Everybody wants to take and post perfect pictures on social media. Thanks to smartphones this is very much possible these days. However, taking a great picture is not enough so here is where photo editing apps come in handy. Thankfully, there’s no need to edit the pictures on your laptop or PC anymore since the best smartphone photo editing apps can do pretty much the same things as desktop apps. Let’s take a closer look at the top 12 best photo editing apps for smartphones and see what they can do.
Lightroom CC
Made by Adobe, Lightroom is one of the best mobile photo editing apps. The mobile version is not only free but it can do basically the same things as the desktop app and if you have the desktop version you can hook it up with the mobile version. Guaranteed to get you more Instagram likes.
Price: free
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: basic editing such as cropping and rotating pictures, adjust exposure, adjust white balance, change contrast, add presets, remove spots and blemishes, color correction, and many other advanced edits.
Adobe Photoshop Express
Lightroom CC is not the only smartphone photo editing app by Adobe. Adobe Photo Express is another editing software you can use to make your pictures better. The app is very easy to use. Just like Lightroom CC, all you have to do to edit is to adjust the settings using sliders.
Price: Free
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: crop, rotate, add filters, add artistic effects, make collages.
Adobe Photoshop Fix
Price: Free
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: adjust highlights, adjust colors, adjust shadows, adjust size and shape of features, remove unwanted elements.
The last photo editing app by Adobe on this list is Adobe Photoshop Fix. This useful app allows to fix or remove unwanted elements from the image. It is best for portraits since it has intuitive photo editing tools that are useful when editing portraits. The most impressive feature of the app is the Liquify section that registers the facial features of a subject automatically when you upload a portrait.
Snapseed
Price: Free
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: add text, add filters, adjust brightness, adjust sharpness, adjust colors, edit curves, expand pictures, change perspective, remove unwanted spots, add frames, adjust white balance.
Another fantastic photo editor for smartphones is Snapseed. This free app has all the basic tools including crop, rotate, and adding filters but it also features some more advanced tools such as depth, perspective, brightness, sharpness, and curves. You can also expand the picture or change perspective. Another great thing about the app is that you have the possibility to edit the pre-set filters.
VSCO
Price: Free for basic and $19.99 USD / year Membership for advanced settings.
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: add presets, adjust contrast, adjust saturation, adjust grain, and more options for those who pay the membership.
If you’ve been on Instagram for some time, you know it’s all about the filters. But Instagram filters are boring and the editing options provided by Instagram are not much better. That’s why many people use apps like VSCO to add filters and make basic adjustments to their photos. The free version of the app allows for some basic editing and it provides some nice but basic filters. The paid version gives users access to the entire library of photo presets (more than 130 presets), film presets, advanced photo editing tools, video coloring, plus tips, tricks, and weekly challenges.
TouchRetouch
Price: $1.99
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: remove any unwanted elements from pictures.
TouchRetouch is not the typical mobile photo editing app. It doesn’t allow you to add filters or presets, it was designed for a specific niche and it allows you to remove unwanted objects and elements from your pictures. Whether you want to erase street signs, power lines or people, this app can do it successfully.
Enlight Photofox
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Works on: iOS
What you can do with the app: double exposure, create unique design and graphic elements, use layers, combine pictures, image correction, quick blemish removal, color correction, structures, and intensity corrections, and many other things.
Enlight Photofox is another free photo editing app that has many, many features. If you’re creative and you like to turn your pictures into works of art, this app is more than enough. The app can blend images and you can use the high-quality camera in the app to take pictures. One thing that this app allows that no other mobile photo editing app we talked about so far allows – the editing of raw pictures. To use some of the features, you have to make in-app purchases.
Prisma Photo Editor
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: turn your picture into “drawings” and “paintings”
Prisma uses artificial neural networks to turn your pictures into beautiful works of art in no time. There’s not much more to say about this app except you have to try it to understand how fun it actually is. The app also allows you to post directly on social media or to send your creation to your friends through messages or emails.
Darkroom
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Works on: iOS
What you can do with the app: batch editing, supports raw and other large formats, pro editing with pro tools and premium filters
Darkroom is a powerful editing app that is designated for photographers who like to edit pictures on their phones or tablets. It allows raw pictures and batch editing alongside pro tools and premium filters. It’s only for iOS but there are apps with the same name in Google Play, however, it’s not the same app so don’t download it hoping you’ll get access to the tools available in Darkroom.
Afterlight 2
Price: $2.99
Works on: iOS
What you can do with the app: create filters, batch editing, in-depth editing with tools like Curves, Hue, Tone, and Clarify and basic editing such as adjusting exposure and brightness and cropping.
Afterlife 2 offers many options and it is a powerful editing tool that supports raw and allows you to create filters, to zoom in while editing, and to frame photos. Plus the basic editing tools any editing app provides, of course. Afterlight 2 is only available for iOS, however, the first version of the app, Afterlight, is also available Android.
Carbon
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Works on: iOS
What you can do with the app: turn colorful pictures into beautiful black and white pictures
Carbon is dedicated to black& white photo lovers who want to create black and white content. The app has many black and white filters and effects, not just the basic ones that can be found in other apps.
Visage Lab
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Works on: Android and iOS
What you can do with the app: retouch selfies
If you were looking for the best editing app for selfies, look no more! Visage will get rid of any unwanted problems such as under-eye bags, spots, and wrinkles. You can also use the app to improve the overall appearance of your skin by smoothing it, to apply makeup or to whiten your teeth. The app also includes interesting background effect to choose from if you want.
