Tips for mobile photo editing and two killer apps for iOS and Android!

Whether you use an iPhone, an Android device or drool over Windows tiles, photography is now an integral part of mobile experience. And with excellent connectivity sharing these images (selfies or otherwise) has contributed greatly in making a photographer out of each one of us. But when we share, we always aspire to share the best possible image, and often find our mobile devices falling short of the prefect photograph that we always wanted to take.

This article will help you make any image perfect (the term is rather subjective though) with just two simple apps, ready to be shared with family and friends or just the whole world out there :)

I was never a huge fan of mobile photography, but this changed when M visited me while I was in the states and introduced me to her Instagram feed, and not to mention the in-built filters for image editing. I was immediately taken by the app and the filter and got addicted to it right away :)

Want to know more? Check out my feed on Instagram.


snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
Clicked on my D5000, edited on my iPhone
However this post is not about Instagram, though I will soon post one on ways of getting popular on Instagram later. This is about editing images using your mobile device. I have evolved quite a bit on image editing over the past three years, and I will also try and show my journey through images here. However first things first!


Image editing on mobile phones is done for two kinds of images:

  1. Images clicked on the mobile phone itself
  2. Images clicked on your DSLR/ other cameras and then edited on the mobile phone

Images clicked on the mobile phone:

With the mobile camera war hotting up every single day, now you can take some absolutely amazing and breathtaking images on your tiny little device itself. This also works best when you want to capture a moment and share it immediately with your friends/ followers on different social medias - FB/ IG/ Flickr/ Twitter/ Whatsapp and so on.

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
iPhone 4 for picture, editing using snapspeed

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
Quick editing allows you to take an image and immediately share with new friend :)

I started mobile photography using my iPhone 4 and was absolutely bowled over by the potential of using multiple apps to enhance these shots. Even a small changed in contrast and saturation gave absolutely wonderful results, though back ion those days I used Instagram filters to edit almost every image I took. An average image could get transformed into quite a nice one within a few minutes. Of course I moved on from IG filters to other apps (which I will discuss soon), but my fascination with image editing remained.

Images clicked using DSLR:

The editing techniques of images clicked with DSLR are not different from those clicked on the phone directly, though its usually much more painful to transfer these from your camera to your phone. The latest DSLRs have wi-fi built in and so you can actually transfer these images using an app from the camera to the phone. Those with older cameras should also not lose heart, there are a few other ways of transferring images from camera to phone:

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
Clicked using my Nikon D5000, edited using snapseed

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
An image clicked much earlier, but later edited using snapseed
  1. Using a wifi SD card (like Eyefi and Transcend wifi cards) which transfers images from any camera using an app on the phone - I use these and they are very very useful!
  2. Transferring an image after downloading on your laptop - bluetooth, e-mail etc.

How to edit?

So here comes the key question - how to edit images beautifully on your mobile phone!

To keep things simple, I will recommend only two lovely apps which exist for both iOS as well as Android phones (sorry Windows guys, you will have to wait for some more time to get these).

The only advice I can give is to experiment and not give up if you can't get the effect that you wanted right away. Some of the best images that you see are often edited on multiple mobile apps and layered with a filter or two. I used be very conservative earlier, but not anymore even though my images have become more subtle and understated now.


snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile


When I moved from IG to other editing softwares I simply fell in love with this app. The app is simple (might take a few minutes for first-time users to understand) and can really do wonders to your images. It allows you to make subtle changes or huge modifications to your images - you can really do quite a bit with it! Following are some of the images edited using Snapseed.

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
One of the earliest images I edited with Snapseed

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
Another one - clicked with Nikon D5000 and edited on snapseed






Vscocam is the latest fad on Instagram and other image sharing websites right now. I think its popularity is phenomenal because its quite different from other apps that exist (in terms of some very subtle/ very faded filters it uses) and because of that its made a name for itself. As of now, this is my primary image editing software on the phone and I do only a few tweaks using Snapspeed.

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
Look how subtle the effect is with Vscocam

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
Another one with vscocam, the shadows merge beautifully

snapseed vscocam iOS iphone android mobile
I find vscocam particularly useful for portraits, the effect is magical!

Some of the other apps I have tried out are PS Express, Whitegram, Framemagic etc and they are all also good for multiple other things.

I would love to hear from all who use other softwares for editing their images on the mobile. Let me know and spread the word :)

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Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing this. Honestly, this is the first time I heard about Snapseed. I would love to try this apps on my phone..

    And as always, amazing shots..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You must absolutely try it out...I recommend it highly :)

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  2. Thanks for this one! Would just like to know.."have you edited the picture of that adorable dog, clicked with Nikon D5000?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Tom, that picture is edited - with Snapspeed :)

      Delete
  3. I use Snapseed. Earlier was using pixlromatic. Not anymore

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also tried pixlromatic earlier Nona, but didn't like it much. Snapspeed works very well. Have you tried Vscocam? Its worth trying out...the only downside is that it reduces the image size...

      Delete
  4. I downloaded it to my phone a few months ago, I've yet to use it though. I'm going to check it out!
    Thanks...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely Pat, you should give it a try! And then do let me know how they worked for you :)

      Delete
  5. Mobile photo editing is taking the photo editing skills to the next level.It is a essential tip that will have you working faster and smarter. It cover everything you need to know ,how to import and organise your photo; adding impact to your images,and the apps. that are being used. Vscocam the latest app. i think i will use it for photo editing and see the results.......

    Photo Manipulation

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting article! I have used both Snapseed as well as VSCOCam on my Galaxy S4, they are impressive!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's really cool Kusum! I am sure you are enjoying them both :)

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  7. The good thing about this app is its available to both for iPhone and android users.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awww... you are so talent! Really I am happy to see your post..

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  9. Useful apps specially i used the first one and liked it . After seeing your i thinking that , the other app i will use , thanks to you for knowing us about such helpful image editing apps .

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  10. I think the app would be helpful for some one who want to work while traveling or from outside. Is it possible to create clipping path for image background using this app? That would be really great if this option is available.

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  11. Good tips you have published . I read your blog carefully and i admire . Thanks for shared .

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  14. Enjoyed reading the article on top of , very explains everything in
    detail,the article is extremely fascinating and effective.Thank you and smart
    luck for the approaching articles.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Really it was amazing post. Thank you for sharing with us.

    ReplyDelete
  16. What an excellent blog you have written and shared with us. I have read this helpful article and admired.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Clicking photos with all settings are great but if you need perfect photo editing service you need to select the best photo editing service provider company.

    ReplyDelete
  18. You are really a talented person I have ever seen.

    ReplyDelete

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