YouCam Review: How Good Is This Browser-Based AI Photo Editor?

Browser-based photo editors that use AI have practically taken over as the go-to choice if you want quick, solidly done editing.

The reasons are clear to see: Why spend months trying to work around Photoshop or GIMP’s UI when you can just ask AI to do basic editing tasks?

Today, I’ll be reviewing one of the more promising candidates in terms of range of options: YouCam. So let’s see if it’s up to snuff.

What Is YouCam?

Technically speaking, YouCam is the browser-based version of a suite of AI tools from PerfectCorp, which, as its name might imply, are trying to perfect AI usage for image and video.

In particular, most of the features revolve around taking pictures with your phone and improving them through editing or AI tools.

And YouCam isn’t that much different. Sure, the UI is much neater, and it comes with a lot more options, but at its core, it’s a simple-to-use suite for minor image enhancements or having fun with advanced features.

Feature Review

Image Enhancer

This is a fairly standard feature that allows you to improve the resolution of an image by having AI “fill in” pixels based on perceived context.

This effect is most obvious on facial features or objects that you know have minute details, like fur or stitching.

Notably, this doesn’t really work for most professionals, as the tool doesn’t use any generative AI if it detects that the original is “good enough.”

Image Extender

Cut-off images are one of my worst pet peeves, and they can be devastating if you’re trying to do project photography.

However, I’ve tested this supposedly “PRO” option of the tool, and I have to say that I’m really disappointed by some of the results.

Here’s the starting image.

As you can see, with the cutoff, I’m expecting to see the bear’s other leg and possibly a tail, and then a bit more detail on the child.

The result, however, is a bit depressing.

As you can see, the AI had an issue determining what the object in the image actually was, creating a wormlike addition to the bear.

You can see the beginnings of the other leg below the actual bear, which is far from where it should be.

This isn’t the only such instance of the AI botching image extension, but it gets pretty noticeable as soon as it needs to build upon an actual object.

Images where the subject was there in its entirety, and the extension was purely to make it fit a certain frame, are a bit better.

However, even then, you can notice how the child in the background is simply done wrong. The AI took the child’s right hand and somehow appended it to the back of the child’s body (and even that was a bit off).

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend using this unless you have a complete picture that needs a background extension.

AI Color Correction

One of the main issues of using your regular phone camera to take photos is that the lighting will usually be good enough, but the colors could use some work to make them pop.

I’ve tested this feature with the same image as before, and thankfully, the app shows a before-and-after preview before you make any further changes.

Even better, the AI applies four different color correction settings, with slightly different contrast levels between the subject and the background.

While some combinations work better than others, all of them are solid enough to be useful. This goes double if your original image is somewhat lacking in terms of color contrast.

Object Remover

If you ever need to remove an extra object from a photo, you can use this AI to remove it and fill the space with the background texture and pattern.

The remover is generally easy to use, with a simple brush to draw over the object that you want removed.

In this case, I went with a slightly more complex image, but the background should be monotone enough to get removed pretty seamlessly.

So let’s see how the tool removes the extra peach lying on the table.

I would say that’s a solid job for what took roughly 30 seconds of upload and five seconds of the AI editing the image.

Of course, even from a distance, you can see the outline of the brush tool, so the tool isn’t perfect, and you might need to perform subsequent color correction or force the tool to regenerate the result.

One thing to note is that even though the tool has a “move” button in the UI, it doesn’t actually do anything.

Considering it’s on the brush selector, I’d assumed it would move the area around, but clicking it doesn’t accomplish anything. It looks to be a leftover feature that doesn’t work if you don’t use the most advanced paid plan (or at all).

AI Colorizer

If you have old photos lying around, you can try to scan them in and have the AI bring them back to life with YouCam’s recolor tool.

Of course, you might want to run it through the enhancer first or have the tool try to regenerate lost parts if they’re missing. The tool only really likes to work with higher-quality photos to begin with.

With that in mind, I’ve used a black-and-white photo to test it out. It should be fairly obvious what colors we’re looking for here, but there’s room for some creative liberties.

So let’s see how the tool does.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with all the variations of the result. While the C2 and C3 were a bit monotone and somewhat unrealistic, and the C1 had a few odd color splotches that didn’t make sense, these are tiny details.

The tool has correctly identified the rocks, the pier, and the demarcation between the water and sky, all while creating natural-looking lighting and color-correction.

For another test, I put in a portrait to see how it handles faces and colorful clothing.

This one is a bit of a miss.

There’s no reason why there should be a rainbow pattern on the clothes, and all the variations had the same “oil slick” splotch on the striped shirt (which is nonsensical by itself).

It would seem that the AI doesn’t handle more complex objects that well, so you may need to force it to regenerate an image a few times to get a decent-looking result.

I’m also not quite pleased with how every colorization looks a bit blurry.

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Background Remover and Generator

An oldie but a goodie, background removal tools are basics you’ll likely use for product photography.

So let’s see how YouCam’s handles the teddy bear from our “extended photo” test. Since the object is partially cut off here, I’m not expecting miracles.

However, all things considered, this is quite a good showcase. The tool has correctly identified the object in the foreground (as it would be pretty much impossible to isolate the bear without the hand holding it).

So for product photos, especially when you have one prominent object that is properly centered on the “canvas,” this feature will work great.

Notably, the “regenerate background” part of the tool works similarly, creating a background that is usually just a simple pattern or what the previous background looked like.

Somewhat more annoyingly, the tool’s system treats background removal and generation under the same “background effect” term for daily credit or usage purposes (which are limited even on a paid plan).

AI Object Replacer

To test this feature out, I used a still life image and tried to input “replace peaches with apples” while selecting all the visible peaches on the image (as well as overbrushing since that’s going to be how most people use it).

The results are not that great.

The first result has a bunch of odd offshoots where the tool seems a bit confused in trying to “replace” objects with different ones, so I got a few peachy apples.

When I tried to just plainly tell the AI to “put in apples,” the result was much more hilarious.

Beyond the apple being enormous, there are some attempts at matching the lighting with the rest of the image, so you can see that the AI was on the right track.

If you use a few more variations, you might eventually get something that more closely resembles the intended result.

So, all in all, you’ll need to be precise and preferably work on one object at a time to make sure the AI gets the proportions right.

AI Lighting

The tool can also be used to simply brighten an image, which is one of the more basic editing options, and yet is somehow grouped with other color generation features.

In this case, the tool does come with helpful sliders to determine how much brightening you want, but the AI does the entire image at once with the same shadows as the original.

What this means is that you can’t get the tool to place an artificial light source and make an image appear to be shot under studio conditions.

But regardless of the simplicity, it’s one of the options that works fairly well.

Basic Editing and Effects

Apart from AI-oriented photo editing, the tool also acts as a backup photo editor, with simple color, lighting, effects, and cropping tools that you can use to manipulate the image.

I won’t go over these in detail, as they’re going to be what you expect from a stock image editor.

However, I will point out the massive template gallery for effects, which can be useful if you want to play around with social media posts.

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AI Generation Features

Beyond editing photos, YouCam also has a fairly potent and elaborate image and video generator.

AI Image Generation

In terms of image generation, YouCam offers multiple models, including Nano Banana (one of the most common and notable generators) as well as its proprietary YouCam AI.

The tool allows you to create a detailed prompt, and even helps you refine it to set the mood and remove redundancy.

You can also use a reference image if you have one and manually set the style for the image, with literally dozens of available categories and options.

I’ve decided to stick to text and image input and let the AI adjust the style itself.

The problem I’ve encountered here is that if you give the AI an image, you should expect to get most of it back as-is, as it will only tinker with a few details.

If I remove the image, I get something that’s more in line with what I originally had in mind, but the actual composition is fairly nonsensical (which I’ll attribute to the somewhat confusing prompt).

The tool did get the autumn theme and fallen leaves right, but the fishing rod hovering over the water is definitely unintentional, and the AI seems to have a difficult time determining where the fishing line is supposed to go.

Animate Image

YouCam also has the option of animating an image, usually by applying a template-based transformation.

This portion is a bit less intuitive to use, and it’s only available if you use the more advanced payment option.

This is because the AI generator uses credits for creating and animating images, but you only get 100 credits per month on a basic subscription. You can also purchase credits outright if you want to play around with the tool a bit more.

What the tool does have is a pretty extensive template gallery, which is basically the “stock” transformation applied to the subject(s) of the photo.

Face and Fashion Retoucher

YouCam also has a pretty extensive suite of face retouchers, typically involving hair, makeup, or facial hair styles.

These features all work relatively well, but only so long as the base image is properly centered and relatively high in quality. If your image is even a bit blurry or taken at an odd angle, you might get a weird result.

Pricing

Here comes one of the main pain points of the tool: it’s fairly unintuitive when it comes to pricing.

For one, you do get a free version that basically limits your PC (as in the physical device) to a few tryouts of the various tools and features. The limit is per day, so you can test out some of the features over a longer period.

The first payment plan, Plus, costs US$10 per month or only US$40 per year (which is a solid discount). So if you ever consider diving in, use one month to test it out and then keep it to a yearly subscription if you’re satisfied.

The Plus plan removes daily limits on most features and gives you 100 AI generation credits per month (the YouCam AI image costs two credits each, and animations cost 16 to 24 credits to begin with).

The Pro plan costs US$20 a month or US$70 per year. It gives you 300 credits per month, allows you to use the images commercially (meaning this is the only option if you want to put them on e-commerce pages), and further reduces the cost of credits if you need to purchase them separately.

Who Is YouCam For?

Given the amount and quality of the features, this is a fairly odd tool, as most of the editing options are primarily catered towards entertainment rather than e-commerce.

For product photography, you’ll use only a fraction of the suite, making the financial investment a bit much unless you have a lot of product photos to go through.

The tool does come with batch editing (for Pro users), so you can offload some of the more basic edits to the AI and process them the same way.

Overall, the tool is definitely positioned more towards small businesses that don’t have quite the budget for a full-time photo and video editor and want to make occasional promotional content or product photos.

Final Verdict

As far as image editing is concerned, YouCam is generally solid, but it might seem like a bit of a steep investment.

This is especially noticeable once you go into more generative features, where you can produce some frustrating results and be forced to waste time or credits regenerating images.

If you’re looking for an extensive suite that’s available on every browser, give it a go and maybe even use one monthly subscription. At $10, it’s not the worst deal out there.