iPhone camera app that doesn't put pictures in the photo library

March 10, 2017 7:04 AM

I am looking for an iPhone camera app that doesn't automatically put pictures into my photo library. I would like it put the pictures I take with the app into its own storage where I can view and retrieve them. I would like to be able to get them out of this app (into my iPhone photo library, onto my Mac, sent via e-mail) later, at my discretion.

My iPhone photo library syncs with the Photos library on my Macintosh. The Photos library is viewed by my whole family, including children. I would like to be able to take Photos that are not appropriate for children. I don't want to worry about managing this by hand (i.e. turning off syncing, remembering to delete photos, etc), so I am looking for a camera app that just doesn't add pictures to the iPhone Photo library until/unless I tell it to.

Then, later, I want to be able to get the photos out of this app by transferring them to other apps, posting them online, transferring them to my Macintosh, putting them into my iOS Photos library, etc, at my discretion.

The camera doesn't have be anything fancy. I just want to take simple pictures. It would be nice if it allowed some simple editing (cropping, rotating) either directly or via plugins. It would be nice if it provided some way to organize the photos I've taken. But neither of those are essential.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

posted by Winnie the Proust to Technology (8 answers total)

Haven't used one personally, but googling 'private photo app iphone' gets plenty of good hits.

This article is ostensibly about how to keep sexy photos private but the info should be useful for anything you don't want broadcast to family. Some of them are pretty hard core, cloaking their very presence, allowing decoy passwords to reveal benign content etc... I can only imagine what actual spies are using :D
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:16 AM on March 10, 2017

VSCO does this nicely, and has some good photo tools built in.
posted by mikepop at 7:28 AM on March 10, 2017 [2 favorites]

Adobe Lightroom does this. It costs $9.99/month bundled with Photoshop, and has a lot more features than you want. It's a better choice for someone with more demanding editing needs (which could be you in the future!)

Agree with mikepop that VSCO easily does what you need.
posted by a moisturizing whip at 7:44 AM on March 10, 2017

Best answer: Camera+ has options to autosave just to its own lightbox, to the phone camera roll, or to both. It has stellar editing options as well. $2.99 in the app store and worth every penny.
posted by rtha at 7:56 AM on March 10, 2017 [5 favorites]

You could use snapchat, post them to your story but not have any friends and then download them at night. However you'd have to do it everyday as they disappear 24 hours after being taken.
posted by raccoon409 at 8:20 AM on March 10, 2017

I agree that Camera+ does exactly what you want. You can link it to Twitter, Facebook etc. if you want to post them somewhere.
posted by AFABulous at 1:14 PM on March 10, 2017

I agree that Camera+ is great, and in fact better than the built-in camera app. However, I am an idiot and did not know it could be set up to save to the camera roll, so thank you for that @rtha!
posted by old_growler at 6:29 PM on March 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Thanks all. Camera+ does indeed do the trick. VSCO worked too, but I didn't like the UI as much.

Since posting this I found another option. Private Camera Pro includes a camera and a password-protected photo vault. It doesn't have as many editing tools as Camera+ but it does the trick and adds a level of security.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 12:35 PM on March 13, 2017