1. Snapseed

Best For: Everyday photo editing

• Huge range of editing tools, yet very easy to use
• Exposure, color, and sharpening adjustments
• Crop, rotate, straighten, and perspective correction
• Selective adjustments and healing tool
• Black & white, vintage, and texture filters
• Portrait enhancement, lens blur, and vignette
• Double exposure, frames, and text
• Price: FREE

Snapseed is one of the most popular iPhone photo editing apps.

Why?

Because it’s easy to use, even though it offers a powerful collection of editing tools. It’s also completely free to download and use!

This photo editor app is suitable for both beginners and experienced iPhone photographers.

With Snapseed, you can easily improve exposure, color, and sharpness. And you can crop, rotate and straighten images.

Selective tools and brushes allow you to edit just certain parts of your image. And the healing tool is great for removing objects from your photos.

The Portrait tool is perfect for creating flawless portrait photos with smooth skin and sparkling eyes.

Snapseed also has preset filters for creating different moods in your photos.

Filters make it easy to convert your photos to black and white or create a vintage look with textures.

If you’re new to iPhone photography, Snapseed should be the first photo editor app you download. With this app, you’ll be able to create stunning edits that will dramatically improve your images.

Snapseed is available for FREE from the App Store. Unlike many other photo editing apps, there are no extra in-app purchases to pay for.

Learn how to use this amazing app in our Snapseed photo editing tutorial.

2. VSCO

Best For: Creating beautiful edits with elegant filters

• Elegant one-tap presets and effects that create the look of classic film
• Adjustable filter strength
• 200+ filters to create different looks in your photos
• Editing tools for tweaking exposure, color, and sharpness
• Filters and editing tools can be used to edit videos
• Price: FREE (subscription fee for the full collection of filters and editing tools)

VSCO (pronounced visco) is another fantastic photo editing app. In fact, it’s one of the best photo filter apps for iPhone.

The vast collection of presets and effects allow you to create the look of classic film in your iPhone photos. They’re perfect for adding a vintage feel to your images.

Unlike other apps where the filters can be overpowering, VSCO filters are subtle. Many of them have a soft, faded look for beautifully understated edits.

You can adjust the strength of the filters to suit your taste. And you can fine-tune color and exposure using the editing tools.

You can also use the same filters and editing tools to edit videos on your iPhone.

VSCO is FREE to download from the App Store. It comes with 10 free filters and a set of photo editing tools.

You can access the full range of over 200 filters, as well as additional editing tools, by paying for the VSCO X membership.

Learn how to use VSCO with our in-depth tutorials:
VSCO App Tutorial: How To Shoot & Edit Beautiful iPhone Photos
How To Use VSCO Filters To Create Beautiful iPhone Photos

3. TouchRetouch

Best For: Removing unwanted objects from your photos

• Quickly remove unwanted objects for a cleaner composition
• Remove dust spots, wires, people, and other objects
• Remove blemishes and smooth out wrinkles in portrait photos
• Duplicate objects using the clone tool
• Price: $3.99

Many photoshop apps have tools for removing objects from a photo. But this is the sole purpose of TouchRetouch. And it’s still one of the easiest and most effective apps for removing unwanted elements from your photos.

Simply use your finger to highlight the object you want to remove… then watch the object disappear! The app automatically replaces the selected object with pixels from the surrounding area.

The Blemish Remover tool is perfect for creating flawless portrait photos.

And the Line Removal tool makes it easy to remove electricity cables from your image.

It might take a few attempts to remove complex elements. But TouchRetouch makes it easy to start over if you’re not happy with the results.

TouchRetouch is available for $3.99 on the App Store.

Click here for the ultimate guide to removing objects from your photos with TouchRetouch.

Or click here to discover more of the best photo retouch apps!

4. Carbon

Best For: Creating stunning black & white photos

• 58 one-tap black & white filters
• Adjustable filter strength
• Textures for creating vintage-style photos
• Light leaks and bokeh effects
• Subtle and artistic color effects
• Editing tools for adjusting light and color
• Price: FREE (in-app purchases for additional filters and tools)

Do you want to create beautiful black and white iPhone photos? Then Carbon is the perfect app for you.

With a single tap, you can turn a color photo into a stunning black and white image.

Carbon has 58 preset filters with different black and white effects. So you can always find a style to suit your photo.

The app has filters for creating unique vintage effects, such as grungy textures, grain, light leaks, and bokeh. You can also add different colors to your image – from subtle sepia tones to vibrant color effects.

In addition to the one-tap presets, Carbon has a set of editing tools for fine-tuning color and exposure. You can even create a painterly effect with the “Kuwahara” tool.

If you want to create gorgeous black and white photos, you can’t go wrong with Carbon. The tools are easy to use, and the results always look great.

Carbon is FREE to download from the App Store. But you’ll need to pay to access the full range of filters and effects.

5. Adobe Lightroom

Best For: Precise fine-tuning of color and exposure

• Powerful set of editing tools within a simple user interface
• One-tap presets for quick edits
• Selective adjustment tools for advanced editing
• Healing tool for removing unwanted objects
• Price: FREE (subscription fee for premium features)

Adobe Lightroom gives you a powerful, yet simple solution for editing your photos. It’s suitable for both beginners and advanced users.

The one-tap filter presets offer a quick and easy way to enhance your images. And the simple adjustment sliders let you tweak exposure, color, and detail.

But Lightroom offers much more than this. The advanced editing tools, including selective adjustments, give you ultimate control over your edits.

If you’re familiar with editing your photos on a computer using Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, you’ll feel right at home with this app.

Adobe Lightroom is FREE to download from the App Store. But you’ll need to pay to access the premium features, such as selective adjustments, perspective correction, and the healing tool.

6. Afterlight

Best For: All-purpose photo editing with additional creative options

• Exposure, color, and sharpening adjustments
• Advanced tools such as curves, selective color, gradients, and blend modes
• Dust and light leak overlays
• Preset filters by well-known mobile photographers
• Double-exposure tool for blending images
• Layers tool for adding text and artwork
• Price: FREE (subscription fee for premium features)

Afterlight is easy to use despite its comprehensive set of editing tools.

The app offers typical editing tools such as color, exposure, sharpness, and crop tools.

But it also has advanced tools, such as curves and selective color. These allow you to fine-tune the colors and tones in your photos to get the very best out of your images.

The filters and overlays in Afterlight are great for enhancing or changing the mood in your photos. The app has over 130 filters created by well-known mobile photographers.

The customizable text and artwork offer a fun way to add graphics to your images. And the double-exposure tool lets you create unique combinations of blended images.

If you want to get more creative with photo editing, Afterlight is an excellent place to start.

Afterlight is FREE to download from the App Store. But you’ll need to pay a subscription fee to access the full range of editing tools and filters.

Click here to learn how to create unique iPhone photo edits with Afterlight.

7. Mextures

Best For: Adding vintage textures and light leaks to photos

• Grit, grain, grunge, and vintage film textures
• Analog light leaks and beautiful gradients
• Stack and blend effects using layers
• Fine-tune images with editing tools and filters
• Use and create preset “formulas”
• Price: $1.99 (in-app purchases for additional effects)

Mextures is a fantastic app for applying textures to your iPhone photos. It also has a range of other effects including grain, light leaks, and gradients.

You can add wonderful mood and visual interest to your iPhone photos in Mextures. It’s easy to create unique edits by combining and blending different effects.

The app also has filters and editing tools for fine-tuning your image.

If you’re new to Mextures, you can start by using the wide range of preset “formulas” created by other photographers. You can even create and share your own formulas.

Mextures is available for $1.99 on the App Store. It comes with a wide range of effects, but you can purchase even more for a small fee.

Learn how to use Mextures to add wonderful textures to your iPhone photos.

8. Lens Distortions

Best For: Adding sunlight, lens flares, rain, snow, and fog effects

• Add beauty and drama to your shots with natural sunlight and lens flares
• Create atmosphere and drama with rain, snow, or fog
• Frame your subject or blur the edges with elegant glass textures
• Layer several different overlays for unique effects
• Adjust opacity, brightness, and color of each overlay
• Price: FREE (in-app purchases for additional effects)

There are many apps that add light and weather effects to your photos. But Lens Distortions is one of the best.

Its high-quality overlays include sunlight, lens flares, rain, snow, and fog. There are also shimmer effects and glass elements to add sparkle or blur to your image.

For a unique look, you can layer up different effects on your image.

Sliders let you adjust the opacity, brightness, contrast, and color of each overlay. You can make the elements stand out for a bold look, or tone them down so they blend in.

Lens Distortions is available for FREE from the App Store. The app comes with a basic collection of overlays. More effects are available as in-app purchases… and they’re definitely worth it!

9. Superimpose X

Best For: Creating unique digital art by combining and blending images

• Combine two or more photos to create a composite image
• Replace the background of a photo
• Create stunning double-exposure and fantasy-style images
• Blend textures onto an image for an arty look
• Add filters, blur, shadows, and other creative effects
• Variety of masking tools for selecting parts of an image
• Price: $4.99

Superimpose X is the perfect app for combining several photos into a single composite image.

It has a good choice of masking tools for selecting different kinds of subject. You just use your finger to select the area you want to remove.

You can adjust the blend mode and opacity of each layer to control how the images blend together.

Superimpose X has a wide range of tools for editing each layer. You can use filters, shadows, gradients, light effects, and more.

With Superimpose X, the creative possibilities are endless. Your imagination is the only limit!

Superimpose X is available for $4.99 on the App Store.

Click here to discover how to use Superimpose X to blend multiple iPhone photos.

10. Instagram

Best For: Enhancing your images right before you share them

• Good selection of color and black & white filters
• Exposure, color, and sharpening adjustments
• Crop, rotate, straighten, and perspective correction
• Vignette and tilt-shift effects
• Give your photos a final polish before sharing them on Instagram
• Price: FREE

Do you share your photos on Instagram? If so, you definitely shouldn’t overlook the editing tools in this app.

Instagram doesn’t have the same range of editing tools as apps like Snapseed. But if you only want to make basic adjustments, it may be all you need.

It has a good range of color and black and white filters for changing the look and feel of your image.

There’s also a handy set of editing tools. You can adjust exposure, color, and sharpness. There are options to crop, rotate, straighten, and correct perspective. And you can add a vignette or tilt-shift effect.

If you prefer to edit your photos in a different app, you can still apply an Instagram filter just before sharing.

Instagram is available for FREE from the App Store.

Check out our in-depth tutorial on Instagram Photo Editing.

Best Photo Editing Apps: How To Choose The Right Apps For You

You’ve discovered the 10 best photo editing apps… but how do you choose the right apps for you?

Read on and let us help you decide…

If you’re new to photo editing, the best photo editor app is Snapseed. That said, it has a wide range of editing tools, so it’s suitable for more advanced users too.

If you like the idea of using one-tap filters to create classic, understated edits, VSCO is a great choice.

And Carbon is perfect for creating beautiful black and white photos.

For more advanced editing tools, such as selective color and exposure adjustments, try Adobe Lightroom or Afterlight.

TouchRetouch is a great app to have in your collection. Use it whenever you want to remove unwanted objects from your iPhone photos.

Lens Distortions is fantastic for adding realistic sunlight, lens flares, rain, snow, and fog. These effects are great for adding beauty and drama to your landscape photos.

Do you enjoy getting creative with your edits? If so, Afterlight has a good selection of creative tools.

And Mextures is the best photo editing app for adding textures and light leaks.

If you want to create truly unique artwork, including fantasy-style images and double-exposures, try Superimpose X.

Do you share your photos on Instagram? Then why not use its filters and editing tools to give your images a final polish before sharing.

The post The 10 Best Photo Editing Apps For iPhone (2022 Edition) appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

1. iCloud Photos (Settings App)

Best For: Automatically transferring entire iPhone photo library to your other devices

• Automatically copies all your iPhone photos to your other devices
• Access all your images on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Windows PC
• Store full-resolution images in iCloud to free up space on your phone
• Easy to export iCloud Photos to computer hard drive for additional backup
• iCloud Photos comes as standard on iPhone (no need for third-party photo transfer app)
• 5GB free iCloud storage (more storage from $0.99 a month)

Did you know your iPhone has built-in software for automatically transferring photos to your iPad or computer?

It’s called iCloud Photos.

iCloud Photos lets you store your images in Apple’s secure online iCloud storage. Once your photos are in iCloud, you can easily access them from your other devices.

iCloud Photos is built right into the Settings app on your iPhone. Just go to Settings > Photos, then switch on iCloud Photos.

You can even use the Optimize iPhone Storage option to free up space on your phone.

Once you’ve switched on iCloud Photos, you’ll never have to think about transferring your iPhone photos again!

Your images will be synced across all your iCloud devices… including iPad, Mac, and even Windows PC.

Every time you take a new picture with your iPhone, it gets uploaded to iCloud Photos (as long as you’re on Wi-Fi).

All your iPhone photos will automatically appear in the Photos app on your iPad or Mac.

And they’ll be organized in exactly the same way as they are on your iPhone.

Any changes you make on one device will be reflected on your other devices. So if you delete a photo, it gets deleted from all your devices.

For this reason, you should make a regular backup of your iCloud photos. On a Mac computer, you can easily download photos from iCloud to a folder on the hard drive.

If you have a Windows PC, install iCloud For Windows. Your iPhone photos will then appear in the iCloud folder on your computer.

When you sign up for iCloud, Apple gives you 5GB of free cloud storage.

If you need more space for your photos, you can buy extra iCloud storage. Prices start at $0.99 a month for 50GB.

iCloud Photos doesn’t allow you to control which iPhone photos get transferred. And you should still make an additional photo backup on your computer.

But it’s definitely a great feature to use if you want to access your iPhone photos on your other devices.

2. AirDrop (Photos App)

Best For: Wirelessly transferring iPhone photos to nearby Apple devices

• Wirelessly transfer photos between nearby iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers
• Transfer photos directly from the iPhone’s built-in Photos app
• Quickly download iPhone photos to your Mac’s hard drive
• Copy photos from your Mac to iPhone or iPad
• Easily share your iPhone photos to other people’s Apple devices
• AirDrop comes as standard in the built-in iPhone Photos app

Do you want to transfer a few photos between your iPhone and Mac computer?

Perhaps you want to share your images with someone else who has an iPhone or other Apple device.

In these situations, Apple’s AirDrop feature offers a great photo transfer solution.

AirDrop lets you wirelessly transfer pictures between nearby Apple devices.

That includes iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers – belonging to yourself or other people.

The AirDrop feature comes as standard in the Photos app on your iPhone. So you don’t have to download a dedicated iPhone photo transfer app.

Just ensure you have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on. Then go to the Photos app and select the images you want to transfer.

When you tap the Share icon at the bottom left, you’ll see any nearby Apple devices in the AirDrop section.

From here, you simply tap the device you want to transfer your photos to.

You can even AirDrop photos from your Mac to other Apple devices.

This makes it easy to transfer photos from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad… or to someone else’s Apple device.

AirDrop offers a quick and easy way to transfer photos from iPhone to Mac – or vice versa.

It’s also a great way to share your photos to other people’s Apple devices (as long as they’re nearby).

3. Simple Transfer App

Best For: Manually backing up your iPhone photos to computer via Wi-Fi

• Wirelessly transfer photos between iPhone, iPad, and computer (Mac or Windows)
• Easy to backup entire iPhone photo library to computer
• Option to automatically delete photos after transfer to free up space on your iPhone
• App is free to download (but only allows transfer of top 50 images in an album)
• Upgrade to Premium version ($9.99) for unlimited transfer of images and additional features

Simple Transfer is a third-party photo transfer app for iPhone, iPad, and computer.

It doesn’t sync your photos automatically between devices like iCloud Photos does. Instead, it gives you manual control over which images get transferred.

And unlike iCloud Photos, images get transferred directly to your computer’s hard drive… rather than into Apple’s cloud storage.

You can choose to back up your entire iPhone photo library to your computer. Or you can import just a selection of images from your iPhone.

You can also use Simple Transfer to copy photos from your computer to your iPhone.

And you can transfer images between iOS devices (iPhone and iPad.)

The Simple Transfer app is compatible with iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows computers.

On your computer, you can install the Simple Transfer desktop app. Or you can use a web browser to access the transfer options.

The Simple Transfer app (or web browser) on your computer lets you select the images you want to download.

You can then choose which folder you want them imported to. And you have the option to delete the photos from your iPhone after downloading.

The Simple Transfer app is free to download. But the free version only lets you transfer the top 50 photos in an album. And it doesn’t support the transfer of Live Photos.

For unlimited photo transfers (including Live Photos), you’ll need to upgrade to the Premium version of the app.

Simple Transfer Premium costs $9.99. This is a one-off payment, and there are no additional fees or subscription charges.

4. Photo Transfer App

Best For: Transferring images to your computer directly from the iPhone Photos app

• Wirelessly transfer photos from iPhone to computer (and vice versa)
• Transfer images directly from the Photos app on your iPhone
• Quickly copy images between iPhone and iPad
• Back up all your iPhone photos to computer using the desktop app
• App is free to download (but only allows limited transfers at medium-resolution)
• Upgrade to Pro version ($6.99) for unlimited transfer of full-resolution images

Photo Transfer App is similar to the Simple Transfer app… but with one major difference:

You can transfer images to your computer directly from the Photos app on your iPhone.

So you don’t have to use the desktop app on your computer to select images for transfer. Instead, you can do it directly from your iPhone.

You still have to use your computer to choose where you want to save the photos. But using your iPhone to select and share the images makes the process more intuitive.

It’s a bit like using AirDrop to transfer images straight from the Photos app on your iPhone.

But unlike AirDrop, the Photo Transfer App isn’t limited to Apple devices. It’s also compatible with Windows computers. So you can transfer photos from iPhone to PC.

You can also copy photos between your iPhone and iPad. And you can easily send your photos to anyone around the world.

Backing up your entire iPhone photo library to your computer is easy with the desktop Photo Transfer App.

The desktop app also lets you transfer photos from computer to iPhone.

One feature missing from this app is support for transferring Live Photos. When a Live Photo downloads to the computer, it gets converted to a still JPEG image.

If you want your Live Photos to appear as video after transferring them, use the Simple Transfer app instead. Or convert your Live Photos to video before you transfer them.

Photo Transfer App is free to download from the App Store.

However, the free version only lets you transfer 10 images. And they’ll be downloaded at a lower resolution (smaller image size).

You’ll also have limited functionality within the desktop Photo Transfer App on your computer.

For unlimited image transfers at full resolution, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version of the app. This also gives you access to the full range of download and backup tools in the desktop app.

Upgrading to the Pro version of Photo Transfer App costs $6.99 (one-off payment).

Pick The Best iPhone Photo Transfer App For You

You’ve discovered 4 easy ways to transfer photos between your iPhone and other devices.

But which is the best photo transfer app for your needs?

Let us help you decide!

iCloud Photos: Automatically Transfer Photos To Your Other Devices

Do you want your iPhone to automatically transfer your entire photo library to your computer or iPad?

If so, switch on iCloud Photos in the Settings app… and you’ll never have to think about transferring your photos again!

You get 5GB of iCloud storage for free. And you can upgrade to more storage for as little a $0.99 a month.

AirDrop: Transfer Photos To Other Apple Devices

Do you want to transfer photos to a nearby Apple device, such as your Mac or a friend’s iPhone?

The simplest option is to use AirDrop in the iPhone’s built-in Photos app.

AirDrop comes as standard in the Photos app on your iPhone. And it’s completely free to use!

Simple Transfer App: Back Up Photos To Your Computer’s Hard Drive

Do you want to back up your iPhone photos directly to your computer’s hard drive?

If so, the Simple Transfer app is a good option.

It’s compatible with Mac and Windows PC. And the desktop app makes it easy to transfer iPhone photos to your computer.

Simple Transfer is free to download from the App Store. But you’ll need to upgrade to the Premium app ($9.99 one-off payment) to get unlimited transfers (including Live Photos).

Photo Transfer App: Transfer Images To Computer From The iPhone Photos App

Photo Transfer App is similar to the Simple Transfer App. But you can also transfer photos directly from the iPhone Photos app.

This functionality is similar to AirDrop. But you get to choose which folder the photos get downloaded to. And you can use it on a Windows PC as well as Apple devices.

You can download Photo Transfer App for free. But you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version ($6.99 one-off payment) to transfer images at full resolution.

The post Discover The Best Photo Transfer App For Transferring iPhone Photos appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

1. Shutterfly

Best iPhone Photo Printing App For Unlimited Free Prints

• Unlimited free 4×4 and 4×6 inch prints
• Free 6×6 inch photo book every month
• Unique photo gifts and greetings cards
• Personalized wedding and baby stationery
• Custom photo products for kids and pets
• Unlimited free photo storage to back up your images
• Daily deals and exclusive in-app offers
• Price: App is FREE to download

Shutterfly is a popular iPhone photo printing app that offers unlimited free prints!

Free prints are available in 4×4 and 6×6 inch sizes. You’ll also get a free 6×6 inch photo book every month. You just pay the shipping costs.

Shutterfly also has larger prints and photo books that you can purchase.

Prints can be as large as 20×30 inches. And there’s a wide range of wall art available. These include poster collages, canvases, and framed prints.

In addition to prints and photo books, Shutterfly offers a selection of personalized print products.

These include photo magnets, greetings cards, calendars, and iPhone cases.

There’s also a great choice of gift options. Check out the personalized mugs, mousemats, bags, pillows, candles, and keepsake boxes.

Simply choose a product, then add your photos and text.

You can also create personalized wedding stationery, birth announcements, and thank you cards. And there’s a huge collection of custom photo products for kids and pets.

Orders are processed in the US, but international shipping is available.

If you’re in the US, you can use the 1-hour pickup service for 4×6 prints. Simply place your order and collect from your local Target, Walgreens, or CVS Pharmacy.

Shutterfly has daily deals and exclusive in-app offers. So there’s always a bargain to be had!

In addition to print products, Shutterfly offers unlimited free photo storage. You can upload photos from your iPhone, ready to access them for your next print project.

This also serves as a good photo backup option as the app promises never to delete your photos.

Download the Shutterfly app from the App Store and order your free prints today!

2. Print Studio

Best iPhone Photo Printing App For Beautiful, High-Quality Prints

• Classic prints in a range of sizes
• Photo books and calendars
• Wood, metal, and framed prints
• Canvas prints and posters
• Greetings cards and postcards
• Magnets and metal ornaments
• Price: App is FREE to download

The Print Studio app offers a beautiful collection of high-quality print products.

The products are less “gimmicky” than many other photo printing apps.

You won’t find printed mugs and keyrings here. Instead, you’ll find classic prints, gorgeous photo books, and stunning wall art.

Prints are available in a range of sizes and finishes.

There are standard-sized prints, photostrips, and poster collages. You can even print wide panoramas and professional large format prints.

Photo books come in a range of sizes with hard or soft covers.

The book designs are classic and understated, placing maximum emphasis on your photos.

If you want to hang your photos around your home, Print Studio has a range of wall art options.

These include wood prints, metal prints, canvas prints, and framed prints.

Printed stationery includes calendars, greetings cards, and postcards.

And you’ll find a number of smaller print items. These include magnets, metal ornaments, fun stickers, and buttons.

If you’re looking for beautiful, high-quality prints, download Print Studio from the App Store.

3. Printastic

Best iPhone Photo Printing App For Creating Customized Photo Books

• Customizable photo books
• 20-200 pages with up to 1800 photos per book
• Classic and retro-style prints
• Framed prints and canvases
• Calendars and magnets
• User-friendly app
• Price: App is FREE to download

The Printastic app is best known for its customizable photo books.

Photo books are a great way to print a collection of your favorite pictures.

They’re perfect for documenting a special occasion. And they make wonderful gifts.

The Printastic app is very easy to use. You can quickly create a beautiful photo book of your favorite iPhone photos.

Printastic offers plenty of options for customizing your photo book.

There are different sizes to choose from, including A4, square, and a giant book measuring 11.8×11.8 inches.

Covers can be hard or soft. And you have a range of cover designs to choose from.

Books can be between 20 and 200 pages – with up to 1800 photos per book.

The layout of each page can be easily customized. You can display photos full-page or have multiple images in a variety of layouts.

Pages can be further customized with text captions, background colors, and stickers.

Printastic also offers a range of other print products.

You can order small prints in either a classic or retro style. And there are larger framed prints and canvases available.

You can also add your photos to calendars and magnets. These can make great Christmas gifts for friends and family.

The Printastic app makes it easy to print pictures from iPhone.

But if you’re unsure how to use a particular feature, there’s a great help facility and video tutorial.

If you want an easy way to preserve your memories in print, download the Printastic app.

4. Snapfish

Best iPhone Photo Printing App For Budget Prints & Gifts

• Competitive prices
• 100 free prints every month
• Prints from as little as $0.09 each
• Posters, canvases, and panoramic prints
• Personalized photo gifts and cards
• Customizable photo books
• Tabletop framed prints and photo blocks
• Price: App is FREE to download

If you want to keep your photo printing costs down, Snapfish is a good option.

The print quality might not be as high as some other print services. But Snapfish prices are very competitive.

And if you sign up now, you’ll get 100 free 6×4 prints every month. You’ll also get some great offers and deals, such as 50% off.

Prints are available in a range of sizes with a glossy or matte finish. Prices start from as little as $0.09 each.

If you want to display your photos in your home, there are several options to choose from.

You can order wide panoramic prints, posters, or canvases. Or choose a tabletop framed print or photo block.

Photo books are available in a range of sizes with hard or soft covers.

And you can customize them with a variety of page layouts and designs.

Snapfish also offers a range of personalized gifts and cards.

Get your photos printed on mugs, coasters, mousemats, keyrings, magnets, or iPhone cases.

You can even create custom cushions and blankets with photos of your choice.

If you’re on a tight budget, it’s definitely worth downloading the Snapfish app. You get a great choice of products, and it won’t break the bank!

5. Walgreens

Best iPhone Photo Printing App For Same Day Pick-Up Of Prints (US Only)

• Same day pickup for a wide range of print products
• Prints available in a variety of sizes
• Photo cards and collages
• Customizable photo books
• Canvases, posters, and framed prints
• Calendars and photo cubes
• Price: App is FREE to download

Would you rather collect your prints instead of waiting for them to arrive in the mail?

If you’re in the US, Walgreens pharmacy offers a speedy same day pick-up service.

Simply download the free Walgreens app and order your prints. Then pick them up on the same day from your local Walgreens store.

Walgreens offers a range of customizable print products.

You can easily print a collection of pictures in a custom photo book or collage layout.

You can create personalized cards using your photos.

And there’s a good selection of wall art options, including canvases, posters, and framed prints.

You can also create calendars and photo cubes featuring your favorite images.

If you’re in the US, this app offers a great way to get your prints as quickly as possible.

Aside from the same day pick-up service, you can also order a range of print products for home delivery. These will typically take 1-5 days to reach you.

Either way, you can download the Walgreens app for free from the App Store.

iPhone Photo Printing Apps: How To Choose The Best App For You

You’ve discovered 5 great iPhone photo printing apps.

But which photo printing app is best for you?

Do you like the idea of unlimited free prints and a free photo book each month?

If so, Shutterfly is the app for you!

For beautiful high-quality prints, try the Print Studio app.

You can create standard prints, wall prints, photo books, calendars, greetings cards, and more.

Do you want an easy way to create a customized photo book?

Download the Printastic app and create a beautiful printed book of your favorite iPhone photos.

Do you want to know how to print photos from iPhone when you’re on a tight budget?

The Snapfish app offers a range of prints and personalized gifts at low prices. You’ll even get 100 free prints every month.

Do you want to get your prints on the same day that you order them?

If you live in the US, you can use the Walgreens app to order prints and collect from the store that day. No more waiting for your prints to arrive in the mail!

The post Discover The 5 Best iPhone Photo Printing Apps appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

1. FaceTune 2

Best For: Quickly blurring the background in photos of people

• A portrait editing app with a simple background blur tool
• Blurs background with the tap of a button
• Option to manually select or deselect your subject
• Blur slider for changing blur strength
• Price: FREE (with an in-app subscription)

Do you want to quickly blur the background of your portrait photos? If so, then you should check out FaceTune 2.

FaceTune is a general purpose portrait editing app. And it includes amazingly powerful tools—including the Defocus tool for blurring backgrounds.

With a single tap, the Defocus tool will blur the background of your photo. But your portrait subject will remain tack sharp.

If you’re not happy with the background blur, that’s okay. You can always use the app’s more precise blur tool to erase parts of the blur. Or you can use your finger to add blur directly to the photo.

This is great for photos with complex edges—like the hair in the portrait below.

Do you want to know one last great feature of the FaceTune app? You can change the strength of the blur. That way, you create the most natural looking blur possible.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to blur the background of your portrait photos, then get FaceTune 2.

FaceTune 2 is available for FREE (with an in-app subscription option) from the App Store.

2. FabFocus

Best For: Blurring the background in headshot portrait photos

• Dedicated blurring app for portraits
• Facial recognition technology accurately detects faces and blurs backgrounds
• Manual selection tool lets you fine-tune blur
• In-app camera for taking headshot photos before blurring
• Price: $3.99

FabFocus is a dedicated background blur app. It’s designed to create a beautiful background blur on headshots, and it does exactly that.

As soon as you upload a headshot, FabFocus will recognize the subject—and spit out a quality photo. Notice the subtle background blur in the photo below.

The FabFocus app also provides a set of tools for fine-tuning the blur effect. For instance, you can use the blur tool to carefully blur around your subject. And you can use the eraser tool to remove any unwanted blur.

You can also adjust the intensity of the blur. Feel free to play around with this. FabFocus allows you to undo your last adjustment if you make a mistake.

FabFocus is a great app for creating professional-looking headshots.

You can get FabFocus from the App Store for $3.99.

3. AfterFocus

Best For: Blurring the background behind subjects with complex edges

• Precise photo blur app
• Includes both smart and manual selection tools for custom blurring
• Creates a gradual, realistic blur with foreground, midground, and background selection
• Modify strength of the blur
• Multiple effects for creative blurring
• Price: $0.99

So far, we’ve discussed apps that blur simple portrait subjects. But what if you want to blur other subjects? And what if they have more complex edges?

There’s no need to worry. Because AfterFocus is a dedicated blur app—and it allows you to blur any type of subject.

The app offers powerful tools with impressive effects. You can easily create a realistic background blur in your photos.

For an example, look at the beautiful blur in the photo below.

How does AfterFocus do this?

AfterFocus allows you to select a foreground, midground, and background. It then takes these features into account when blurring behind your subject.

Why is this useful?

When you select a foreground, midground, and background, AfterFocus is able to apply a more gradual blur. That is, AfterFocus creates a blur that increases as you go farther behind the subject. This makes for a more natural effect.

In fact, AfterFocus creates the type of blur you’d get from a high-end camera.

Do you want to blur subjects with complex edges? Do you want a high-quality effect? Then get AfterFocus.

AfterFocus is available from the App Store for just $0.99.

4. Tadaa SLR

Best For: Creating precise, DSLR-like background blur

• Selective, customizable blurring
• Edge-detection technology for improved blur accuracy
• Customizable blur effects
• Tools for creating artistic tilt-shift effects
• Price: $3.99

You want to create beautiful background blur. Why should you choose Tadaa SLR?

Tadaa’s background blur is artistic, realistic, and high-quality. This little app packs a lot of punch.

Tadaa offers background blur for any subject. Blurring is done by painting on the subject with your finger. You can later modify the strength and quality of the blur.

For example, I’ve begun to paint the subject in the photo below. Everything outside the paint will be blurred.

Additionally, Tadaa’s edge detection technology works very well. It successfully deals with difficult edges.

And you can zoom in for extremely precise blurring.

Tadaa also offers several creative blur options. For instance, you can use the linear blur effect to create stunning tilt-shift photos. This creates a single line of focus that runs through the photo.

I’ve applied a linear blur to the photo below.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to Tadaa.

The app is complex.

The interface isn’t intuitive and the tools aren’t easy to use. It takes a bit of patient fiddling before you start to see results.

For those looking for a quick edit, look elsewhere. But for those looking for a precise blur effect, Tadaa may be the answer.

Tadaa SLR is available from the App Store for $3.99.

5. Snapseed

Best For: Applying a creative background blur to any type of photo

• Full-fledged photo editing app with fantastic Lens Blur tool
• Radial and linear blurring for all photos
• Adjust blur size
• Add creative tilt-shift effects
• Price: FREE

You’ve probably heard of Snapseed. It’s a popular, general-purpose photo editing app.

But did you know that Snapseed offers an amazing background blur tool?

It’s called Lens Blur. It can be accessed via the Tools menu. And as soon as you start to use it, you’ll know you’ve found something special.

First of all, the Lens Blur tool is extremely intuitive. You can change the blur shape and size by pinching your fingers. You can change the blur placement by dragging along the screen.

And unlike most other apps on the list, Snapseed offers more than a basic blur. You can get creative with the Lens Blur tool. For instance, you can create stunning tilt-shift effects.

You can also create a blurred vignette. A blurred vignette is a circular blur around the subject. It ensures that the main part of the scene is sharp, and the edges of your photo are blurred.

Do you want to know the one drawback to the Snapseed Lens Blur tool?

It’s not selective. You can’t carefully blur the background of an image.

Notice how the hair in the photo below is slightly blurred.

While it’s possible to create a selective blur with Masking effects, this requires a more intensive editing process.

On the other hand, you can use Snapseed’s Lens Blur for some powerful creative edits.

If you’re looking for a blur tool that combines simplicity and creativity, look no further than Snapseed.

Snapseed can be downloaded for FREE from the App Store.

6. iPhone Camera Portrait Mode

Best For: Blurring backgrounds at the time of shooting

• Conveniently blurs the background when a photo is taken
• Powerful, consistent background blur
• Newer iPhones allow you to change blur strength
• A mode in the native Camera app
• No apps or purchases required
• Works on iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max
• Price: FREE

Do you want to blur the background of your iPhone photos…without ever having to purchase a dedicated background blur app?

Portrait mode will let you do exactly that.

You can use Portrait mode to blur your iPhone photos—when you take a picture!

Then, when you view the image in your photo library, you’ll see the final, high-quality product. Portrait mode works best on people portraits.

Notice how precisely the background is blurred in the photo below.

It’s important to note that Portrait mode only works on the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max. If you don’t have one of these iPhones, then you’ll need to use a blur background app.

However, if you do have one of these iPhones, you’re in for a treat.

Why is this?

Portrait mode is accurate.

Portrait mode is powerful.

And Portrait mode doesn’t stop with high-quality background blur.

Do you have the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or iPhone XS Max? If so, you have access to Apple’s new Depth Control feature. This allows you to change the amount of background blur applied to your photo.

With Depth Control, you can take stunning, jaw-dropping photos—photos that pop off the screen.

To sum up: Portrait mode is great for getting quick, professional-looking background blur. It’s all done at the time of shooting. No editing is required!

Portrait mode is available for FREE on the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max.

7. How To Choose The Best Blur Background App For You

You’ve discovered the six best background blur apps. All provide powerful blurring effects.

But which should you choose?

If you’re looking to blur portrait backgrounds while shooting, and you have the iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, or newer, use Portrait mode. The blur is high-quality. And you don’t ever have to leave the Camera app.

What if you want to blur a portrait you’ve already taken? Download FaceTune 2 and get the beautiful background blur you’re looking for.

On the other hand, FabFocus is another solid app to blur background. It’s a good choice for quickly adding background blur to portrait headshots.

Do you have a more complex photo? Do you have a photo where you must control the fore, middle, and background?

AfterFocus will give you the control you’re looking for.

Do you need extremely precise background blur? Tadaa SLR has a wonderful blur tool for careful blurring.

Finally, are you looking to apply a more creative blur? Use Snapseed’s tools to add an artistic look to your photo.

The post Discover The Best Blur Background App For Blurring Your iPhone Photos appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

1. iCloud Photo Library

Backup photos and access them easily across your Apple devices.

• Essentially a copy of your current iPhone content
• 5GB storage space for free
• Low cost extra storage space that you can share with family members

No need to visit the app store for this one. It’s already there in your iPhone. iCloud Photo Library is part of Apple’s all-in-one iPhone backup and device syncing facility. Essentially it allows you to backup photos and videos stored on an iPhone, iPad and iMac to a shared iCloud space so that you can then access them across devices. Therefore it’s perfect for people who regularly use the same Apple ID on more than one Apple device.

When a change is made on one device, for example a photo is deleted, this will be reflected in what the iCloud holds. If you are looking for a storage app that allows you to upload your photos to it and delete the same photos from your iPhone in the knowledge that the photo will still be held in the cloud then you should look at downloading one of the other apps we’re discussing here.

However, there is a way to free up some space on your iPhone and make use of iCloud Photo Library as an extra storage option. To do this you will need to select ‘Optimise iPhone Storage’ when activating your iCloud Photo Library via Settings –>Photos.

With this option activated iCloud Photo Library will automatically store the full resolution versions of your photos in the iCloud and replace with a space-saving version on your iPhone. The originals are always available for download when you need them. Click here to learn how to download photos from iCloud to your device.

You’ll only get 5GB for free though so will more than likely need to pay a monthly charge to upgrade to more space if you want to use iCloud Photo Library to its full potential. If you don’t pay and go over your allocated free space uploading of photos will cease. Additional space is cheap with 50GB costing just $0.99 per month. Other plans available are for 200GB or 2TB and it’s worth noting that if you go for one of these two larger plans you will be able to share this space with family members.

You can make use of the iCloud Photo Sharing option to create albums to share with other people and to subscribe to other people’s shared albums. The creation of ‘memories’ videos are a nostalgic nice touch. Enjoy reliving your day or even year by viewing one of these automatically generated photo compilations. And you can use the familiar editing tools offered in Photos on any photo from your iCloud.

2. Flickr

Huge amount of free storage and a social network in itself.

• 1000GB for free to use for photos and videos
• Great editing tools and preset filters
• Follow other photographers and easily share your photos

Storage space is not unlimited, but you will get a massive 1TB or 1000GB of space for free. Use the ‘Auto-Uploadr’ to ensure all your images and videos are backed-up on the app.

To set up the Auto-Uploadr you’ll need to go in via the settings cog icon and then activate the tool – choose to just do this when connected to Wi-Fi to save on monthly data allowances.

Flickr also includes some nice editing tools within the app and a set of preset filters. You’ll also be able to look at the camera information for each photo uploaded to Flickr so you can see the behind the scenes info if you want to.

In using the app you’ll not only get to browse through your own stored images but will get to see a feed recommending other users that you may want to view shared photos from. The feed operates in an Instagram-like way allowing you to like and comment on images. Your images will stay private though unless you choose to share them.

Flickr used to make you create a Yahoo email account to allow you to register but for those of us who don’t want another email address this requirement no longer exists and you can now register with any email address.

3. Snapfish

Unlimited free storage and print options.

• Get 50 free photo prints a month on sign up
• Great range of print items on offer for purchase
• Easily upload images from your camera roll and social media accounts

For a more selective approach to photo storage, the Snapfish app offers some attractive features. You’ll get unlimited free storage at full image resolution but will need to manually select those images that you want to store. This can be done in large batches making it an easy task. You can easily link to your iPhone camera roll, Facebook, Instagram and Google Photos directly from the app to upload photos.

The storage is a sideline to the app’s main business of printing images. Whether as individual prints or compiled into a photobook or in one of the gift forms such as mugs, key rings etc. Once you have your images stored in Snapfish you can then use them in multiple projects. So, there’s no cost for photo storage but if you want to print you’ll need to pay. That said, you are given 50 free prints per month when you sign up.

The app provides handy tools for fine-tuning your photos such as red-eye reduction and basic editing tools ensuring that any chosen prints are optimised.

Unlike some other similar services, Snapfish is not based in a single country and instead has bases in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Handy for keeping the delivery charges down.

4. Google Photos

A great all-round iPhone photo storage option.

• Unlimited free storage space for photos and videos
• Create collages, animations and movies from your photos
• Clever visual search that doesn’t require tagging

If you’re looking for unlimited free storage space to backup photos then Google Photos could be for you. However, you are restricted on the maximum resolution of individual images and videos that can be stored. 16 megapixels is the maximum for images but this should be sufficient for most mobile photography. For videos you’ll only be able to store at up to 1080p resolution and up to 15 minutes long.

If you ever need to go bigger than this, you can store at original quality but this will use your Google Drive storage – 15GB for free and then payment options for more. Useful if you want to add in images from other sources at original size to keep everything in a single archive.

It is all very well to be able to upload unlimited images, but unlimited images can soon amount to thousands of images. For the archive to be useable you’ll need to have a way of finding an image. Google Photos has just the feature for this. Visual features and subjects can be searched for within the categories of people, places and things.  No tagging required. So, to find that birthday photo from two years ago, search “cake”!

Have fun creating your own collages, animations and movies by making selections of your favorite images. Or allow Google Photos to surprise you with some that it creates for you. You’ll get a notification in the app when one has been prepared.

Easily share these with friends and family and with the apps compatibility with Google Chromecast you can also enjoy viewing albums on your television.

The app offers some powerful editing tools so you can transform your images. The app will also edit images for you with stylized photos where images are edited by the app. Panoramas, where the app will cleverly stitch together images for you, are also automatically created.

5. Prime Photos from Amazon

A great choice for Amazon Prime customers.

• Unlimited free photo storage for Prime customers
• Family members can also make use of the free storage
• In-app editing tools

All Amazon customers get 5GB of free storage but this increases to unlimited photo storage space if you have an Amazon Prime account. So you should certainly look to make use of the unlimited free storage available to you via the app if you are a premium Amazon user.

The ‘Family Vault’ feature in Amazon Photos allows up to five additional people to contribute photos to your unlimited storage account. A very useful feature to combine photos in a single place within the family.

Photos are backed up automatically by this app. You’ll also be able to tweak your photos with the in-app editing tools allowing you to adjust brightness, color, focus and more as well as applying preset filters.

But do be aware that if you cancel your Amazon Prime membership you’ll lose your unlimited storage benefit. Upon cancellation, if you exceed the 5GB that is free to all, you’ll get the option to switch to a paid storage plan for your photos.

6. Dropbox

A classic storage app for all types of files.

• 2GB of free storage space
• Increase the amount of free storage you have by referring friends
• Easily share albums via app created links

Dropbox is a popular cloud storage provider and is used by individuals and businesses alike.

Dropbox is great if you want to store more than just photos. There are very few restrictions on what you can upload to be stored by Dropbox. The basic free account will give you just 2GB of storage but you can increase the amount of free space you have by:

• Completing the Dropbox “getting started” guide
• Referring your friends, family, and co-workers to Dropbox
• Contributing to the Dropbox Community forum

Paid plans are also offered with the maximum 1TB available on a personal plan. It’s useful to note that if you downgrade a payment plan your files will still be available to you. You just won’t be able to add to them.

Sharing between Dropbox users is easy. But it’s also easy to share folders by sending a link to people who don’t have a Dropbox account. They’ll have the opportunity to create their own Dropbox account or to simply view the contents of the link online without the need to have their own account.

7. Microsoft OneDrive

A good choice if you’re an Office 365 user.

• 5GB of free storage space for all types of files
• Increase the features available by choosing a payment plan
• Automatic uploads of photos

Although a Microsoft product, the app is also available for use with iPhones, iPads and iMacs. OneDrive is mostly going to appeal to you if you use Office 365 enabling seamless integration between your iPhone photos and devices.

With OneDrive Basic you’ll get 5GB of storage space for free. You can upgrade to more space with one of the payment plans on option. More features become available to you as you pay more.

The space is available for the storage of photos, videos, documents and more. Automatic uploading is available. You’ll be able to look at the camera setting information for each photo, organize photos into albums, rename and share them. However, beyond that, there’s no function to edit photos in OneDrive.

8. Ever

High security and fun to use.

• Unlimited photo storage at high resolution
• Touch ID to access the app
• Fun editing tools including stickers and overlays

Ever is a security conscious iPhone photo storage app which backs up your photos. The setup process includes the option to use Touch ID and makes it very easy to connect to social media accounts such as Instagram and Facebook. It even connects easily to other storage accounts such as Google Photos.

Back up takes place when connected to Wi-Fi by default to save using up monthly data allowances. All photos stored in Ever remain private until you wish to share them.

The free app will always backup photos at high resolution. If you want to store your photos at the original full resolution there is a monthly charge of $11.99. With the paid version, Ever Plus, you’ll also be able to store videos.

The app has some fun editing options included. Get creative and download some of the many free add-on packs giving you stickers, overlays, and more to add to your images.

Photo Storage App: Conclusion

The apps mentioned above are all easy to set up. Consider each app’s features and then try a few out to see which one you like the most. Each has its own appeal. Remember the extra iPhone photo storage you are gaining by using an app cloud service also serves as a valuable backup of your precious photos. Do consider future proofing. It is so easy to set an app to automatically backup photos. Why not use more than one so that if the worst comes to the worst, and a service stops, you won’t lose anything.

The post Pick The Best iPhone Photo Storage App For Backing Up Your Images appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

1. How Does iCloud Photos Work?

iCloud is Apple’s cloud-based storage facility that allows you to store your files remotely and access them from a variety of devices via Wi-Fi. You may already be familiar with iCloud if you use it to back up your iPhone’s data.

With iCloud Photos, every photo and video you take is automatically uploaded to your iCloud Photo Library, and then synced (transferred) to all of your other iCloud-enabled devices.

Syncing your photo library means that all of your devices will display the same photos within the Photos app, no matter which device was used to take the pictures.

Once you’ve set up iCloud Photos to sync your images, you’ll be able to access your entire photo collection at any time, and from any iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod touch) or computer (Mac or Windows PC).

You don’t have to think about using a separate photo transfer app to copy your photos between devices. iCloud photos does it automatically!

Your iCloud Photo Library is organized in the same way across devices. This makes navigating your images a familiar experience no matter which device you’re using.

In addition to new photos being uploaded to your iCloud Photo Library, it’s important to note that any changes you make to photos on one device will be automatically updated on all of your other iCloud-enabled devices.

For example, if you edit a picture on your iPhone, the edited image is automatically uploaded to iCloud and will be visible on your other devices such as your iPad or Mac.

If you create a new album in the Photos app, that album will appear in the Photos app on your other iOS devices and Mac.

If you delete a photo from the Photos app, that image will be deleted from your iCloud Photo Library, and will therefore be deleted from all of your other iCloud-enabled devices.

You can create albums, mark images as favorites, and organize your photos whether you’re on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac. Just remember that whatever you do on one device will be reflected on all of your other iCloud-enabled devices.

2. Set Up & Sync Your iCloud Photos

If you want access to all of your photos and videos on all of your iCloud-enabled devices, you’ll need to activate the iCloud Photo Library on each device.

Once activated, any new photos or videos that you take will be automatically uploaded and stored in your iCloud Photo Library. These photos and videos will then be synced to your other devices that have iCloud Photos enabled.

iCloud Photos is available on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) running iOS 8.3 or later. You must of course have enough available iCloud storage to save your photos (we’ll look at storage options later in this article).

To turn on the iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone, open the Settings app. Tap your name at the top of Settings, then tap iCloud.

Select Photos, then switch on the iCloud Photos option.

When you first activate the iCloud Photo Library, you’ll see a progress bar telling you how many photos have been uploaded to iCloud. This may take a considerable amount of time depending on how many photos you have on your device and the speed of your internet connection. Make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi and that your phone has enough battery.

Beneath the iCloud Photos setting you’ll see two options: Optimize iPhone Storage and Download and Keep Originals.

Optimize iPhone Storage allows you to upload your full resolution images to iCloud, and then replace the images on your iPhone with optimized versions that take up less space. This is great if your iPhone is running low on storage space.

If you choose to Optimize iPhone Storage, full resolution images are automatically downloaded from iCloud onto your device whenever you want to view, edit, email them, etc. You’ll need to have a Wi-Fi or cellular internet connection to be able to download photos from iCloud in this way.

If you’d prefer to keep the original full resolution images on your iPhone, select Download and Keep Originals. The benefit of this is that you’ll have access to the full resolution images stored on your iPhone even when you don’t have an internet connection. However, be aware that your iPhone’s storage will fill up more quickly if you select this option.

These same options are available in Settings on the iPad and iPod touch. Ensure you switch on the iCloud Photo Library on these devices too, so that you can take full advantage of being able to access all of your images from all of your devices.

After switching on iCloud Photos on your iPhone or other device, you’ll notice that the Camera Roll album in the Photos app has been renamed to All Photos.

This is because it no longer only contains photos taken with the camera on that particular device – it now has all of your images from all of your other iCloud devices.

If you have a Mac or Windows PC, you can follow the instructions later in this tutorial to activate iCloud Photos on your computer.

3. iCloud Storage Plans

If you’re running out of available iCloud storage space, you can upgrade your storage plan by tapping Change Storage Plan.

Once installed, open the iCloud for Windows program and sign in with your Apple ID. Ensure the Photos option is checked, then click Options and select iCloud Photo Library. Click Done, then click Apply.

You can now use iCloud Photo Library on your Windows PC to download all of the photos and videos from your Apple devices to your computer, or upload your Windows pictures to iCloud.

When you open Windows/File Explorer, you’ll see that your computer has created a folders called iCloud Photos. Photos from your other iCloud-enabled devices will appear in the Downloads folder.

And if you save photos from your computer into the Uploads folder, they will be uploaded to iCloud so that you can access them from your iPhone or other iOS devices.

6. iCloud.com

Another way to view the images in your iCloud Photo Library is via Apple’s iCloud.com website. You can use this method on any device as you simply access it via a web browser, just like you would access any other website.

Once you’ve opened iCloud.com in your web browser, simply sign in with your Apple ID, then click Photos on the control panel as shown below.

7. Share Your iCloud Photos

With iCloud Photo Library it’s easy to share your photos with other people. Simply open the Shared tab in the Photos app on any device, then create an album, add photos to it, and invite friends to join the album. You can even allow them to add their own photos to a shared album, and people can like and comment on the photos.

With the Activity view in the Sharing tab of the Photos app, you can see all updates and comments in your shared albums, no matter which device you’re using.

Click here for an in-depth tutorial on how to use iCloud Photo Sharing to share your iPhone photos with others.

The post How To Use iCloud Photos To Sync Your iPhone Photos Across Devices appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

What Is A “Curves” Tool?

If you’re not already familiar with how a curves adjustment tool works, here’s a quick primer…

The curves tool is a grid featuring a diagonal line extending from the lower-left corner (representing the darkest tones of an image) to the upper-right corner (representing the brightest tones).

Since you start with a straight line, you might be wondering why it’s called a “curves” tool. Well, that name is derived from what the tool looks like when you’re done with it – not what you start with.

Essentially, by tapping on the diagonal line at a given point and then sliding up or down, you’re simply adjusting the brightness level of the image for the tones around that point.

For example, if you tap right on the center of the line and slide upward, you’ll increase the exposure/brightness of the mid-tones of the image.

Do the same closer to the lower left corner and you’ll only be brightening the darker (shadow) tones. Get the idea?

A good curves tool will allow you to make adjustments at many different points along the line for a truly custom editing experience.

We’ve been speaking of curves with regard to the exposure/brightness of an image, but they’re also often used to make individual adjustments to the brightness (luminance) levels of individual color channels (red, green, blue).

With MaxCurve, the same curves approach is used for adjusting many other image aspects as well. This yields a truly innovative and custom editing experience.

So Many Curves, So Simple to Use

MaxCurve relies predominantly on curves for most image edits. Overall, there are actually 20 different curve adjustments available.

While this may seem overwhelming, they’re grouped into so-called “kits” for easier navigation. Additionally, you don’t necessarily need to use all of them when editing a photo.

There’s an RGB kit for separate editing of red, green and blue color channels, as well as an overall RGB level adjustment:

The Lightness kit allows for adjusting overall contrast, exposure, gamma, temperature, and even a curves tool for converting to black and white:

The HSL kit is meant for adjusting hue (color) levels and color saturation via a few different options:

Finally, the Lab kit offers a rather unique approach to color editing, splitting the color ranges into the warm and cool color tones for editing:

With so many options, you may be tempted to try all of them out on a single image. If you do, but you don’t like the results, each curve tool has a reset/undo button.

MaxCurve supports JPG, TIFF and PNG images for editing, and supports high resolution files up to 4096×4096 pixels.

In addition, the app displays a full histogram (map of image color/exposure levels) behind each relevant adjustment tool. The histogram adjusts in real time as you make your edits, so that you can easily use it as a guide for setting exposure, etc.

You can add as many adjustment points as you want to each curve tool, which allows for an incredible range of editing options. This provides a level of control not found in most other editing apps.

Also impressive is that not only can you open and edit TIFF images in MaxCurve, but it will preserve the image quality of such larger files and re-save them as TIFFs when you’re done.

Create Your Own Custom Presets

While MaxCurve doesn’t come with any standard presets or other filters like so many other apps, you can create your own presets using your favorite curve settings.

This can be handy for editing multiple photos that were taken under similar lighting/atmospheric conditions. Simply edit the first image to your liking, create a preset from those settings, and add it to your other images with just a few taps.

You can even share your presets (and images) with other MaxCurve users via the MaxCurve online platform accessible right from within the app.

This feature also shows you the exact settings used by other users for each of their photos, along with a sliding before and after effect to see how the edits affected the original image.

This is a great way to learn how to use the app. Simply browse the gallery for user images that you like, study their edits, and even save their edits as a preset within your app.

Additional Basic Editing Tools

In addition to the curve adjustments, the app offers a solid set of more typical editing tools, such as crop, rotation, image flip, sharpness, grain and vignetting.

All of these can be added to any custom presets that you create (as mentioned above).

MaxCurve also lets you pinch zoom to see the effects of your edits up close. This is a feature that’s still curiously absent from many editing apps, yet is so critical to making precise edits.

Synchronized Editing With Photoshop

Another interesting feature of MaxCurve is its ability to connect, via a standard Wi-Fi connection, to a desktop version of Photoshop.

You can then import an image that’s currently open in Photoshop into MaxCurve, edit it on your iPhone, and then export/save the final version back to your desktop with the edits you just made in MaxCurve.

This is a fairly novel idea, but one that’s sure to please the growing number of folks that are starting to blend iPhone photography and editing with more traditional DSLR (and other) camera work.

There are some limitations to this approach in that MaxCurve can only handle files up to a certain size/resolution, and downsizes all imported images to 8 bit (as opposed to the more typical 16 bit used in Photoshop).

Nonetheless, as the lines between mobile and non-mobile photography continue to blur, this type of feature is bound to become more commonplace.

Final Thoughts

MaxCurve offers a powerful new approach to editing photos. Even more powerful desktop applications like Photoshop don’t offer the same level of control over some of their adjustments as MaxCurve does through its diverse range of curves tools.

I found the app to be quite responsive when using the curves tools, but some of the sliders in the basic tools category were a bit sluggish (I tested the app on a brand new iPhone 6s). However, as you’re most likely to focus on the curves adjustments, this isn’t that big of a deal.

If you’re interested in stepping up your game when it comes to photo editing, you may want to grab a copy of MaxCurve and see how it works for you. MaxCurve is available for $2.99 from the App Store.

The post MaxCurve App Takes Your iPhone Photo Editing To New Levels appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Easy & Fast Manual Focus

The Focus app takes its name from its core feature – Smart Focus Peaking.

While Focus may not be the first camera app to offer a form of focus “peaking” (PureShot and 645 Pro are just a couple of other examples), it does have one of the best implementations of focus peaking that I’ve seen – even compared to some larger mirrorless cameras that I’ve used.

Focus “peaking” is where areas of the image in the viewfinder that are in sharp focus are highlighted with a bold color. This makes it easy to quickly adjust focus without having to squint and look too closely at the screen.

Simply slide your finger up or down to adjust the focus. As the image moves in and out of focus, you’ll see which areas are in focus by where the highlights or “peaking” is strongest.

You can choose to have the peaking visible at all times or only when adjusting focus. The latter is the default setting and likely preferable for most users.

Here are two examples of focus peaking (using my Christmas tree) to show how the peaking intensity changes as the image moves from blurry to sharp focus:

Focus also lets you adjust the color of the peaking feature. You can choose from yellow, red, green or blue peaking highlights depending on your preferences.

Personally, I find that the default yellow setting works best in most lighting situations, but you may feel different, so having this choice is a good thing.

Additionally, the manual focus feature feels very easy and natural to use. It adjusts quickly and accurately thanks to the strong focus peaking feature.

If having a quality manual focus feature is important to you, then you can stop right here and go get the app. However, the app is more than just a great focusing aid.

Manual Exposure Controls

Like any good manual camera app, Focus offers you full control over the exposure settings of your iPhone’s camera.

Through easy-to-use controls, you can quickly adjust white balance, shutter speed and ISO.

Or, if you prefer to use the auto exposure setting, you can still make subtle tweaks using the Exposure Compensation tool.

Better-Than-Average Flash Control

Another great feature is found in the flash controls. While many folks (myself included) will tell you to rarely use your iPhone’s built-in flash due to the harsh light it casts, Focus does offer a feature that could be very handy in the right situations.

In addition to the typical Flash On, Flash Off, and Flash-Auto settings, Focus allows you to simply turn on the iPhone’s LED light as a steady fill light. You can even adjust the intensity/brightness of the light through simple on-screen controls.

While the light given off by the iPhone’s flash/LED is still a bit harsh for most uses, the ability to adjust the intensity can help reduce the harsh light and make it more visually pleasing.

Additional Helpful Features

Additional features that will enhance your shooting experience include:

• Live display of ISO and Shutter Values
• Live light meter
• 3D Level to help maintain a straight horizon line
• Rule of Thirds, Triangle, and Golden Spiral composition guides
• Timer with 3 and 10 second settings
• Photos save directly to your Photo Library for easy access and editing

Most of these features can be turned on or off via the settings menu located in the lower right corner (the three dots icon).

Final Thoughts

Focus is a great camera replacement app that could easily become your go-to app for shooting if you prefer manual control of most features.

But for ease-of-use, you can still use it in full auto mode and simply tap the screen to set the focus and exposure point.

The app loads quickly and is extremely responsive with virtually no lag time when using any of its features (for the record, I tested it on a new iPhone 6s model).

The only criticism I have is that there’s no option to save images as TIFF files. While not a deal breaker for most users, that’s a feature that more and more apps are offering due to the better image quality afforded by the higher-resolution TIFF format.

Nevertheless, Focus has quickly earned a permanent place on my iPhone, and I look forward to putting it to even more use in the near future.

You can purchase Focus on the App Store for $1.99.

The post New Focus App Offers Great Manual iPhone Camera Features appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Open & Crop Image

When you first open Filterloop you can choose to shoot a photo with the in-app camera or open a photo from your own gallery. To open a photo, tap Gallery, then select the image you want to edit.

You’re then presented with an option to crop your photo. While most apps have a crop option, Filterloop does offer one of the largest selections of cropping aspect ratios that I’ve seen in an app recently.

Adjustable Filters

Filters are one-tap presets that let you quickly change the look and feel of your photo.

Many apps offer filter presets for editing photos, and a lot of the filters in Filterloop do resemble those found in others apps.

But there are certainly some that stand out on their own, such as the Bleached collection which I found to be particularly good.

Additionally, the Filterloop gives you a great amount of control over the opacity of each filter. This allows you to fine-tune the strength of the filters so that they don’t overpower your images.

Most of the filters available in Filterloop are on the more subtle side – which is a good thing. Over-saturated and garish filters rarely enhance a photo.

Customizable Textures

Where Filterloop really shines is in its texture presets. Not only can you adjust the texture’s opacity, but you can also adjust the rotation and orientation of each texture. This allows for an incredible amount of editing options.

One particularly unique feature is that you can adjust the blending mode for each texture by tapping repeatedly on the texture button in the carousel at the bottom.

With each tap you can alternate between industry standard blending modes such as Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, Difference, and Multiply (amongst others).

Blending modes affect how the texture interacts with the image beneath it, and it gives you a lot of choice and flexibility over the final look of the texture.

If you’ve ever used Photoshop or other professional editing software, you’ll know how powerful it is to have access to these different blending modes.

Filterloop offers a wide range of texture options including dust scratches, light leaks, flares and more.

Even if you’re not a big fan of layering thick textures on your photos, you may find that applying a very fine, subtle texture can add just the right amount of magic to help your image “pop.”

Mix & Match

Filterloop also allows you to layer filters and textures in a manner similar to apps like Mextures.

This allows you to really unleash your creativity by taking presets that everyone can access, and combining them into new and unique effects that nobody else is using.

Simply add one filter or texture, adjust it, then add another. You can keep doing this as many times as you want until you have a look that’s uniquely your own.

It would be nice to be able to save your own formulas (combinations of filters and/or textures) as user presets, but even without that ability, it’s extremely quick and easy to layer effects.

Basic Editing Tools

As well as filter presets, Filterloop also includes a solid set of basic adjustment tools for editing brightness, contrast, exposure, color, sharpness, etc.

This means you don’t have to switch between apps to combine these changes with Filterloop’s filters and textures.

Final Thoughts

If you like your editing apps clean and simple to use, but with great control and customization, then Filterloop is definitely one you should check out.

If you’re tired of being limited to the same textures and other presets that other photographers are using, grab a copy of Filterloop with its core filters and textures.

Then experiment with the app and see how you can start creating unique custom looks in no time at all.

Filterloop is available for FREE from the App Store and comes with a great set of filters and textures to get you started. You can then purchase additional filter and texture packs if you wish, starting at $0.99 each.

The post Add Filters & Textures To Your iPhone Photos With Filterloop App appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

What Determines Image Quality?

When you save a photo on your iPhone, either at the time of shooting or after editing, the app you’re using determines several factors that affect image size and quality. And not all apps are made equal.

The aim of this article is not to provide highly-technical explanations as to why these differences occur, but it will help if you have a basic understanding of what happens when you save an image on your iPhone.

So let’s take a look at three important factors that affect the size and quality of your images when you shoot and edit photos on your iPhone.

Factor 1: Resolution (Number Of Pixels)

Resolution refers to the number of pixels in the image, e.g. 3264 pixels wide x 2448 pixels tall. If you multiply these two numbers you get the total pixel count of the image, e.g. 8 million pixels, otherwise know as 8 megapixels (MP).

The more pixels an image contains, the bigger it can be viewed and printed at high quality. Therefore, it’s best to use an app that saves the image with the highest number of pixels possible.

Bear in mind that the camera sensors in different iPhone models allow for different maximum megapixel counts. The iPhone 4s, 5, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus all have 8MP cameras, whereas the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have 12MP cameras.

The other thing to consider is the more pixels an image contains, the more storage space (megabytes) it will use up on your phone.

Factor 2: Compression

When a photo is saved on your phone, either at the time of shooting or after editing, most apps compress the image to make the file size smaller. This allows you to fit more photos on your phone without running out of storage space.

While this is a good thing in terms of storage, the more an image is compressed, the more data is lost from the original image.

If the image has a high amount of compression, it can result in a poor quality photo that looks fuzzy or “blocky,” especially when viewed or printed at large sizes.

When you look at the results of our tests in this article, you’ll discover that the amount of compression can vary considerably between apps. Note that the smaller the file size in megabytes (MB), the more compression has been applied.

Factor 3: File Format

Most apps save images in JPG format, which is the most common file format for digital photos. However, some apps also allow you to save in TIFF format, and even some other kinds of image format.

The great thing about TIFF files is that they’re not compressed like a JPEG is (or if it is compressed it doesn’t lose its quality).

While this results in much larger file sizes that take up more storage space on your iPhone, the quality of the images will be better.

Which Apps Did We Test?

While we can’t test every app on the market, we’ve tested a selection of the most popular camera and editing apps.

This selection will clearly demonstrate the wide variation of image quality that’s found in iPhone photo apps. Even if you don’t see your favorite apps listed here, the principles of checking image quality will likely apply to them as well.

The camera apps that we tested include the native iPhone Camera app, Camera+, ProCamera 8, Hipstamatic and PureShot.

The editing apps include the built-in iPhone Photos app, Snapseed, Filterstorm Neue, Enlight, VSCO, Instagram, TouchRetouch, SKRWT and Superimpose.

All of the apps were tested using an iPhone 5s. If you’re using a different iPhone model, your results will likely vary, but the differences between the same apps should be in relative proportion to the results demonstrated here.

The Shooting Setup

To ensure a fair comparison, I set up my trusty assistant Kermit in my home studio. I used professional lights and an iPhone tripod.

That way, every camera app would be able to take the exact same image under the exact same lighting conditions.

While there are certainly subtle differences in how each camera app measures exposure (they were all set on “auto”), those differences shouldn’t affect the results in a meaningful way.

Camera App Results

Below is a comparison of the file sizes shown in megabytes (MB) and the resolution of the images that I shot with popular camera apps.

Results were recorded for four different file format/compression settings (JPG and TIFF), although not all apps included all of these options.

So what do these results actually mean? The main thing you need to bear in mind is that the smaller the file size shown in megabytes (MB), the poorer quality the image is likely to be.

Why? Because the more it’s compressed, the less data from the original image it contains.

Let’s take a closer look at the results so that you have a better understanding of how to get the best possible image out of the various camera apps that you might use.

Resolution For Camera Apps

First of all, it should be noted that all of the images where shot in the original, full resolution of the iPhone 5s camera (3264 x 2448 pixels).

Therefore, the differences in the file sizes (shown in megabytes) were all related to image compression and not resolution.

However, bear in mind that some camera apps do let you reduce the resolution/pixel count when shooting. If the app you’re using lets you do this, I would recommend shooting at the highest resolution to capture the largest number of pixels possible.

Compression & File Formats For Camera Apps

In the results table above, there are four different file formats listed: two for JPG format and two for TIFF format.

“Normal JPG” refers to the default setting of most camera apps, and typically represents a medium to medium-high level of image compression. Compression is when the pixel data is literally “compressed” to some degree to make the file size smaller.

With JPG images, this compression can lead to a loss of some image detail, but it’s typically unnoticeable unless you’re viewing or printing at large sizes.

Some apps, such as the native iPhone Camera app and Hipstamatic, don’t offer any control over the JPG compression of saved images, and therefore only generate what would be considered a “normal” quality JPG image.

But certain advanced camera apps such as Camera+, ProCamera 8 and PureShot give you additional control over the JPG compression settings. The “Max JPG” column in the results table refers to the highest possible JPG setting that uses the least amount of compression.

Quality options in the Camera+ app

If you’re shooting using one of these advanced camera apps, always check the settings and choose the quality setting that best suits your needs.

A few camera apps also allow you to save your photos as TIFF files. TIFF files are generally higher quality than JPGs. Uncompressed TIFFs can be very large as evident by the sizes shown in the results table for ProCamera 8 and PureShot.

However, one of the great advantages of using TIFF format is that it’s possible to compress TIFFs using a compression format called “LZW” which is a lossless form of compression.

“Lossless” compression simply means that the file is made significantly smaller, yet no image data is lost in the process (as opposed to the “lossy” compression of JPGs). That may seem illogical and even impossible, but it’s true.

If you have the storage space available and don’t mind slightly slower processing times, shooting in TIFF format will result in the highest quality photos that your iPhone is capable of producing.

As you can see from the information in the table above, the results were quite varied across the different camera apps and settings. The good news is that all of the resulting images looked identical to the naked eye when viewed on the iPhone screen.

The differences in quality would only be apparent if you printed your images or viewed them at a large size on-screen.

Editing App Results

Below is a comparison of the file sizes shown in megabytes (MB) and the resolution of the images that I edited with popular photo editing apps.

All of the editing apps were tested using the same original image. I used the photo that I took with the PureShot camera app at the Max JPG setting as it produced one of the best possible JPG images in terms of file size (5.59 MB).

For the Enlight and Filterstorm Neue apps, I also performed an edit using the original TIFF image from PureShot in order to test their ability to handle TIFF images from import to export.

Let’s take a closer look at the results so that you have a better understanding of how to maintain image quality when editing your photos.

Just like the camera app results, keep in mind that the smaller the file size shown in megabytes (MB), the poorer quality the image is likely to be.

Resolution For Editing Apps

You’ll notice from the results that all of the images maintained the original, full resolution of the iPhone 5s camera (3264 x 2448 pixels). This means that the editing apps didn’t reduce the number of pixels in the edited photo when saving.

So the differences in the file sizes were all related to the amount of compression applied by the apps when saving the edited photo.

That being said, some apps like VSCO and Superimpose X do allow you to adjust the resolution of your photos when saving the edited image.

Be mindful of the export settings of your editing apps as they might offer the option to adjust the output resolution.

Reducing the output resolution of your photos will reduce the file size, but the image quality will suffer. In most cases you’d want to save using the highest resolution that the app offers to ensure your images remain the best quality possible.

Compression & File Formats For Editing Apps

As you can see from the results in the editing apps table above, the file sizes of the edited photo varied quite dramatically depending on which app was used.

While the differences in quality would likely only be noticeable when viewing or printing your images at a large size, it’s definitely worth considering these results when choosing which apps to edit your photos with.

Another factor to consider is that some editing apps allow you to change the compression settings/export quality when saving JPG images.

For example, Enlight offers a wide range of JPG compression settings. The lowest quality setting (highest compression level) resulted in an image of only 223 KB, compared to a file size of 2.41MB (2410KB) when saved at the highest quality setting (lowest compression level).

To maintain maximum image quality, save at the highest quality setting (least amount of compression) assuming that the app gives you this option.

If you like to edit your photos using multiple apps, bear in mind that every time you open, edit and save a JPG image, it will result in a small loss of detail due to the compression that’s applied each time the image is saved.

So if you’re putting your image through multiple apps when editing, the quality will gradually decrease by a small amount every time you edit and save.

If the app allows you to save your edited photo in TIFF format, this loss of quality when saving won’t be an issue due to the fact that any compression of a TIFF file is “lossless.” Enlight is one such app that allows you to save images in a lossless TIFF format.

The ability to save images in TIFF format is especially important if you start with TIFF images that you shot in your camera app as it helps to preserve the high quality of the original photo.

Filterstorm Neue is another great editing app that allows you to save images in lossless TIFF format. It also happens to be the best at maintaining the full size of imported JPG images.

TouchRetouch and Superimpose also seemed to maintain the full size of the original JPG images. But all of the other editing apps that I tested compressed the saved JPG files which resulted in much smaller file sizes and likely a loss of additional fine details.

Conclusion

So what does all of this mean for your iPhone photography? Well, that all depends on your personal goals.

Do you only want to share photos online via social media where they’ll be viewed at a fairly small size?

If so, you don’t need to worry too much about shooting and editing using the highest quality settings and apps as you’re unlikely to notice any quality issues when viewing at such a small size.

The iPhone’s native Camera app will be perfectly adequate for taking pictures, and you can use whichever editing app you wish.

If you’re concerned about storage space on your iPhone, shooting with the native Camera app is a good option as it uses higher levels of compression that other more advanced camera apps. This results in smaller file sizes which means you can store more photos on your phone.

If you don’t have much storage space on your phone, consider using an editing app such as Enlight or Filterstorm Neue that allows you to increase the amount of compression when saving your images.

This will keep your images small, thereby maximizing the storage space on your iPhone. But bear in mind that the image quality won’t be as high as it could be.

On the other hand, if you’re very particular about image quality down to the pixel level, or you want to print your photos, then you need to carefully consider which apps to use for shooting and editing.

For the best quality images, shoot with an app such as ProCamera 8 or PureShot so that you can capture images in TIFF format.

You can then try to restrict most of your edits to apps like Filterstorm Neue and Enlight that allow you to save your edits in TIFF format. This maintains the original file format, along with the highest quality fine details.

In conclusion, iPhones are capable of creating high quality images no matter how you take them. However, there are steps that you can take to ensure your images are of the highest possible quality, as long as you don’t mind sacrificing additional storage space to save them.

Once you determine what’s most important to you, simply select the appropriate apps and settings that will help you best achieve your goals.

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