App of the Month
AFTERLIGHT
Rating: 4.3/5
Platform: Android
Cost: Free (In-app Purchases Available)
With the ever-increasing growth of social media and
smartphone photography, to take that one perfect click
has become a trend. But to choose one perfect app for
all the customization and editing, and that too quickly
has become more difficult considering the variety of
options available. In this month issue of Chiiz, we look
at Afterlight, the perfect image editing app for quick
and crisp editing. It is an unpaid app which can be
downloaded and installed on all Android devices from
Google Play. Another version of this app is available for
iOS devices with the name ‘Afterlight 2’ which is a paid
app and can be downloaded and installed from the
App Store.
Features of Afterlight
The simple design of the app, paired with powerful
and snappy tools, will give you your desired look in
seconds. The app contains various adjustment tools
to personalize your photograph in the required way.
It comes with a wide variety of filters and frames. The
preset filters also help in saving time. Some of the
filters available are:
• Double exposure
• Selective color
• Dust textures
• Color shift
The filters are available in three categories- original,
guest and seasons, with each category having different
filters to match up your requirement in any situation.
Once you choose your desired filter, a slider appears
which helps you to adjust the intensity of the filters.
Alongside these, a library of film effects is available
which can be applied over all the filters and edits.
You can add a dusty, light leak, or instant film filter to
your photo to achieve a rugged or antique look. Each
category listed previously has up to 30 different filters
in each to maximize your editing experience. You can
always overlap filters too. Afterlight has an enormous
library of frames. These frames are not just in the usual
styles but also in typeface and silhouette frames that
give the photograph a complete scrapbook-like touch.
To assist you with the fine details, the feature to pinch
and zoom into the image while editing is available to
make more precise edits. The app is available in 15
localized languages to ensure the ease of using the
app. Afterlight enables you to choose your photograph
directly from your gallery for editing. After editing,
the photographs can directly be shared to various
42 TOOLS
social media platforms as well. A unique feature of
Afterlight is its white balance lock. This feature is
particularly useful when clicking the photographs in a
dark environment or in night mode. This feature can
be accessed directly from the option towards the right
of the grid button.15 different presets are available
for cropping. For transforming the photographs, the
rotating tool, vertical and horizontal flipping tools,
skewing and angle rotation options are also available.
Color balance and vibrance can be manually altered as
well. Although, they are quite standard features, but are
implemented quite well in Afterlight.
A huge number of textures ranging from real and
natural light to scratchy film textures can be used.
Basic edits like changing saturation, contrast and
brightness by selecting one of the six icons in the
edit view can also be made. Apart from these, some
extraordinary editing options like vignettes, shadows
and midtones give an opportunity to the users to be
as creative as they want. Afterlight is the most popular
and undoubtedly one of the best photo-editing apps
available as it actually takes your photographs to the
next level. The app is easy to navigate through and
makes your photograph look absolutely unique.
A drawback is that the in-app purchases need to be
done before accessing some of the best filters and
effects and they are quite expensive. Also, the user
needs to use the on-screen shutter button for clicking
photographs as the volume button shutter control does
not work in Afterlight.
Chiiz Opinion
Afterlight is a very user-friendly app. It is easy to use
the different features and functions due to its simple
layout and design. The app offers a perfect balance
between simple and advanced photo-editing options,
a clean camera interface and classy filters. The app is
hence the perfect choice for not only making minor
adjustments but also for completely overhauling the
images. Constant updates with new effects and filters
make Afterlight, an app users will keep coming back to.
Vidit Mehta
[email protected]
The word that describes Vidit best is a wanderlust personality. He likes
exploring new places, tasting different dishes which is why if you don’t find
him exploring, you will find him cooking and trying new recipes. In his free
time, he enters his own world of imagination which is reflected in his stories.
Vidit is trying to become the change which he wishes to see in this world.