7 Photography Apps to Enhance Your Instagram Images

As online media consumption becomes increasingly visual, more and more bloggers are turning to Instagram to grow their brand. As a photography app, Instagram is an easy to use visual tool and it can be a great way to give readers an insight into your life in between blog posts, as well as directing a potential audience to your site.

Eye-catching images are key to making your followers double tap and while this may feel daunting, don’t panic – there are a host of apps out there to transform even the most amateur photography into artistic gold. Here are seven of our favourites:

Aviary

Feeling limited by Instagram’s editing capabilities? Download Photo Editor by Aviary for free and watch your photos transform. The app has over 20 free tools, including teeth whitening, blemish removal, stickers and drawing tools, giving you the ability to create memes and more.

Price: Free | Platform: Android and iOS

Slow Shutter Cam

Slow Shutter Cam is a clever little app, which lets you give your photos a slow shutter speed effect (motion blurring, light trails etc.) with your iPhone or iPod. There are three modes:

– Automatic mode – to create ghost images, waterfall effects or suggest movement by adding a blur.

– Manual mode – allows the camera to accumulate as much light as possible in low-light conditions.

– Light trail mode – allows you to ‘paint’ with light, and capture moving light such as car trails and fireworks.

Price: £0.69 | Platform: iOS

Bokehful

Rather than offering a comprehensive list of features, Bokehful simply offers a bit of fun. The app allows you to add colourful light effects to your photos, in circle, heart, star or hexagon shapes. You can also change the colour gradient or transparency of the ‘bokeh’.

Price: £0.69 | Platform: iOS

Quick

Want to quickly add text to photos? Quick could be for you. The app has a text overlay feature, with a variety of fonts to complement your Insta-images.

Price: Free | Platform: iOS and Android

Square FX

There’s nothing more annoying than having to crop your carefully taken photo because it won’t fit into the Instagram frame. This handy app allows you to upload your full-sized photo, without having to cut it down.Crop n’ Square is a similar app available on Android.

Price: Free | Platform: iOS

Afterlight

If you want an extensive and flexible selection of vintage-effect filters, natural textures and frames, Afterlight is a great choice. It has

– 59 fully adjustable filters.

– 66 natural textures including film light leak effects.

– 128 scalable frames.

The resulting photos are truly stunning.

Price: £0.69 (iOS) £0.59 (Android) | Platforms: iOS and Android

PicFrame

If one photo per post simply isn’t enough, Pic Frame allows you to combine multiple photos or videos into a variety of frames. There are 73 fully-adjustable frames to choose from, and you can also add text labels, rounded corners, photo effects, shapes, shadows, patterns and colours.

Price: £0.69 (iOS) £0.60 (Android) | Platforms: iOS and Android

Facetune

In the age of the ‘selfie’, Facetune really is a gift from above. Got a pimple? Laughter lines? There’s no need to fear – the app allows you to perfect your skin, whiten your smile, emphasize your best features, fill in bald patches and even reshape your expression and facial structure.

Price: £1.99 (iOS) £0.60 (Android) | Platforms: iOS and Android

Pop Kick

To end on a fun note, let’s take a look at Pop Kick – an app that lets you turn your photos into colourful pop art. With 12 pop filters and five filter enhancements, you can create a range of results and make your photos truly stand out. You can see examples here.

Price: £1.99 | Platforms: iOS

All of these apps will help to make your photos stand out from the crowd. Do you have a favourite photography app to use with Instagram? Let us know in the comments.

The Fake Followers Phenomenon

We're seeing a rise in the number of fake followers and follower buying services available, would you buy your Instagram followers? Here's why you shouldn't

The Platform to Watch: Musical.ly

Musical.ly is the platform little of us know about yet has created the biggest Instagram and YouTube stars of the century. Discover the power of Musical.ly and the social media stars which have emerged in our latest blog post.

The Debate: Is Social Media Bad For Your Health?

We're constantly hearing about social media side effects and it's impact on mental health but there are many positives of our increasingly digital world.