NIR Color vs Ancient Light
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NIR Color
Transform ordinary photos into surreal, ethereal landscapes with near-infrared technology and color filters. This app adds unique hues and dramatic contrast, making everyday objects appear otherworldly. Explore a different light and create magical, mysterious atmospheres in your images.
- Near infrared technology
- Infrared color filters
- Surreal and ethereal effects
- Dramatic contrast adjustments
- Preset library
- Custom preset saving
- Hi-Res image support
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Photography is the art of capturing light. Infrared photography, on the other hand, is the art of capturing invisible light. If your looking for something new and unique to add to your photography arsenal then you came to the right place NIR Color is truly beautiful, surreal and will transform ordinary landscapes into something magical and ethereal. NIR Color uses “near infrared” light technology, along with infrared “color” filters to add violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red colors, and all their combinations back into your image. The combination creates stunning imagery with otherworldly and mysteriously atmospheres. When using “NIR” everyday objects differ sharply from those of visible light. A blue sky can sometimes appear very dark, while foliage often turns light to create an amazing and chilling contrast. Not only will the contrast make your photo ‘pop’, it will also transform the original color to ones that are dreamy and surreal using our infrared “color” filters. The decision is in your hands to tone down the color to ones that are classy, clean, and contrasted. Or boost them to a dramatic color of your choosing taking your infrared photography to a completely different level. With NIR Color you can quickly see how incredibly beautiful the world can be in a different light. The world as seen using NIR Color is at once familiar and strange, using hues that are entirely different than those we actually see in reality. The eerie but seductive effects that NIR photographs bring to the table consist mostly of landscape shots, but on occasion portraits can be completely converted from what we recognize as normal into ones where skin tones turn pale and cold and eyes that go dark. This may lead you to shift gears from a normal pose into something that is wildly terrestrial. So give NIR Color a try and transcend your photo into a world where you and your viewer will be offered a chance to encounter a deeper connection to the story behind your photograph. NIR Color … • Works best on colorful landscape images • “Near Infrared” technology turns blue-sky dark and foliage light to make your image ‘pop’ • Infrared “Color” filters add violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red colors, and all their combinations back into the image to create a dreamy and surreal appearance. • Works with Hi-Res images and saves Hi-Res for top-quality results • Gets you started fast with a variety of presets • Creates personal-favorite custom presets using the "Save Preset" menu • Has the addictive JixiPix Randomizer – so much fun! • Easy-to-use slider controls to adjust light, contrast and texture just how you want it • Superfast preview mode to immediately see edit results, with large image rendered at save • You can save to the photo roll and/or email or post to Facebook. Share your masterpieces! •Superior customer support and updates – we're committed to your long-term satisfaction
Ancient Light
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Ancient Light transforms your iPhone into a camera of the nineteenth century. Twelve authentic historic photographic processes - each faithfully simulated through the physics of tone, silver chemistry, grain, paper, emulsion, and light. Not filters. Processes. -- THE TWELVE PROCESSES -- Daguerreotype (1839) - The first successful photograph. A mirror-like silver surface with luminous shadow detail and seven scanned frame choices, plus No Frame. Tintype (1853) - The photograph of the working class. Robust, immediate, metallic, with regular or square format options and optional worn plate borders. Albumen (1850s) - Warm egg-white paper prints mounted as cabinet cards, with soft sepia-brown toning, aged cream stock, rounded corners, and a ruled inner border. Sepia - The warm brown tone of silver sulphide that preserved Victorian portraits through a century and a half. Cyanotype (1842) - Sir John Herschel's iron-based process. Deep Prussian blue. The print that gave photography the word "blueprint." Anthotype (1839) - Made from crushed plant pigments. Delicate, fugitive, botanical. The most poetic photographic process ever devised. Platinum (1873) - The process of fine art portraiture. Cool, shadow-rich, with a tonal range silver could never match. Autochrome (1907) - The Lumiere brothers' starch-grain colour process. Dreamy, pointillist, the first practical colour photography. Emulsion - A damaged instant-emulsion look with faded color, warm highlights, scorched edges, amber leaks, scratches, and oxidized surface wear. Bromoil (1907) - Oil-based ink on bleached gelatin. Painterly and stippled, with inky shadows and pale milky highlights. Lippmann (1891) - Gabriel Lippmann's Nobel Prize-winning interferential process. Warm amber ageing, long-exposure softness, and glass plate scratches from a century of handling. Infrared (1930s) - Light beyond the visible spectrum. Luminous white foliage, darkened skies, ethereal skin tones. The spectral world captured on heat-sensitive emulsion. -- WHAT ANCIENT LIGHT CAN DO -- * All four optical lenses - ultrawide (0.5x), wide (1x), 2x, and telephoto (5x) - selectable from the viewfinder * Shoot once, save many - save multiple historic versions from a single capture * On iPhone Pro: saves both a filtered JPEG and the original 48MP ProRAW DNG as a paired asset * Emulsion process with faded instant-film color, warmer highlights, lighter grain, and scanned edge damage * Albumen cabinet-card output with warm paper tone, aged stock texture, rounded card corners, and ruled border * Infrared process with glowing foliage, dark skies, and spectral black-and-white tonality * Tintype options - choose regular or square format, with period borders or no borders * Seven Daguerreotype frame styles plus No Frame, selectable directly from the viewfinder * Higher-resolution Daguerreotype frame output, scaled to the photo instead of the source frame artwork * Adjustments apply to the photograph while preserving Daguerreotype frame artwork * Full adjustment suite - exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, black point, saturation, vibrance, warmth, sharpness, and vignette * Auto enhancement with one tap * Precision crop tool with inset handles and rule-of-thirds grid * Landscape side-panel layout keeps the image large while all controls stay accessible * Photographer credit field - your name travels with every saved file in the IPTC metadata * Process, frame, and Tintype options stored between sessions * iPhone and iPad, all orientations * No subscription. No ads. No account required. Ancient Light is a single purchase. Everything in it is yours.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Ancient Light at every 5 days against NIR Color's every 10 months. Ancient Light also leads on chart position (#195 vs unranked) and price ($0.99 vs $2.99). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
NIR Color costs $2.99 and Ancient Light $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
NIR Color ships an update every 10 months, Ancient Light every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on August 29, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | NIR Color | Ancient Light |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (21 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 82.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 21 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Best chart rank | — | #195 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JixiPix Software | Greg Anderson |
In-app purchases
NIR Color
No in-app purchases
Ancient Light
No in-app purchases









