Microsoft Pix
Maximize your best portrait pictures and minimize your photography frustration
Free Developer Microsoft, microsoft.com
Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9 or later Whether you’re a parent or a grandparent of an especially squirmy kid, or just someone who can’t take a good picture for the life of them, you probably know the frustration of pulling out your iPhone to only take a series of entirely disappointing and useless pictures. Microsoft has decided to step in and help out with this very problem with its decidedly smart new photography app, Microsoft Pix.
If you know your subject has a habit of blinking while getting their picture taken, or if they’re prone to moving around quite a bit, you won’t have to sit and take 10 or 15 pictures in the desperate hope of capturing just one usable shot, as the app will take a burst of images and save only the best. Pix functions as a point-and-shoot photography app and has very little in the way of photo-editing abilities.
Microsoft Pix isn’t perfect, mind you. Often, it has a bit of trouble figuring out the best exposure for an image, prioritizing pictures that are far too bright rather than those that are more shadowed. This seemed to be less of a problem in areas with bright, even lighting, such as outdoors or inside under fluorescent lights, but wasn’t uncommon with diffused or dim lighting. It also wasn’t terribly impressive with non-human subjects either, but it does tout itself as a portrait-taking app, so we weren’t too bothered by this.
the bottom line. Microsoft Pix is invaluable for anyone trying to snap pictures of kids or other unruly photography subjects. Amber Neely
GOOD