WP App Review : TiltShiftGen

TiltShiftGen (Version 1.0)

Art & Mobile

$1.49

When I had my iPhone, TiltShiftGen was pretty much my go-to photography app. I had SnapSneed, Instagram, LoMob, Hipstamatic, and all those other popular photo apps but TiltShiftGen provided simple adjustments with a good tilt-shift effect and the photos always came out wonderfully.

It's extremely popular on iOS but it seems like it doesn't get much recognition in the Microsoft store which is a shame. Since it's not too popular, it took me a while to realize this app was available in the MSFT store but after lots of browsing in the photo category I was happy to see it was available.

TiltShiftGen provides three basic adjustments. Color settings include saturation, brightness, and contrast. Blur provides a circular or horizontal tilt-shift effect. And lastly, there is a vignetting setting. Admittedly, there is a ton of photo apps out there that provides these basic effects for free or for a paid price with more settings. However, the simplicity, ease of use, and quality is what I like about TiltShiftGen. All your settings are easily accessible and easily adjusted and you can quickly edit a photo to share on your social networks. I personally don't feel like spending too much time editing smartphone photos like I would do with my DSLR photos.

The app did feel a bit more polished on iOS but I don't have any real complaints about this version on Windows Phone. It was released before WP8 but still works well, although it could use a slight polishing. I haven't experienced any bugs or crashes and it works well enough for my needs. The blur setting was a bit awkward at first since where you touch isn't where the effect takes place like it did on iOS, but rather where you last left the blur point at; however it just took a few times to get use to it. 

Integrated social networks you can share to only include Twitter and Facebook, but the ability to choose the photo size of the output all the way up to the original size is a nice feature since most photo apps don't let you save full size images. Also, when you save the images it gets saved in your "Camera Roll" instead of "Saved Pictures" which I know a lot of people prefer. Rendering is also nice and quick although full size does take a while.

I'd love for it to be fully optimized for WP8 and possibly add some more features but contacting the developer yielded no response. Still, if you're looking for a simple, no-nonsense photo editing app, TiltShiftGen may be worth taking a look at.

Pros : Simple and effective adjustments, quick rendering

Cons : Could use slightly more polish but still a solid app