Darkroom 3.5 brings depth-aware filters and editing, and extended-range RAW support

Darkroom’s latest update brings creative control to the iPhone’s Portrait Mode capabilities. By taking a Portrait Mode photo’s depth data, Darkroom 3.5 can now independently apply adjustments to the foreground and background of an image. The new update also brings extended-range RAW support, depth-aware premium filters, and a slew of fixes.

The most obvious change in Darkroom 3.5 will be the new abilities brought to Portrait Mode photos. Brightness, saturation, and blurring can be controlled independently from the foreground and background. This split-style editing means that users can flex their creativity to help further separate the context of what is in front or behind.

Depth-mapping ranges can now be adjusted as well. If you’ve ever taken a Portrait Mode photo of a person and saw the bokeh overlapping the silhouette too harshly, Darkroom 3.5 allows you to fix that. The new depth sliders allow editing the distance of where the blur begins in an image. By taking the depth data included in the photo, Darkroom can increase or decrease the range while adjusting the blurs strength.

With all of the new depth-aware power in Darkroom 3.5, the team decided to introduce depth-awareness to filters too. All of Darkroom’s premium filters are depth-aware and will account for the image’s depth mapping data to apply the changes. According to Darkroom, this will ensure that “you can make your portraits truly pop, with a single tap.”

Since Halide hit iOS, I’ve been shooting more photos in RAW on my iPhone X. The amount of editing flexibility enabled with RAW image capture is incredible. Darkroom has been the go-to editor of mine, and with their newest update, they’ve improved RAW image editing even further. Darkroom now includes extended-range editing, which can recover more image data, without destroying the overall look. In a comparison provided by Darkroom, Darkroom demonstrated what their extended-range RAW support meant compared to VSCO’s own RAW support.

Darkroom 3.5 is a feature-packed update for mobile photography editors. Atop everything noted above, they’ve also added exposure preservation, a way to quickly view the RAW depth data, and a one-tap button to jump right into Halide. The update is available now as a free update for previous owners from the iOS App Store.

Darkroom 3.5 Additional Notes and Changes

ADDITIONS

• Added Exposure Preservation, which makes sure filters will no longer undo corrections you made to exposure every time you switch filters.
• Added a Halide button to the library grid when the app is installed. Now you can capture in Halide and edit in Darkroom without leaving either app!
• Added the ability to view the raw Depth Data by long-pressing the depth badge when viewing a portrait photo.

IMPROVEMENTS

• Massive improvements to app startup times and navigation.
• Updated the Vignette tool to be stronger at bright regions of a photo.
• Updated the design of file type and file state icons and animations in the library grid and photo viewer to be less cluttered and more smoothly animated.
• Updated the design of the filter tool to make the filters a bit smaller, to fit more on screen.
• Updated the map in the metadata viewer such that it’s now bigger and tappable and links to Apple Maps.
• Updated the Export and Metadata viewer Sheet interactions for expanded states, includes fixes for some rare reports of broken UI for the iPhone X.
• Added localization support for Hindi and Malay.

For the full list of release notes and changes, head on over to Darkroom’s official site.

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