The importance of photography cannot be understated. Since the smartphone boom, almost every single mobile device has some sort of built-in camera, some better than others. In recent years these cameras have gotten extraordinarily good at taking crisp and professional-looking photos, to the point where traditional photographic giants Nikon and Canon have reported decreased camera sales due to direct competition from smartphone manufacturers. The convenience and quality of current smartphone cameras allow consumers to document their holidays, everyday moments and even create outstanding product photography without having to spend a fortune on expensive photography equipment.
But taking a photo is only half the battle. Ensuring your phone is on the correct setting for taking photos is key, but it’s post production that accounts for a large portion of a photograph’s final form, and a keen, tasteful eye as well as some reliable editing software is important for ensuring that a photo turns out balanced and beautiful. This doesn’t automatically mean you have to take out a loan and shell out on an Abode prescription for your Mac (although this is certainly an option); there are a number of free and high quality mobile photo editing apps for your smartphone that allow you to create the perfect picture in the palm of your hand.
VSCO
VSCO is one of the most well-known and most-used video and photo editing apps for both Android as well as iOS smartphones in the world. Created by the Visual Supply Company, the app lets you edit photos for a number of different characteristics including fade, clarity, skin tone, tint, sharpen, saturation, contrast, temperature as well as through the use of a number of different filters. Photos can be taken directly through the app or uploaded from the device in question, and can also be uploaded to a VSCO profile where they can share their photos with friends or explore other available VSCO photos.
Adobe Photoshop Express
We talked above about how you don’t need to empty your bank account paying for Adobe software, and that statement still holds up; Adobe Photoshop Express is free while still providing a scaled-down and pretty functional array of tools from its parent software including red-eye correction and brightness adjustments. If you’d like to keep editing your photo more comprehensively on your computer, simply upload the image to your Adobe Creative Cloud.
Prisma
While the other two apps on this list deal with the more pragmatic elements of photo editing, Prisma takes a slightly different approach. Instead of the typical filters associated with an Instagram-worthy photo, Prisma replicates a variety of artistic styles, effectively “painting” the photos its applied to. It may sound strange, but the results are quite compelling, turning bland and banal images into veritable works of art.
