My Two Favorite iPhone Photo-Editing Apps • What Karly Said

Some of my favorite content to read these days is when bloggers or whoever shares phone photography tips. I think it’s so fun to see how people achieve a certain photography style or aesthetic with specific apps, editing tricks and/or filters. While I’m definitely no expert on this topic, I want to share my two favorite iPhone photo-editing apps because they’re quick, easy and yield great photo results!

Real quick, I want to offer up a couple tips. First being that even with phone photography, lighting is everything. Try to take photos outside or near a window so you get as much natural light as possible. That makes the editing process so much easier. Second, I recently discovered something that was equal parts ridiculous and a light-bulb moment. When editing phone pictures, MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE THE BRIGHTNESS TURNED ALL THE WAY UP! I’m sure some of you are thinking that’s such a duh statement, but it didn’t occur to me until recently. I’ve probably overexposed/over-edited a majority of my pictures because of this error. Oh well, such is life. But, you can bet that I won’t be making that mistake anymore!

Okay, onto the apps!

Snapseed | I’m obsessed with this app! I imagine it to be similar to Lightroom (and that’s what I’ve heard). I’ve even found myself sending photos from my computer to my phone so I can edit in this app. It’s pretty intuitive, so don’t get overwhelmed if you’re not an expert photo editor (hello, I’m definitely not). With any photo, I first go into Details to up the Structure and Sharpness. Then in Tune Image, I adjust the Brightness, Contrast and Saturation. I usually leave it at that since I’m not too familiar with anything else! From there, I save the image and open it in my other app …

Pic Tap Go | This is about as basic as it comes, but I truly love this app. It’s simple, straight-forward and easy to use. My favorite filter is Brightside – this is what I use on all my Instagram photos! I usually tone down the filter to 50% or so. There’s also the option to save favorite “recipes” in the app if there’s a combination of filters that you like to often use. If for some reason I don’t feel like editing a photo in Snapseed, I use a combination of Lights, Brightside and Crispity. Cool It Down or Air also are great filters if there’s too much warmth in a picture.

As far as storage/maintenance apps for photos, I use Google Photos to backup all my pictures. Not only do I adore this app because I easily can access the photos on my computer as well, but it’s a dream if you constantly run out of phone storage. I’m still operating on the 16GB iPhone 6, so storage is of the essence! Once I back up to the app, I can delete anything in the Photos app and get all that space back. I also use Planoly to plan and schedule Instagram posts, which makes managing that whole thing a piece of cake.

If you’re into phone photography and editing, just remember that it’s okay to keep it simple! It can be a little overwhelming to “keep up” these days, but obviously my two favorite iPhone photo-editing apps are nothing groundbreaking and I get by just fine. Keep it simple, keep it easy, and above all else, keep it fun!