Best camera and photo editing apps for your iPhone

If you just bought a new iPhone, there are a number of things you can do to get the most out of the great camera you have in your pocket. I’ve selected some of the best camera and photo editing apps to help you enhance your photos on your iPhone. Even if you’re already a long-time iPhone user, it’s worth trying these apps.

halide

Halide is probably the most popular app for those who are serious about action photography, and one of my favorite iPhone apps. It has all the advanced controls you’d expect from a professional camera, including shutter speed, ISO and white balance adjustments.

However, Halide is more than just a camera app with manual controls. The app has some unique features that enhance photos by using artificial intelligence and other technologies. For example, iPhone XR and iPhone SE (2nd generation) users can take portrait photos of animals and objects even without the two rear camera lenses.

You can also take high-quality RAW photos, check histogram and metadata information, precisely adjust focus with focus peaking, export a depth map of your image, set up Siri shortcuts, and more. I’m also a fan of the “zero processing” feature, which skips the iPhone’s standard image processing and produces more natural-looking photos.

You can try halide Free on the App Store. The app requires an annual subscription for $19.99, or a lifetime license for $59.99 after a 7-day trial.

Professional camera moments

Moment’s Pro Camera is another great app for users who want complete control over how they take photos on their iPhone. It offers complete manual control, including exposure and ISO adjustments, RAW support, manual focus, slow shutter, and even 4K time-lapse shooting.

Interestingly, the Pro Camera isn’t just for photos, it also offers the same manual controls you use for shooting videos on your iPhone. Users can easily switch between different resolutions, frame rates and color profiles – including LOG on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Multiple bitrates and anamorphic lenses are also supported.

you can buy Moment Pro Camera is $8.99 on the App Store. Some additional features can be unlocked through in-app purchases.

Photon

Photon provides all the controls you need to create powerful, professional photos. Developed by the creators of the popular Camera+Photon has multiple options to manually adjust and control the iPhone camera before taking a photo. Users can precisely adjust focus, exposure (using shutter speed and ISO settings) and white balance.

To make your photos perfect, Photon offers advanced tools like focus peaking, which accentuates exactly where the lens is focused. The app also supports different photo formats such as HEIF, JPEG, ProRAW, and RAW. For users of iPhone 14 Pro, the app allows users to easily select 12-megapixel and 48-megapixel photos when using the main wide-angle lens.

Photon is now available on the App Storeand requires an iPhone running iOS 16 or later. While you can download it for free, manual controls are only available with a monthly subscription of $3.99 or an annual subscription of $19.99.

darkroom

Once you’ve taken great photos with your iPhone, you’ll need some professional tools to edit them – but you don’t need a computer. Darkroom is one of my favorite photo editors because it not only works on iPhone, but also on iPad and Mac.

One of the best things about Darkroom is that the app is very intuitive and easy to use, even if you’re not a professional photographer. The app integrates with iCloud Photo Library, so you don’t have to waste time selecting and importing photos for editing.

Using Darkroom, you can adjust the brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, color temperature and other details of the photos you’ve taken. The app also allows you to edit videos and even instant photos. Additionally, you’ll find a curve editor, watermark options, advanced support for RAW photos, and even integration with the Halide app.

The best part is that you can use most of Darkroom’s features for free, which is Available on the App Store. A monthly subscription of $6.99 unlocks all app features.

lamp room

Adobe Lightroom is a famous photo editor used by many professionals around the world, and although it is best known for its desktop version, Adobe also offers a mobile version of Lightroom for iOS.

It’s easy to edit photos in Lightroom for iOS, even if they were shot in RAW format. The app includes options to adjust lights, colors, effects, details, and more. You can even distort a photo, apply lens corrections, or use automatic mode to set the best settings for the image. It also has different color profiles and settings presets.

If you subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud, you can sync everything between the mobile and desktop versions of the app, so you can start editing a photo on your iPhone and finish it on your Mac or iPad.

The mobile version of Lightroom is Available for free on the App Storebut you can get the most out of the app by becoming an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber.

Double take

Since cameras are made of more than just photos, this list wouldn’t be complete without an app for processing videos. DoubleTake is an app created by the same company behind FiLMiC Pro that offers a new way to record videos with your iPhone.

Sometimes capturing video with just one camera isn’t enough, which is why DoubleTake has a simple yet smart solution. If you need to record videos from two different angles to create more professional content, the app lets you choose two iPhone cameras to capture everything simultaneously.

You can choose from ultra-wide, wide-angle, telephoto, and selfie lenses to start your multi-camera videos. The app also allows you to switch between 24, 25 and 30 frames per second. There are no complicated settings or anything like that – all you have to do is open the app, select the camera you want, and start recording.

DoubleTake is available for Free on the App Store.

Light Master

Photomator is an image editor from the same developer as the popular illustration app Pixelmator. Recently acquired by Apple. Even so, Photomator is still available on the App Store and offers professional tools for editing photos.

With Photomator, you can do things like edit colors, apply gradients, change lighting, use AI to erase objects, and even use machine learning to increase image resolution. The app also supports over 750 RAW image formats, including Apple ProRAW and Fujifilm RAW.

Light Master Available on the App Store – You can try it for free. Users can choose a subscription model or purchase a lifetime license, which usually costs $119.99. The app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Mac.

wrap up

With the apps listed here, you have everything you need to start shooting and editing with your iPhone like a pro. While there are some paid apps, such as Halide, you can find great alternatives for enhancing your photos for free on the App Store.

Are there any other apps I didn’t mention in the list that would take better photos? Let me know in the comments below.

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