FX Photo Studio PRO is a newly released application in the Mac App Store which gives consumers access to one of the most colossal collections of high quality photo effects, available for Mac. I had the chance to interview Alex Tsepko from MacPhun, the people behind the new application. Read on to see what he had to say…

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us! Would you please introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Alex, I work at MacPhun. We create photo and video applications for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac. Sometimes I take pictures with my iPhone and trying to keep up with other iPhoneographers around the world.

What applications do you currently offer consumers?

We have developed quite a few, but now focus on photo and video applications for iOS and Mac. Some of the titles are Perfect Photo (image editor for photo amateurs), Silent Film Director (awesome app which turns video into retro films), Cartoonatic (free video app, which we created first of all for A-Ha fans) and of course FX Photo Studio for iOS and now for Mac as well. FX Photo Studio features a collection of supreme photo effects to apply on photos plus lots of different ways to play with these effects and filters.

How did you get into the developing business?

By a happy chance: when Steve Jobs introduced iPhone years ago, we thought it would be great to try. Years later, we (MacPhun LLC team) never felt sorry that we started developing apps, it is an exciting business.

Would you mind comparing developing for iOS with for the Mac? Which do you find more challenging?

In terms of development process, Mac software requires much more time, knowledge, human power and testing. You can say that development for iOS is a bit simpler and there is a “dark” side of it. Lots of people simply copycat other developers and thus we see that lots of trash iOS apps and clones are released. In terms of marketing and sales, promoting apps for both platforms requires lots of efforts – the competition is very tight and you want people to keep talking about your products all the time. Of course no one will say anything good about your app if there is nothing good about it.

Can you explain what all your newly released application, FX Photo Studio PRO offers both amateur and professional photographers?

Good question. FX Photo Studio is all about effects and different ways to apply and mix these effects on images. Some people call it Photoshop for beginners, but we believe that this is not completely so. FX Photo Studio should not be used to replace Photoshop or its clones; as I said it is first of all about effects and filters and for simple layering of these effects on images. The versions of FX Photo Studio for Mac (PRO and Standard ) have over 150 photo effects. For amateurs it is a way to make their pictures look exceptional without any special image editing knowledge; for pros it is a chance to save time on creating filters and tuning up their images – in FX Photo Studio this is done with a click or two. Important to note that standard version of FX Photo Studio for Mac is not the lite version of PRO. There are no locked features, cut functionality or trial period. For $10 you get same number of filters and features as in Pro version. Just in Pro we added features which were requested and mostly required by professional photographers, as handling of raw files, support of resolution up to 32 megapixels (standard support up to 16 MP), additional pro editing tools and color controls (sharpening, color levels, noise reduction, etc).

Based on its reviews in the App Store, it looks like people really like it! What sets FX Photo Studio PRO apart from popular applications like Aperture and Light Room?

It is absolutely great that for most of people FX Photo Studio is already a part of their default set of photo applications, used on Mac. I use iPhoto, Aperture and FX Photo Studio – these three go very well together. Each serves a particular purpose and all of them make an awesome trio. Some people find FX Photo Studio more intuitive though.

What has been your largest challenge in creating applications?

The biggest challenge is always time. You need to make a quality application with cutting edge features in the shortest period of time, cuz there is always a chance that someone else will make it faster than you or users will need completely different features. After we released FX Photo Studio we noticed how many clone apps for both iOS and Mac appeared on the app store, some of them copycat not only features, but even name. So the challenge is act faster and keep providing users with new features and offers faster than cloning companies.

Do you think the Mac App Store helps or hurts developers?

Definitely helps and not just Mac App Store, mostly everything that Apple offers. Mac App Store has become an outstanding meeting place for both developers and users. This is like a one stop shop where you can find almost everything.

And lastly, one of my more challenging questions: which do you prefer, Coke or Pepsi?

I was waiting for this question. I drink both, depending on what time of the day it is. Coke tastes better during night and Pepsi during the day – strange but true.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me!