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iPhone users have plenty of apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic to apply effects to their images before sharing them. Those apps are all the rage right now, and for good reason. They give you the ability to turn a mediocre photo into a personal masterpiece. For the most part though, Mac users who prefer to shoot photos with dedicated digital cameras had been left out in the cold until Lo-Fi came along.Lo-Fi brings retro camera effects to your digital photos in a fun and user-friendly application that looks more like the back of a digital camera than it does a desktop application. Lo-Fi doesn’t really do anything that you couldn’t do with a copy of Photoshop and some spare time – except that it does them with the click of a button, at a fraction of the cost, and with fantastic results!
Lo-Fi offers a unique interface for enhancing your digital photos
After launching Lo-Fi, you simply drag a photo into the large viewer window to get started. That’s when the fun starts. On the right side, you’ll find three rows of options to enhance your photos; Film, Mood, and Frame.
The Film row offers 14 different film effects to apply to your image. Options like desaturate, overexpose, flash-simulations, and ultra-contrast all adjust the image appearance to simulate different film types and flash results.
The Mood row allows you to further enhance the image adding one of 12 grainy effects, light leaks, or dreamy portrait effects to your image.
The Frame row puts the final touches on your image. You can choose from 13 different border enhancements such as film strip, vignettes, coffee cup stain, and grunge borders.
The crumpled frame effect is pretty cool
You can apply only one effect from each row, Lo-Fi’s only drawback. It would really be nice to be able to add multiple effects from the same row at a time. You can however turn on or off specific rows if you wish. So if you don’t want a border effect applied, you simply click the little green light next to the row name to turn off the row effects.
Light leaks on the image and grungy border can really boost interest in your photo
Once you’re satisfied with your image enhancements, you can share the image on Flickr or Facebook with the share buttons, or save the image to your hard drive. Lo-Fi can save your image directly into your iPhoto library, send it to Picasa or Photoshop Elements, or save the image to your drive directly. You can also specify file name suffix, choose from preset image sizes, or leave the image at full resolution.
Desaturating an image with the right frame effect offers a nice retro feel
The interface scales beautifully by dragging the corner, just like any other window on the Mac, so unlike the apps found on the iPhone, you can actually see the image detail when applying the effects. One final option available is the double exposure button, which allows you to select a second photo to simulate the old film camera problem where the film didn’t advance and you get the double exposure. It works great and with the right photo can really enhance your image.
A subtle vignette frame and glamour mood gives your image a more professional look
I review a lot of image editing applications, but few ever remain on my Mac very long. I tend to revert to Photoshop since I’m usually working in it all day anyway. Lo-Fi may be the exception because it’s so simple to use, and the results are great. And I love that the app allows me to save the full resolution photo – unlike Instagram on my iPhone. Simple sharing on Facebook and Flickr complete a great feature-set.
Lo-Fi can be had for $14.99, and there is a demo version for you to download and try.
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