Mar 13, 2013 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Beyond Instagram: More Photo Apps

An introduction to tools for in-phone editing, photo sharing, and managing your image libraries.

Today, let’s explore photo apps, shall we? From in-phone editing to photo sharing to managing your image libraries, you can experiment and have fun with cool tools out there.

We’ve rounded up some popular ones below:

Image editing apps

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic: The tagline — “digital photography never looked so analog” — perfectly describes Hipstamatic. With just a swipe, you can “change” the lens, flash, and film of your image. It serves up a number of filters to give an image a vintage look, or to create a distinct effect or frame. The app is part of the IncrediBooth and SwankoLab family: IncrediBooth allows you to create photo booth-style pics with your pals, while SwankoLab acts as a darkroom simulator and lets you choose and experiment with chemicals to process photos — right in your phone. (Download for iOS.)

SnapSeed: This app offers retro filters, dramatic effects, and frames, as well as editing tools like cropping, fine-tuning the saturation and contrast, and more. (Download the app for iOS and Android.)

Camera+: This app offers lots of extras for the iPhone and iPad — touch exposure and focus, a timer for better self-portraits, a stabilizer to keep your shots steady, and the Burst feature to take rapid streams of shots. Manage and edit images in the Lightbox, and drastically improve a shot with the Clarify filter, which adds crispness. (Download for iOS.)

WordFoto

WordFoto

WordFoto: For all you lovers of images, words, and the intersection between the two: turn your images and words into cool typographic works of art. (Download for iOS.)

TouchRetouch: Did some stranger — or squirrel — photobomb your photo? Does it look like there’s a pole sticking out of your friend’s head in an otherwise awesome ensemble shot? With this Android photo app, you can remove unwanted content or objects using your finger and the brush tool. (For the record, if a squirrel hijacked one of my images like that, I’d share it with the world, not delete it!) (Download for Android.)

Piction: While some pictures are “worth a thousand words,” other images may need captions. With Piction, you can add a layer of text over a photograph to add context, or simply jazz it up with a complementary quote or phrase. (Download for iOS.)

PicFrame: Love the tiled gallery feature on WordPress.com? Create tiled grids with PicFrame, which lets you combine multiple photos inside a frame. At the time of this writing, there are 70+ different frames to choose from for iOS; nearly 40 for Android. (Download for iOS and Android.)

Nofinder: Most of the apps above are great when you want more control over your images. But what if you want the opposite? Nofinder is all about getting out of the way and letting chance compose your shot — it’s a way to loosen up your work and capture something random. With no viewfinder, no shutter sound, no flash, and no image editor, there’s an element of surprise. Take a pic with one hand, or shoot from the hip: let the experimentation begin! (Download for iOS.)

Photo management and sharing apps

Perfect Tool for Picasa: Do you use Picasa to store your entire photo library? The app helps you manage your Google photos and web albums. You can upload, edit, and resize images, as well as manage entire albums, browse your comments, and follow other Picasa users. (Download for Android.)

Snapchat: Life is about fleeting moments. Don’t you think? Well, the folks at Snapchat think so. Snap a pic with the app and send it to friends. They’ll receive it, and after the timer runs out, the shot disappears. We currently live in a time where services and networks make it easy to store memories digitally, but this app simulates the act of forgetting. (Download for iOS and Android.)

Flickr

Flickr

Flickr: Snap photos with the in-app camera, make edits or enhance with filters, then upload directly to your Flickr stream. You can read comments from your Flickr friends and see their latest uploads and activity, too. (Download the app for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.)

23snaps: Want to share the latest photos of your family but don’t want to display images of your children everyone’s Facebook walls? 23snaps was made especially for parents who want to capture and share family pictures on a private social network. (Download for iOS and Android.)

To browse more photo apps for specific mobile devices, read on:

Do you use other photo apps you enjoy? Do you want to share tips on using these apps with the rest of us? Let us know in the comments.

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