In development · Native Mac app for photography

Develop what you have.

Vargento manages your photos in catalogs, develops RAW and JPEG and turns negatives back into pictures. One app for archive and editing, built in Swift for the Mac, no cloud required.

One email at launch, nothing else. Unsubscribe at any time, details in the privacy policy.

Vargento while editing: the tool stack on the left with effects expanded, a beach photo in the middle, the filmstrip below.
Sample images · Version 1.0 will be released for macOS 27

Features

For photographers who develop their own.

Managing and editing matter equally. Everything you expect from a professional tool, native on the Mac and fast.

  • Catalogs, the way you work

    One catalog per camera, per project or for everything. Shoots, albums, stars and color labels keep things in order. The originals stay where they are: on your Mac, an SSD or your NAS.

  • RAW development

    Exposure, levels, curves, color, detail and lens correction in a linear 16-bit pipeline on Metal. Grid, editing and export show the same image.

  • Inverting negatives

    Photographed or scanned film negatives become positives. Measure the film base, neutralize the color, file them as a film roll of their own in the catalog.

  • Auto

    One click gives you a balanced starting point for exposure and color. Every slider stays free to adjust afterwards.

  • Two displays

    The grid on one monitor, the large image and the tools on the other. Sidebars slide in and out.

  • HDR, styles and export

    HDR editing for EDR displays, your own styles for whole series, export to the formats you need.

  • Film stocks and looks

    72 film stocks from Kodak, Ilford, Fujifilm and others as styles. Your own LUTs as a look, plus grain, vignette and halation.

  • Image analysis

    Series with a best shot, hints for closed eyes, similar images and search by content. All on your Mac, offline.

  • Crop and straighten

    Level the horizon at the push of a button, draw a line along an edge or let Vargento suggest a crop.

Library

Order that grows with you.

The grid stays smooth even with tens of thousands of images. Previews are created in the background while you are already sorting.

  • Shoots and albums, stars, color labels and filters
  • Info inspector with EXIF, lens and location on a map
  • Offline originals stay visible in the catalog
The Vargento library: catalog, shoots, folders and albums on the left, the grid with images, stars and color labels on the right.

Image analysis

The best shot of the series.

Vargento looks at your images in the background, only on your Mac and offline. It makes suggestions and decides nothing: only what you choose gets deleted, rated or moved.

  • Collapse series, with the best shot suggested
  • Hints for closed eyes or an out-of-focus face
  • Similar images, possible duplicates, search by content like “beach”
Series in the library: “Serie” and “Bestes Bild” badges in the grid, the hint “Augen zu” and the analysis in the info inspector on the right.

Negatives

From negative back to picture.

For everyone who shoots film: negatives, photographed with a camera or scanned, are inverted in Vargento and then edited like any other image.

  • Color negative, black and white and slide
  • Measure the film base at the film edge, film profile as a starting point
  • Film rolls with camera, film stock and date in the catalog
The Negative tool: film type, measured film base, film profile Kodak Portra 400, density, black and white point, next to the inverted image.

Two displays

One monitor for the overview, one for the image.

Vargento spreads across two displays: the grid on the left, the large image with the tools on the right. On a single display everything works just the same.

First display: the viewer shows the grid of a shoot. Second display: the main window with a large image and the tools.

Roadmap

What’s coming, and when.

Vargento is in development. The first version focuses on what you need every day.

  1. Version 1.0 At launch

    • Catalogs, shoots, albums
    • RAW and JPEG development
    • Negative inversion
    • Auto, styles and film stocks
    • Image analysis and search by content
    • HDR and export
    • Two displays

  2. Version 1.x Next

    • Shooting tethered to your camera
    • Auto that learns your style, on your Mac
    • Also on the Mac App Store

  3. Version 2 Later

    • Layers and masks with brush and gradients
    • Healing and cloning

Technology

Built for the Mac.

Native
Swift, SwiftUI and AppKit. No web view, no Electron. Windows, keyboard and menus behave the way you expect on a Mac.
Fast
A single render pipeline on Metal for grid, editing, viewer and export. What you see is what you export.
Private
Catalogs and images stay on your drives. Image analysis runs entirely on your Mac too, offline.

The name

Vargento comes from vedere and argento.

Italian for to see and silver. Vedere stands for the eye: every photo begins with it, and with it you view, pick and sort your images. Argento stands for developing: on silver a photo becomes a picture, on film and in the print. Vargento is made for both.

Contact

Questions about Vargento?

About features, cameras, partnerships or testing before launch: just write.

Write to vargento@ck71.com