Dehancer Online | Photography On The Go

In our last photography article, we did a detailed walkthrough of the Dehancer Film Plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. In this article, the folks at Dehancer have kindly asked us to look at their iOS and Dehancer Online plugins.

Dehancer iOS APP

As a general rule, I don’t use mobile versions of desktop apps. I find that even the Adobe ones lack the functionality of their bigger brothers. I was somewhat surprised when I looked at the Dehancer iOS App. They have had to scale down the interface to fit on a small screen, so, for instance, the histogram views have gone. But, overall, the features on the iOS version match the desktop version. So in other words, you get the same functionality on your iPhone as you do on your Desktop; which is pretty impressive.

The software has over 60 photographic and movie films stored as presets. For each preset you have full control over the tonal balance, and effects such as film grain, halation, bloom, and many more. You also have the flexibility to create your own presets.

Here’s a before after shot of the photo we used in the video:

AFTER

Image 1 of 2

KODAK EASTMAN DOUBLE-X 5222

We concluded:

• If you are an experienced Lightroom/Photoshop user and know your way around the Curves Tool, then this App may be not for you; unless you have a requirement for a mobile/on-the-go solution.
• The IOS App includes all the core features of the desktop application.
• The factory provided film emulations are all high-quality and are tailorable to develop your own style.
• A lot of work has gone into the user-interface and the App is simple to use.
• If you are a photographer on the move and want to limit the amount of gear you are carrying around with you, then the Dehancer IOS App is a credible toolset to process your images.
• Likewise if you are a more casual photographer and just want a toolset to get great looking photos onto social media, then the App also meets the requirement.
• The App could be regarded by some as expensive, but its a case of you get what you pay for, and the Dehancer IOS App does give quite a bit for your investment, so shouldn’t disappoint.

Dehancer Online

You access the Dehancer Online App through your web browser by going to online.dehancer.com then simply drag a JPEG, PNG, HEIC or TIFF into the browser or click the browser button to upload the file.

The online version allows you to choose from 48 vintage film presets which can then be tailored with Light, Color & Effects profiles and then further refined with individual sliders if you need. The first step then is to pick a film profile that you like. You can then tailor this visually using the Light & Color Tabs. There are also a few sliders thrown in if you want to make manual adjustments.

Here’s a before after shot of the photo we used in the video:

AFTER

Image 1 of 2

KODAK ECTAR 25

We concluded:

• The software isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste, particularly if you are an experienced Lightroom/Photoshop user. 
• It’s significantly cheaper than say an Adobe Lightroom subscription, and you can enable/disable the Dehancer subscription whenever you want.
• It’s appeal is likely to be with more casual photographers that just want a great looking photo without the Adobe learning curve.
• It’s visually based without complex functions & sliders so is ideal if you are on the go and/or just need to get your work out quickly. So for instance getting your images onto social media when you are on the move.
• There are no detailed adjustments for Whites/Highlights/Shadows/Blacks, so you need a reasonably exposed picture to start with, i.e. you can’t use the software to recover images that were incorrectly exposed in the first place. 
• You can’t adjust aspect ratios when you are scaling/cropping into an image.
• The film grain effect to be a bit too harsh for the images we tried it with.
• The results you get are not as refined as you can achieve using the iOS or Desktop applications.
• The B&W looks appeared less impactful than Dehancer Film Plugin or the iOS plugin, which is a shame.
• The Film Grain effect can make pictures look really blurry