I have a whole collection of Photography apps on my iPads. Typically, I download one, experiment with it for awhile, then mostly forget about it.  So when I saw a new Photo app called “Enlight” in the App Store, I almost ignored it, even though it was listed as one of the “Best New Apps”.  Luckily, I did not. Instead, I read the reviews and decided it give it a try.

That was a week ago, and I have been having a wonderful time with it ever since.  Right now, it is my number 1 app for photo editing on my iPad, and I foresee using it for many, if not all, of the photos I take with my iPhone.  In fact, I have been using it with some of my images from my Canon DSLR cameras rather than using Photoshop on my computer.  (It’s a universal app, so I can also use it on my iPhone itself, but unless I am just using my one of the pre-set filters, I like the space on the iPad to fully use all of its features with brushes, masks, and tools. More about that later.)

What makes this a 5 Star Photo editing app, for me, is that it combines standard controls such as cropping, exposure, saturation, curves, etc. with some great artistic effects and filters. Presets can be used for a one-click enhancement or a combination of effects can be used with sophisticated results.

The first photo below is the original image of the Tenakee Springs Bath House in Tenakee Springs, Alaska. It was a snapshot of this historical site taken with my Canon 7D.  I used 3 different editing enhancements for the second photo.

First, I went to the Image Menu on the right side bar of the app and clicked on the Adjust option.  Within Adjust, I chose the HDR Preset. With one click this brightened the shadows and enhanced the details. I then used the “Heal” tool found under the Tools menu to “patch” the sky and remove the telephone wire on the upper left of the image. To create a frame, I used one of the Presets found in the Finalize menu.

Many photo apps have similar capabilities, but Enlight does this and so much more. It also has a clear, user-friendly interface and renders the images quickly and smoothly – all for $4.99. (Yes, this might be more than some folks want to pay for an iPad app, but compared to Photoshop and third-party filters, it is indeed a very capable and economical photo editor.)

Here are a few more examples of some Before and After images using Enlight. (To see these at and additional examples at a higher resolution, go to www.cindyconephotography.com/Enlight/. )

In my next post, I’ll explain exactly how I created these two transformations and others – step by step, with screenshots of the actual Enlight tool bar and presets.