Best Photo Editing Apps for iPad

With the advent of mobile technology, photo editing isn’t a desktop-only affair anymore. There are so many apps now on the market for photo-editing on the go — but which ones are the best? We’ve rounded up the best apps that we use for photo editing on iPad.

1. LIGHTROOM

Lightroom is, in our opinion here at Soft October Studio, simply the best photo editing tool available on iPad. Its features include:

• Tone Curves
• Presets
• Color Correction
• Basic Corrections
• Color Grading + HSL
• Crop and Rotate

Lightroom has a free version that’s surprisingly full-featured. However, we believe the paid versions is well worth the extra features, depending on if you need them of course. The paid features include:

• Healing Brush
• Selective Adjustments
• Raw Editing
• Geometry Tools

Price: Free, with Pro Subscription Available at $9.99 USD a month

2. PROCREATE

While not traditionally a photo-editing app, Procreate has some great features that really lend themselves to photo-editing, such as:

• Chromatic Aberration and Glitch Edits
• Bloom
• Layers with Blending Modes

We do the bulk of our editing in Lightroom but Procreate is great for adding some stylistic effects at the end of the process, particularly when working with certain styles such as retro effects (link to fonts!).

Price: $9.99 USD

3. POLARR

If you aren’t a digital artist, and don’t want to pay for Procreate just for a few editing tools, Polarr has some features that are similar, especially with overlays and chromatic aberration. It also has the basics included, such as tone curves, basic correction, colour corrections, and more. Polarr has a free version with most features included, but for the full product you do need to pay a subscription.

Price: Free, with Pro Subscription Available at $2.49 USD per Month

4. ADOBE PHOTOSHOP FIX

If you aren’t paying for the Lightroom subscription, Adobe Photoshop Fix has certain features that can bridge the gap between the paid version and the free version, as long as your willing to move between apps in your workflow. These features include:

• Dodge and Burn
• Healing
• Liquidise

Price: Free

5. VSCO

VSCO is a popular video editing app as it’s easy to use for beginners, and free for most features. They do have a subscription available, for access to all the filter packs available. VSCO’s strength comes from the easy-to-apply filters, as well as its built-in social sharing platform.

Price: Free, with Subscription Available at $19.99 a Year

6. SNAPSEED

Google’s Snapseed is a surprisingly full-featured tool, considering that it is completely free. Snapseed’s features include:

• Basic Corrections
• RAW Editing
• Perspective Tools
• Selective Brush
• Tone Curves
• Expand Image (their most unique feature).

Price: Free

Which photo editing iPad app is your go to? Let us know in the comments below which one is you favourite, or if we missed your favourite!