Reflect+ can refresh your photos in amazing ways
Reflect+ (US$1.99) is a simply amazing little app that will take a photo and realistically add other elements, giving you something new and shareable. The app can add water or a beach to a barren landscape, add realistic haze and fog, or 50 other effects like lens flares, birds, star fields, the moon and planets, and then filter the image to provide different lighting and tonal washes. I added some realistic lightning to photos I had of threatening clouds and the result was good. The app also supports masking so you can selectively erase elements that, for example, might need to fall behind something real in your photo.
I took some photos from my library of 'keepers' and let Reflect+ do its thing. I was really impressed. Some desert shots were transformed into realistic photos with water and a flock of birds. You can get really detailed about the water, determining how choppy or reflective it is. Objects in your photos appear reflected in the water.
Using the app is pretty intuitive, but a little explanation on using layers would be welcome. I eventually figured it out, but this app would benefit from a tutorial video.
The output of the app is really beautiful. I was so taken with playing with all the things I could do I blew through about 20 photo edits in a row. The finished products really don't look fake, as happens with some SFX apps. You can keep it all looking natural or as surrealistic as you like.
Reflect+ is universal and certainly worth the money for the quality of the software. It requires iOS 6 or later, runs just fine on iOS 8 and it's optimized for the iPhone 5.
