Top photography applications

29 Oct 2013

Fancy yourself a budding photographer? With smartphones, anyone can snap a picture, but these apps will give you the edge.

PicLab and PicLab HD

PicLab lets you create your own typographic images. Choose from an array of wonderful fonts and add multiple layers of text to make your chosen picture pop. You can also apply filters to give the image a funky visual effect, and alter the contrast, brightness and saturation of your photo.

If you’re after more effects, new artwork and more filters, chose the HD option. You’ll have to pay for it though.

PicLab: free
PicLab HD: $1.99

Camera+

Camera+ has a well-designed, easy to use interface with multiple shooting modes including an anti-shake option. It has a handy timer mode so you can take lovely pictures of yourself without that outstretched arm creeping into the frame. You can also set focus and exposure, using separate areas so the picture will always be clear and crisp even with shadows.

Camera+: $0.99

CameraGenius

A useful replacement for the generic camera on your smartphone, CameraGenius is an easy to use, do-it-all application. Zoom in, capture video and set a timer so you’re always in the photo too. Its full-screen camera button also makes capturing moments in a hurry much easier than trying to find the small button on the normal camera app. Other handy features on CameraGenius are anti-shake and burst mode shooting to take three shots in rapid succession.

CameraGenius: $2.99

Snapseed

Snapseed is an editing application featuring brightness, contrast, colour and saturation editing tools. Snapseed also includes adjustable texturing so you can blur your photos and make them look vintage or retro. Plus, filters or effects that you use can be as strong or weak as you wish.

Snapseed: free

PhotoCollage

Create collages with your own photos on your smartphone. Using pre-made templates, all you have to do it choose the shape and then import the photos to merge lots of photos into one. You can then save the collages to your phone or share them on social media with your friends.

PhotoCollage: Free