Darkroom Photo Editing App Gains New Highlight and Shadow Recovery Tools

[robfoll]

As an ex-app-dev (failed), I can tell you it costs many tens of thousands $$ just to keep up with Apple OS updates, required coding changes, fix bugs and that's all before adding features. As @PeteBurgh says, it costs a fortune just to stand still. I gave up on my app as, despite good reviews, I could not generate enough revenue to cover the costs of regular updates. @darkroomapp is being honest and fair here IMHO. PS just downloaded Darkroom to try.

 

[bradman83]

You are right, of course. But can you post us your own photo improved with Darkroom?
The promotional image seems to me to promise somewhat surprising results.

I'm not a Darkroom user but the below image, which was badly backlit, was corrected in Lightroom using exposure and shadow adjustments. Lightroom is legitimately nothing special insofar as its capabilities so if the Darkroom crew were able to get their shadow and highlight recovery algorithms to be in line with any of the major photo apps then it can absolutely pull out a significant amount of detail.

The key of course is the camera you're using. Older sensors don't capture the dynamic range in raw mode as newer sensors. Even on newer sensors shooting at higher ISO settings will reduce the editing range. This image was shot on a Sony A7C full frame camera at ISO 100 so it has a fair amount of editing latitude (it has the same sensor as the Sony A7 III which was known for its solid dynamic range). Trying to do the same thing on a Micro Four Thirds at 1600 ISO would absolutely not yield the same result.

 

[bluespark]

I think this is fair to both the user who made a purchase and the developer who needs to make a living.

Exactly -- this is how to do it. Let paid users keep what they paid for, ideally with an occasional update to keep everything fresh. But it's absolutely fine to create a paid tier and give those customers even more features.

 

[GtrDude]

I did the same, purchasing “Darkroom – Photo Editor, Pro Tools & Premium Filters” for a tenner back in 2018 which unlocked all those features at the time but things move on. Darkroom did about as much as they could to explain why they changed pricing and only with masking in April did they start to paywall new premium features as part of Darkroom+ subscriptions, that had been introduced two years prior, with the commitment:

“All the features you as a legacy customer have access to today will continue to be available to you”.

That "commitment" meant nothing, or it came after I got my app.
Like I said I have already moved on to another app.
Don't want to deal with the frustration or to have to deal with the people at Darkroom.
Don't see the point when there are a bunch of other apps that do the same stuff.

 

[SenorWhyMe]

Always scepticle of these before/after, does RAW really capture enough to bring back all the colour and contrast?

uncompressed raw maybe but it’s mainly not realistic because in the long run pitched black even if you get data back will have artifacts

 

[MiniMoke]

Discontinuation of Photos Extensions is a no-no for me. I used it constantly and as Darkroom's integration in Apple Photos's Library is clearly inferior to say Pixelmator Photo's (loooong list of albums instead of groups by folders), I wonder why I pay a yearly premium price here.

Then again Pixelmator Photo has features Darkroom lacks and vice versa. Apple Photos on iOS has features lacking all about.... I'm normally against subscription models, but as both Darkroom and Pixelmator use it now, Lightroom seems to have become the more complete and sensible solution.

5€ / month for mobile versions on AppStore (with 100Gb of storage space) or 11€ / month for the real thing seem less obnoxious now. I'll have to sleep some more on this but I guess the outcome is rather obvious. I loved Drakroom and Pixelmator Photo, but Lightroom has the complete feature set I need (and more), and I don't have to switch apps constantly with the option to undo edits breaking each time.

 

[myphotoyear]

Glad you found an app that works for you. Spending fifty quid on Darkroom, on top of what I paid previously was a bit tough, for reasons you have covered but it’s been worth it in the end, for me anyway so far and Darkroom have delivered the goods with these new features.

 

[MiniMoke]

I’ll have to revise my opinion perhaps… Been playing around with Darkroom on my iPad for some hours now and find it works fine, very fine. OK there’s the extension-issue but others like LR or Pixelmator Photo don’t have any as well.

Only thing that remains now is the album view of Darkroom. One long list of albums is simply not workable. Darkroom on the Mac (and Pixelmator Photo on the iPad) have a much better integration in Photos, reflecting the Folders / Albums structure of my library.

Please please Darkroom, bring this to the iPad!!!!