In just a few years phones have been transformed from mere communication tools to interactive devices that now can take phenomenal photos. With this newfound ability to produce high quality travel snaps have also come a bevy of apps to help you transform that humdrum photo into a work of art. The variety of apps can be confusing and since so many of them are fee-based, I wanted to share with you all my favorite apps for photo editing.
1. Camera+ – This app came highly recommended to me and I can understand why. From my experience, this is one of the most comprehensive and easy to understand apps, especially important since most of us aren’t professional photographers. The app allows you to choose any photo and edit with traditional methods such as cropping, lighting and borders. But it also features a wide range of photo effects that can transform a photo into a professional work of art. Fantastic app for getting the most out of your photography.
Cost: $1.99
2. Instagram – One of the most popular photo apps out there, this is a great way to not just edit your photos, but to share them with your friends. Like Camera+ it enables users to edit using a wide collection of fun and dramatic filters but it doesn’t stop there. Yes, you can share the finished product with friends on Twitter, Facebook and email, but Instagram itself is also a social network. Friends, family and other interested people can follow your photo feed and you theirs. It’s a fun way to see what everyone is doing, including some amazing photography using their iPhones and iPads.
Cost: Free
3. FlickStackr – I store my photos on Flickr, an easy to use website that stores and allows you to edit all of your travel photos. For easier access, I’ve installed this app on my iPad so that I can look through my photos and download specific ones to my iPad to edit in complementary apps. You can also upload from your iPhone or iPad directly to your Flickr account, so it’s easy to save those great mobile photos. It’s also a great travel album, so I can find any photo no matter where I am. There are several Flickr interface apps, but this is my favorite and the one I use most often.
Cost – $1.99
4. PhotoPad – This app doesn’t necessarily do anything unique but it’s main utility is that it was designed for the iPad and is extremely easy to use. I love this app for quick resizing of photos, cropping or any other simple photo editing chore. I can then upload the photos to my Photo Stream or on Flickr. In addition to its utility, it’s also free, a rarity for photo editing apps.
Cost – Free
5. Snapseed – This is a fun, smart photo app that can do a lot without intimidating the novice user. You can tweak the entire image or just certain portions of it, add visually stunning filters and even share the finished product with friends via a variety of social media and email plugins. I like this app because it has different versions for both the iPad and the iPhone, ensuring a smooth editing experience. A lot of people use this as their default editing app and I now understand why.
Cost – Free
