Own your photo editor. Pay for AI only when you use it.
A native layer-based photo editor for macOS. Real non-destructive masks, on-device neural depth effects, and transparent pay-as-you-go AI. No subscription landlords. I hand-picked 25 creators who edit photos for their work to push it hard and shape v1; the First 25 keep it free for life. The beta is full, but you can join the waiting list in case a seat opens up, or to be told when the free trial starts.
[ 01 — CAPABILITIES ]
State-of-the-art generative AI at your fingertips in a fully-featured layered editor for professional-grade photo manipulation. One-click selections, live filters, built-in agentic chat assistant, and intelligent content-aware tools.
01 / SUBJECT ISOLATION
One click pops the subject onto its own non-destructive layer — and automatically fills in the background plate it left behind.
02 / GENERATIVE REPLACE
Rough-select a region, type your prompt, and pick the best take — layered non-destructively and seamlessly integrated into your scene.
03 / ON-DEVICE DEPTH
Bokeh, relight, atmospheric fog, tilt-shift, sunrays — each reading the true 3D depth of the scene, updating live as you drag the sliders.
Original
04 / PHOTOGRAPHIC STYLES
Golden hour, analog film grain, cinematic moods, or artistic effects — applied across the entire frame in a click, while maintaining subject identity and pose.
05 / SKY REPLACEMENT
Trade a flat, blown-out sky for golden hour, blue hour, or a dramatic storm — and the landscape automatically harmonizes its foreground lighting to match.
[ 02 — ARCHITECTURE ]
A professional desktop image editor built from the ground up for performance and creative independence.
Not a phone app with stickers. DepthField Photo features real layers, clipping masks, vector pen paths, 25 blend modes, live adjustment filters, dynamic text layers with Google Fonts, and infinite undo history.
Runs natively on Apple Metal GPU and Neural Engine. Over 70% of operations — including portrait blur (bokeh), sunrays, subject isolation, and color grading — run entirely on your Mac with zero cloud latency and at no cost.
Import from the Adobe ecosystem (.psd, .ai) and export
back to .psd (not all features supported). Full support for OpenRaster
(.ora), plus .png, .jpeg, .webp,
.avif, .heic, .svg, and more. Even
DepthField's own .dfp format is
open and documented — third-party integrations are
welcome. Your creative work belongs to you.
No monthly subscription. When you use cloud AI models, you see the exact cost in real dollars down to micro-cents before you click. No artificial token markups, no surprise billing.
[ 03 — THE INVITATION ]
No automated feedback surveys. No corporate PR handlers. A direct, respectful partnership between craftspeople. This is the deal the 25 beta testers have — and what you'd get if a seat opens up for you.
[ 04 — PHILOSOPHY ]
Somewhere along the way, your creative tools became subscriptions. The editor you used to own became a recurring bill, charging you whether you used it or not. The AI inside it gets cheaper to run every month — but you'd never know it from the price of your ever-expiring "credits".
I believe you should own what you buy, see what things actually cost, and pay only for what you use.
DepthField exists to prove that's still possible.
Your creative work is your property. Four simple principles, guaranteed:
Not with advertisers, not with data brokers, not with anyone.
No image, layer, or filename ever leaves your computer unless you explicitly choose a cloud AI edit.
Anonymous telemetry is strictly opt-in, with zero account attachment.
The editor works offline indefinitely on your Mac.
[ 05 — PARTICIPANTS ]
This beta is tailored for people who edit images as a real, recurring part of their business or craft:
[ 06 — WAITING LIST ]
All 25 closed-beta seats are taken. Leave your details below and I'll email you if a seat opens up — a tester who never gets started may hand theirs on — or when the closed beta ends and the free trial opens to everyone. No portfolio, no technical test.
Hi, I'm Jens.
I've been building software for three decades, and DepthField Photo is the editor of my dreams: one with the power of a professional photo editing suite at a price tag for everyone, with all the instant movie magic of Hollywood software — "Enhance!"
There are no investors and no growth marketers. I hand-picked 25 people because at this stage every single piece of feedback matters — and every note they send lands directly with me, the person who built it.
[ 07 — FAQ ]
The core editor is substantially complete and stable, but I haven't put it in front of real workflows at scale yet. Expect some rough edges: certain secondary flows aren't polished and minor bugs may pop up. I'll fix what you report rapidly. Features may shift or refine based on what I learn from this cohort. It's macOS-only at this stage and needs an Apple Silicon Mac; Windows is on the roadmap for later.
About 2–3 weeks of active testing. Your free lifetime license stays yours forever regardless of how heavily you use it during the beta.
Honest, unfiltered reactions. What felt intuitive? What confused you? What did you try to do and couldn't find? Quick gut reactions in week 1, and more considered workflow thoughts in week 2.
The closed beta is followed by an early-access founders' program — a discounted phase for early supporters — and then a public launch (v1.0) later in 2026. Both open with a free trial, so anyone can try DepthField Photo before paying anything. Your free lifetime license carries through every stage — beta, founders' release, v1, and a free upgrade to v2.
There isn't one. The beta provides the candid user feedback I need to ensure DepthField Photo is genuinely great before launch. Beta testers get the tool free forever in exchange for trying it on their real work and two short notes.
No. Cloud AI credits are on me during the beta — your copy comes with $10 of cloud AI included (good for hundreds of generative edits), with no setup beyond signing in. Prefer to bring your own API key? That works too at zero markup. Over 70% of the app (including depth estimation and subject isolation) runs entirely on your Mac with no cloud calls at all.
Yes! Please share this page — they can join the waiting list too. I'm keeping the beta strictly capped at 25 so I can personally engage with every participant.
You'll hear from me in two cases: a seat opens up (some testers haven't started yet, and I may hand unused seats to people on the list), or the closed beta ends and the free trial opens to everyone (the founders' program and v1.0 both start with it). Tick the box on the form if you want to be considered for a seat; otherwise I'll only write when the trial opens. No spam.
Zero ad tracking, zero data selling. In practice:
