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This is for those who love photos despite the fact that they may know close to nothing about what a good photo should look like. This is for those who love attention and not just seeing but showing others how cool they are on social media. This is also for those photographers who want to edit their photos on the go without having to carry their laptops everywhere.
You have probably gone through the whole Google Play and App Store for the right app to tune that photo perfectly, but they all turn out to be mediocre. Haven’t we all? Now, we admit that we’re not the ultimate photographers who know everything about the right lighting and effects to use but with the little we know, let’s get to some of the top applications you may want to look at if you haven’t.
Adobe Lightroom
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Having personally used this one for a couple of months now, you might see why this comes out on top of this list. It may not be the best of them all, but Adobe Lightroom proves to bring an exceptionally high standard to digital photo management and editing. However, we wish it was more straightforward for beginners who are just trying out different stuff in editing because we got stuck seeing that the terminologies used there are mainly for professional editors.
With time, you may get used to the interface and features that make you feel like you are manually creating your own effects. It is a wonder, though, which may be patient enough to navigate the whole thing for familiarity. If you are, then yes, you will get the hang of it.
Available on both Android and iOS, the app contains a wide range of features, including raw photo support, presets, exposure, warmth, vignette & saturation adjustments, and watermarking, among an ocean of many others.
It is free to download and acquire the basic features initially but requires you to pay if you want premium features and the ability to synchronize photos across devices. The Adobe Photography Creative Cloud Plan costs around $10 per month and gives you access to Photoshop and Lightroom Classic on the desktop. All in all, if you want instant changes made to your photo without all the complex adjustments, this may not be for you.
Snapseed
This may have been used already by a number of you, but for those who haven’t and didn’t like the first choice, this one may slightly work for you. Snapseed, a photo-editing app designed by Google, offers a boatload of options you may not have found with Adobe Lightroom.
You get a good number of filter options that you may all relate with, but more than that, it includes a host of sliders that adjust the image’s vignette, blur, temperature, grainy overlays, vintage-style film reel effects, among so much more. Despite the surprising ocean of options this app comes with, I was slightly annoyed by the slowness at which these effects are processed on the image. We are not sure whether it was our phone’s specs that don’t match, but we wish it were slightly faster than what we got.
Its interface may turn out simple for some, but it eventually gets boring. Other than that, its advanced options like perspective crops, healing brush, curves, local adjustments and its unique Retrolux filter, we think, are among the features that would make it stand almost side-to-side with the top editing apps.
VSCO
First, let us clarify the pronunciation, which is “viz-co”. Got it? Great!
This app was created around taking us back to good old film photography, if you even know what that is. It does come with freely accessible features that are processed instantly on your photo. Still, you also have the option to purchase different packs of presets, all of which come with artistic effects for particular kinds of images.
Having been built initially for iOS users, it may come as a nuisance to some Android users that you may be forced to pay for the features or leave the app eventually. Those used to free stuff may have to look for another app we will get, but those who do submit continue enjoying a touch of class in the subtle filters offered compared to some heavy Instagram filters.
PicsArt
This may be for those who want to go beyond simple touchups and filters and instead do a remix of their photos. With PicsArt, you can edit photos but also use a collection of brush tools to add to your images, adding sparkle, decorating with text, adjusting a dominant colour or create whatever remix you think of.
Think of this as a blend of Photoshop and Paint. Moreover, you can also cut an object out of one photo and paste it on top of another. We, however, found this app to be too mundane for those who want a wide variety of effects for their gallery and social media updates. Professionals may not find this ideal for them. But with the remix feature being a significant selling point, an average user may not even need other apps for more filters and effects. If you are among those who find the Lightroom app to be too serious, then take a look at this one.
Pixlr
If you still want to be a down-to-earth editor of your photos and not in any professional way, try checking this style too. With over 2 million combinations of free effects, overlays and filters, we don’t think you will lack options for every photo you take and want to fancy up.
Blemish removal tools, auto-fixes, double exposure and aesthetic adjustments are all featured in this photo editor. You may, however, have to live with a limited number of features out of the mammoth if you do not want to pay for the premium features.
What is more, stylizing your image to look like a pencil drawing, an ink sketch, or a poster is possible with the app. For perfect augmentations and alignments, how authentic it will look depends on your photo’s quality. With the vast variety of adjustments, you may find it fun, but fresh beginners may have to take the tutorial to get familiar with navigation. Nevertheless, here’s to flawless selfies.
Cover photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash
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