Darkroom: Photo & Video Editor Reviews

by COLORADOAPPUSER

I’ve just downloaded this to try it out. But let me say after reading the responses by the developers to some of the reviews I’m hesitant to put money towards Darkroom . My question, why come across as offensive and upset whenever anyone gives you less than all stars and makes suggestions? Apple, how can you continually highlight Darkroom when you see some of the responses by the developers? You continually suggest you aren’t a pro app, only a team of two etc. That’s fine, then I would suggest making the price less, or even free, until it’s fully ready and it might help you build a loyal following. Most would consider that price point to have a fully polished app ready to work in every way. Just don’t be offended when people who really care make suggestions. By the way I rarely review, this just really caught me by surprise. Not a good way to build loyalty with your brand. Accept the criticism and use it to get better...

by Oldie999

I really love the way they have integrated this app with the native Photos app, so you don’t have to go to the extra step of importing from and exporting to the Camera Roll. However, when I tried to edit photos that were previously edited with Lightroom, I couldn’t come close to matching the results and was. very disappointed. The problem was especially evident in photos that have deep shadows. It is just impossible to bring out the shadows the way you can with Lightroom. The brilliance, highlights and shadows sliders don’t have enough dynamic range to tune the image. If the developers can fix this limitation, it will be a winner.

The developer has responded that they are working on improving these adjustments in a future release. I will be very interested in using Darkroom once they do as it should make if five stars.

by Brickerhaus

Every piece of software is asking for money. Only 3.99 a month. I am up to 300 dollars for just a few bucks a month. I just want to buy an application. You have to keep the machine moving. Ever more profits. This model is not for poor people. Too many hidden costs. I just wanted to flag a photo like I could do in Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2, and then in Lightroom 4. Then they went to that model. I feel like I paid for Darkroom and then when I go to use it. I gotta pay a subscription. You aren't getting my money. If I am going to pay for something, it would probably have a name like Adobe and come with more services and have extensions. It looked nice until I couldn't flag a photo. How simple is that. Don't put something in the menu and then extort people's money. It's just a couple of cents a day, a coffee a month. 😖🤮

by Brandon_219

If I could add one advanced feature it would be spot-selected white balance, but I'm content with the controls for the most part. If I could add one basic feature that really shouldn't be an issue, though, it'd be to import screenshots. Why the hell are screenshots excluded? I have this near-perfect photo editor and can't edit 1/4 of my photos. I know screenshots aren't ideal for printing but they're good for testing crops and testing edits of photos, the latter I can't do without making copies of photos thanks to Darkroom's strange limitation. Yes I can test edits on a single image but I would have to note and undo every edit to try the next. It just seems so much more inefficient than simply allowing screenshots to be edited.

Edit: added one star. It's good that screenshots aren't completely excluded, but I still wish they appeared in albums like normal photos do. In an attempt to declutter, per developer's response, I feel like they've actually created more clutter in making screenshots harder to navigate and cause needless frustration by making them disappear from albums they're in. If you want to declutter the normal camera roll, that's fine, but favorites and other albums should be left alone.

by Zedkolk

I would LOVE to sell my mac and move to iPad only photo editing, but before I can do that I need an iPad app that includes the functionality I have from Lightroom Classic (Lightroom CC doesn’t have all the features I need).

I found this app from The Sweet Setup and its definitely the best photo editing app I’ve tried but it doesn’t quite make the move for me.

I shoot primarily events and landscapes, sometimes portraits.

Required (for me) features that Darkroom does have:
RAW support
Custom filters
Paste edits across multiple photos (the batch edit feature wasn’t working for me, I wish it did)
Batch exports
iCloud Photos support
Ability to tap to change adjustments instead of drag a slider

Required features that are missing (or I can’t find):
Brushes (for highlights, shadows, saturation, etc...)
Spot healing brush or repair tool (I forgot what Lightroom calls it, the shortcut is Q)

Wishlist that isn’t a dealbreaker:
Dropbox support
Ability to view iCloud photos with the date added view in addition to the chronological view

What’s nice but isn’t a required for me:
Modify copyright metadata on export
Favoriting an image in this app also favorites it in Photos

by Waywaybackmachine

Update: things seem more stable lately, it could be my own fault as I was behind on an iOS update. I’ll keep checking back. Thanks for the response and the hard work, sorry for getting a little rant-y. First world problems, 🙄. Batch function and general interface of this program are still tremendously helpful.. one suggestion : Picsart is the only app I’ve found so far that has this, but the ability to use erase (and in particular to control the transparency of the eraser tool in order to facilitate smooth blending) on parts of the applied filter / fx is extremely useful - I’ve used that small function so extensively, you can completely deconstruct and recreate a new image with this tool. If you guys were to add this function, holy moses… I would love that.

by Nyrb22

I love this app, I’m not a pro photographer but I do like to take pictures! this app allows me to edit my photos just how I want them and it lets me get creative with colors and filters too.
However, I was having a problem that was quite annoying. I made my own filter and used it on an image, but when I tried to export the image with the filter, it kept telling me I couldn’t because I hadn’t bought the subscription, I didn’t use any premium features so I don’t know why I couldn’t export the picture. This happened to me multiple times, and it continues to frustrate me.
Despite the fact that I kept having this problem this app is a great app...it’s good for pros and non-pros. For the most part I love this app, and my problem could have been user error...no one is perfect! Overall I would recommend Darkroom to anyone who is creative and loves pictures!

by Thinkman

Not the most intuitive means of restoring previous purchases but FINALLY found the settings menu and now all is well.

3 stars because this should also be a full resolution iPad app. Take care of that and this review goes to 5 stars.

After the developer responded to my 3 star review saying “Apple doesn’t make it very easy for us to restore purchases……”, I have to add that this has never been case with other Apps – in this case it was a matter of finding the settings to be able to do this. My feelings are that developers need to standardize on the look and position of the settings gear! I upped my review by a star as they noted they were working on an iPad version, even though I feel it should have been developed for that in the first place. If this happens, I’ll make it a 5 star review.

by Don'tWantToType

Some nice filters and Darkroom has full of valuable features. They give you enough free options to keep your interest and let you test the paid features before you decide to purchase. No annoying ads is a plus. It’s not easy to commit these days as you don’t know how things will turn out but it’s one of the few apps that I haven’t deleted after running into something unbearable.

I really like some of the film like filters. I hope there will be more refinement in that area based on some professional coloring techniques to get a really pro look to photos and videos. It can be a challenge to get good color in your still and moving images. Darkroom’s filters don’t feel cheap.

Only thing that bugs me now is you can edit a slow motion video. It becomes normal speed. I don’t know if can be slowed back down after exported but it’s difficult to work on something meant to be viewed slowly while it’s moving rapidly.

Otherwise I’d say keep up the good work! It’s beautiful app full of functional features and booming with more potential.

For now the only other apps in my personal use that compete with Darkroom are the photoshop apps, even though they can also do layers. For video so far I still rely on my desktop software even though I believe mobile edit is the future. Would be amazing if Darkroom could also animate still photos or bond with video but that’s probably asking too much.

by PapaSnoot

Let me start by saying that I really WANT to love this app. It is tightly integrated with halide and other camera apps, and the amount of control available in Darkroom is amazing. I also love that you can super easily switch between raw and other versions of your pics. So the reason I just can’t love Darkroom is because for me it is unusable. I am using halide to shoot raw photos and when I edit them in this app as soon as I zoom in close on a raw photo and try to pan the view, Darkroom crashes. This happened every time with any raw photo weather it was shot on halide or another iPhone app, or shot on my Sony a6300 and imported through photos app. I have tried deleting Darkroom and rebooting then reinstalling but it just does the same thing with raw photos. Very disappointed. Hope the devs can fix this soon else I really can’t use the program. If this gets fixed it’s easily a 5 star rating!!

by Besdayz

I use Darkroom when I want to import dslr images (via google drive or canon) to my iphone and display these images on social media or photo share. Obviously I won’t be printing from iPhone files since it’s smaller resolution files. For pro work I would use the real file on my computer and adobe products to edit. But for a quick edit with some nice filters curves perspective cropping and sending previews to clients or even personal use this works well. What I really like is I don’t have to save as a edited image and duplicate files since all edits are non destructive and can easily revert to originals.

My suggestion for the developers would be people like me would love more functionality that more closely resembles what I can do on Lightroom or photoshop. I know that means more cost but off top of my head I would really like things like
1) stitching images for panoramas
2) focus stacking
3) spot removal (brush tool)
4) masks (for local edits)
5) hdr
6) more filters esp for B&W. I would pay for these. Carbon has some good ones.
7) Gaussian blurs
8) gradients
9) selective coloring (making eyes whiter, teeth whiter etc)

I realize this may be a sophisticated set of functions for a mobile app but hopefully in future it is available.

by Shezzbeck

This is hands down the best app ever. Even if you are beginner or a professional. I am a professional videographer and a photographer. I routinely shoot instructional fitness videos, portfolios and weddings. The color grading and filters are phenomenal. I really enjoy the workflow set up which is specifically designed for heavy workflow and setup to creat a quick and efficient way of color grading bulk photos by creating personalized filters that you can swiftly apply to your photos. Instead of color correcting each individual pic. This feature creates a uniform look instead of some pics looking different from the others. Darkroom also is just so easy and fast to use. I’m still learning of all the features it has. Keep up the good work!

by ✨💅🖤

UPDATE: the problem is fixed and my filters are back!

i love Darkroom, i’ve been using it as my main software for editing pictures super easy and fast for a couple years now, but recently it’s been changing and deleting some of the filters that i’ve had and i cant change them back. anytime i try to readjust the settings and press “update”, it updates and works fine on whatever picture i fixed the filter on, but when i go to another picture and try to use it, all of the settings are messed up again and sometimes in different ways than before. even when i remake the entire filter with the same settings, i go to another picture to use it and everything’s changed around again. i’ve had no problems until this point, so hoping for an update soon.

by IChris36

I don’t use Darkroom often, but when I do, it does what it needs. Recently, I’ve opened Darkroom up and come across a message detailing their new subscription model. Ok, I understand. The next decade in app development will bring about mind blowing features and it’s important to have the ability to finance that. With that said, I was given two options: continue using Darkroom with no additional cost, or subscribe for a reduced rate. Although I chose the free option, I am impressed and happy that the developers have chosen to allow the end user an option like this instead of forcing a subscription. I’m much more willing to support developers like this in the future. And if I used Darkroom more often than I do, I likely would have gone the subscription route. It’s a great app, and I’m sure the future will be bright! Thanks for all the hard work!

by Scarbge

Had to review bc they’re really on top of everything. I emailed them a few days ago about crop related issues after updating Darkroom and in 2 days they released an update fixing my problem. Beyond impressed 💘

FYI I’ve been using Darkroom since 2018 and I’ve tried everything out there. I was also a heavy Lightroom user before now I rarely edit photos on my laptop and strictly use this app. I still check out new app recs but nothing even close is out there.

Also, I saw someone suggest a healing tool be added and that would def be great but doesn’t affect my use bc I also don’t crazy edit anymore. But I would loveeeee an Exposure feature added to iPhones 🙏🙏🙏

by Mikesplaces

I really love Darkroom. The update on 15 March adds core enhancements I cannot wait to see in action. I take photos solely with an iPhone 11 and most always take in RAW format. Darkroom makes learning the steps to both functional and creative editing so good. I bought the subscription when launched. We have to support our developers. It’s about the long term with some apps so I personally believe that subscription services are a tool to that development. Darkroom is a long term adoption to me. Being able to use on iPad is nice but my workflow is very simple now. Take picture with ProCamera. Edit resulting RAW files in this app and share with social media, back up to google photos and have long term memories of living my retired life in Vietnam.

by Joseph_Joseph

1 thank you for years of use and my benefit with your well designed app. Your app has helped me as a regular guy with my home pictures, not a professional in many ways. And as a volunteer to groups to post schedules and things.

2 your app is the only app, or PC edit s/w that I know of, that has the added frame width keep to the dimensions of the original picture, e.g., I add a border to an 8.5 x 11 in poster. After the frame is inserted, the resulting poster with frame is still 8.5 x 11 in. As the frame width is increased, the original image shrinks to accommodate the new width. This is ingenious - I have used this feature for years. This is the most important feature for me. Thank you!

3. I read your statement about why you are in need of a subscription. It is not easy in retirement, but your truthfulness and intent to honor past members to continue free, is a remarkably ethical character that I applaud you for, so I will likely pay the one time fee after this post to support your endeavor and to not have reoccurring fees.

Healthy and Success to you and your team.

by CERDABOI

Although there are no selective editing brushes, this app is probably the only editor with this many editing tools that allows you to batch edit on mobile. The only thing that’s missing is some stability. It always crashes on my 5th gen iPad mini. The only things I would improve is the stability of app itself, the grain feature, because the grain gets wayyy to gritty, and a noise reduction feature. Honestly I think noise reduction would be more important than a selective brush. I could use Darkoom for event photo editing, where I barely finding myself using the selective brush, but then that leaves out a trusty noise reduction feature so I feel like it really limits my options when it comes to picking a project to edit with Darkroom. I would still rather stick to doing the majority of my editing with Lightroom. Darkroom came very close to opening up my workflow but that one feature of noise reduction missing is a deal breaker for me.

by GodBlesstheFreaks

My go to editor . It’s crazy I’ve got to cull all these damned apps . I can’t afford all the subscriptions. Although Darkroom usually does not cost after you buy it, with the problem of hurting one companies feelings ( do they have any? ) I’m sure they do , but for the money and the fact that FilicPro, , Remote & their camera app are bundled, every-time I open it they upgrade it to the newest version . So eat that Adobe. That and the fact that I have the Zhuhai Smooth 4 it has an upgrade and firmware upgrade that keeps it compatible with The gimbal. . I also believe that even with so many variables, FILMIC PRO BUNDLE IS THE MOST LIKELY ONE APP WHICH I WILL DEDICATE MY PHOTO/ VIDEO AND USE LUNAFUSION FOR EDITIng. Sorry you all are good and any one of the top players are in the running , FILMIC PRO seems to have the most for the least $ . Sorry Camera +, I’ll try and keep current as long as you hold me the owner of the software. NES pas?

by CaptHarlock

Very capable photo editing app at a reasonable yearly subscription rate. I’m getting myself out of the expensive Adobe universe and this is a good option for an in-phone photo editor. It’s missing a few adjustments like “Clarity” and “Dehaze” that I’ve used frequently enough to miss but you can create those effects yourself with the included adjustments. And then save them as your own presets. The one adjustment I would like to see improved in this app is the curves. The adjustments are locked at 5 percentage points (at least that’s how it seems to me) where other photo apps allow you to add and move the points to different percentages.

by Gevork G

Darkroom has the potential of being great. It has the library support and copying edits across many pictures by pasting. Overall the feature set is ok , but I noticed the biggest problem compared to other apps for RAW image processing. Darkroom shows the RAW image file with muted colors and a white haze across the image. Adjustments that O make aren’t the same adjustments as in Lightroom or Affinity Photo, or even After Light 2. Is it the RAW image processing or the was it show the image? Ive tried many images back and forth with the other apps, and I cant get a desirable edit on this app the way I get it on Lightroom or Affinity Photo. I cant get that crisp vibrant photo I want. The end result looks muted, off color, and not clear, with noise. I like the potential for Darkroom , but it needs to update its RAW image processing algorithm to make it useable and on par with the other apps.

by Horserious

It’s a nice app but needs a lot of work. The interface looks good, but it’s lacking a few key features such as white balance, exposure slider etc. As said, nice app but not worth the asking price of 9.99. If I apply a b&w filter and I notice that the saturation slider is set to zero, I’m out. Sorry. The idea is nice, so is the group of ppl you’re targetting I reckon.

I’m not impressed by the developers answer at all. It’s not worth $9.99. What about an exposure slider, dehaze, WB, reversed vignetting, etc, etc. there are better apps for less. And if you say you enjoy this as a pro you’re not a pro.

And I never said I didn’t like Darkroom . All I say is that it’s not worth $9.99. I will be happy to give more stars if you come up with an app that’s worth the money. In other words, keep working on it and add pro tools in the future. Basic tools like exposure and white balance should be in here to start with. Then there are whites, highlights, blacks, shadows, vignette to the darken or lighten. Ah well I think you know what’s there. Oh and I have some positives too. Interface is nice, intuitive, it’s fast and frames are a nice tool too. When it comes to filters I would suggest not to put too much energy in filters. There are many (free) apps who can do the trick. And, in the bigger scheme of it all, “how many filters do we really need?”. Good luck, keep up the good work.

by MDevereaux

To be clear, downloading Darkroom is free. “Trying” is it free. But you can’t export anything unless you pay for Darkroom so I feel it’s very misleading to advertise that it’s free. The developer should clearly state upfront that if you actually want to use Darkroom - as in make edits and download the final image - that the user has to pay. I understand the premise of try before you buy but that’s wasn’t clear from what I read. I also find it odd that no matter what edits you make, even simple edits, you still can’t export the image. Most freemium apps allow some free options.

That said, Darkroom seems to have a lot of nice editing features. From a usability standpoint, sliders that have a generous margin to snap back to 0 is nice.

My suggestion to the developer is to rewrite the description so it’s very clear that Darkroom is not free.

by Masnun

This is a great app. I love the UI and UX. Love the integration with Halide. The filters are great. Copy hashtag feature is absolutely great - love it. But what I think needs more work is raw editing features. The photos are underexposed sometimes. Even after increasing exposure and brightness, they remain underexposed. With Adobe Lightroom, the same photo gets a lot of light when I move up exposure a bit. This is my only issue with Darkroom . I am quite fine with it missing some other useful features like selective editing. this app in app purchase is a one time thing, so compared to Lightroom, this app definitely offers better value at a lower price. If the under exposure issue is fixed, I will continue using this app for almost all my photo editing.

by Sunflash.iph

Edit: Thank you this app! You fixed the problem that I mentioned in this review, glad to see that you are trying to make a great product. I added a star, cause I really do love Darkroom, but have run into a new issue that is almost as annoying as the first.
My edits do not remain on photos when I modify the original. I’ve gone back in multiple times and modified a photo, exported it to modify the original. But once I close Darkroom it goes back to its original state.
Will be glad once this is fixed!

I really do love Darkroom, makes editing a snap. The color controls are a game changer for me when it comes to editing on my phone.
The one issue I have with Darkroom , and keeping it from 5 stars is the that in the library, where I can select which photos to edit, it gets the photo is displays is different than the photo that comes up when I select it.
This makes it hard to edit photos cause I’m not sure where the photo I want to edit is, I’ll find it, click on it and it’s a different photo. Fix this issue and I think it’s a 5 Star app

by Dan Beltran

I absolutely love this app. It has all the controls I want for editing in my iPhone without getting clunky or bogged down with unnecessary extras. If I want to do complicated functions I’d do it on my computer.

One request I have is to be able to reorder adjustments so for instance I could move temperature and tint up to the top. I work in Lightroom all day and it would be nice to reorder them to what’s familiar instead of hunting down the adjustment I’m looking for.

this app has serious updates so often I can’t imagine they aren’t already working on this, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. Thank you for making a pro editing tool that just works.

by Itsmechris

I recently discovered the this app App. I immediately purchased full functionality. For years, I have made “social media” posts by editing JPG files with less than ideal image quality. Frustration finally led me to search for a better option than the stock Nikon wireless mobile utility and Apple Photos on my iPhone. That’s how I came across this app (and ShutterSnitch by a different developer which allows me to download RAW files in bulk off of my Nikon camera). This combination is incredible; I only wish I would have discovered it earlier.

Note to developers: I just sent an email to you with a couple of suggestions that might make your 5 star app even better 😊

by Amherst Owens

this app is a fantastic iOS photo editing app that I have been using for a few months now. I really like the slider functions as it gives almost pinpoint accuracy over editing your photos. Also Darkroom lets you edit Raw files as well as other more common file types. You have to buy other functions within Darkroom , but most other notable apps like Polarr do the same. At $5.00 per unlock it can get costly. You don’t have to buy them if you don’t want to use Darkroom and it even lets you try before you buy to see if you even want the extras. But over all its functions, and clean interface make it a wonderful photo editing app to use.

by Ixland

Hey dear this app team,
Firstly, it was a very nice experience to use your app. You know, you guys have got the best interface in a market, But I do need to ask you a question that if you want to add a precise editing feature to your app because your app has been nearly perfect except for the absence of that one little feature. And I’m really sure there are a lot of people out there who are willing to pay you for that. To be honest there are some apps which have already had this feature and charge less, but I believe this app will still be the best if that feature has been added. :)