Top 4 apps to make your Insta photos awesome
The built-in filters and features offered by Instagram can only do so much. If you want your photos to really stand out, you need to put in a little more effort. Fortunately, there are quite a few apps that soak up the bulk of that effort. With a few extra taps and swipes, you can make your Instagram pictures shine brighter than the rest.
At this point there are so many different photo editing apps available, you can’t just rely on one to get the job done. There are all-in-one utilities that have a compilation of most basic features, but nothing really unique. We’re going to share four different apps that each have something special to offer, but don’t limit yourself to just one of them!
Photo Editor by Aviary
One of the best photo editing apps around is Aviary's Photo Editor. This is a free-to-download application a few in-app purchases for filters and other things. Photo Editor allows you to enhance your photos with a handful of different presets. It also has features like red eye removal, teeth whitening, and basic crop/rotate functionality.
You can also edit the brightness, contrast, saturation, tint, and many other photo aspects. There are over 100 different filters you can apply with Photo Editor, but only some are free.
Afterlight
This app focuses on filters, textures, and frames. Afterlight comes loaded with 74 different filters that you can apply to any photo. There are also 78 different textures you can add to your photo and adjust to create a unique effect. Afterlight also has a total of 128 frames that you can overlay on your photo. You can also do basic editing like crop/rotate with this app as well. All of the different options for each feature makes Afterlight one of the best IG photo editing apps. You’ll rarely find an app that offers this many different presets. Afterlight is $0.99 with three different add-on packs that are $0.99 each.
Tangent
Tangent is an amazing iOS-only photo editing app because of how customizable it is. It focuses on using geometric shapes to create unique effects and overlays. The $1.99 app comes with 26 shapes and 22 background patterns to start with. You can then take these and use 350 different color combinations to create something new every time.
Everything is easy to use, and just requires a few taps and swipes with a little imagination. Scaling, rotating, zoom, and crop features are all supported as well. For an additional $2.99 you can unlock all the add-ons for Tangent. This includes more than twice as many shapes and backgrounds.
Snapseed
A completely free photo editing app that still gets the job done is hard to find. However, Snapseed manages to fit that description. Available for both Android and iOS, it has its share of minor issues, but overall this is a really great tool that anyone can use. It has all the basic features you expect (crop, rotate, etc.) with a handful of filters as well. Snapseed also has borders and frames that you can add to your photos, similar to Afterlight.The biggest appeal with Snapseed is that it is free and very easy to use. But, those who are serious about Instagram should consider investing in some of the paid apps. Still, Snapseed is a great way to get a taste of what the other apps have to offer in the meantime.
Closing tips
Now that you’ve got a few new apps to check out, take the time to learn how they work. It can be fun to just start tapping and swiping with different filters and features to see what happens – resist the temptation. Apps like Tangent can enhance your photo so much better with the right settings implemented.
If you have one app that you particularly enjoy using, try looking up some tutorials for that specific app. Although these are all easy to use, they do have some complexity if you’re willing to dive deeper. Best of luck editing your photos, and go have fun with your new toys!
Date: March 25, 2016 / Categories: Apps, Tips, Uncategorized, / Author: vivi
