Creating innovative, eye-catching digital content on the go doesn’t need to be a difficult task. You don’t need expensive, professional camera equipment or complicated editing software to create the content you want for your brand or personal socials.
There are fantastic photo and video editing apps available for both Apple and Android users – all you need is your phone and the following editing apps. No long manuals, no complicated tools, no crazy fees – we’ve got you.
1. VSCO Cam
Sitting at the top of our list, we have VSCO Cam. VSCO is an editing platform that has gained huge attraction in recent years, becoming so popular, it earned its very own subculture – the VSCO girls.
The app offers a choice of vintage preset filters, allowing the user to create soft, subtle and classic film-like images – your followers will never know you used an iPhone! Each filter can be adjusted using tools like exposure, saturation and contrast.
VSCO is incredibly easy to use – all you have to do is upload the photo, pop a filter on and you’re ready to go! It’s free to download, with the inclusion of a yearly subscription service offering up to 200 filters.
Best of all, if you’re a photo fanatic with a portfolio of beautifully edited images that have not yet been seen by the world (and you want to avoid Instagram overload), VSCO is to the rescue! The app offers its users the option to create a personal feed of your edited master pieces!
Download on IOS| Download on Android
2. Adobe Lightroom
If you’re less filter, more fine-tuning orientated, then Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor is the one for you. The app is an all inclusive, easy to use photo editor. Not only does it include presets, light and detail adjustments, it also offers fantastic advanced editing options, like curve and colour mix. It’s almost hard to believe this app is free!
The colour mix tool allows you to isolate particular colours in an image and enhance them through saturation, luminance and hue tools. These advanced features completely transform the image, creating eye catching, vivid images – the catfish of all photo editors.
Download on IOS| Download on Android
3. Colourtone
Calling all Instagram influencers!
Next up is Colourtone. The mobile app is free but includes a choice of in-app purchases. The free presets offered are any Instagram queens dream come through – aesthetically pleasing, chic, soft and vibrant. All filters can be personalised by adjusting filter strengths, and amping up saturation or highlights to bring colours to life! The app offers a variety of additional effects, such as light and dust effects that old film camera effect.
All filters and adjustment tools can be used on videos too, a feature often hard to find!
Download on IOS | Download on Android
4. KUNI Cam
If you’re keeping up with the trends, you’ll already know disposable camera inspired photos are all the rage and luckily KUNI Cam exists for just this! The app gives you a choice of 10 free filters, light effects, dust/scratch effects and a rare 3D effect filter – one I’ve found hard to come by in mobile editing apps.
Unique features included in the app’s premium bundle includes a sunbeam effect feature – a really effective brightening tool for gloomy, dull photos!
Download on IOS| Download on Android
5. InShot
We love an app that makes our lives easier, and InShot is certainly one of them. InShot is a mobile video editing, photo and collage editing app. The app is particularly great as it transforms a bulky, hard to understand, impossible computer software into an easy to use, straightforward video editing app, with all the same features!
InShot includes fantastic features to help create a fun and effective video, such as, music, stickers, texts and filters. If you’re feeling extra, try out the speed, flip, freeze and reverse feature.
The app speed is fantastic, with videos loading and downloading super quickly – great when you’re on the fly!
Learn more about editing with InShot here!
Download on IOS | Download on Android
6. Snapseed
Another great photo editing tool is Snapseed, which is available for both Apple and Android users. Like all editing tools mentioned above, Snapseed allows its users to adjust and enhance their photos with the basic editing tools and filters. However, the app has a few tricks up its sleeve…
Firstly, the selective tool, a feature that allows you to pinpoint an exact area of a photo and adjust the brightness, saturation and contrast for that area – a great isolation tool.
Secondly, the head pose filter, which allows you to adjust a subject’s smile, pupil size and focal length – an interesting one, I must say.
Lastly, portrait mode, a feature that smoothes skin, changes skin tone, and brightens eyes – a great feature for those of us who can’t get ourselves to download Facetune…
Download on IOS| Download on Android
7. Canva
Canva is a creative graphic design platform that has saved most college students lives (at least mine anyway). The drag and drop style platform allows you to easily create presentations, posters and visual content. The platform has majorly transformed in the last couple of years, with the app introducing templates for social media posts, infographics, logos, and book covers – an incredible all round app that can be used on PC or mobile.
So how can canva help your photo editing? Well, after spending hours upon hours editing your photos to perfection, wouldn’t it be nice to present them perfectly too? Canva has a fantastic selection of social media templates for all socials – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest!
Once you’ve chosen your format and inserted the photos, you can enhance your edit with filters, stickers, illustrations and shapes. This is a great platform to transform your content.
Download on IOS | Download on Android | Open in Desktop
Now that you know our secrets, we hope you not only create fun, vibrant content, but enjoy yourself while editing it! Good luck.
