Guide

How One Tap Film works

Each section covers one part of the app. The same guide is in the app: open a photo in the gallery, tap More, then Guide.

Quick start

One tap, one film photo. Tap the shutter, and the photo comes out in the film you picked. Either volume button works too.
Pick your film. Swipe the viewfinder left or right to change film. Or tap the film button at the bottom right to see them all.
Tap to focus, swipe for light. Tap the viewfinder to focus. Then swipe up or down to make the photo brighter or darker.
Say how a photo should look. Open a photo in the gallery and tap Describe Edits. Type or say what you want, like "a bit warmer".

Taking photos

Shutter. One tap takes a photo, and the photo is developed in the film you picked. Either volume button takes a photo too.
Timer. Tap to switch between off, 3 seconds and 10 seconds. To cancel during the countdown, tap the shutter again.
Flash. Tap to switch between off, auto and on.
Ratio. Tap to switch between 4:3, 3:2 and 1:1.
Date. Tap DATE to print the date on the photo. DATE is orange when it's on.
Frame counter. The film strip under the viewfinder counts from 1 to 36. It starts again each day.
Focus. Tap the viewfinder to focus. An orange box appears.
Lenses. Tap the round lens button to see the lenses, then tap one.
Front camera. The flip button switches between the back and front camera.

Films

Change film. Swipe the viewfinder left or right. A banner shows the film's name.
Film picker. Tap the film button at the bottom right to see every film. The filters are Favourites, All, Colour, Negative, Slide and B&W.
Favourites. Press and hold a film in the picker to add it to Favourites.
Free films. The app has 46 films. Standard, Saturated and Mono are free.
All Films. The other 43 films come with All Films, a one-time purchase. It has a 7-day free trial. Locked films show a lock.

Brighter or darker

Swipe after you focus. Tap the viewfinder to focus. Within 3 seconds, swipe up for a brighter photo or down for a darker one.
The ruler. A ruler with a sun shows how much you changed. It goes up to 2 stops each way. One stop doubles or halves the light.

The gallery

Open it. Tap the small photo at the bottom left. The gallery opens at your last photo.
Still developing. The number on the small photo counts the photos that are still developing.
Your photos. The gallery shows only photos taken with One Tap Film.
Look around. Swipe between photos. Pinch or double-tap to zoom.
Strip. The strip of small photos at the bottom jumps to a photo.
Grid. The grid groups your photos by day. It can also show one film only.
Share. Pick a frame: None, Border, Gallery or Instant. Pick a mat colour: White, Paper or Black. Add a caption if you like. Sharing doesn't change the original photo.
Delete. Delete has an Undo, in case you change your mind.

Describe Edits

Tell a photo how it should look, in your own words. The app moves the sliders for you.

How it works

Open a photo in the gallery and tap Describe Edits. Type, or tap the microphone and speak. Each request becomes a few slider moves.

Chips: Each change shows as a chip under your request. The chip shows where the slider is now and how far it moved, like "Exposure +0.40 ↑ +0.40". Tap a chip's × to take back just that change.
Undo: Takes back your whole last request.
Compare: Hold Compare, or hold the photo, to see the photo before your last request.
Earlier requests: Tap an earlier request to see the photo as it was then. Go Back to This returns the photo to that point. Hold an earlier request to see the photo before it.
Several at once: Ask for more than one change in one request. Separate them with commas or "and"
“brighter, more vibrant”“warmer, darker sky”
Your conversation: The conversation stays with each photo, so it's there next time.
Save: Save changes the photo itself. On iPhone, Revert in Photos brings back the original. On Android, the app keeps the original. To get it back, take back every edit and tap Save.

Light

These values change how bright the photo is. Exposure changes the whole photo. The other four work on the bright or dark parts.

Exposure: Overall brightness, up to about 2 stops in one request
“brighter”“a bit darker”“a lot brighter”
Highlights: The bright parts, like the sky or lamps
“darker highlights”“softer highlights”
Shadows: The dark parts
“brighter shadows”“more detail in the shadows”
Whites: The very brightest points
“brighter whites”“darker whites”
Blacks: The very darkest points
“deeper blacks”“lighter blacks”

Colour

These values change the colour of the whole photo.

Temperature: Warmer (more yellow and orange) or cooler (more blue). It goes up to 2000 K in one request. K is kelvin, the unit for the colour of light
“warmer”“a bit cooler”“much warmer”
Tint: Moves toward magenta (pink-purple) or toward green
“more magenta”“less green”
Vibrance: Makes dull colours stronger and mostly leaves strong colours alone, so it's gentle on skin
“more vibrant”“a little more vibrance”
Saturation: Makes every colour stronger or weaker. All the way down gives black and white
“more saturated”“less saturated”“saturation all the way down”

Tone and texture

These values change contrast, detail and the film feel.

Contrast: The gap between bright and dark
“more contrast”“a bit less contrast”
Clarity: Crisp edges and detail in the middle tones
“more clarity”“crisper details”
Dehaze: Cuts haze, or adds a soft, hazy glow
“less haze”“add some haze”
Fade: Lifts the blacks for a soft, matte, washed-out film look
“faded look”“more matte”
Grain: Film grain. It starts from the film's own grain
“more grain”“a little less grain”

One colour at a time

You can change one colour band and leave the others alone. Your request has to name the colour. The chip shows the band's name, like "Green".

Colour bands: Red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple and magenta. Teal, cyan and turquoise mean aqua. Violet means purple, and pink means magenta.
Hue: Shifts the colour toward a colour next to it
“make the greens more yellow”“make the reds more orange”
Saturation: How strong the colour is
“more saturated blues”“less orange”
Luminance: How bright the colour is
“greens are too bright”“brighter reds”

Parts of the photo

You can change one part of the photo. Your request has to name the part, and the app finds it on your phone. Every value above works on a part, except Fade and Grain.

Sky: The sky
“darker sky”“bluer sky”
Subject: The main subject
“brighter subject”“more contrast on the subject”
Background: Everything behind the subject
“make the background darker”“cooler background”
People: The people in the photo
“warmer people”
Face: The first face the app finds
“brighter face”
Can't find it: If the app can't find the part, it tells you. Then try an edit to the whole photo.

Films by name

Name a film, and the app loads it. The app's own film names work, like “the Cinema film”. Many well-known film stock names work too, and each one loads the One Tap Film film closest to it. Words after the name go on as a normal request, so “Cinema but warmer” loads Cinema and then makes it warmer.

Your film names: Load that film
“the Cinema film”“Gold”“Instant”
Black and white: Loads B&W
“black and white”
Colour filters: Black and white with a red, yellow or green filter. A red filter loads B&W + R
“black and white with a red filter”“black and white with a yellow filter”
Film stock names: Many common film stock names load the closest One Tap Film film. A film applied to a finished photo goes on top of its current look.
All Films: A film from All Films needs the free trial or the purchase. If you don't have either, the app offers them.

How much it changes

Size words change how far a slider moves. If you don't use one, you get "some". So "a bit warmer" moves less than "much warmer".

A little: A small move
“a little brighter”“a bit warmer”
Some: The default move
“warmer”“some more contrast”
A lot: A big move
“a lot darker”“much warmer”
All the way: Moves the slider as far as it goes
“saturation all the way down”
Less and More: The − and + buttons set how much of your last request is on: 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% (where it starts), 125%, 150%, 200%, 250% or 300%. You get more of the same without asking again.

What it needs

Film names work on every phone. Every other request needs your phone's own AI: Apple Intelligence on a supported iPhone, or Gemini Nano on a supported Android phone. The AI may need to download first.

On your phone: Edits are worked out on your phone. Dictation uses your phone's own speech service.
Say it another way: If the app can't turn a request into an edit, it asks you to say it another way.

More help

If something here doesn't match what you see, or you're stuck, see Support or write to [email protected].