Magic Hour for iOS offers almost unlimited filters
Magic Hour (US$1.99) offers 38 preset filters with the ability to modify and save them, giving you an immense number of options when you are modifying your photos.
In addition, Magic Hour can let you take photos directly, with locks for focus and exposure, flash, and zoom (digital). The app will also superimpose a grid to make sure your photos are level and help you visualize composition.
The main business of Magic Hour is filters, and they are never over the top. Filters are well thought-out, with plenty of natural-looking options. Of course, you can push all the filters to get more saturation or contrast -- that's up to you.
The app also features an assortment of frames and textures, some of them appearing as presets with filters, providing one-click options to enhance your photos. Fine-tuning tools like curves, rotate, crop, tilt-shift and black and white modes are also included.
Using Magic Hour is easy. You take or import your photo, select from the array of filters, and then tune the individual filters to taste. Add a frame if you desire, then save the final image to your camera roll or send it to friends directly from the app. You can send your masterwork via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Dropbox and E-mail and you can print via AirPrint if you are equipped for it.
There is also a free filter market where you can share your creations with others around the world or download some that you like. Magic Hour also offers additional filters like HDR, Posterize and Toon at $0.99 each or all three for $1.99. Frankly, I'd like to see all the filters included in the base price.
Magic Hour is a nice package. I am still a big fan of Snapseed (free), which has numerous filters and HDR conversions to die for. Still, Magic Hour has a greater variety of filters and more ability to tune them, so I think it is worthy of serious consideration.
The app is not universal, but should be. It requires iOS 4.3 or later.
