Best iPhone Apps for Editing Photos
When I was in high school, I had this small Canon camera that I used to carry around with me and photograph people with. Not just on special occasions like prom and formals, but all. the. time. I loved capturing everyday moments and remembering them—putting together scrapbooks and things like that.
Not much has changed for me since high school, apparently.
Okay, maybe a few things (thankfully). Besides finally figuring out how to finally mange my giant red curly hair, there also was this really cool invention that came out called a smart phone. I was one of the first iPhone users and haven’t looked back since. While I still have (and love!) a Canon camera that I use for special occasions, blog projects and client work, my go-to camera has become my iPhone 6s.
Besides having a pretty fantastic camera (at least during the day…at night, not so much), there are a plethora of apps that you can use to edit your photo for the perfect look before you post. As a former professional photographer, I’ve used and tried almost every photo app out there. Here are the five best iPhone photography apps I recommend most:
Instagram. If I need to edit a photo before I post to Instagram, 99.9% of the time I edit it using Instagram itself. I bypass the filters and instead use the edits to adjust the saturation, white balance, temperature, etc.
Afterlight. This app has long been my favorite for editing photos. I prefer a bright, natural look rather than heavy filters, but whichever you want, this app has it all. You can also add light flares, dust, frames and more should you like.
ColorStory. This app also lets you add flares along with a few more fun looks like bokeh and color fog. There’s also a ton of filters, and once you find your perfect look, you can save and name your editing process and repeat it over and over at the click of a button.
A Beautiful Mess. Perfect for creating collages, A Beautiful Mess App allows you to add patterned backgrounds, doodles, borders, phrases and your own text to your photos. This is a fun one for scrapbooking!
Over. If you’re looking for a fun and easy way to add professionally designed art and text phrases to your phone, this app is for you! You can also type in your own messaging and add different layers of backgrounds.
What apps are your favorite best iPhone photography apps? I’m always looking for new ones to try, so let’s hear it!
Tania Griffis is an accomplished writer, blogger, and interior designer with a Journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. She started her popular blog, Run to Radiance, in 2011, demonstrating her design expertise through the personal remodeling of six houses to millions of readers across the globe.
Tania also owns The Creative Wheelhouse, a respected ghostwriting agency for bloggers, further showcasing her talent for creating engaging and informative content.
I will have to check out some of these. I like PicTapGo.
You & me both – I always NEED a camera with me – always have, always will. Capturing ALL the moments is what makes you capture the BEST moments.
I too love the instagram feature where you can adjust the real stuff on photos – not just apply filters, though I love that too.
I use an android & typically use Aviary for most of my editing. Theres like 2 filters I use to boost color but also do the Instagram thing there – edit contract, sharpness, all that technical stuff.
Looks like I’ll be getting the Iphone 7, my first, so I needed this post!!
I just installed ColorStory app last week and thought it was the best photo editing app (for social media, anyway) that I’ve seen so far. I didn’t get quite as amazing results as yours yet but I’m going to go test it out more now! There are so many occasions where I have my phone handy and not my good camera, but my phone photos are almost never ‘post worthy’!
Thanks for sharing, such great resources!
This list is so helpful! There are so many apps out there I never know which one would be worth my time. My daughter is a budding young photographer (all phone pics, that is) so she’s going to have a lot of fun with these. Thanks!
Thanks for the tips. I will check into these.
I have never heard of four of these before! Where have I been?! They sound fantastic! I like to have brightly lit photographs too. So, these are definitely things that I will be checking out. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your list with us at Funtastic Friday. I use Instagram for editing on my phone. I’ll have to check out these other apps.
I loved this article and thank you very much for that. But I have problems with my iPhone. I loaded all of its photos to my Mac computer and they are in some strange HEIC format. How to convert? I can’t see my stuff.
Interesting. But I prefer to have something that would be meant only for me. I know that is hard. But do you think this will be expensive to make this?