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iPhone guide

How to edit photos on iPhone like a pro

Develop is Seamly’s full-screen photo editor: exposure, highlights and shadows, white balance, a colour mixer, colour grading, a tone curve, clarity, dehaze, vignette and grain, with Auto to start you off. Here’s how to use it on iPhone.

Last updated · On iPhone and iPad · Free to try, Seamly Pro to keep

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What’s in Develop

  • Light: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks.
  • Color: Temperature, Tint, Vibrance, Saturation and black and white.
  • Mix: hue, saturation and brightness for each colour, say to keep only the reds.
  • Grade: colour wheels that tint the shadows, midtones and highlights.
  • Curve: a tone curve for fine control over brightness.
  • Effects: Texture, Clarity, Dehaze, Vignette and Grain.
  • Detail: Sharpening and noise reduction.
  • Presets: looks you save, shown on the photo you’re editing.

The Auto button sets light and colour for the photo in one tap, a good start before you fine-tune.

What you need

  • An iPhone or iPad with iOS 17 or later.
  • The Seamly app, free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play for Android.
  • A photo of your own from the camera roll: Develop works on your photos, not on a template’s example pictures.

Make it in Seamly, step by step

Step 1: Get Seamly

Download Seamly from the App Store and open it. The app and most templates are free; templates marked Pro need Seamly Pro, which starts with a free trial.

Step 2: Open a design with your photo

Open a template from Templates, or tap + to start a new project, and add your photo from the camera roll.

Step 3: Tap the photo, then Develop

Tap the photo, then tap Develop in the toolbar. The photo opens full screen with the controls under it.

Step 4: Set the light

Tap Auto, or work through Light yourself: Exposure for overall brightness, Highlights down to keep a bright sky, Shadows up to open dark areas.

Step 5: Set the colour and finish

In Color, warm or cool the photo with Temperature and lift Vibrance. In Effects, add Clarity, Vignette or Grain. Mix, Grade and Curve go further.

Step 6: Compare and keep it

Touch and hold the photo to see the original. Tap Done to put the edit on your design, or Share to save the photo to Photos. Keeping the edit needs Seamly Pro.

What the video shows

A screen recording of the Seamly iPhone app: a dusk photo of a pagoda in Kyoto opens in Develop. Exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows are set in Light, temperature and vibrance in Color, clarity and vignette in Effects; holding the photo shows the original, and Done puts the edit on the design.

  • The design: a dusk photo of a pagoda in Kyoto under a “Good Days” title.
  • Tap the photo, then tap Develop. The photo opens full screen with the Light panel under it.
  • In Light, raise Exposure to +0.28 and Contrast to +23, pull Highlights to −40 to keep the sky, and lift Shadows to +37 to open up the street.
  • Tap Color: warm the photo with Temperature (+30) and raise Vibrance to +44.
  • Swipe the row of tools and tap Effects: Clarity to +44, then the Vignette tab, where Amount at −44 darkens the corners.
  • Touch and hold the photo to see the original; let go to see the edit.
  • Tap Done: the edited photo goes back onto the design.

Tips for better edits

  • Light first, then colour. Colours shift as brightness changes, so set Light before Color.
  • Go easy on Exposure. Small moves matter; pull Highlights down instead of losing a bright sky.
  • Hold to compare often. It’s the quickest way to see if an edit went too far.
  • Reuse a look. In the … menu, save the edit as a preset, or copy it and paste it onto the next photo from the same day.
  • Add a film look after. Develop pairs well with Seamly’s film filters on the finished photo.

Questions

Is Develop free?

You can try every control for free. Keeping the edit, with Done, saving to Photos, presets and copy and paste, needs Seamly Pro, which starts with a free trial.

Does Develop change my original photo?

No. Seamly keeps the original and your settings, so you can open Develop again later and change any slider.

How do I see the photo before and after?

Touch and hold the photo in Develop to see the original; let go to see your edit.

What size does Develop save?

Up to 4096 pixels on the long side, in Display P3 colour.

Does it work on Android or a computer?

Yes. Develop is in Seamly for Android and in the browser at canvas.seamly.art.

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