The Only Photo Apps You'll Need

There are hundreds of popular apps that have been created so you can take, edit and share your photos, but you only really need a few and don’t worry there isn’t a grungy Hipstamatic filter in sight…

Photoshop Express

The Photoshop Express application has been around for a while, but it’s still my favourite if you want to quickly and easily edit a photo.

Forget tonnes of different filters and effects, Photoshop Express lets you do the basics, crop, resize, brighten and blur your images, as well as a few other bits and pieces that are constantly being updated.

I particularly love the fact that to apply anything to an image, you just select it and slide your finger across to the desired amount, which means it’s easy to use and isn’t fiddly like some other photo editing applications I’ve tried in the past.

Available for free for Apple and Android devices. 5/5 as I don’t think anything beats it for quick and simple photo editing AND it’s free.

Film Lab

This is admittedly an app that lets you add different filters to your images, but they’re not overly grungy or vintage. Instead Film Lab turns your camera into a film camera, with the ability to change between 300 different effects and a range of popular film, such as Kodak, Fuji and Agfa.

I like that you can flick through all of the different filters easily before actually changing the photo. It’ll probably take a while for you to scroll through all the different effects you can apply, but it offers the best choice over any other photo app I’ve used.

Available for £0.59 for Apple Devices. 4/5 for being easy to use and creating some lovely effects.

Pocketbooth

This is a really fun application and basically just acts like a photobooth from within your mobile. I think I particularly love this app because for years I’ve been trying to find a classic photobooth which takes four different pictures and they just don’t seem to have them around anymore?!

It’s really easy to use, simply press start and the app will take four photos in quick succession. They then get “delivered” to you as a strip as they would in a classic photobooth, which I think is a lovely touch!

Obviously you can then do what you want with the strip, share it across a range of social platforms, email it or just save it straight to your camera roll.

If you want to see what other people have created, look at Pocketbooth’s dedicated Flickr group.

Available for £0.59 for Apple Devices. 4/5 for being a simple twist on the traditional photo booth and well worth the money.

Instagram

I’ve written about Instagram in the past and I’m still a huge fan. Basically the app allows you to take photos, apply a range of filters and then share them amongst your Instagram followers.

I really like the simple filters you can apply and how easily you can share the images across different networks.

A few people have been talking about Instagram getting its own web interface and earlier this week a developer created his own version, Webstagram. It’s a clever idea, but I do hope Instagram will create its own version in the future.

Available for free for Apple Devices. 4/5 for good filters and the ability to share things across so many different networks.

If photo apps are your thing then you must check out What I See Now by Allan Hoffman, a project started to test 100 photo applications in 100 days, with examples and reviews all from a dedicated Tumblr blog.

Images via the Apple Store.