Photography apps help you get more out of your smartphone camera. You can use them not only to take photos, but also to edit RAW files, adjust colors, correct perspective, and apply creative effects. Many features that once required a computer are now available right on your smartphone.
Some apps also offer educational tools and tutorials, which can be particularly useful for beginning photographers who want to improve their skills. Another major advantage is the ability to share photos directly via social media or cloud storage.
As smartphone camera technology continues to improve, these apps offer more and more features and capabilities that come close to those of traditional cameras, making them an increasingly appealing option for amateur and professional photographers alike.
There are many interesting and popular (free) photography apps that focus on different aspects of photography, from taking photos to editing them. Read on to discover 10 popular apps and what you can use them for.
1. Adobe Lightroom Mobile – advanced photo editing and RAW
Available for both iOS and Android, this app is a favorite among professionals and enthusiasts because of its advanced editing capabilities. It is free to download, with optional in-app purchases for additional features.
Adobe Lightroom Mobile offers a wide range of tools for editing and organizing photos on smartphones and tablets. It was developed by Adobe and includes many of the same features as the desktop version of Lightroom.
Lightroom also now offers a variety of AI-powered tools for quick and local adjustments.
Some key features and capabilities:
• Lightroom Mobile offers editing options, including exposure adjustment, contrast, color correction, white balance, and much more. Users can make detailed adjustments to their photos to achieve professional results.
• The app supports editing RAW files, which means users can edit photos at the highest quality and have greater control over their adjustments.
• Lightroom Mobile offers a range of preset filters, and users can also create and save their own presets, making the editing process faster and easier.
• Users can sync their photos and edits across devices via Adobe Creative Cloud. This makes it easy to switch between working on a mobile device and a desktop.
• The app also provides tools for organizing photos, including the ability to label, rate, and sort them, which helps users manage large photo collections.
• Despite its advanced features, Lightroom Mobile is relatively easy to use, with an intuitive interface suitable for beginners and experienced users alike.
• Users can easily share their edited photos on social media or export them in different formats and resolutions.
• Adobe also provides educational content and tutorials within the app, which is useful for anyone who wants to improve their photography and editing skills.
2. Snapseed – free and powerful photo editing
A versatile app with a range of editing tools comparable to desktop software. It is user-friendly for beginners while also offering features that appeal to professional photographers. Snapseed is available free of charge for both iOS and Android devices and is regularly updated with new features and improvements.
Some of the main features and capabilities:
• The app is designed to be easily accessible, even to photography beginners.
• It offers an extensive range of editing options, including basic adjustments such as brightness, contrast, saturation, and color temperature.
• One of Snapseed’s notable features is the ability to make selective adjustments. Users can select specific areas of a photo and edit only those areas.
• Snapseed can open and edit RAW files, which is a major advantage for professional photographers who prefer to work with high-quality image files.
• The app offers a range of creative filters and effects, including Grunge, Vintage, Black & White, and HDR Scape.
• The healing tool allows users to remove unwanted objects or blemishes from their photos.
• Snapseed also provides tools for correcting perspective distortion in photos.
• There are dedicated tools for retouching portraits, including options for improving skin tones and enhancing eyes.
• The app has a double exposure feature that lets users create artistic compositions by layering two photos.
• Edited photos can be easily saved and shared on social media and other platforms.
3. Pixlr – quick photo editing with AI tools
Pixlr is a versatile photo and video editor for users who want to make creative edits quickly. In addition to classic features such as filters, text, collages, and retouching, the app now also offers several AI features, including object and background removal.
Advantages:
• Pixlr offers a comprehensive collection of editing tools, including options for cropping, resizing, and rotating images. It also provides advanced tools such as color adjustments, sharpening, and blurring.
• Like advanced photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr supports layer-based editing, allowing users to create complex compositions by stacking and manipulating multiple layers of images and text.
• The app comes with a variety of preset filters and effects that can be applied to photos for quick, creative enhancements.
• Users can add text and a variety of sticker overlays to their images, with a range of fonts and styles available for creating unique designs.
• Pixlr offers features for creating photo collages with customizable layouts, backgrounds, and spacing options.
• The app includes retouching tools for removing blemishes and red-eye and for whitening teeth in portrait photos.
• For users who enjoy drawing or adding custom graphics to their photos, Pixlr offers a range of drawing tools with different brush styles and colors.
• Once editing is complete, users can easily share their creations via social media or save them to their device in different file formats.
• Pixlr is known for its intuitive interface, making it easy for beginners to navigate while still providing powerful tools for more experienced users.
Overall, Pixlr is considered a comprehensive and accessible photo-editing tool, suitable for quick edits as well as more involved creative projects. Its versatility and ease of use make it a popular choice among a wide range of users.
4. VSCO – filters and creative looks
Popular for its presets and creative tools, VSCO is ideal for enhancing photos and recreating analog film effects. It offers a free version and a paid advanced membership for iOS and Android.
It is known for its stylish editing options and wide range of filters inspired by classic and modern film stocks.
Some of the main features:
• VSCO is known for its high-quality filters that emulate the look of professional film photography. These filters can give photos a distinctive aesthetic, ranging from vintage to modern styles.
• In addition to filters, VSCO offers a range of editing tools that allow users to fine-tune aspects of their photos, such as contrast, saturation, exposure, and skin tones.
• The app supports editing RAW files, offering greater control and quality for professional photographers who prefer to shoot in this format.
• VSCO also includes video-editing features, allowing users to apply filters and adjustments to their video clips.
• Users can join the VSCO community, an in-app platform where photographers can share their work, discover content from other users, and take part in photo challenges.
• Through VSCO Blogs, users can combine photos and text into visual stories that can be published through their profile.
• Edited photos can be exported and shared through other apps and social platforms.
Although VSCO offers a range of free features, it also has a membership plan that unlocks additional presets, advanced editing tools, and educational content.
VSCO is especially popular among young photographers and social media users who appreciate its simple yet powerful editing tools and the artistic, often film-like quality of its filters. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible to beginners, while its advanced features appeal to more experienced photographers.
5. Afterlight – film looks, filters, and textures
This app is appreciated for its minimalist interface and wide range of preset filters and textures.
Afterlight is a free, user-friendly photo-editing app available for both iOS and Android devices, although it is important to note that there are some differences in features and updates between the two versions.
Key Afterlight features for both iOS and Android:
• The app is known for its ease of use, making it accessible to photographers of all skill levels.
• Afterlight offers a wide range of filters, including popular options such as “Vintage” for a retro look.
• The app includes a variety of adjustment tools, such as brightness, contrast, saturation, and more.
• Users can import photos from their camera roll and even edit JPEG and RAW photo files.
• The app has a built-in camera with manual settings such as shutter speed, white balance, and ISO.
• Afterlight makes it easy to share photos on various social media platforms.
• Basic adjustments for photos, such as cropping, flipping, and rotating, are available.
• There are options for adding fun graphics, stickers, quotes, and botanical elements to photos.
• This tool lets you perform selective color manipulation within a photo.
Afterlight is currently available for both iOS and Android and is actively maintained. The app focuses heavily on film-like looks and offers hundreds of presets, textures, film grain, light leaks, Double Exposure, and extensive editing tools. It is free to download, with additional features and content available through in-app purchases.
Afterlight is highly regarded for its selection of filters, film effects, and user-friendly editing tools. It is an excellent choice for iPhone photographers looking for a well-organized app with plenty of features for both taking and editing photos. Although the app offers a great deal of editing flexibility, users should be careful not to overedit, especially when applying textures and filters.
6. SKRWT – correcting perspective and lens distortion
SKRWT is a specialized app for correcting perspective and lens distortion. The app is available for iPhone and is particularly useful for architecture, interior, and smartphone photographers who want to quickly correct converging lines and other perspective errors.
The app includes three main modules for different purposes:
The SKRWT module: This lets you straighten the horizon, correct vertical and horizontal perspective distortion, adjust barrel distortion from fisheye lenses, resize the image after applying perspective correction, and more. This module also includes basic functions such as flipping, rotating, and cropping an image.
The 4PNTS module: This module offers a form of free perspective correction that lets you adjust one or all four corners of your photo by dragging them.
The MRRW module: This module is designed for mirroring parts of a photo to create perfect symmetry. It does not provide perspective correction, but it can be used to create interesting symmetrical effects.
SKRWT also offers a range of other tools, such as an aspect ratio tool for stretching your photo horizontally or vertically, a rotation tool, a vignette tool for darkening or lightening the edges of your image, and an automatic crop feature. When you use the perspective-correction tools, the photo is automatically cropped to maintain a rectangular shape, but you can turn this feature off if you prefer to crop manually.
One interesting feature of SKRWT is its integration with iOS, which lets you edit and save photos directly from the Photos app. However, the app does not support RAW photos, so if you want to work with RAW images, you will first need to develop them in another app, such as Lightroom Mobile, before editing them in SKRWT.
Although SKRWT has a lot to offer, it is important to note that the app is not perfect. Some users have reported that the final image quality can sometimes be blurry, which is worth considering if you are looking for an app for high-quality mobile photography.
7. Manual Camera – manual camera controls for Android
Manual Camera: DSLR Camera Pro is an Android app designed to provide DSLR-like control over a smartphone camera, giving users detailed control over exposure, white balance, ISO, shutter speed, manual focus, and other settings.
The main features:
• The ability to manually control exposure and white balance.
• Settings for manually selecting ISO and shutter speed.
• The ability to save photos in RAW format.
• Real-time filters and color effects.
• Time-lapse and slow-motion video options.
• An intervalometer for interval shooting and geotagging.
• A photo stamp feature for additional personalization.
• The app also supports various scene modes, color effects, and focus modes.
• Users can turn off the shutter sound, customize the volume buttons, change exposure settings, and zoom in on subjects.
• It also offers a golden-ratio guide and supports a 4K camera mode.
• DSLR Camera Pro is particularly suitable for creating stop-motion or time-lapse videos because of its burst mode, which can capture multiple shots in rapid succession.
• The app’s interface is user-friendly and intuitive, making setup and use straightforward.
Manual Camera: DSLR Camera Pro is a paid Android app. The manual features available depend in part on your smartphone’s camera capabilities.
8. Camera+ – a comprehensive camera app for iPhone
Camera+ is a comprehensive camera and photo-editing app for iPhone. It combines manual camera controls and RAW capture with various shooting modes and extensive editing tools.
Camera+ is an advanced camera and photo-editing app for iOS devices that serves as an enhanced version of the popular original Camera+ app. It is designed to expand the capabilities of the iPhone camera and offers a range of features that appeal to amateur and professional photographers alike.
The main features:
• The app offers manual controls for various camera settings, such as exposure, ISO, and white balance. This gives users precise control over how their photos are captured.
• Camera+ 2 supports RAW capture and editing, which is especially useful for professional photographers who want greater control over their post-processing workflow.
• To help capture sharper images, especially in low light, the app includes an image stabilization feature.
• Focus and exposure lock: This feature allows users to lock focus and exposure on a specific part of the scene, helping ensure consistent results in their photos.
• Clipping Indicator and Focus Peaking: These features help assess a photo’s exposure and focus to ensure that highlights are not blown out and that focus is sharp where intended.
• The app integrates with Siri Shortcuts and is compatible with Apple Watch, enabling hands-free controls and remote camera activation.
• Monuments mode: This mode uses AI technology and can track and erase moving objects from your photos, which is particularly useful for capturing scenes without unwanted people or vehicles.
• The app supports long exposures of up to 30 seconds, displaying a preview of the shot as the exposure is recorded.
• Camera+ offers a user-friendly interface that can be customized to the user’s preferences, making it accessible to photographers of all skill levels.
• The app comes with a range of filter options for adding creative touches to photos.
Camera+ is praised for its combination of advanced features and ease of use, making it a popular choice for iPhone users who want to improve their photography skills and gain more control over their photos.
Disadvantage: the app is available as a one-time purchase from the Apple App Store, but Focus Peaking, Clipping, Time Stamp, and Histogram are available only in the Pro version, which costs about 40 euros per year. You can click “Try for free” first.
9. ProCam X – manual photography for Android
Known for its user-friendly interface and manual camera features, this app is available for Android for $4.99.
ProCam X (HD Camera Pro) is an Android app designed to turn your smartphone into a professional camera, offering a range of features typically found in professional camera apps. It is well suited to both beginning and professional photographers and provides a user-friendly interface with smooth controls and a clean layout.
The main features:
• The app provides extensive control over various camera settings, such as focus, ISO, white balance, exposure, and more.
• ProCam X includes several modes, such as scene and focus modes, as well as various color effects. These features allow for greater creativity and flexibility in photography.
• The app supports photography in HD quality and 4K video recording, providing high-resolution output for both photos and videos.
• With burst mode and a sufficient delay, the app can create stop-motion and time-lapse videos, expanding users’ creative options.
• Face detection: This feature helps organize photos and videos more efficiently, especially when multiple subjects are involved.
• ProCam X also includes a photo grid and various filters, adding to its distinctive character and versatility as a photography app.
• The interface is divided into two columns, positioned for comfortable use with the thumbs in landscape mode, or above and below the image viewer in portrait mode.
ProCam X is available for Android in both a Lite version and a paid version.
ProCam X is recommended for people who are beginning to learn photography and want to experiment with manual camera settings. It is also suitable for experienced photographers who want to add a professional touch to their smartphone photos and videos.
10. Open Camera – free camera app with manual settings
Open Camera is a comprehensive camera app for Android that gives you more control over your smartphone camera. Depending on the device, you can adjust white balance, ISO, exposure compensation, and various camera modes, among other settings. It also offers practical features such as automatic horizon correction, a timer, and remote controls.
The app is particularly appealing to Android users who want more manual control without immediately choosing a full-featured commercial camera app.
Finally
Although photography apps offer many advantages, some are available only for certain operating systems (iOS or Android) and may not work on older devices or operating systems. This can be limiting if you do not have the latest device or operating system.
Many apps offer a free version with limited features. To access all features, you may need to purchase a paid version or subscription. This can result in additional costs.
Some apps can be complex, with many advanced features. This can be overwhelming for beginners or casual users who do not want to spend much time learning how to use the app.
Although many apps offer advanced editing features, final image quality may still depend on the quality of the smartphone camera. This means the results may not be able to compete with those of professional cameras, especially in challenging lighting conditions.
Photography apps, especially those with extensive editing tools, can also take up a lot of storage space on your device. In addition, uploading photos to and downloading them from cloud-based services can use a great deal of data.
When using apps, you often have to grant access to your photos and possibly other data on your device. This raises questions about privacy and how app providers handle your data.
To get more out of smartphone photography with apps, you can also read Shooting RAW with your phone for more latitude when adjusting light and color. If you are curious about how distance and angle of view affect your photo, also read about when a telephoto lens on your phone can help. And if you mainly want practical advice on post-processing, take a look at editing photos on your smartphone.
Read more: New photography apps with AI-powered editing
Also see our current selection of the best photography apps for 2026.
Read this article in Dutch: De 10 leukste fotografie-apps voor je smartphone.
