Flickr App Updated With Some Of The Best Editing Tools On iOS

By

Old Vs. New
Old Vs. New

Flickr’s iPhone app has gotten big revamp, and if it weren’t for another great photo app release today (called Photoristic), it could actually become my new favorite iOS photo editor. But what the “What’s new?” section in the App Store doesn’t mention is the new UI that accompanies it.

The front end of the app is pretty much the same, but when you come to edit and upload it’s all changed. Gone is the built-in iOS 6 photo-picker, replaced by a sweet, thin-text-labeled iOS 7-style design, with bigger thumbnails and a nice flat dark background.

But it’s the editor which has had the most radical (or “raddest”) changes. Filters are now customizable, and you also have access to a range of powerful editing tools.

To use the filters you tap the little RGB icon (the same as used by the iOS 7 Photos app) and you get new, big thumbs of the FX, showing live previews of the filters (previously these thumbs showed a picture of a lame umbrella). Tap to see the FX applied, and then tap the filter thumb again to access its controls.

FX include tilt-shift (two kinds), plus “Bursts” (light leaks) and “Worn” (grungy textures), along with “Vignette” and the self-descriptive “None.” Bursts and Worn both invite you to “Twist to cycle through different effects.” I tried dancing before discovering that you need to put two fingers over the image and twist, as if you were zooming the loupe in iPhoto for iOS.

And there’s more. The filters are just one part of this. You can also make direct adjustments to white balance, saturation and so on, plus brightness and exposure, which are subtly different. You can also use color-balancing sliders, and finally (and also most awesomely) there’s a full color histogram which can be tapped and dragged to adjust further.

You can also go back and forth between FX and editing tools as much as you like.

If you were wondering why Yahoo hasn’t yet managed to make an iPad version of the app, this may be the reason: they were busy making the iPhone app amazing: The new editing section is stunningly good, and also silky smooth in use.

I’m still going to be using Instagram, as that’s where the audience is, but Flickr’s offering is already a lot stronger in almost every way. And I’ll take Yahoo over Facebook any day.

Source: App Store

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.