Today, mood.camera introduces a new Preset Editor which unlocks new creative possibilities for photographers. Whether you're looking to simply add a touch of warmth to your favourite preset, or start from scratch to create an original style, it’s all now possible.
Though undoubtedly aimed at more advanced users, the Preset Editor stays true to the app’s philosophy. Rather than overwhelming users with hundreds of dials and settings, mood.camera opts for fewer, more meaningful controls. Intuitively grouped into Colour, Quality, and Tone, you now have independent control over emulation strength, saturation, contrast, grain, halation, and more.
If you don’t fancy building your own, other users can easily share their emulation settings, which you can then dial into your app. Developer Alex Fox hopes this will add another element to the existing community. “I love seeing how new tools inspire people. The beta group has already created some really cool presets, my particular favourite being a Cinestill 800T-esque emulation. I can’t wait to see more!”.
“Warm Portra” custom emulation
“800T” custom emulation
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This update also features a new and improved Halation effect. Unlike the previous version, which relied solely on the photos luminance, mood.camera now uses a dynamic range gain map to precisely identify overblown highlights. Alex explains, “This is a much more authentic representation of how halation works on real film, where only the brightest elements of the scene produce that cinematic orangey-red glow. It was a real challenge to dial in the effect to produce consistent results, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. As far as I know, this is the first app to use this approach to achieve the effect.“
The key stages of the halation visual effect pipeline
A night shot showing the new Halation effect
A day shot showing the new Halation effect
mood.camera is available on the App Store, with a free 7-day trial, no payment details required. After the free trial you can continue using the app with “random” only mode, or unlock full access via a one-off £14.99 membership or a £1.99 per month subscription.