App Review – Aviary (Photo Editor)

I’m fairly stuck in my ways when it comes to photo editing apps. I’ve got my few favorites and I always stick to them. So many on the app store are absolutely useless so I was skeptical when I saw Aviary but it’s free so I gave it a try.

Upon opening the app I was pleasantly surprised. I had expected a cheap looking affair with a difficult and clunky U.I. – Not at all. The home screen is a scrolling feed of your camera roll. I immediately thought ‘why don’t all photo editing apps have this?’ There is also an option to view your gallery and choose images that way too.

My first disappointment, though, was the enhance options which are put to shame by the likes of Camera+’s ‘scenes’. They are subtle, though, which might appeal to other’s taste – but not mine.

I found the filters to be pretty standard. Nothing new here. One which I did like was ‘Concorde’. Mainly because it reminded me of a filter that Instagram had in the early days called ‘Gotham’. It’s essentially just a high contrast BW which can now be better achieved with the Noir app or Ansel from Camera+. I also felt that the sepia filter had an unusually orange tint to it. Worst of all is the fact that none of these are editable. Even just an ‘amount’ slider like the one used in the PicFx app would be great. You’re also stuck with borders on some of them, which is no good.

Original image

Concorde filter

Sepia filter

This all left me wondering what the U.S.P. was going to be. Was I going to find one?

Moving to the next page I found sliders. Finally some control over something! Brightness, contrast and saturation are all standard and work as you’d expect but what I liked was the sharpness feature because you can make your images look out of focus. Definitely a useful tool which I’m looking forward to playing with.

Un-sharpened  image

Aviary also has a text option. It would be nice to have an in app ‘Phonto’ but sadly this is more limited that Brian limited from Limited-On-Sea! We’re only given one font. It’s pretty easy to use though. And there IS a large selection of colours for that ONE font!

Aviary text

Aviary is an OK app. Its got potential so it’ll remain on my phone for now. All we need is more control really. Oh and I found a small bug. After editing a photo and going back to choose another one, the previous image you were working on all of a sudden appears multiple times in the feed. You have to re start the app to correct it. As soon as these things get sorted out I think it’ll be a good little app.

All photos taken by Kerry Lambert