Features are scant, but the price is right, as are performance and results
With so many lightweight photo editors available for iOS, it’s surprising that cheap, click-and-forget image editors aren’t more common on the Mac App Store. Shine does a simple job: adding light sources to images, and with them, associated lens flare, gradient overlays and HDR-style edge glows. That’s it – no global saturation controls, no exposure correction, and no cloning or healing stamps.
With such a simple remit, it helps that Shine does its small number of jobs extremely well. A new light source is added to each image, and can be clicked and dragged around until you find the best place for it. Then, adding lens flare, a gradient overlay, or changing the contrast, edge glow and fall off (also known as vignetting) is as simple as moving the sliders until the image looks good. The results are high quality, realistic, and a great way of making dull shots more interesting.
Export options are plentiful – hitting “Save” allows you to create a new version of your file in its original format. Or you can create a JPEG with a custom level of compression, or export your file as a TIFF, PNG, Photoshop file or BMP. The ability to choose the resolution of your new file is notable by its absence, though.
Files can also be imported from and uploaded to Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, or sent to Mail, Aperture or iPhoto for inclusion in an email or photo catalogue.
Shine might not do everything you want it to, but what it does do, it does well, all for a great price.
Verdict:
Capable of creating goodlooking results, this deserves a place in the kit of keen photo-geeks.
Pros/Cons:
- Great results Impulse-buy pricing
- Short feature list
- No resolution control
Price: £6.99
Developer: Ohanaware, ohanaware.com
OS: OS X 10.8, 10.7 & 10.6
Requires: 2GB or more of RAM, Intel-based Mac