APP
OF THE
DAY

We’ve all been there: you’re scrambling to capture the moment just right and miss it entirely. The sun sets, the bubblegum pops, the eagle flies away. Not every photo needs to be taken on the spur of the moment, but occasionally shooting fast is the only option. Thankfully, Lightleap by Lightricks lives up to its name.

Lightleap is an accessible camera app with some surprisingly complex features – like completely customisable filters and the ability to batch-edit (modifying a bunch of photos at once). But our favourite feature might be one of the simplest: a camera mode that guarantees your pictures are always straight.

Usually after you snap a crooked photo, you need to manually crop and readjust it. Quickshot mode does this automatically as the photo’s taken by using your viewfinder. If you tilt the phone, the viewfinder tilts in the opposite direction to compensate, so pictures are always perfectly straight.

Not only will this save you tons of editing time, it’ll allow you to take that perfect shot without worrying about small compositional changes.

Want to create an action shot that’s really special? Hit Strobe and prepare to be amazed. This mode takes several exposures then isolates the subject, blends the backgrounds and mixes the subject separately. The result is a picture that displays an entire range of motion frozen in an instant. If that sounds like magic, just wait until you see the results.

Try getting someone to toss a football, jump into the air or do a cartwheel – anything full of movement. Once you have a photo you like, hitting the card icon on the bottom left adds more exposures. The result is a cool, distinctive look that makes something as simple as a person walking across the office striking.

You may already know HDR from your iPhone’s built-in camera, but Lightleap comes with its own version: HDR+. It combines a series of photographs at different exposures – light, medium and dark – then blends them to create a photo with detailed shadows and highlights. It can amp up the colours in landscape and sunset photography and is totally adjustable. Take your photo and the app instantly blends it, then lets you adjust shadows and highlights balance with a single slider.

We love Lightleap’s clever bells and whistles – and we love having them only a tap away.

Lightleap by Lightricks

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