Specter is the latest project from the creators of Halide. The camera app takes beautiful photos with slow shutter speed, giving you cool lighting effects. You can also easily edit images.
Specter review
Halide has been at the top of our list of best iOS apps for years. The makers are now coming up with a new project: Spectre. This is also a camera app, but with a special edge: you can take photos with a slow shutter speed. This gives your pictures an artistic edge due to the lighting. In addition, you can use artificial intelligence for smart photo editing.
The idea behind Specter is simple. When you press the button to take a photo, hundreds of images are actually shot. These are then crammed into one Live Photo, after which you select the best image yourself.
You can indicate how many seconds of shutter speed you want. The more seconds you choose, the more pictures will be taken. Specter especially excels in photographing lighting effects and contrasts. In addition, the photo quality is much higher than with a normal snapshot, because the best elements from hundreds of parts are processed together.
Also read: iPhone photography guide: How to get the most out of your iPhone camera
It’s all about lighting
The best results were obtained with photos with many types of lighting, such as the face of a highway at night. You have the natural light of the moon, lampposts and, for example, bus shelters.
The app has scene recognition, which means that it ‘sees’ what you are trying to photograph based on the incidence of light, and automatically adjusts the settings accordingly. In addition, the app continuously learns thanks to artificial intelligence. So your photos get better and better as Specter gets smarter.
Another great feature of Specter is the ability to easily edit photos. When you shoot a picture of a large crowd, you can remove these people afterwards, for example.
After all, the app takes multiple photos and recognizes that people are moving, so you can choose to only capture the stationary elements. This same principle also works when you take a picture of the highway at night. With the push of a button you remove all cars.
Also interesting: 7 useful tips to take better photos with your iPhone
Steady hand required hand
All in all, Specter is a very accessible way to take professional photos. All you need is a steady hand. If you shake slightly while taking photos, the end result is usually disappointing. If you have an iPhone 8 or newer, these vibrations are automatically muted. Of course, you get the best results when you use a tripod.
The best thing about Specter is how simple everything is. You won’t come across complicated menus with all kinds of settings, but you can already take great photos with a few presses of a button. All you have to worry about is how many seconds of shutter speed you set, and avoid vibrations.
You need at least an iPhone 6 with iOS 11 to use Specter. The automatic scene recognition only works if you’re running iOS 12. To use the automatic image stabilization, which corrects minor vibrations, you need at least an iPhone 8 (with Neural Engine).
Specter will be expanded with multiple functions in the future. You therefore temporarily pay an introductory price of 2.29 euros, because the app is not yet complete. In the future, the smart camera app will be more expensive.