Photographers are always looking to capture picture-perfect moments. With smartphone cameras now offering great optics to capture high-resolution and sharp results, photographers are increasingly using them to click high-quality images. There are a ton of free and paid good photo editing apps available now from the basic camera and sharing tools to full-featured photo editing apps that let you shoot, edit, and organize images better on your mobile phones.
The question is - Which photo apps are worth your while and can help you save time and give great results on-the-go.
In this article, we're focusing on 37 best photo apps for every photographer's smartphone. Our recommendations for the best editing apps are based on the photo app features, their ease-of-use, and social sharing capabilities.
Cosmetic Surgery Free Online Photo Editor. Photo, sketch and paint effects. For Tumblr, Facebook, Chromebook or WebSites. Lunapics Image software free image, art & animated Gif creator. Add to Wishlist The Slimming World app is your weight loss wingman – there to support you all the way to your dream weight. Use the app to plan and track your meals on the go, weigh in wherever you. VSCO is not only one of the best photo editing apps, but it is also a photo-sharing app. VSCO is one of the best iPhone photography apps and features an excellent 3-in-1 camera, social sharing, and iPhone photo app. VSCO has a dedicated community of photographers, unlike Instagram, where you can find all sorts of people.
VSCO is not only one of the best photo editing apps, but it is also a photo-sharing app. VSCO is one of the best iPhone photography apps and features an excellent 3-in-1 camera, social sharing, and iPhone photo app. VSCO has a dedicated community of photographers, unlike Instagram, where you can find all sorts of people.
At first glance, you'll immediately appreciate VSCO's intuitive design – the main menu is clean and straightforward, and tools are designed with simple, easy-to-understand icons.
Instasize is the photo editing best friend you never knew you needed. With so many features combined in one, it’s no surprise that Instasize has been coined the “all in one” photo editing app. Available for both IOS and Android, this app for editing photos comes equipped with a robust library of filters, resizing options, border/photo frame packs, retouching tools, a text editor, video editing capabilities, and MORE.
Intuitive in design, Instasize is easy to navigate. Whether you’re a first-time photo editor or a full-time beauty blogger - beautiful edits are a single tap away.
Main features:
Download Instasize for IOS or Android.
Movavi Picverse is a photo-editing application that even a beginner can use to get professional-looking results. You’ll appreciate the simplicity of the interface and the abundance of options it offers. The app relies heavily on color-grading tools and artistic effects to help you create atmospheric photos. You can also take advantage of the blurring tool to hide a not-so-pretty background or add some mystery to your portraits.
Movavi Picverse can easily adapt your photos for social media, thanks to the ready-made cropping presets for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitter, as well as other universal aspect ratio types (3:4, 16:9, etc.).
Though the app is designed for photo editing only now, the video-editing feature is about to be added to the functionality too.
Its main features are:
Price: Free + In-app purchases
Download Movavi Picverse for Android or iOS
Snapseed is a professional photo editing app developed by Google. If you're looking for Photoshop-like photography app, then Snapseed is the app to download. This app is known for its ability to edit RAW images as well. As smartphones now are capable of shooting RAW images, editing them properly in a good editing app is also essential. Though it doesn't have all of Photoshop's features and functionalities, most of its controls and process of editing are closely alike.
Some of the outstanding features of Snapseed are healing brush, structure, HDR, perspective, etc. Another feature in this free photo editing app is the function to save your style (presets); which you can use in other photos. Photo effects and filters can be precisely edited; giving more control to users to get the result they want. Snapseed is one of the widely used free photo apps.
Adobe Lightroom is one of the best apps for professional photographers as it's the only photography app that can allow viewing, editing, and organizing a large number of images.
This application for editing photos has a built-in camera feature which can take photos in RAW through your smartphone where you can edit the exposure, aperture, and use other manual features. The app also has filters for adding various effects which can be applied with one tap to edit pictures. The premium version of this app has more advanced features like healing brush, selective adjustments, cloud storage, RAW image editing of DSLR photos, and more. This photo editing app by Adobe gives you advanced features such as curves through which you can make fine adjustments to the color, exposure, tone, and contrast.
If you’re an iPhone user, you probably heard Camera+. Or maybe, you’re currently using it now and addicted to it.
It isn’t surprising as Camera+ is one of the best photography apps for iPhone and has impressive features and capabilities:
The only downside of Camera+ is it’s only available for IOS smartphones.
Price: iPhone: $2.99 and Ipad: $4.99
Download Camera+ for iOS.
Available for iOS and Android, Pixlr is one of the most popular free photo apps and has a wide range of different photo effects, overlays, and filters that you can use to create truly unique and visually appealing images. This picture app offers four different web apps, all HTML5 applications that load right in your browser. Pixlr Editor is their best free web app, and it offers a lot of features, even layers and color replacement tools.
Pixlr Express is a toned-down version, with simplified user experience and lots of preset filters. Pixlr Pro is a paid tool that provides a free trial, but it's the only tool on our list that can open a Photoshop PSD file and save it as a PNG or JPG. Finally, Pixlr Today is a task manager extension for the Google Chrome Browser. The app is free but offers in-app purchases of things like effect packs. When you've completed your work, the app can save directly to your social media accounts or email.
Price: Free
Download Pixlr for Android or iOS.
Another high powered photo app is the Adobe Photoshop Express. Unlike many other photo apps, Photoshop Express includes the functions 'straighten' and 'flip' that can help you achieve even more flexible editing options. If you want to edit in RAW format or even in TIFF format, you can do so with the best photo editing app - Photoshop Express. There are 45 filters to choose from if you want to add creative effects to your images. One-click sharing, image resizing, and watermarking are also features which come in handy.
However, compared to Adobe's Lightroom photo app, Photoshop Express is much weaker and limited in scope. Photoshop Express offers quick editing, but for a more professional feel, Adobe Lightroom app provides more options.
Price: Free
Download Adobe Photoshop Express for Android or iOS.
Enlight is a more advanced photo app with the usual tools that most photo apps have, including exposure, color, and cropping, as well as several unique features: built-in filters with duo color toning, black and white filters, and maximum control over photo highlights and shadow quality.
Enlight's top features are its Mixer tool, which allows you to combine two photos for a double exposure image and plenty of additional features for fine-tuned editing. This best photography app also has a Mask tool which lets you directly paint onto an image to fix abnormal color spots or create subtle, visually pleasing effects.
Price: $4.45
Download Enlight for iOS.
This is the ultimate photography app when it comes to 'healing' and 'cloning' functionality for your photos. TouchRetouch can efficiently remove dust marks, telephone wires, and virtually any other object or mark that you may not want in your picture. Best of all, this photo app is incredibly easy to use. Simply touch the object or area of your picture that you want to correct with the tip of your finger, and the picture app will immediately start analyzing the picture and determining the best way to smooth out the unwanted portion to create a clear and natural looking image.
Price: $1.99
Download TouchRetouch for Android or iOS.
When over 1 billion people are using it, there has to be something special about it, right? The Instagram photography app started with simple filters and fun photo frames and has quickly transformed into one of the best photo apps that allows you to edit photos and create photo 'stories' that can be shared with friends and followers. It fulfills the same social needs as Facebook does. But this free photo editor focuses on sharing your day to day life in the form of photos and seeing what others are sharing on your feed. Instagram also allows for direct messaging with fellow users for private conversations or photo sharing. The ability for a user to put updates in different creative ways like Stories, Live, Text, is fantastic.
The filters Instagram provides for editing photos are intuitive and straightforward. The editing tools are not nearly comprehensive as Snapseed or Afterlight 2. If you are looking for a free photo editing app with essential editing tools, but you place more emphasis on the sharing features and a good community, then this free picture editor is for you.
Price: Free
Download Instagram for Android or iOS.
This stunning photo app allows you to accomplish advanced editing tasks on your images. Filterstorm Nue offers advanced and interactive features like adjustments over curves, tone, and levels along with channel mixers. The clone feature of this iPhone photo app is outstanding and lets you remove unwanted objects with ease.
You can also easily apply sharpening, watermarking, noise reduction and clarity effects using this app. The downside is that this paid app only available for iPhones.
Price: $3.99
Download Filterstorm Nue for iOS.
Mexture is an iPhone photo editing app suitable for adding gradients, textures, light leaks, dust, and grains. This photo editor allows you to create an unlimited number of layers which you can blend later. These layers can also be individually edited for texture, blend mode or rotation. There are over 150 texture presets in the Mexture photo editing app. Along with the 12 blending modes, the possibility for creating something creative are numerous.
Price: $1.99
Download Mextures for iOS.
Google photos app is built to save and share photos and includes a built-in editing feature. The images are backed automatically and can be accessed from anywhere through any connected device. The benefit of this app is that you can free up space on your mobile. The editing tools can edit the light, color, brightness, and more in this gallery app itself.
Photo Lab provides one of the vastest collections of stylish and funny photo effects: almost 1000 effects to date. The 40 categories in the app offer awesome face photo montages, photo frames, animated effects, overlays, sketches and paintings, and photo filters that can be applied to your photos in a few taps. Any template can be used on its own or combined with different effects to get an entirely new one (called 'Combos'). The photos can be saved to the Gallery, shared to the 'apps' Feed or any messenger or social media. Besides, Photo Lab is a one-tap answer for any problems in your picture. Be it a color correction, background replacement, or just an easy touch-up - the app is there to guide you! There is more to it, but we'll let you explore every corner of Photo Lab on your own.
Price: Free with In-App Purchases.
Afterlight 2 is a picture editor which has an extensive collection of natural filters, and the editing tools are designed with simplicity in mind. These editing tools give you full control of the editing process. Afterlight 2 allows you to import photos in RAW format as well and the export can also be done in HEIC format. A user can create filters using their Fusion feature and save them to give consistency to the editing if required. The photo editing app has advanced tools such as Curves in which you can edit the brightness, color, and contrast of the image, making it the best photo editing apps for iPhone.
Price: One-time price of $2.99 Platform: iOS
GramSpacer allows you to create clean line breaks on Instagram easily and effortlessly. Using GramSpacer, you can create line breaks for Instagram comments, captions, and even in your IG bio. GramSpacer is also a great tool for creating clean line breaks for captions and comments on TikTok. No matter what photo editing app you use, GramSpacer is a must needed app if you're going to be distributing your photos and videos on Instagram or TikTok.
Price: $2.99
You can download GramSpacer for iOS and Android.
Lens distortion is another best photo editing app which is mainly used to add glass textures, natural sunlight, rain, and fog. A photographer has the option to make the effect stand out or blend in by customizing according to their needs. The app also has a paid version, which gives you more than 200 filters to expand the possibilities of getting creative results. A user in this free image editor can add layers and blend multiple effects on the same image.
Price: Free and Paid at $0.99 per month
Platform: Android and iOS
As the name suggests, Superimpose X is one of the best photo editing apps mainly used to superimpose photos on to each other. The app has some powerful features like editing in layers, blending modes, masking adjustments, etc. The editing app is suitable for both amateurs as well as professionals. A user while working can switch to other projects in the middle without losing data. Another feature which people look are for background removal; this app perfectly does that. In Superimpose X, you get filters, shadows, blur, gradients, and more features to use in a layer while editing.
Price: $4.99
Platform: iOS and Android
With more than 500 million installs, PicsArt can be used in 30 languages. PicsArt is one of the best photo editing apps which has a built-in camera, video editor, collage-maker, clipart library, and more. Some of the powerful features include adding curves, add text, stretch, clone tools, etc. The app is known for its creative remixing features in which you can remix any photo that is free to use, and you can use this feature to edit with your friends. The PicsArt Gold feature gives you thousands of stickers, collages, masks, and frames.
Price: Free and Premium version at $55.99 a year.
Platform: Android and iOS
TouchRetouch is one of the excellent editing apps which focuses on removing blemishes from the photos. So, if you want to remove those telephone wires and pimples, this is the best picture editing app for it. For these retouching features, TouchRetouch provides you with tools such as lasso, eraser, clone stamp, etc. These tools can be used without much hassle to get the job done; most of the unwanted things can be removed with one touch.
Price: $1.99
Platform: iOS and Android
What makes Ribbet stand out from all of the other online photo editors? Its collage function. You can create shape collages made up of as many photos as you like and choose their layout based on preset shapes like dog paws, music notes, stars, hearts, and smileys. How fun is that?
Ribbet easily imports photos from direct upload, Facebook, Google, or any website URL. It includes all the basics like cropping, straightening, filters, and text. The blank canvas feature allows you to create your collages or even use the picture editor for design and publishing. You can save your works of art to your local hard drive or sign up for a free account to store them and work on them later.
If you like Ribbet, give Ribbet Fly a try on your iOS devices. The Android version is coming soon.
Photo editing is not the only activity where smartphone apps can help photographers. There are a bunch of awesome photo apps that can assist a photographer in making crucial decisions about photoshoots, locations, and even business.
All photographers know about the 'golden hour' when the sun is just rising or setting, and the light outside takes on a soft, reddish hue that is unique to these specific time points. This soft light is ideal for photography, and knowing when to hit that time just right can help you snap the perfect photo. Magic Hour focuses on all the information that you need for understanding when the golden hour arrives based on your location, if the weather will be clear enough, and the approximate times of sunrise and sunset for your area.
Furthermore, the app also tracks moonrise and the full moon for those photographers interested in night time photography. You can set up notifications through the app so that you can know when the golden hour (or moonrise) is going to occur, which can be extremely useful if you are busy or otherwise distracted and unable to keep a close eye on the time of day.
Price: Free
Download Magic Hour for iOS.
Nighttime and night sky photographers will find this night photography app incredibly useful so that they can shoot photos of star formations without having to worry about long star trails. By plugging in the type of camera and focal length of your lens into the Dark Skies app, the picture app will calculate how much exposure you will need to get the best picture. The app also has a 'night mode' setting which will decrease the app's light so that you do not lose your night vision when on a shoot.
Price: Free
Download Dark Skies for Android or iOS.
From the Norwegian Meteorological Institute comes this high tech weather app that will reliably keep you up to date on possible precipitation so that you can plan your outdoor photoshoots with confidence. Despite Yr.no's Norwegian construction and foundation, the app is available in full English and covers more than 10 million locations worldwide. Even better, the app's built-in GPS functionality will help you track your location with more accuracy than typing in a region or city name. A photographer can plan outdoor shoot based on the weather, and accuracy is what matters.
Price: Free
Download Yr.no for Android or iOS.
Before you even consider pulling your camera out, this useful app will allow you to take a quick reading of the light quality in your vicinity so that you can go into your photo shoot with a clear idea of what settings (etc.) that you will need to utilize for the best picture. This app works just as well as a more traditional light meter, but like other photo apps, it can be a part of your smart phone's overall tool chest that fits comfortably in your pocket.
This photography app can also keep a log of light readings so that you can track the different variations of light quality in an area across the course of the day. When you are preparing to go on a photo shoot in that area, you will have a handy log that will work as a quick and easy to use reference guide.
Price: $12.62
Download Pocket Light Meter for iOS.
Google Photo Scan is a photo app for scanning old photos with your phone and transfer them to other digital devices. Photo scanners can be complicated or bulky to use and often are expensive. This Google photo scanner app is free and allows you to scan images with your phone.
Price: Free
Download Google Photo Scan for Android or iOS.
Night photography apps are the perfect tool for excellent night time photos. The app gives you the ability to shoot in low light and attain clear, captivating images. Cortex Camera also comes with a built-in electronic image stabilization feature that makes tripods unnecessary to achieve a stable image, which is essential for nighttime photo shoots in particular.
To achieve this effect, Cortex Camera takes several photos in a very short amount of time and blends them in the chance that you might have been moving slightly while taking the picture. By averaging out the overall image with its duplicates, Cortex Camera can efficiently create a clear photo with no graininess or artifact.
Price: $3.7
Download Cortex Camera for iOS.
This photography business app is a necessary tool for professional photographers that need quick access to a release form for photoshoots that may involve private property or models. Releases include nearly every industry standard template that you may need, including Snapwire, ASMP, Getty Images, and Shutterstock. Simply pull up the release form that you need, have your client sign with their finger on your smartphone's touchscreen, and then download the PDF file that is automatically generated. Not only will this keep your release forms more organized since you do not have to worry about losing physical forms, but it is a handy tool that can be used anywhere at any time.
Price: Free
Download Releases for iOS.
This useful app tracks the passage and location of the sun throughout the day so that you can always have a good idea of what your light situation in outdoor photoshoots will look like. Sun Surveyor also comes with a digital sun that will show you in real-time how the sun is moving across the sky and how its light will interact with your surroundings. Always have a clear idea of where the sun will be and plan your photoshoot accordingly to achieve the best lighting results.
Price: $8.99
Download Sun Surveyor for Android or iOS.
This photo app is the brainchild of Joby, who is a leading manufacturer of camera accessories. GorillaCam includes several useful and exciting features such as time-lapse capabilities, self-timing photo shooting, and a rapid-fire photo shoot function. So long as your smartphone can take pictures, you can use GorillaCam to snap photos at a faster rate with better overall quality. The time-lapse feature does require that the phone is continuously running and awake to work correctly, which can lead to your phone battery draining at a faster rate. When utilizing this function, make sure that you switch off your phone's auto-sleep function and use whatever battery-saving features you can.
Price: Free
Download GorillaCam for iOS.
To give you a much needed helping hand when it comes to setting up lighting for various photoshoot locations, Sylights offers a highly useful and easy to use lighting blueprint diagram function that will allow you to carefully record how you set up a lighting situation for future reproduction. This can be particularly useful if you are working with a repeat client who requests the same lighting scheme as a previous photoshoot. When you are setting up a lighting system for your photoshoot, simply record the setup on Sylight and save the diagram forever. The professional photography app comes with a wide array of different icons that closely represent your equipment for an easy visual reference.
Price: Free
Download Sylights for iOS.
Hyperfocal distance is that distance which determines the maximum depth of field of the object of your photo and using this equation can help you determine the best distance from which to take a high-quality picture.
For professional and expert photographers, this mathematical equation may be second nature; but if you struggle with determining the ideal hyperfocal distance for your photoshoot, this app can seriously help you out. Once in the app, pick your camera model, set your focal length and the aperture that you are using, and select 'Calculate Hyperfocal' for a quick and easy determination of your ideal photo distance. Even a pro can find this app highly useful, especially if he or she is on a time crunch or wants a quick reference before a photoshoot is set to commence.
Price: Free
Download Hyperfocal DOF for Android or iOS.
This photo transfer app is particularly useful for iPhone users who will find it extremely difficult to pull or otherwise download photos from their smartphone's internal album. WiFi Photo Transfer allows your iPhone and computer or laptop to communicate together over the same WiFi connection and easily transfer photos or photo albums between the two devices.
Download WiFi Photo Transfer for iOS.
Crello is a design maker that allows users to create animations, videos, posts, ads, banners, logos, cards, and much more visual content. With Crello, anyone can create beautiful and professionally-looking designs for social media, blogs, web and other purposes quickly and easily. A huge collection of premium photos, illustrations, design objects, animations, and video clips allows users to create awesome designs without spending a lot of time. All templates, photos, and design objects are grouped into thematic categories and can be easily filtered by specific keywords. The coolest thing about Crello is that you can pick any pre-designed template and customize it to fit your personal needs. For those, who have a specific idea on their mind, it’s possible to create a design from scratch by entering uncommon dimensions and uploading their own fonts, images, and videos.
Crello doesn’t require having special skills and is so easy to learn that it takes just a couple of minutes to figure out how to create videos, animations, and graphic designs that look wonderful.
The main Crello advantages are:
Pricing: Free plan. Paid PRO plan, $7.99 per month. Free trial of the PRO plan.
Crello also has mobile apps for Android and iOS.
If you’re looking for a photography locations app that lets you organize your images and share their locations easily with your friends, family, or co-photographers, then Geotag Photos Pro is the one to install.
Geotag Photos Pro is one of the best geotagging app designed for both Android and iOS smartphones. The simplest way to make it work properly is by going to Accuracy settings and set the Get location by choosing GPS+GSM.
The only downsides of this app are that it isn’t free, and even you’re not actively using it, it may use your location. As a result, it can decrease battery life.
Download Geotag Photos Pro for Android or iOS.
Sometimes when a picture is taken, the overall perspective of the image may seem distorted or otherwise visually unappealing. SKRWT offers an easy way to fix distortions by providing several editing features that focus on correcting photo and lens distortion. For example, iPhones tend to take pictures that show more depth than is natural because of its wide-angle lens. Simply put the photo into SKRWT, and the 'bulging' center of the image can be easily smoothed out to look as if the picture were taken with a non-wide angle lens. SKRWT can also straighten out images where the horizon is off-center with easy to use manual manipulation of the app's functions.|
Price: Free with In-app purchases
Download SKRWT for Android or iOS.
There are a plethora of photography apps out there that can take your mobile photography to the next levels and enable you to use advanced editing tools on the go. Our selection of the best photography apps is an excellent place for you to start exploring the potential of apps to complement your photography and overall business.
Are you using any other useful photography apps? Please do share your feedback and suggestions in the comments.
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