Since today is World Photo Day, you might want to celebrate by taking a photo and letting your creative juices flow with photo editing apps. But with all the different apps out there, it can be hard to know which one is worth downloading. Whether you’re a budding photographer or a seasoned shutterbug, we’ve rounded up the best photo editing apps you can use for Android and iPhone devices.
Best Photo Editing Apps for iPhone and Android
Adobe Photoshop Express (Free)
With a user-friendly menu, this free app is a great fit for beginners. It offers basic features that allow users to crop, straighten, rotate, and remove red eyes from photos. You can even add text to your photos, and you have a huge selection of fonts available from Adobe Photoshop CS6.
There is also a “Looks” feature in the app that allows you to add more than 80 filters, such as black and white, portrait, nature, and duo tones. Using the slider, you can control how subtle or intense you want the filters to be applied. For higher quality images, the also app supports editing in RAW format.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Adobe Lightroom (Free and Premium Versions)
Adobe Lightroom is a viable option for editing photos on the go. With its non-destructive editing feature, you can undo the changes you’ve made to a photo even if you close the app and open the photo on another device. You can also organize photos in folders, add tags to photos to easily locate them, or even add star ratings to your photos.
Most of the app’s features can be used in the free version. However, the premium version gives you access to more features like storage space on your Adobe Creative Cloud plan and the ability to create web galleries.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
VSCO (Free and Premium Versions)
Do you like the convenience of a camera phone but want the aesthetic of a film camera? With the VSCO app, you won’t have to choose. VSCO (from the Visual Supply Company) is best known for their filters that mimic the look of film cameras. There are custom camera profiles for popular professional-level camera brands like Agfa, Kodak, Fuji, Sony, Olympus, and Leica.
The free version gives users access to 10 presets and a host of editing tools for manipulating exposure, contrast, sharpness, clarity, and saturation. To unlock other features and the full suite of more than 130 presets, VSCO offers a $19.99 subscription service called VSCO X.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Snapseed (Free)
This free app gives you up to 28 ways to edit your photos. Basic editing features like the Tune Image tool lets you adjust exposure and color automatically or with an easy-to-use slider. You can also edit parts of the photo with its Selective, Brush, and Healing tools.
There are 12 filters on the app that you can customize to your liking. If you want to push your creative boundaries, the app has a Double Exposure tool for combining two photos and editing them as one image.
Snapseed received the iPad App of the Year award in 2011, and it was included in PC Mag’s 100 Best Android Apps for 2019.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Afterlight 2 ($2.99)
Afterlight 2, the paid follow-up to the free Afterlight app, is a feature-rich photo editing app that lets you get creative with your photos. For $2.99, users get access to 15 adjustment tools, 59 filters, 66 texture overlays, and 77 frames.
Advanced features like the Curves tool let you control the intensity of certain colors by dragging lines on a grid. But what really sets this app apart is its community filter sharing features, which lets users add filters from other mobile photographers.
The app is only available for iOS devices.
Prisma (Free with in-app purchases)
The Prisma photo editing app can take an ordinary photo and turn it into a stunning work of art. Artificial intelligence and deep learning analyze the content and shape of the image to mimic the style of certain artists like Van Gogh, Munch, Picasso, Dali, and more. Users can choose from over 300 filters from the Prisma library, with new ones being added every day.
With its unique concept, Prisma went viral when it first launched in 2016. It was the iPhone App of the Year in 2016 and Google Play’s Best App of 2016.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
PicsArt Photo Editor (Free with in-app purchases)
PicsArt Photo Editor is an all-in-one app for editing photos and making collages and drawings. This free app features more than 3,000 editing features. With its Dispersion Tool, you can make your friends look like they are turning to dust, just like your favorite Avengers!
Jazz up your photo with any of their 3,000 community stickers for free, or turn your photo into artwork with Magic Effects. You can make your iMessage conversations more fun by adding stickers you’ve made with the app using drag-and-drop motions.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Lens Distortions (Free and Premium Versions)
The Lens Distortions app allows users to add high-quality optical effects as overlays to produce realistic-looking photos. Each overlay is made with real-life photos. Nature-inspired effects like snow, fog, or rain, eclipse, or shimmer can add visual interest to any image. Users can control the softness, color, saturation, contrast, brightness, and opacity of an effect.
The app comes with 50 effects or five filters with 10 different styles. You can unlock over 200 premium filters with a $0.99 monthly subscription.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Touch Retouch ($1.99)
Not every photo you take will turn out the way you want. When photobombers or power lines ruin your shot, you can remove them using Touch Retouch. For $1.99, the app gives you pro-level features like healing brushes, line removal, and clone stamp tools, all in an easy-to-use interface.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Foodie (Free)
Foodie is a free app which helps you take amazing photos of your food. The app has more than 30 filters with appropriately food-inspired names like Yum, Fresh, Crispy, and Chewy. These filters are applied live, so you can choose a filter before you take your photo. If you do decide to edit, there are on-screen toggling tools to make your food shots extra appetizing.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Best Apps For Editing Selfies
Photoshop Fix (Free with in-app purchases)
The Photoshop Fix app has specific tools for editing portraits that make it a good choice for enhancing selfies. The Face-Aware Liquify tool lets you adjust your facial features to make eyes look bigger, or your lips look more luscious. The Distortion tools allow you to twirl, pucker, or bloat subjects. You can also smoothen the skin, or add a vignette to your photo, among other things.
The app is available for Android.
Facetune2 (Free with in-app purchases)
Facetune 2 is a freemium app that originally became a hit with celebrities and influencers. The app uses augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to let you whiten your teeth or smooth out your skin with live edits. You can even add contours to your features or apply makeup with a single swipe.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Visage (Free with in-app purchases)
The Visage app makes automatic enhancements to the selfies you upload. The app has six retouching tools for applying skin makeup, eye makeup, teeth whitening, shine removal, wrinkle smoothing, and color enhancement. You can also add more than 40 effects like black and white, sunny colors, and glamor effects.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
YouCam Perfect (Free with in-app purchases)
YouCam gives users tools to remove wrinkles, pimples, and fine lines. For full-body portraits, you can make your waist look thinner, as well as make legs look longer using their smart-leg stretch feature.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
Perfect365
With Perfect365, you can give yourself a virtual makeover. When you upload a photo, the app automatically detects key facial features that you can fine-tune to create a realistic image. Then, you can tap and try on different looks designed by the developers’ in-house beauty gurus. You can also play around with your eye color, hair color, and hairstyle.
The app is available for iOS and Android.
If you want to know how to take better pictures with your smartphone, check out our previous articles.
