Being a professional photographer, I have an army of means at my hands to photograph moments and edit them using programs such as Lightroom or Photoshop but more often than not, I am using my phone to take photos and share them with social media. So I need powerful editing tools that are just as easily accessible and on my phone as well. So today, I want to share with you 5 amazing photo editing apps that you can use to make your iPhone or Android images (or even ones taken with your stand alone camera) look great!

1. PicTapGo
By far one of the easiest to use photo editing apps out there, PicTapGo is my favorite because of the consistent look it gives my images. It's very easily to alter and to create specific “recipes” to use over and over. It's not free but it's well worth the few dollars that it costs, you can also crop and set up any images to have the white border than many like to use on Instagram. It's currently only available for Apple but I've been hearing rumors of an Android version launching soon!

Download PicTapGo for Apple

2. Afterlight
Another great app that can be used to create filters, effects and borders for any image. I use this app to create a square border around my images before I put them on Instagram or other social media sites, but it also has many other types of borders, wallpapers and filters that you can use. It costs .99 on both platforms but comes with so many options, you can easily use it as a one stop shop for editing!

Download Afterlight for Apple
Download Afterlight for Android

3. DarkRoom
DarkRoom is a robust editing app that let's you tweak all sorts of items on your images, such as curves, contrast, exposure and more. It can really help to take an image from basic to extraordinary, again – this comes at a cost, $2.99 to be exact. But as with the PicTapGo and Afterlight, you won't really need anything else to edit your images. This app is currently only available on the Apple app store.

Download DarkRoom for Apple

4. SnapSeed
SnapSeed is probably one of the best free editing apps out there, you can control many if not all of the aspects of editing that you could want and still retain image quality. It's great for using for quick but detailed edits. This app is available for both Apple and Android and is free to download.

Download SnapSeed for Apple
Download SnapSeed for Android

5. VSCO Cam
VSCO cam is an all around favorite because of the unique “edge” that it gives images; it's well known, tried and loved by many users and it's fanbase is wide. You can use of the given presets that the app comes with and tweak them further or edit as you please from the start. There is also a great social media aspect to this app as well, with VSCO's launch of the “Grid” – which features user's edited photos.

Download VSCO Cam for Apple
Download VSCO Cam for Android

So there you have it! Those are just five apps out of millions that let you edit your photos, so tell me – what's your favorite photo editing app?

Julie Wilmes

Julie is an intimate wedding and elopement storyteller in North Texas and New York City, she's also a Design Smith and has been designing websites for Showit and ProPhoto since 2012.

She's married to a quiet ginger and they have three dogs; Jethro, Loki and Nova. She loves tea, Dr. Pepper, Doctor Who and lipstick. She's a graduate of Texas Tech University, is a huge tv and pop culture fan and is considered a "loose canon".