A New Free App for Photos: Vintique

For all you snap happy, social media bunnies out there this article will certainly be of interest. The new free app for photos: Vintique, we sampled on an iPhone recently and is brilliant! DEN enjoyed its concept as we believe in the modern powers of social media; the opportunities it gives for the sharing of information globally and the interactivity for everyone. We also appreciate a jolly good photo and now so many applications on mobile devices have been all the range lately, taking over the daily photography medium norm. So for your everyday picture-taker, who enjoys editing and effects and is generally on-the-run, this free app is perfect!

Vintique, which we recently discovered in this month of October, was in the top free apps list on App store. It gets its name from the combination of ‘Vintage and Antique,’ its slogan as seen on the app’s opening. Automatically, you jump to the conclusion ‘if it’s free, what’s the harm? There was in fact none. It is pretty fun! It may be seen as a rival to Instagram, who already has it’s foot firmly in the door of the photo social media phenomenon, but we think it may offer something a bit different, giving it its own platform for succeeding. This one focuses on less contemporary photo effects but ones that are more uniquely appropriate to the vintage and antique era. (and funnily enough great for the creation of occasion cards!)

It takes photos there on then, or there is an option to use an older one already in your library. The app immediately allows you to move, scale, rotate and resize it, giving already a more expansive range of technical options than Instagram. There are 33 effects to choose from, with further editing options such as brightness and contrast, gamma, vibrancy, hue, saturation, highlight and shadow, as well as temperature alteration. We thought this was great! However some may perceive it as fairly excessive- it all depends on how much editing you want to do and how much time you have to do it in, on the go. After that, there is also the option to add a ton of vignettes and textural overlays. Phwoar!

Again, like Instgram there are frames. Vintique however has 50. Yes you heard correctly, 50! This was probably the hardest part in our editing stage, because there was so much choice, it took ages. There was a fabulous range of different styles-some with more iconic looks, others with more imagery and others with more specific themes. I think this expansive list was possibly the down side to the app, but others may disagree!

Finally, after the finished product is made, you are invited to save or share in a range of options. There is the simple ‘save to album’ selection, but what is great about Vintique is its range of sharing mediums- Facebook, Twitter, Mail, Preview and even Instagram itself! Very clever indeed. One can start photo editing in this app and use that one collaboratively, creating a much more exciting finish.

All in all we would give it 4.6 stars because it is filled with so many options, albeit a little expansive for those who just want a ‘snap and run.’ It even has a cute little vintage home screen icon, which will stand out from the rest.

Here are some we created: