Top photography apps to supercharge your social media feed

Ms Radisic, Public and Academic Programs Officer at the Deakin University Art Gallery and author of the best-selling ebook iPad for Photography Students: Project based approach, said the staggering array of apps available today left no excuse for blurry or boring photographs on social media feeds – or even on the wall at home.

“iPhoneography is not just a trend any longer - it has become a legitimate art form,” Ms Radisic said.

“Mobile devices with high resolution and more versatile lenses, coupled with a wide range of good quality camera and editing apps, have turned our phones into portable digital darkrooms.”

Vanja’s top five photography apps

1. Camera+ by tap tap tap ($2.99)
“Install Camera+ and you’ll never take another blurry or overexposed image again,” Ms Radisic said.

“With great simple-to-use features like a user-friendly interface with instant access to manual focus and exposure controls (ISO), WB and Live Data (showing your current settings), a wide range of fully adjustable filters and editing tools, and the choice to save your images into Photos or a Lightbox gallery, it’s easy to see why Camera+ is one of the most-used apps in the world.”

2. DMD Panorama by Dermandar (99 cents for the Lite version and $3.99 for full version)
“This very simple to use and affordable app is a great place to start when it comes to capturing full-circle 360-degree panoramas,” Ms Radisic said.

“Available on both iPhone and Android, DMD panorama has its own community where you can share and like images and it also connects to a number of selected Flickr groups. You can also print and share directly from the app into Facebook and Twitter.

“Possibly it’s most impressive feature is its ability to share 3D images, even with those who don’t have the app, by saving it as a video file. If you don’t want to spend big on a wide angle lens, it’s a great option for capturing both urban and natural environments.”

3. Hipstamatic by Hipstamatic, LLC ($4.99)
“This retro camera and editor app has been on the market since 2010 and is one of the all-time favourites for those into film photography,” Ms Radisic said.

“The Classic mode turns your iPhone screen into an old fashioned camera with buttons and switches. It even allows you to do multiple exposures by 'rewinding' the film.

“While it offers manual camera settings, such as zoom, focus and shutter speed, the real appeal lies in the beautiful range of fully adjustable analogue filters. You can apply them during a photo shoot as well as in the post-production (by importing an image from Photos on your iPhone), making the app a powerful editing tool.

“Whether you’re into art photography or simply want to capture beautiful images of your day to day life – and have fun doing it! – this app is definitely worth exploring.”

4. Snapseed by Google (Free)
“If I had to choose only one editing app for my device, I’d choose Snapseed,” Ms Radisic said.

“Snapseed has been around for over five years and is still one of the best apps on the market with lots of tools that allow you to correct exposure and lighting, fix focus and clarity, and bring out details in your photographs.

“It’s Selective and Brush tools allow for targeted editing while the Healing tool allows you to remove minor imperfections. It’s ever-growing set of funky filters lets you create anything from High Dynamic Range (HDR) to soft, dreamy photos and the Face filters can help turn your people pics into professional-looking portrait images as they change skin tones, adjust eye clarity and lighting on the face.”

5. Pixelmator for iOS and Pixelmator for Mac by Pixelmator Team ($7.99 and $29.99)
“My favourite feature is its ability to easily change and manipulate colour,” Ms Radisic said.

“It’s clean and user friendly interface allows you to easily access all the editing tools like Add Effects and Adjust Colours by clicking on the “Brush” icon at the top right. For the more artistically inclined, I’d recommend the Paint and Erase tools.

“Another great feature is that Pixelmator is fully compatible with iPencil so you can turn your iPad into a drawing tablet.”