One of the quirky highlights of the 'Nokia Collection' in the Windows Phone Store has always been 'Nokia Creative Studio' - the odd thing being that everyone seems to use it for something different. For example, I only use it for removing red-eye in flash photographs, while others like to play with the 'colour pop' function. In part this is due to the somewhat obtuse three step UI, but according to an official Nokia article, it seems that the application is being totally rewritten. Soon to appear is Nokia Creative Studio 6, claimed to be 'quicker, simpler, more fun'.

From the Conversations article:

It’s been a staple favourite for many Lumia owners since its inception in early 2012. Now, the soon-to-be-released Nokia Creative Studio 6 will make editing your photos quicker, simpler, and more fun.

The latest version of Creative Studio sports an entirely redesigned user interface. While previous incarnations launched you straight into the filters menu, where you would first apply an effect, then make any further edits, Creative Studio 6 now presents your photo with various editing options in a menu bar alongside your image.

That's good. Previously you'd have to pick a photo, then a filter, then 'Edit' and then browse through multiple pivot views, all to get to the one thing you wanted.

Also good is to see proper support, at last, for the oversampling cameras in the likes of the Lumia 1020, 1520 and 930. Up until now, if you wanted to do reframing and apply an effect, you'd have to use two different applications, one after the other. With Nokia Creative Studio 6, you'll be able to just use the one app for everything:

Reframing is a concept we introduced with Pro Camera for the Lumia 1020. Creative Studio 6.0 supports the dual capture, which means that you can rotate, straighten and change the aspect ratio of any image after you’ve shot it, over and over again without losing any quality.

Filters are ten a penny on any mobile platform, of course, though there's mention of a little quality control in those in the new app:

The New Creative Studio makes it super easy for you to turn your shots into professional looking photographs. To get the right look we’ve worked with a professional photo studio to create ten high-quality filters, which can change the mood and feel of a photo dramatically.

Turning to actual functions:

And if you want to make your pictures brighter, or add more color to it, you can go to the enhance module, where you can adjust brightness, shadows, clarity, vibrancy and colour tone. And if you don’t feel like adjusting it manually, we also have a very simple auto-fix feature.

One important feature - to me - is that you can save an edited image as a copy and not overwrite the original:

This also means that you can always revert back to your original image. You also have the option to save your edited image as a copy into your camera roll.

Plus this year's de rigeur effect, selective blur (to simulate extreme depth of field):

We’ve also enhanced the blur functionality, and made sure that you can add circular blur or simulate the effect of a tilt-shift lens, or draw freehand which part of the image you want to blur, just like in CS 5.5.

It seems as though the imminent v6.0 won't have all the functionality of the previous version though - importantly including the very two functions I started with, above:

The much-loved colour-pop feature is something our engineers are working on, but will not be available until Creative Studio 6.1. The same goes for Red-Eyes-Reduction tool.

In terms of availability:

Nokia Creative Studio 6.0 launches with the sale start of Lumia 930, and will replace Creative Studio on all Lumia devices.

So some time in June then - let's hope that the missing two primary functions can be added before then and that 6.1 makes it out the door!

Some screens of the new version in action:

 

In the meantime, if you're not using it, you can find Nokia Creative Studio here.