Lighting Recipe vs Lightplan
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lighting Recipe
Record, recreate, and share lighting setups with detailed 3D diagrams. Organize your gear, import photo data, and export shareable images. Works offline and supports custom equipment.
- 3D lighting setup editor
- Intuitive diagram recording
- Automatic EXIF data import
- Customizable gear vault
- Visual rig builder
- Image export with shooting data
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■ Sound familiar? "How did I light that shot again...?" "The client wants the exact same setup as last time..." "I want to share how this was lit on social media..." Lighting Recipe is an app for photographers to record, recreate and share lighting setups as diagrams. You can register and place your own unique or DIY gear and props — so it works for photographers of every genre. ■ Features - 3D editing mode: build your lighting setup in 3D, check how subject, backdrop and lights look, and see it mirrored in the diagram - Lighting diagram editor: record light positions, height, power, color and beam intuitively - EXIF reading: just pick a photo — camera, lens, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and focal length are filled in automatically - Gear vault: organize your lighting equipment by category, with photos and prices - Builder: assemble lights, modifiers and stands into a visual rig - Dry cabinet: manage cameras and lenses as assets (serial number support — a record that helps if gear is ever stolen) - My Sets: recall your favorite gear combinations with one tap - Image export: combine your diagram and shooting data into a single shareable image - Available in 8 languages ■ Your data All data is stored on your device. No account required — works offline. Premium members can optionally use Cloud Backup. ■ Lighting Recipe Premium (monthly subscription) - Unlimited recipe saves (free: 30) - 10 lights A–J (free: 5) - 10 My Set slots (free: 5) - Expanded dry cabinet: 30 cameras / 50 lenses (free: 3 / 5) - Cloud Backup: sign in with Apple to back up and restore your data Payment is charged to your Apple ID account. The subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel anytime in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://mafmafgs-source.github.io/lighting-recipe/privacy.html
Lightplan
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Lightplan is a lighting notebook for photographers. Draw the setup, tap twice on set, and the frames file themselves under the diagram that made them. WHY A light setup lives for twenty minutes and then it is gone. Phone snaps of the stands never tell you the distance, the height or the power, and by the time a client asks for "that look from March" the plot is unrecoverable. Lightplan keeps the diagram, the gear list and the frames that came out of it in one place. DRAW - A floor plan with 55 built-in gear types in 8 categories - strobes, softboxes, umbrellas, snoots, flags, backdrops, grip and power - each drawn as its own symbol, plus any custom gear you add - Light cones show where the light actually falls, not just where the stand is - Distance, height and power on every light, and a gear list that reads like a call sheet - An idea note for the one sentence you would say to an assistant RECORD - Tap Start when a setup goes live and Wrap when you strike it. Two taps per setup, not one per frame - your hands are on the camera - One large target that works one-handed in a dark studio - Frame ranges with a live counter; correct the start or the current number at any time - "Wrap up" ends the day; "Wrap - next setup" rolls straight into the next look FILE - Import the shoot from your photo library and each frame lands under its setup - Two channels: capture time is the main one, so no numbers are needed at all, and frame numbers verify it - When the two disagree nothing is filed. A wrong diagram is worse than none, because you would light a reshoot from it. Those frames wait in Unfiled for one tap - Aperture, shutter, ISO and lens are read from EXIF and shown beside the light that made them - Photos are never copied, modified or uploaded. Lightplan stores a reference and the details it read YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS No account, no server of ours, no analytics, no ads. Drawing, recording and importing all run on the device. iPhone and iPad stay in step through your own iCloud private database, which the developer has no way to read. Everything is free. English and Simplified Chinese, iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Lighting Recipe at 15.0 against Lightplan's 17.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Lighting Recipe | Lightplan |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Daily | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | hiroyuki nakai | 昆俞 崔 |
In-app purchases
Lighting Recipe
No in-app purchases
Lightplan
No in-app purchases








