Frequently Asked Questions

To reveal additional adjustments, swipe up on the image. You can also tap the arrow/chevron above the sliders. Swipe down to hide the adjustments again.

You can reset individual adjustments by double tapping on them, or long pressing on sliders. To reset all adjustments, open the menu in the top right, and choose Reset Adjustments.

By default, Mattebox maintains your adjustments when you open a new image, so you can quickly apply the same settings to multiple images. You can change this behavior in the app settings.

No! When you open an image from your photo library and save it from Mattebox, your edits are applied nondestructively. Using the Photos app, you can revert your changes.

When you save an image to your photo library from Mattebox, your adjustments are stored in the image. If you reopen the same image in Mattebox again, you can pick up right where you left off. When you’re picking a photo in the Mattebox photo browser, you’ll see a small “M” icon on any image which has been edited in Mattebox.

If you save an image from Mattebox and then perform further edits in another app (including Photos), you’ll lose the ability to reopen the image with all of your adjustments intact. This is a limitation of the Photos system—photo apps only have access to the most recent adjustment to the image.

Open the Filters section (the icon is a grid of nine squares, all the way to the left), and swipe up to expand the controls. You can now tap “+ Add” to save your adjustments as a new Filter.

Double tap on the filter, or long press to select “Add to Favorites.”

You’re automatically subscribed to the official Mattebox filter feed. New filters will arrive in your Feed as they’re published. If you find someone else who is publishing filters via RSS, you can expand the Filters section and tap “More” to add their feed.

Maybe! I am indeed taking submissions. You can DM the @filters account on Mastodon, or use my contact form to get in touch.

Press and hold on the filter and select “Share Filter,” or apply the filter and choose “Share Filter” from the menu. You can send the filter as a normal web link.

No—if they’re using an iPhone or iPad with iOS 18 or later, they can tap the link to open the filter in the Mattebox App Clip without installing anything. If they download Mattebox, they can open the filter and save it to their own filter collection.

With a subscription to Mattebox Pro, you can export your filter as an Adobe Lightroom profile or as a 3D LUT compatible with many pro photo and video apps.

The easiest way is to make a new Mastodon account and simply post each filter as a link in its own post. Other Mattebox users can subscribe to your filter feed with just your full Mastodon username and hostname (@user@example.com). Or you can use a blogging engine, and share the RSS feed. Either way, let me know about your feed! I can help promote it.

No. Mattebox doesn’t track or communicate “like” counts.

No! The free version of Mattebox is a great tool for editing RAW photos. A subscription to Mattebox Pro enables even more RAW control, including white balance, local tonemapping, noise reduction and sharpening.

Mattebox features a custom image processing core which was modeled on photographic film, and is designed to give you a less-processed, more naturally photographic image. Your RAW photos may appear darker, less contrasty, or “grayer” when you first open them in Mattebox—but you’ll have more flexibility to create your look. If you want a punchier image, try adjusting Exposure, Contrast or Vibrance.

Mattebox can’t access the RAW photo data once the image has been edited by another app (including Photos). For example, if you crop or rotate a photo in the Photos app and then open it in Mattebox, it will open as a non-RAW image. If you revert your edits in Photos and reopen it in Mattebox, it will open as a RAW again. You can crop & rotate within Mattebox, and you can apply other edits after Mattebox, but Mattebox should always be the first step in any multistep RAW editing workflow.

Yes, Mattebox was designed from the ground up to work with high-dynamic range (HDR) content such as HDR video and RAW photos. There are no resolution limits in the free version of Mattebox.

No! The free version of Mattebox has no restrictions on video formats. You can take your video work further with a subscription to Mattebox Pro, which allows you to export 3D LUTs in Cube format for use in a wide range of video software and hardware—including many cameras, monitors, and editing apps.

Video processing is very memory-intensive, and if your device is under memory pressure, it may close Mattebox unexpectedly. If this keeps happening, it could be related to other apps running in the background, so try restarting your device. If you still have issues, please get in touch.

Yes! Mattebox Pro subscribers can export their filters as Adobe Lightroom Profiles. A Profile is similar to a Preset. To import a Profile in Lightroom, choose File > Import Develop Profiles and Presets… For more info, see this Adobe support document.

Adobe Lightroom uses a different RAW processing engine, so your results will not match Mattebox exactly, but they should be close. Some features, such as Pro Diffusion and colored vignette, are not supported in Lightroom, and will not be included in exported Profiles.

If you check “Embed Mattebox filter” when exporting, Mattebox Pro subscribers will be able open the exported Profile as a filter (using “Import Filter” in the menu). If you uncheck that option, they will not be able to recover the filter.

At this time, Mattebox can only open Lightroom Profiles which have been exported with embedded filters.

Yes! With a subscription to Mattebox Pro, you can export a 3D LUT in Cube format. The LUT will contain the color grading from your filter, but will not include vignette or Pro Diffusion. Cube files are widely supported, from pro photo and video software to cameras and video monitors.

It depends on your needs and your specific software or hardware. For example, if you want to create a LUT to convert Apple Log footage to standard non-HDR video with your filter, you would select Input: Apple Log / Output: Rec. 709. But you could also select Apple Log for both input & output, and apply a second LUT from another party to perform the conversion from Apple Log to Rec 709. LUT workflows vary, and you will only get correct colors if you carefully match your inputs & outputs.

If you check “Embed Mattebox filter” when exporting, Mattebox Pro subscribers will be able open the exported LUT as a filter (using “Import Filter” in the menu). If you uncheck that option, they will not.

Not at this time. Just as with Lightroom Profiles, Mattebox can only open LUTs which have been exported with embedded filters.