If you have an iPhone, you probably have a folder of apps dedicated to photos. If you do, it is most likely filled with photo editing apps that enable you to crop, resize, stylize, and upload your images to a few social networks. If this is true for you, you know how nice it is to be able to edit your images with cool effects, a nice frame, and then sending it to Facebook or Twitter. What if you want that same experience on your Mac, though?
Let me introduce you to PhotoMagic. PhotoMagic is exactly like one of those easy-to-use photo editing apps that you have on your iPhone, but for your Mac. With over 200 photo effects, frames and more, PhotoMagic delivers what you would expect from a photo effects app. With its high price and lack of features, however, it doesn’t stack up to competing apps.
1-Click Photo Editing
PhotoMagic in action.
One thing that PhotoMagic gets exceptionally right is the ease of use. With one click, you can add a frame, rotate, flip, crop, and change the look of your image. It all happens seamlessly, and since there is no learning curve whatsoever, you’ll spend more time figuring out what effects you want to use rather than figuring out how to use the application.
With over 70 photo effects, 90 lighting effects, and 90 frames, you’ll be able to come up with a unique looking image every single time. Photo effects are displayed with a preview of your image, so you won’t have to guess how that particular style will look. The app even let’s you compare the original photo to the one you are editing this is quite useful when you want to preserve the look and feel of the original image.
Share, Save, and Print
Sharing to Facebook.
Once you are done editing your photo, you will have the option to share, save or print your photo. Sharing your image enables you to upload your image to Facebook or Flickr by simply logging in and going through the process. This process is just as you would expect, but PhotoMagic gives you the ability to scale your image to a different size when uploading practical when you have a really big image.
Saving and printing is just as you would imagine, but your options are somewhat limited; however, you still have the ability to scale your image and lower its quality.
An App With Limited Magic Tricks
Comparing the original with the current edit.
PhotoMagic is a good, easy-to-use, and very basic photo editing application, but with the immense amount of apps like it in the Mac App Store, and in the iOS App Store, PhotoMagic doesn’t do anything new, nor does it manage to get half of the features other apps like it have at their disposal.
It is kind of sad, but when you think about it, you can’t help but to remember some of the cool things you can do with other apps even on iOS. What’s missing? Well, quite a bit to be honest.
For starters, where is the iSight support? This is probably the most logical feature to include in an app like this, but oddly enough, it isn’t present.
The top selection of effects isn’t very pleasing.
Sharing is great, but why the lack of other social networks? Okay, let’s not argue about every single social network that is missing, but what about Twitter? Twitter should also be a logical feature since it is integrated with Mountain Lion.
Another feature that would make this app more magical is image correction. What if the photo is too dark? What if the photo was taken in front of a sunset and it didn’t come out right? Other apps allow you to quickly enhance that image with one click.
Lastly, this app should let you adjust photo effects. Currently you are only able to set an effect, but most of them are extremely bright, dark, or noticeable. If you were able to adjust the level of the effect, it could ultimately blend well with the image, thus giving you a subtle yet impressive looking photo.
The Verdict
The end result. Not bad, huh?
If you take a look at the top photography apps for iOS, for instance, you will find some amazing apps that have all the features listed above and more for less than half the price of PhotoMagic. Based on that, PhotoMagic falls short when it comes to features. While it is friendly, simple, and contains many different effects, at ten dollars, there just isn’t enough to merit the asking price.