A school for photography and moving image, not a checklist.
An iOS app for learning photography with the camera you already own.
Pre-release. iPhone, iOS 18 and later. Not yet available on the App Store.
Project page
Engineering notes
Roadmap
IMAGECRAFT teaches photography and the moving image through short lessons and practice you do with your own camera, whether that is a phone, a compact or an interchangeable-lens body. The app sets up each exercise, keeps your predictions and notes, and only claims what it can actually check.
It does not take, import, edit or analyse photographs.
This repository holds documentation, screenshots and the project page. The application's source code is private.
Most exercises follow the same sequence. Before you touch the camera, you write down what you expect, for example the exact settings you are about to dial in without looking. You then seal that prediction. From that point it is shown back to you and cannot be edited, because a prediction you could change after seeing the result would not prove anything.
Then you do the exercise on your own camera and record what actually happened. Afterwards you can note what surprised you and what you would change next time. The history keeps all of it in your own words.
Each exercise says up front how long it takes, whether it needs a camera, and who checks the result: the app, or you.
In some exercises you set something up yourself, so you already know what changed. Their purpose is to get an idea into your hands. Others show you drawings that IMAGECRAFT generated, so you have no way of knowing in advance what it did. Noticing an effect you did not arrange is a separate skill, and these exercises practise it.
Demonstration drawings made by the app's own drawing code from inputs that are not used in any exercise.
IMAGECRAFT reports two things separately. One is what you have shown, meaning results that something other than your own judgement checked. The other is what you have practised, which also includes work only you could judge, such as whether a photograph matched what you intended.
Self-checked practice is used to decide what to suggest next. It is never presented as proof. There are no points, streaks or percentages.
You can tell IMAGECRAFT what you shoot with, and exercises adapt to it. A screen in your profile lists what your kit already lets you practise. If something on your path would need equipment you have not listed, the app says so plainly. It never names a product and does not suggest buying anything your path does not need.
The current pre-release build makes no network requests. It contains no analytics, tracking, advertising or crash-reporting code, links no third-party packages, and asks for no permissions (no camera, photo library or location access). Everything you write is stored on your device. The app's privacy manifest declares no tracking and no collected data. There is more detail in Private and offline by construction.
Screens support Dynamic Type up to the largest accessibility sizes. The light and dark palettes are chosen in pairs, and automated tests check text contrast against each background it is drawn on. Every generated drawing has a written description, and the UI tests include automated accessibility audits and pseudolocalisation. An independent accessibility review is planned before release and has not taken place yet.
IMAGECRAFT is written in Swift with SwiftUI, SwiftData and Observation, and supports iOS 18 and later. The app has no third-party dependencies. Lessons and exercises are written separately from the app and validated before they are bundled. A new exercise in an existing format needs no new screens.
The test suites contain more than 550 unit tests and more than 70 UI tests. They have been run on simulators from iOS 18.0 to iOS 27, at default and accessibility text sizes, in light and dark appearance.
The engineering notes go into more detail:
- Practised is not the same as shown
- Predict before you look
- Private and offline by construction
- Accessibility across iOS versions
- When a save fails, say so
- Pictures with known answers
IMAGECRAFT is in pre-release development. A release candidate is being prepared. A small closed TestFlight beta is planned but has not started, and the app is not available on the App Store. See the roadmap and the changelog.
The screenshots come from the current development build and show a fictional learner.
For security reports, see SECURITY.md. Otherwise you can reach the author through GitHub.
© 2026 Andrei Bacescu. All rights reserved. See LICENSE.md.