X

PhotoToaster soon to turn up the heat with more effects, options

PhotoToaster 3.0 is launching very soon, adding better photo management, even more presets than before, and noise reduction options.

Jason Parker Senior Editor / Reviews - Software
Jason Parker has been at CNET for nearly 15 years. He is the senior editor in charge of iOS software and has become an expert reviewer of the software that runs on each new Apple device. He now spends most of his time covering Apple iOS releases and third-party apps.
Jason Parker
2 min read
PhotoToaster 3.0
New lighting adjustments let you use effects like Bleach Bypass to enhance your images. Screenshot by East Coast Pixels

The original PhotoToaster ($1.99) was already a favorite among photo app users, and I've had a chance to check out a demo of PhotoToaster 3.0, which adds several new features to make the app an even stronger image editor.

New lighting adjustments and presets
Several new one-touch presets have been added in the latest version including Clarify, Amplify, Bleach Bypass, Sketch, Dynamic HDR, and Dramatic. Each of the new effects I tried in my testing added even more options for playing with your images, and -- like the original -- you have the option to use sliders to fine-tune each effect.

The addition of new lighting adjustments in PhotoToaster 3.0 are what make these new effects possible, letting you lighten shadows, adjust intensity and midtones, and give you the ability to "save" poorly lit photos. You also can now adjust black intensity for better contrast in your images.

PhotoToaster 3.0
You now can browse through recent edits to go back to your last saved copies for more fine tuning. Screenshot by East Coast Pixels

PhotoToaster also will now have the option to decrease noise in photos. Images taken in low light can often have noise artifacts in the picture. Using a new slider, you can now decrease the noise for much smoother looking pictures, even in low light.

Improved photo management
A new Recent photos button lists out your most recently edited images so you can get back to them quickly. Photos are listed with a thumbnail, the time the shot was taken, file size, and resolution. You can swipe to browse all your recent images, and touch an arrow to the right of an image to see the GPS location where the photo was taken and all the data pertaining to the photo (exif, focal length, shutter speed value, and other image metadata).

You also can now specify which folder to save your edited photos and automatically save originals to your photo library. The latter is a particularly great addition, because before when you snapped the image within PhotoToaster and started adding effects, if you saved the image, you would no longer have the original for experimenting with further tweaks.

Several more tweaks
Developer East Coast Pixels says many more small adjustments were made to increase performance and make it easier to take good looking photos. Several of the effects adjustments were made twice as fast, there are more aspect ratios for cropping, higher resolution borders, and you can now directly print your photos with AirPrint capable printers.

PhotoToaster was already one of my favorites for image editing on iOS devices and the changes in this latest version make the app even more worthy of space on your Home screen -- especially if you like to play with your photos. The app is ready to go and waiting for the Apple approval process, and East Coast Pixels says it could be available as early as tomorrow.