Your Image

  Once satisfied, use File > Save As or the toolbar’s Share menu to save your image or send it to an online service (you’ll need to sign in). Note: exports of high-res photos are large files, but you can always resize them in Preview (Tools > Adjust Size), or when emailing in Mail.

• View the full image

  Quick Tip

  As with many modern OS X Lion apps, Analog has a full-screen mode. Click the full-screen button at the top-right of the window to work with the app in a distraction-free environment.

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