5 Best Photo Editing Apps for Instagram Posts

Every year the cameras in our phones get better and better. Nonetheless, you may still feel the need to edit photos for Instagram. You may either look for professional graphic design services or you can do it yourself with a wide range of photo editing apps. If the amateur photographer in you isn’t feeling like a pro just yet it might be time to invest in a photo editing app. These days anyone and everyone has a phone with a decent camera and knows how to use basic filters so its important that your photos stand out. Check out some of these best photo editing apps for Instagram to help you create stunning photos and get your social media accounts the attention they deserve.
Afterlight 2
One of the best photo editing apps for Instagram is Afterlight 2. Filter fans will rejoice over this app. Choose from an extensive library of filters or use the lighting and color correction tools for precise hues. If you’ve ever used version 1.0, you might notice some changes. Afterlight 2 is a complete overhaul of the original, completely redesigned and redeveloped.
Key Aspects:
- Create your own filters
- Zoom while editing
- Frame your photos with any color or background image
- Curve tool lets you adjust brightness, color, contrast and shadows
- Selective tools for hue, saturation and lightness (HSL)
- Tools for textures and effects
Price: $2.99
iOS & Android app available? Afterlight 2 is available for iOS but only the original version of Afterlight is free to install right now for Android.
VSCO
With this app, not only do you get editing tools, you can access a whole community of photographers with a membership. The yearly membership also provides some extra photo and video editing tools along with bonus tips, tricks and tutorials. If you’re wondering what VSCO stands for, its an abbreviation for Visual Supply Company.
Key Aspects:
- Edit with 10 presets
- Contrast, saturation and grain tools included
- Free content to explore photography
With Membership:
- Edit with 130+ presets
- Presets for vintage film looks by Kodak, Agfa, and Ilford
- Border and HSL tools
- Video editing tools
- Weekly photo challenges
- Bonus member content
Price: Free for basic app, $20/year for membership
iOS & Android app available? Available for both
Lightroom
The makers of Adobe Photoshop made sure you had an app for that well-known desktop program. You can capture and edit photos with this program. The range of Lightroom features depends upon how much you want to pay. While the basic app is free, you can pay extra for additional editing, organizing and storage features or choose an Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud Plan to work with photos across your devices.
Key Features:
- Take photos in raw format
- HDR mode to capture brightest and darkest images
- Five presets allow you to see the effects as you take a photo
- Edits range from simple one-tap presets to advanced adjustments and corrections
- Edit color, exposure, tone, and contrast with the tone curve
- Copy and apply favorite edits across photos
- Rate and flag photos
Premium Features:
- Selectively adjust any part of a photo
- Auto-tag photos
- Back up original photos on the Adobe Creative Cloud
- Import and synchronize photos to Adobe Creative Cloud
- Access to Lightroom web galleries
Price: Free for basic app, $4.99 for premium features, Adobe Creative Cloud Plans range from $9.99 to $19.99.
iOS & Android app available? Available for both
Colourtone
Using the Colourtone app is the easiest way to apply professional quality filters to your photos and videos. Created by a professional photographer, choose from a variety of preset collections and adjustment settings to selectively edit photos and videos. Theres also an in-app camera that pre-applies the filters.
Key Features:
- Twelve different adjustment settings
- Built-in gallery for the import of photos and videos
- Reset button to revert to the original image
- Compare button to see before and after filter effects
Price: Free for basic app. Collection prices range from $0.99 to $3.99
iOS & Android app available? Available for both
Facetune
Known as the original selfie editor, make this your go-to app to retouch and add some artistry to your selfies and portraits. Facetune crooked smiles to skin blemishes and bad hair days, this app has the tools to improve your appearance while applying enhancements to photos overall.
Key Features:
- Perfect smiles
- Beautify Skin
- Enhance eyes or correct red eye
- Edit hair
- Reshape facial structure
- Add makeup
- Light editing
- Blur backgrounds
- Create mirrored image
- Add textures and custom frames
Price: $3.99
iOS & Android app available? Available for both
These are the best Instagram photo editing apps available on the internet. However, if you want to take your social engagement to the next level, you can outsource or buy social media services from a respected firm such as ChicExecs.