Filterstorm is one of the first apps we loved when the iPad launched and to this day it remains our favourite heavy-weight photo editing app for iPad. We have mentioned the app more than a few times in previous posts.

If you have never tried Filterstorm, we think it is the closest thing to Aperture/Lightroom there is on iOS and we strongly recommend you give it a go now, the app is Universal so you get an iPhone optimised version too.

Developer and Photographer Tai Shimizu has been holding off on the most recent update until iOS 4 was released for the iPad, which of course hit iTunes last night, and Filterstorm 2.6 went live on the app store last night too.

Updated Features

The update brings with it a re-worked crop tool, which doesn't sound like much but if you saw the previous version the crop tool handles tended to get in the way and obscure the actual photo you were trying to edit, it was the one thing we didn't like very much about the app, especially on the iPhone's smaller screen.

The new crop tool takes a different approach to the crop handles and just this improvement alone has made the app so much easier to use. The screenshots below from Tai's blog show the iPhone version of the cropping tool, as you can see it is a nice update.

Old Cropping Interface

New Cropping interface

In addition, there are other new features like Borders that can include integrated captioning allowing you to finish the image nicely, new EXIF import from the Photo Library (a big plus when sending the image on from Filterstorm) and a new creative tool in the Multiple Exposure, which impressed us by allowing selective application of the second image by brushing with a mask.

Be sure to check out the video below from Tai showing some of the new features and we have included a full list of the updated features below the video. Filterstorm 2.6 is available now in the app store for $3.99 (£2.39).

Filterstorm 2.6 iPad Demo from Tai Shimizu on Vimeo.

Filterstorm 2.6 Features

Features
• Borders/frames tool added
• Multiple exposure tool added
• Sliders now have numerical indicator as to their value
• New Color Picker
• Completely redesigned cropping tool
• Text tool added on iPhone/iPod Touch
• Improved text tool on iPad
• Pasting photos now supports PNG & TIFF data.

Metadata Enhancements
• Metadata, both IPTC and EXIF are ONLY SUPPORTED ON iOS 4.2
• EXIF data can now be read from the photos album and camera.
• EXIF data will be saved to all images, whether going to the photo album or being e-mailed/FTPd
• IPTC generation rewritten
• IPTC generation in XMP format only
• IPTC fields added:
• Country Code
• Usage Terms
• Contact Address, City, State, Postal Code, Email, Website