Best photo editing apps to take your Instagram to the next level
- aug
- 02
What are the best photo editing apps for Instagram?
So you've taken the perfect selfie/elsie/groupie/foodie and … now what do you do? Sure, you can take your photo into Instagram and edit from there with one of the standard filters, but you can also be way more creative that that. All you need are a few of the photo editing apps below, and you can take your Intas to the next level!
All of the photos below were taken with the SNAP ! PRO iPhone case with a variety of lenses.
VSCO
VSCO is a classic photo editing app amongst Instagrammers and social media addicts for a few reasons. The main one: Your photos look amazing after a few tweaks and VSCO filters.
After downloading the app, you upload photos directly from your camera roll. From there, you can either throw a filter onto your photos or do a bit more hands-on editing by tweaking saturation, contrast, brightness, and more.
New filters and filter packs are added to the in-app store regularly. VSCO is free to download, but you may find yourself dropping a few dollars shopping in the filter store – there are just so many to choose from!
The other thing about VSCO is that it's a social media platform on its own. You create an account, which allows you to post your edited photos to your VSCO profile to share with others using the app, or export your masterpieces to your camera roll and upload them to Instagram or your social networking site of choice.
- Free - Download now
Afterlight
Afterlight is another free photo editing app that's easy to use, fun to explore, and a blast for getting creative with your Instagram snapshots.
Afterlight is great for adding borders and photo effects, so you can include little details that make it seem like you're shooting with film, or on a specific type of camera. Adding a little bit of grain with Afterlight or a streak of strategic lighting gives your photos a subtle, interesting look and feel.
Like VSCO, Afterlight uses interesting filters and features to tweak your photos, and like VSCO, you can buy additional filter packs for your editing. While these filter packs are great to play around with, Afterlight provides a ton of bright and vibrant filters right off the top, so save your money and find a filter you! ♥
- Free - Download now
Priime
Priime is not only a great app for editing your iPhoneography pics, it's also a great guideline for people who are just starting off creating content for their social media!
Like other photo editing apps, you get access to filters, more in-depth adjustments for things like highlights, shadows, structure, fade and more, and the ability to crop and straighten. But what if you're stuck on which filter to choose? Which one will look best with a particular photo and why?
With Priime, you can actually tap to get info on the specific filter you're using, the person who designed it, what type of photo it'll be most useful for, and a number of beautiful examples of other pictures edited with that particular filter.
For example, a filter called Cobalt was created for Priime by artist Dirk Dallas and was inspired by the look and feel of aerial photography. Cobalt is most useful for editing blues and oranges, landscapes and oceans, and golden hour shots.
- Free - Download now
A Color Story
A Color Story is all about delivering that big, bright, vibrant pop of color to your Instagram photos in the easiest ways possible. With over 20 photo editing options and plenty of filter packs available to buy , you'll instantly fall in love with A Color Story!
While other photo editing apps make you pay for more filters – and A Color Story does this too, don't get us wrong – you can enter your email to unlock specific filters in the app.
Past that, free filters aren't widely available on the app, but you're are able to add little details like colored fog, lighting effects, creative accents like sparkles and stars, and more.
If you want, you can spend $1.39 on your favorite filter packs or $10.99 for all current packs available.
- Free - Download now
Prisma
Turn your regular, boring old Instagram photos into literal works of art with Prisma, the latest app that's taken the photo editing world by storm!
Prisma is a great tool if you're looking to apply simple (but not tacky or cheesy) effects to your photos without dragging them into more complicated programs like Photoshop.
All you have to do is pick your photo, pick your favorite art style — you can pick everything from Gothic, to sketch artwork, to anime-like art, abstract looking art, and more — and adjust the strength of the effect.
Then, just like that, without even lifting a paintbrush, you have a work of true social media art!
- Free - Download now
What are your favorite photo editing apps for your Instagram pics?
Is there a photo editing app that you're absolutely addicted to?! Let us know which one and why in the comments below and we'll be sure to check it out!