Facetune

Whether we like it or not, selfies are here to stay. While they may be demeaned in some circles as a cheap depreciation of artistic value, there's a democratizing effect to the notion that anyone can capture a memory in full without the need for years of training or an expensive tool. Facetune takes that same principle and applies it to photo editing, giving users a full suite of editing tools without needing access to an expensive editing platform like Adobe Photoshop. In fact, you don't need a dedicated computer at all. Facetune is available for mobile devices, and it automates much of the editing process through the use of smart technology that reads the elements of your pictures and approximates the effect you're looking for intuitively. The original Facetune was a handy app that allowed eminently easy touch-up work on any photos. The focus was on selfie photos, and the features were designed to match. From skin smoothing to teeth whitening to fixes for the dreaded red eye, Facetune allowed you to get a prettier looking selfie without having to worry about lighting when taking the shot and without having to worry about learning new photo editing skills. It worked well by offering automated adjustments combined with the ability to tweak those alterations yourself through the use of comprehensive sliders. Facetune 2 builds on those strong fundamentals with new features that are iterative but bordering on the revolutionary, and without ruining the ease of use that made the original Facetune such a great mobile tool. There are plenty of photo adjustment apps on the market, but Facetune pulls ahead of the crowd with its combination of both augmented reality and artificial intelligence. The former allows you to get a feel for what your photo will look like before you even taking it, giving you options to soften and touch up your photos before you even snap them. Through the use of filters and sliders that overlay on your camera's screen, you can pre-edit rather than post-edit, but that's a feature already available in apps like Snapchat. The really impressive work comes in the form of Facetune's AI technology. This is undoubtedly the smartest facial recognition on the consumer market. This facial identification allows you to zero in on specific components of your face and apply narrow effects to those components. Whether that means softening the skin lightness or smoothing out some eye shadow, it works, and it works well. The thing about Facetune is that it offers you a range of tools, but sometimes the simpler works better. Really messing with the filters and sliders allow you to turn your photo into something indistinguishable and inhuman, but a few tweaks here and there can provide you with a touch-up that looks realistic. A number of effects are available, but Facetune employs something of an unusual in app purchase model. The free version offers the entire base package, but users need to purchase other add-ons a la carte or sign up for a monthly subscription plan. It's an interesting approach that drives development on what could be a very static app, but the pricing can quickly add up.