The 4 Best Image Editing Apps For Your Phone
With smartphones getting better and better, it’s only normal that we’ll want to use them far more than ever before. I’m going to put my hand up and admit that I am 100% a sucker for new cameras on phones. In fact, the only reason I really upgraded to my iPhone 8 Plus a few weeks ago was because… the camera is absolutely insane. But the reality is, I use it! And I use it a lot.
But let’s get real, it’s very rare that I ever share an image straight out of the camera. I love to edit my images.
Why?
It keeps them on brand. It makes my Instagram feed flow better. It helps me create the image I have in my head.
But with so many apps out there, which ones are the best?
Let me tell you what I love to use!
1. A Colour Story
I only started to use A Colour Story recently, but it’s become my absolute favourite. I’ve pretty much stopped using anything else (almost entirely). Its a bit slower and more clunky than some of the others, but the filters you get are really nice. You can also buy preset packs designed by various photographers, bloggers, and Instagrammers. I’ve bought two of them myself, and I do really like them. I wouldn’t say that A Colour Story does anything that the others I’m going to mention here don’t do, but there’s just something about the way my images look after using this app that I really like. It’s free to download, and you definitely don’t need to buy any of the packs if you don’t want to; the ones it comes with are just as good! I highly recommend giving it a go.
2. VSCO
Possibly the most famous of the image editing apps for phones, and with good reason. It comes with hundreds of presets, all of which are designed to make your images look like they were taken on film. I use VSCO presets for Lightroom, which I really like, so it’s no surprise that I also really like to use the iPhone version. This app is a bit more use friendly than Colour Story, and I like that you can have images in the app, and then quickly paste your edits onto a bunch of images (something I haven’t figured out to do in Colour Story yet). VSCO also have their own “social media” within the app, which I’ve never gotten involved in, but worth looking into if you’re curious!
3. Filmborn
This is an image editing app created by Mastin Labs, who are another expert in colour correction for digital images. These presets for Lightroom are very expensive (and personally, I don’t think they’re any better than VSCO), and their app is not free. There are far fewer presets with Filmborn, but Mastin Labs say that they’ve spent a lot of time perfecting each one to emulate as close as possible the film stock off of which they’re based. They have three film stock emulations of Fujifilm, Ilford and Kodak. I’ve got the app, and I’ve used a few times and it definitely is nice to use. You can really play around with your images, but I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite. If you’re a bit film lover, this might be the app for you.
4. Lightroom CC
Yes, you can have Lightroom on your iPhone! This app is definitely for anyone who wants to edit their phone images heavily. I personally don’t use Lightroom on my phone, because if I’m going to be doing that much work to an images, I’m going to shoot it on my DSLR and edit it on my computer. However, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t an incredible app, and a tool that many people would want to use! What I would use this app for? Editing specific colours within my phone images. I’m not a massive fan of green, especially green grass, so I like to remove green from my images as much as possible. Lightroom is wonderful in that you can get super specific about your colour editing.
So there you have it; the four images editing apps I recommend for iPhone! There are hundreds and hundreds of apps out there now, and if you know of a better one, I’d love to hear from you. Share your knowledge with us all in the comment section.
