Every year, World Photography Day is celebrated on 19 August to mark the beautiful art of clicking pictures. As with the marvellous advancements in technology, photography has moved beyond just cameras. The best camera, it is said, is one you can carry easily with yourself anywhere. In that regard, smartphones have become the go-to gadget for many of us.
Take a look at some recent examples. According to many news reports, this fall’s Apple iPhone lineup will have new, advanced camera and video capabilities. This would include an AI-driven filter system that stylizes photos and allows for a higher-quality video-recording format, a Bloomberg report explains. “The filters will let users adjust the color temperature, shadows and contrast more precisely than with traditional software app methods, while the video offerings will enable more editing flexibility and the ability to change the amount of background blurring afterward,” the report adds.
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If anything, the creator economy has unlimited options to choose from when it comes to the best camera setup in a modern smartphone. Google’s upcoming Pixel 6 lineup, which is expected to go on sale later this year, will feature new Tensor chips that are designed to further strengthen artificial-intelligence technology in the devices and improve both speech recognition and the processing of photos and video, according to Bloomberg.
A good photography app, for editing or otherwise, helps your clicking experience. Lounge takes a look at five such apps for you to try. Do remember that while most of these apps are free to use, they do come with certain premium features or in-app purchases.
Adobe Lightroom - Photo Editor & Pro Camera
This Editor’s Choice app on Android comes with handy image-editing tools like sliders and filters for pictures that make your photo-editing process simple. Apart from an advanced picture editor, you can even access more than 70 presets, or filters, with Lightroom Premium. Adobe Lightroom is also available on iOS.
Snapseed
Snapseed, which is owned by Google, has been one of the best photo-editing tools in the market for years now. It’s one of the best apps to use if you are clicking photographs and editing them on a small screen. It’s also a good fit for beginners. The app, which is available on both Android and iOS, has close to 29 tools and filters. It can process both JPG and RAW files. Another key feature are the tutorial cards that guide you through the app and offer tips on general photography.
Afterlight
Afterlight is tailor made for the perfect smartphone photo-editing experience. You can access pretty much all of Afterlight’s features from one main screen. It has 15 adjustment tools to enhance your images. If that’s not enough, you can choose from 27 fully adjustable original filters and 14 guest filters submitted by Instagram users, among others. We personally like its ‘Frames’ feature, which gives you access to more than 75 simplistic yet adjustable frames. Afterlight is also available on iOS.
VSCO
VSCO is another photography smartphone app with really impressive features. This photo and video editor comes with 10 free presets. Apart from that, its standard contrast, saturation, and grain editing tools also come handy. Once you sign up for VSCO Membership, which can be done on an annual or monthly subscription, you get access to VSCO’s complete preset library (more than 200+), including the vintage film looks by Kodak, Agfa, and Ilford. VSCO is available on Android and iOS.
Pixlr
Easy to use, Pixlr lets you have a lot of fun with your pictures: with everything from the ability to add text and borders to your images. One of its highlights is the ‘collage’ feature, where you can choose from a variety of preset collages, grid styles, customized ratio, and backgrounds. This app is also available on both iOS and Android.
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