There are many apps available for iPad photo enhancement, but few of them come with the pedigree of Tiffen, a company practically synonymous with optical filters for cameras. Can the company’s digital equivalent live up to the same storied reputation?
Much like Tiffen’s Dfx on the Mac or PC, Photo fx Ultra taps into the company’s awe-inspiring catalog of glass filters, applying them to digital images with less time and effort than it takes to actually mount one on a camera. The app includes 77 filters based on their real-life counterparts, and Tiffen includes a dizzying 934 preset combinations for creating any look a user can dream up. Photo fx Ultra is simple enough for amateurs, but powerful enough for pro users to use presets as a starting point for their own creative looks.
While Photo fx Ultra is more about sprucing up an image than editing it, the app does include a variety of tools such as crop, rotate, and straighten; a brush tool makes painting directly on photos with Blur, Red Eye and Repair a snap.
The UI is laid out similar to Tiffen Dfx on the desktop, with tools spread across the top and filter sets at bottom, plus presets appear at left when a filter is applied. Multiple filter layers can be added to try out various combinations, and images retain high-resolution data up to 3072 pixels. New looks can be ported via email to Dfx on your computer, while images can be saved directly to key social networks, printed, sent via email, or opened in other apps for further tweaking.
The bottom line. With a well-laid out user interface and the most powerful collection of filters on the planet, Photo fx Ultra makes enhancing photos a joy. iPad users won’t find a better assortment of presets in such a vast quantity anywhere else on the App Store, at any price.
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iPad running iOS 4.3 or later
Huge selection of filters and presets to enhance any kind of digital image. User-created presets can be shared with desktop Dfx software. Fast, intuitive processing, even with high-resolution photos.
Presets can't be shared from computer to iPad app (only vice versa). Earlier layers can't be adjusted after adding another. Novice users to Instagram might be overwhelmed by options.
