For some time now, there have been a great number of photo filter apps like Instagram, Hipstamatic, and Camera+ that have utilized a lot of different effects, grains, and filters. Most of these apps give your photos a more vintage look that resembles those that are produced from older cameras. Osmo Leaker Pro ($0.99, App Store Link) takes it a step further by adding something not entirely seen in these other photo editing apps: light leak.
Osmotical has chosen to go in a different direction from filters and effects, and it turns out that it’s a pretty interesting change and gives all your photos a unique result. You have the option of eitherchoosing from your camera roll or taking a photo. What I’ve noticed is the indoor photos produce a better result that the outdoor photos, because if you’re editing an outdoor photo, of course there’s already natural light, so the light which is automatically applied to your photo might look somewhat out of place as opposed to photos taken indoor.
As far as social media integration goes, you can post your photos to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or send them in an email right from the app. To start applying a light leak to your photos, you just select or take a photo then a random light leak is automatically set. You can cycle through the light leaks and after you have chosen one, you tap on the photo and it will instantly save to your photo library. The pro version of Osmo Leaker features full resolution image saves, no ads, the ability to go back to a previous filter, and more leak filters than the free version.
Since you’re paying $0.99 for the pro version, it would have been great if they give you the option to choose a light leak and not have it randomized like the same way it works in Instagram, for instance. Also, the UI could have been done a little better. The navigation is confusing at first and since the icons in Osmo Leaker aren’t labeled, when a user opens it for the first time, they may get a little lost and confused as what to do or how to apply a light leak. Even tough this may be the case, there are a lot of apps on the app store, and even more specifically camera and photo apps which feature or utilize one specific tool, and they do it well. Osmo Leaker Pro is defiantly one of those apps.
It may have a few faults, but this is defiantly a unique app for anyone that’s into that vintage photo revolution that we seem to be going through. Besides having the back button in the pro version, I would have like to see a delete button. Instead if you want to delete or cancel a photo you applied a leak filter to, you have to close Osmo Leaker and open the Photos app and delete them from there. It’s not too big of an issue, but it just seems faster and more user-friendly to do it from Osmo Leaker itself. Nevertheless, Osmo Leaker Pro is a fun one-tool app that does a straight forward job, and it does it well.
Rating: 4/5[rating:4]
Pros:
- Great variety of light leak filters
- Full resolution image saves
- Nice social media integration
Cons:
- User interface can be better
- Would like to have the ability to select effects instead of light leaks being randomized
