Support

Open Ancient Light and point your camera at your subject. Tap the shutter button at the bottom of the screen to capture. The app will process your photograph through the currently selected historic process and present it for your review.

Tap anywhere on the viewfinder to set focus and exposure for that point. Pinch to zoom.

Use the process selector in the lower portion of the viewfinder to choose from the seven historic processes: Daguerreotype, Tintype, Sepia, Cyanotype, Anthotype, Platinum, and Autochrome.

After capturing a photograph, you can also swipe left and right in the review screen to compare all seven processes side by side before saving.

The Intensity slider controls the strength of the historic process effect — from a subtle suggestion of the past at the left, to a full period rendering at the right. Drag it to find the balance that suits your photograph.

The slider is accessible from the viewfinder: long-press or tap the process name to reveal it.

Lens selector buttons appear in the viewfinder showing every optical lens your iPhone has — 0.5×, 1×, 2×, and 5× on Pro models. Tap any button to switch instantly. The available buttons are detected automatically from your device's hardware.

After capturing a photograph, you will see the review screen. Below the image is a scrollable row of adjustment icons. Tap any icon to reveal its slider. Available adjustments include: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Black Point, Saturation, Vibrance, Warmth, Sharpness, and Vignette.

All sliders are centred at their default (neutral) value. Double-tap a slider to reset it. Changes are previewed live on the image above.

The Vignette slider works in both directions from centre. Dragging right adds a traditional dark vignette, darkening the edges of the frame — a common characteristic of period lenses. Dragging left creates a reverse vignette, brightening the edges with a soft white glow, lending an ethereal, overexposed quality.

In the review screen, tap the Crop icon at the left end of the adjustment bar. The crop tool opens full-screen — the image is inset from the screen edges so the corner handles always have room to be grabbed comfortably. Drag handles to define your crop area; a rule-of-thirds grid appears while dragging. Tap Apply to confirm, or Cancel to discard.

The period effect — vignette, plate edges, and border treatments — is applied to the cropped area, so the frame wraps your composition precisely.

Use the Save button to write the photograph to your Photos library. The Save button resets after a moment so you can save multiple versions from the same capture — swipe to a different process and tap Save again to save that version too.

Use the Share button to open the iOS share sheet and send via Messages, Mail, AirDrop, or any other app. The saved image is the fully processed version with all adjustments applied.

When the Daguerreotype process is active, a small frame icon and the current frame name appear in the viewfinder top bar (portrait) or side strip (landscape). Tap it to open the frame picker — a popup listing all six styles with descriptions and a checkmark on the current selection. Tap any style to apply it immediately. You can also find the frame picker in Settings.

The six styles are: Baroque Brass, Beaded Silver, Engraved Brass, Plain Silver, Hammered Tin, and No Frame.

Every saved JPEG carries the following metadata, readable in Lightroom, macOS Photos, and any IPTC-aware viewer:

• IPTC Caption — process name and frame style (e.g. "Processed with Ancient Light v1.3 — Daguerreotype, Frame: Plain Silver")
• IPTC Credit — your name from the Photographer field in Settings, or "Ancient Light" if left blank
• IPTC Originating Program — "Ancient Light v1.3"
• EXIF User Comment — process name, intensity value, and frame style

The Photographer field in Settings lets you enter your name. It is written to the IPTC Credit field of every photo you save, so your authorship travels with the image file. If left blank, the credit defaults to "Ancient Light".

On iPhone Pro models with ProRAW enabled, tapping Save writes two files to your Photos library: the filtered JPEG (your period-processed image with full metadata) and the original 48MP ProRAW DNG from the sensor. They appear as a single paired asset — the same way the native Camera app handles ProRAW. To access the DNG, use the Share sheet and choose Options → All Photos Data, or export via Mac Photos → File → Export Unmodified Original.

On non-Pro devices, or when ProRAW is not enabled, only the filtered JPEG is saved.

In landscape, the review screen uses a side-panel layout — the photograph fills most of the screen, with a 130pt panel on the right containing all adjustment icons (scrollable), the active slider, and the action buttons. This keeps the image as large as possible while all controls remain within reach. The button order is the same as portrait: Save, Share, Compare, and Discard at the bottom.

Tap the Settings button (the gear icon) from the viewfinder. Under the Frame Style section you will find six options: Baroque Brass, Beaded Silver, Engraved Brass, Plain Silver, Hammered Tin, and No Frame. Frames are currently applied to Daguerreotype process images.

The live viewfinder shows a real-time camera feed without the full process applied — processing happens at full resolution after the shutter is pressed. The final result will be richer and more detailed than the preview, with all grain, toning, and frame elements rendered at full quality.

Ancient Light requires camera access to take photographs. It requests photo library access only when you tap Save, in order to write the finished photograph to your library. Neither permission is used for any other purpose. If you declined a permission and wish to enable it, go to Settings → Privacy & Security on your iPhone.