MyReFrame: user guide

What MyReFrame is for

Repeat photography means taking the same picture again, days or years apart, from the same place and with the same framing, so that the pictures show what has changed between them: a building site, a tree through the seasons, a room being renovated, a face.

MyReFrame organises this work in projects. A project has one reference, the first photo that every later one is matched to, and any number of frames, the photos you take afterwards. On the camera screen the app draws the reference over the live picture and measures how well the two line up. Later you compare the frames and export them as a time-lapse.

The app's screens are available in twelve languages (Settings > Language). The help inside the app and its legal texts are in English.

The home screen

The home screen lists your projects. Settings > Home layout chooses between two views:

Each project shows its name, the number of frames and the date of its newest frame. It may also show:

• a mark Good, Usable or Poor: the result of the check of its reference (see The reference quality check);
• in N days, tomorrow or due now, when a reminder is set for the project;
• Some photos missing or All photos removed, when photos of the project were deleted from the phone outside the app.

A line at the top counts your projects and, when there are any, the reminders that are due this week.

• Tap a project to open it.
• Long-press a project for Delete project. The app asks before it deletes.
• Tap + to start a new project. On an empty home screen the button is called Create project.

The top bar has the icons for Help and Settings. Its three-dot menu holds Import backup, Change log, Privacy policy, Terms of use (EULA) and Open source licenses.

The first time you open the app it shows three pages of introduction and then asks how the camera screen should look, Simple or Pro. You can change that at any time (see Simple and Pro).

Start a project and set the reference

Tap + and give the project a name. Then choose where the reference comes from:

An imported reference is dated with the moment you imported it, not with the day the photo was taken, and it has no record of how the phone was tilted.

The reference camera

• 4:3 or 16:9: choose the shape of the picture.
• Switch camera: the icon in the top bar changes between the rear and the front camera. The project remembers the choice, and every later frame of the project is taken with the same camera.
• Lens picker: on phones with several rear cameras you can choose which lens to use.
• Flash, grid (a rule-of-thirds grid over the picture) and self-timer (Off, 2, 5 or 10 seconds) have their own icons. During a countdown, tap the shutter to cancel.
• Tap the picture to focus on that spot. The tap also holds exposure and white balance there; a slider on the right edge then makes the picture brighter or darker, and the chip AE/AF/WB ✕ releases the lock.
• Pinch to zoom, or use the buttons 0.6×, 1× and 2×.
• The screen stays in portrait while the camera is open, and a click tells you that the shot was taken.

After the reference is set, the app opens the screen for anchor points.

The reference quality check

Every later frame is matched to the reference, so a fault in the reference stays with the project: a crooked horizon, a blown-out sky, a blurred picture. The app therefore checks a reference once, when you set it. It never checks the frames you take afterwards.

It looks for six defects:

A defect is either minor or major. From them the app gives the reference one of three marks:

The mark is shown with the project on the home screen, and on the project screen as Reference: Good, Usable or Poor. Tap it on the project screen to see which defects were found.

The app also knows two notes about composition: the horizon runs through the middle of the picture, and vertical lines lean towards each other. They are suggestions only and never change the mark.

When you take the reference in the app

The checks run on the live picture. Each defect that is found appears as a small warning at the top of the picture and disappears when you have dealt with it: hold the phone level, change the framing, refocus.

• In Simple each warning has a ? that opens a short explanation of why it matters and what to do, and the two composition notes are shown as well.
• In Pro the warnings are shorter, without the ?. The explanations can be read under Settings > Help & tips.

If a major defect is still there when you press the shutter, the app asks before it takes the photo: Fix returns to the camera, Capture anyway takes the photo. Nothing is ever blocked. Minor defects ask in the same way only when Settings > Strict reference check is on.

The checks adapt to three situations the app can recognise by itself:

• Front camera: the composition notes are left out, and the hint about fixed detail points you to the background, because the background is what the app matches, not your face.
• Camera pointing straight down (a document or a table from above): the tilt check and the composition notes are left out, as there is no horizon.
• Zoom of 3× or more: the composition notes are left out.

A check that is left out is not counted as passed and does not change the mark.

When you import the reference

An imported photo is assessed once, right after you pick it. If the app finds nothing to say, it goes straight on to the anchor points. Otherwise it shows a card with the defects and suggestions and three buttons:

• Use this reference keeps the photo. Closing the card does the same.
• Choose another discards it and opens the picker again.
• Capture in-app discards it and opens the app's camera.

For an imported photo the app has no reading of the phone's tilt, so tilt is reported only when it finds a clear horizon line in the picture. A check that cannot be measured is left out.

Anchor points

Anchor points tell the app which parts of the scene matter. Without them it compares details all over the picture. With them it compares the details around the points you marked, and falls back to the whole picture only when it finds too few there.

Choose landmarks that will not move and that have clear edges or texture: the corner of a building, a fence post, a rock, a sign. Avoid plants and anything temporary.

• Tap the photo to place an anchor point.
• Long-press to remove the anchor point nearest to your finger.
• Clear all removes every anchor point.
• Skip goes on without anchor points. Done keeps them.

To change the anchor points later, tap the tile marked REF on the project screen.

Take the next frame

Open the project and tap the camera button. The first time, Android asks for the camera permission, and then for location, which is optional (see Privacy).

The overlay

The reference is drawn over the live picture in one of three ways. The button in the top bar changes between them:

The Opacity slider sets how strongly the overlay is drawn. The colour of the outlines in Edge mode (white, green or magenta) is chosen in Settings.

The alignment score

Below the picture the app shows how well the live picture matches the reference, as a percentage. To get it, the app finds distinct details in both pictures and works out how one would have to be moved to cover the other.

• Green, 85 % and more. The phone vibrates briefly when the score reaches 85 %.
• Yellow, 60 to 84 %.
• Red, below 60 %.
• Low confidence — add anchor points appears instead of a number when the app finds too few matching details to trust a score.

Tap the score to see its four parts: position, rotation, perspective and zoom.

While the score is below 90 %, short hints above it say which way to correct: ← shift left, → shift right, ↑ tilt up, ↓ tilt down, rotate ↺ or ↻ with the angle, move closer, move further. The hints are in English in every language of the app.

A bubble level in the middle of the picture shows whether the phone is held level.

Taking the photo

Press the shutter when the score is as high as you can get it. A click confirms the shot, and the photo is saved to Pictures/MyReFrame/<project name> in your gallery. For two and a half seconds the app then shows the new frame with the reference over it, so that you can judge the result; tap to go on sooner. A badge on the shutter counts the frames you have taken since you opened the camera.

The top bar also has the flash and the self-timer (Off, 2, 5 or 10 seconds), and next to the shutter there is the switch for the grid. Tap the picture to focus on a spot and pinch to zoom.

Simple and Pro

The camera screen has two faces. A chip in its top bar, labelled Simple or Pro, changes between them with one tap.

Simple shows what you need to line up and shoot: the overlay with its opacity slider, the alignment score with its hints, the bubble level, the shutter, flash, self-timer and grid. Focus, exposure and white balance stay automatic; a tap focuses.

Pro adds:

• Focus and exposure lock: a tap locks focus, exposure and white balance on that spot. A slider then appears on the right edge of the picture to make the picture brighter or darker. The chip AE/AF/WB ✕ releases the lock.
• Histogram: the spread of brightness in the live picture, with that of the reference drawn behind it for comparison.
• Zoom buttons 0.6×, 1× and 2×. A dot marks the one that matches the zoom of the reference.
• Lens picker, on phones with several rear cameras and in projects that use the rear camera: Auto or one of the lenses.
• 4:3 and 16:9, to change the shape of the picture. The screen starts with the shape of the reference.
• The reference's data: focal length, ISO and shutter speed of the reference, shown at the top when they are known.
• Best light today: when the reference has a position, the time window in which today's sun stands about where it stood for the reference.
• Numbers for the level: the tilt of the phone forward and sideways in degrees, with the values of the reference below them when the reference was taken in the app. A value turns green when it is within half a degree of the reference.
• Soft focus: a warning when the live picture is much less sharp than the reference.
• Four switches beside the shutter that hide or show the histogram, the level, the zoom buttons and the alignment score until you leave the camera.
• Align to, interval shooting, alignment gate and auto-capture, described in the next two sections.

Settings > Capture interface sets which of the two the app uses. A single project can have its own: on the project screen open the three-dot menu, choose Capture interface, and pick Global, Simple or Pro.

Interval shooting and auto-capture

These three controls are part of Pro. Each is an icon in the top bar of the camera screen; tapping it steps through its values.

• Interval: Off, 5 s, 10 s, 30 s, 1 min or 5 min. With an interval chosen, the shutter starts a series: the app takes a photo, then another one each time the interval has passed, and shows a countdown to the next shot. Press the shutter again to stop. Leaving the camera stops the series too.
• Alignment gate: appears while an interval is chosen. Off, 70 %, 80 % or 90 %. A shot of the series is left out when the alignment score at that moment is below the value; a short note shows the score that was too low. The gate goes back to Off when you turn the interval off.
• Auto-capture: Off, 80 %, 90 % or 95 %. The app takes the photo by itself when the score reaches the value. It then waits until the score has dropped ten points below the value before it can fire again. It does not fire while an interval series is running.

Align to another frame

When the scene has changed a lot since the reference, for example a tree in leaf against a bare one, matching the reference becomes hard for the eye and for the app. In Pro, the control next to the overlay button lets you line up against a later frame instead:

• Reference: the usual way.
• Latest frame: the frame you took last.
• Pick…: any earlier frame from a list.

The overlay then shows the chosen frame, the score is measured against it and labelled with its number and month, and the anchor points are hidden, because they belong to the reference. Auto-capture, the vibration and the alignment gate follow this score too.

This changes only what you see and match while you shoot. For every photo you take, the app still works out and stores how it relates to the reference, so the stabilised video always brings all frames onto the reference. The choice lasts until you leave the camera.

Front camera and pose guides

A project can use the front camera, for a series in which you are the subject. You decide this when you take the reference: switch to the front camera there. The project keeps that choice.

On the front camera the reference camera offers a pose guide, a line drawing over the picture that helps you place yourself. Tap Guide and choose:

• Face: an oval for the face with a line for the eyes.
• Head & shoulders: a head high in the picture with the line of the shoulders.
• Full body: an outline with marks for head, shoulders and feet and a centre line.
• From photo…: pick any photo; the app shows its outlines as a template for your pose.

A slider sets how strongly the guide is drawn, and ? explains each one. A guide only helps with the reference. It is not saved, and it has no part in the score.

The front camera normally shows you as a mirror does, while the saved photo is not mirrored. If that difference disturbs you, turn off Settings > Mirror selfie preview: the camera then shows the picture as it will be saved. The saved photo is the same either way.

The project screen

The project screen shows the reference and all frames as a grid of tiles. The reference comes first and is marked REF. Each frame shows its number in the series and its date, for example "#3 · Jun 28".

• Tap the REF tile to change the anchor points.
• Tap the trash icon on a frame to delete it. The app asks first; the photo is removed from the gallery too.
• Long-press a frame for three actions:
  • Notes & rating: write a note (weather, conditions, stage of the work) and give one to three stars: Keeper, Great shot, Best. Tap a star again to take it back. A tile with a note shows a dot, a rated tile its stars.
  • Share photo: hands the photo to another app through Android's share sheet.
  • Set as project cover: uses this frame as the project's picture on the home screen.

With two or more frames, a row above the grid sorts them: Date ↑ (oldest first), Date ↓ or Rating ★. When at least one frame has stars, Rated only hides the others. Sorting and hiding affect this screen only, not Compare and not the exports, and are reset when you leave the screen.

The top bar holds:

• Pencil: rename the project.
• Calendar: a month view with a dot on every day on which you took a frame. Tap such a day to see its frames; the arrows change the month.
• Bell: capture reminders.
• Chart: the project's statistics: total frames, the span of dates, the number of frames without the reference, the best and the average alignment score, and the storage the photos use.
• Three dots: Capture interface (see Simple and Pro) and Export backup.

Two round buttons open the camera and Compare. Compare needs at least two photos that are still on the phone.

The location card

When the reference has a position, the project screen shows a card with its coordinates. If the app may use location, it reads your position once when the screen opens and adds the distance and the direction to the spot, for example "450 m NW", or You are here within 20 metres. Navigate to location hands the coordinates to Google Maps, or to your browser when Google Maps is not installed.

Missing photos

The frames lie in your gallery, where other apps can delete them. When the app cannot find a photo any more, its tile shows a broken-picture icon, and a line at the top of the screen says how many photos are missing.

Capture reminders

Tap the bell on the project screen to be reminded of the next shot. You choose how often and at what time of day.

The app works these times out on the phone.

• Tapping the notification opens the camera of that project with the reference loaded.
• The notification has the action Snooze 1 day.
• If you have already taken a frame in the current period, the reminder is skipped, and the following ones stay in place.
• Android may deliver a reminder a little later than planned. After a restart of the phone, an update of the app or a change of the clock, the app sets the reminders again.
• On Android 13 and newer the app asks for permission to show notifications when you save your first reminder.

While a reminder is set, the bell is highlighted and the project screen shows when the next shot is due. Tap the bell again to change the reminder or to Turn off.

Compare frames

Compare shows two frames against each other. It starts with the oldest photo as Before and the newest as After. To choose others, tap Before or After and then a picture in the strip below.

In every mode you can pinch to zoom in, up to six times, and drag with two fingers to move the picture. A double tap returns to the full view.

Export a time-lapse

The buttons at the bottom of Compare export the series:

MP4 and Stabilized use every frame that is still on the phone, in the order of the series; GIF uses the first 30 of them. Which frames are chosen as Before and After, and which have stars, plays no part. Stabilized leaves out a frame whose stored alignment is too far off to be fitted, and shows a frame without stored alignment as it is. A bar shows the progress.

Backup and restore

The photos of a project lie in your gallery. Everything else, the order of the frames, your notes and ratings, the anchor points and the alignment data, is kept inside the app and is lost when you clear the app's data or uninstall it. A backup holds both.

To export: on the project screen open the three-dot menu and choose Export backup. The app builds a ZIP file and opens Android's share sheet, where you choose where it goes: your files, a cloud drive, an e-mail.

The ZIP holds a copy of every photo of the project and a file backup.json with the project's name, the frames with their notes and ratings, the anchor points, the alignment data and what the app recorded with each photo, the position included. Reminders, the result of the reference check and the project's own Simple or Pro choice are not in it.

To import: on the home screen open the three-dot menu, choose Import backup and pick the ZIP. The app adds the backup as a new project, so nothing you have is overwritten, and copies its photos into your gallery. A frame whose photo is missing from the ZIP is left out.

Settings

Open Settings with the gear icon on the home screen.

Tips for good alignment

• Take the reference inside the app, so that the reference and the frames have the same shape.
• Set three to five anchor points on fixed landmarks with clear edges that look the same in every season.
• Stand where you stood before, and use the same zoom. If the app says move closer or move further, change your distance; zooming does not bring back the perspective of the first shot.
• Keep the phone level; the bubble helps.
• If the score stays low, check that the scene has texture. Blank walls and clear skies give the app nothing to match. Add anchor points on whatever fixed detail there is.
• When the light differs a lot from the reference, try the Edge overlay and line up by eye.
• On a tripod, the self-timer avoids shaking the phone, and auto-capture takes the photo at the moment the alignment is right.

Privacy

The app has no internet permission and sends nothing to us. Photos and project data stay on the phone, with the exceptions the privacy policy describes: Android's own backup, what you share or export, and the Navigate button.

If you allow location, the app stores the position with every photo you take in it. It keeps the position in its own data, not in the photo file. Strip metadata from captures removes the camera's data from the frames you take, but not from a project's reference, and it does not remove positions from the app's data or from a backup ZIP.

The full text is in the privacy policy.