Halide’s big 3.0 upgrade has been on our radar since late 2024. Today, the pro camera app has arrived in the form of Halide Mark III. It brings three key photographic enhancements to the experience.
Halide 3.0 upgrade focuses on taking better photos
As expected in December 2024, Halide Mark III promises to improve the iPhone’s photography game in a variety of ways.
First of all, Halide Mark III starts by focusing on taking better photos from the moment you press the shutter button. That’s thanks to a new feature called Halide Looks:
We are thrilled to finally unveil Halide It looks like, our magnificent, physically accurate alternative processes. Combined with our film simulation engine and optional HDR, photographers now have an incredible set of creative tools to express themselves. Mark III launches with five looks, each developed for a specific purpose.
This is how the Appearance Selector appears in the new update:
The five Halide looks included in Mark III are:
- Valence: “A great look for landscapes and cityscapes, with interesting effects on portraits and skin tones. It features thick contrast, deep saturation, and solid color separation.”
- Rembrandt: “Our portrait look, where thick contrast in the midtones highlights bone structure and lighting. Abundant colors in the low end converge toward white as exposure increases, for perfect evenness of skin tones to emphasize the facial contour. Compared to the iPhone’s default processing, we find the differences striking.”
- Nova: “Better suited to landscapes and cityscapes than portraits, it presents exceptional colors, with tight contrast and soft peach highlights. »
- Zephyr: “A subtle, understated look, it features subtle filmic contrast, paired with rich skin tones and foliage. It has the character of a traditional print, but its neutral tonal scale and adjusted contrast make it an excellent choice for a wide variety of scenes and visual intentions.”
- Chrome Black: “Our homemade panchromatic black and white look with medium contrast.”
Here are examples of each look provided by Halide:
Halide Mark III also includes a new photo editor and camera overhaul
Next, Halide 3.0 brings a new photo editing experience to the app with the new Photo Lab:
When you shoot with RAW enabled, you can edit your photos later in Halide’s new photo lab. He’s not an editor. It’s better.
From the moment you open the Photo Lab, you are presented with the Quick Edit section. In seconds, you can listen to different looks, adjust exposure, and activate HDR and cinematic simulations. If that’s not enough, with just a few taps you can adjust the framing, color balance, and more.
The new Photo Lab feature will even let you “edit RAW files created by Canon, Sony, Nikon, Leica, Fujifilm, and Hasselblad cameras” in beta.
This is the first time that Halide no longer focuses only on iPhone photography but also becomes a photo editor for standalone cameras.
The new photo editor can be particularly useful on iPad, where Halide Mark III is also available.
Finally, there is the professional camera UI design in Halide Mark III:
Composition is the foundation of photography, which is why we put composition tools at the forefront. Choose an aspect ratio that matches popular film cameras: 35mm (3:2), medium format (1:1), and panoramic (65:24). We even have a dynamic aspect ratio for Instagram, which changes depending on landscape or portrait. To the right of the aspect ratio button we have the composition overlay. Of course, this includes the rule of thirds, but we added a uniform grid, the golden ratio and the rectangle drawdown.
For Halide shooters who prefer the previous design, the Mark II camera layout also remains an option.
Halide Mark III, available today, is a free upgrade for customers who purchased Halide Mark II. The new version is also available for Halide subscribers starting today.
Halide Mark III can be purchased outright for $59.99, or subscribers can access the new app for $19.99/year.
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