Darkroom 4
Desktop–class photo editing on iPad
Free (IAPs) From Bergen Co, darkroom.co
Made for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch Needs iOS 11 or later
As iPads have evolved, they have become more and more suitable for digital image work. Darkroom 4 is the first version of this iOS photo editing app to come to the iPad: a platform much better suited to these tasks than even the largest iPhone.
The app is free to download, with its core functionality fully accessible. More advanced tools and some pre–created filters can also be added via extra one–time purchases. Even without adding these, Darkroom is more powerful than the iOS Photos app. Its sleek, minimalist design is easy to navigate and it reads your Photos library complete with albums, downloading photos from iCloud for editing whenever required. It can handle any image format that Photos can, with support for up to 120MP images — far bigger than most users will ever need.
It’s more an editor than a cataloguing app, so there’s not much in the way of album creation and sorting, relying instead on your Photos library for that side of things. Tap an image to select it, and you’ll see a nice filmstrip of all other images in that album, as well as an edit section of icons along the right–hand edge.
The editing tools are powerful and well–designed. Cropping is first, with straightening, perspective, and aspect ratio tools for modifying the frame. Then come filters, with some useful processing available alongside split toning and the ability to create and save your own custom filters.
Advanced tone, color, and level controls are available and there’s an RGB curve tool as well as hue, saturation, and luminance for all colors. These are the same kinds of tools you’d find in any pro photo editing software such as Lightroom, and they work really well, with simple sliders letting you make desired edits.
Darkroom can read and edit Portrait mode pictures, giving access to depth editing. You can export images in various formats, as well as batch processing and exporting, which can be a huge timesaver. This is a friendly but powerful image editing app for iPad.
the bottom line. A slick photo editing app with great features. Hollin Jones