Ever wonder what apps bloggers use for photos? By now, you know that photography is essential for blogging, marketing, and basically every form of digital content. People love visuals, and for good reason! They bring a topic to life, showcase far more than words could ever say, provide context, and help to express the author’s view point.
Great imagery goes beyond helping to showcase a story or topic, however. It also helps content to be more sharable and extends the longevity of a piece by providing the means to share across platforms such as Instagram or Pinterest. And speaking of social media, the importance of photography for platforms like Instagram can’t be overstated! It is a part of the foundation of the platforms and thus needs to be taken seriously.
We’re all mini photographers today, with phones in our pockets that are more powerful than ever.
Particularly if you’re interested in blogging, marketing, or helping to bring to life digital content, it’s important to know how to take and edit phots! Heck, even if you’re not interested in blogging or marketing, editing your photos is a great way to make them more visually appealing.
Bloggers are a scrappy bunch who have to excel at a lot of different elements to create content that sticks. Copywriting, SEO, photography, PR tactics, and growing our websites are among the foundational elements that every blogger needs to practice. So, it’s no wonder that looking at what apps bloggers use for photos can help point to ways that you can quickly and easily create amazing images without necessarily needing to have a professional background!
But there’s just one problem…the sheer amount of apps available can actually be overwhelming, right?!
I thought I’d share some of my tried and true favorite apps bloggers use for photos, in hopes it can help you! While I don’t claim to be a professional photographer and have so much to learn, photography and editing is a huge passion area of mine that I’m constantly trying to improve on.
10 Apps Bloggers Use For Photos That Help Make Imagery Stand Out
Lightroom
Am I Adobe Lightroom’s biggest fan? It’s possible. Lightroom is my go to for all photo editing, whether on my phone or desktop. It’s also the most popular photo editing app for professional photographers. where I go to apply the presents that I use on my photos, particularly for the ones on Instagram. (Presets are essentially a way to edit photos with consistency. It means “pre-determined position”, meaning all the sliders within Lightroom are “saved” and helps to create a cohesive look and feel for photos when applied.)
I love both the mobile and desktop versions of Lightroom, and highly recommend having both if you’re interested in taking your photography to the next level! Not only can you edit flawlessly with Lightroom in a simply and fast way, but I love its ability to organize and export photos easily. Plus, Lightroom has the capability to edit in RAW (a file format for photos that doesn’t compress the information like JPEGS, thus allowing for better editing.)
A Color Story
When I want to add a graphic element or effect to my photos, A Color Story is my first stop! They have lots of amazing filters, effects, and tools that add pops of fun to photos. Some of my favorites include adding a color fog and light leaks to photos. (You can see an example of a “color fog” below!)
The above is an example of what editing can do! On the left is the “Before” image with no editing applied. The right is the “After” image. To help bring more personality and color to this photo, I used A Color Story to add in a light pink sky to emulate a sun setting, and I also added a little more “spark” to the sparklers in Lens Light because the sparks were a little hard to see.
Snapseed
Snapseed is Google’s photo editing app and is my runner up to Lightroom as favorite for general editing. Applying edits such as brightness and contrast are super easy with app, as is adjusting things like white balance. Overall, I like the user interface and adjustment tools of this app — it’s intuitive and has a wide range of tools! Another great thing about this app is that it does edit both JPEG and RAW file formats, for those like me who shoot in RAW.
VSCO
VSCO is great because it has so many amazing, high quality editing filters! I know a lot of bloggers who solely edit on VSCO for Instagram. They have a lot of nice filters for emulating vintage and film-like photography in particular.
Lens Light
Lens Light is one of my favorites for playing with light leaks or adding light effects such as sun glares. I use this sporadically and only when it makes sense, but when I do, I definitely feel like it helps to bring an added pop to photos!
On St. Patrick’s Day, I wore a vintage green suit and threw some pretend gold coins in the air to help convey a modern day leprechaun. (I was trying to be so clever – ha!) On the left is the “Before” image with my preset applied from Lightroom. The right is the “After” image, with Lens Light sun glares added to a few of the gold coins. The latter definitely helps to make a more visually interesting photo!
Preview
For planning your Instagram feed. Sometimes, you need to see your grid laid out to see how the flow will come to life! In this app, you can also find the best Instagram hashtags to use with your photos, edit, and track Instagram analytics.
The above are the apps that I personally use, however there are so many more that can help bring your imagery to the next level! Below are some of the common ones also used for blogging or editing mobile photography in general and that I’ve heard great things about.
Canva
This is a great app for blogging and Pinterest in particular. Canva helps to create graphic overlays and bring design elements to imagery. Particularly useful for creating graphics with wording on them for Pinterest! (Pinterest pins that have wording tend to perform much better than ones without.)
Facetune
For selfie or portrait editing. Within this app, you can do everything from retouching to whitening your teeth! Because, ya know, there are days when zits happen. 😉
Photowonder
Edit photos and build in unique effects in one place. Can do everything from add frames to imagery, add in water reflections to adding on longer eyelashes to photos.
Tezza App
Popular Instagrammer Tezza created her own app for photo editing. I haven’t personally used this, but I love she has included her personal presets as well as tips for posing and photography within this app!
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If you’re interested in exploring photography more definitely check out the above! All these apps can help to take your images to the next level. And remember — no matter what app your use or how you edit — the best way to learn and grow is to practice, practice, practice! (Something I’m always doing!)
3 comments
Hi Emily, I love tezza app the editing features of this app however I am tired of this app crashing everytime I try to use it. Literally everytime. Almost not even worth it if I can’t use the app. Needs to be debugged.
It is a trend for photos to look like how the app makes them look. You have an orange tint but it makes blues and such pop out. (Use vintage filter). This app is amazing for instagram pictures and I love not having to complete 7+ steps to get “the real Tezza” when I can get the filter in one click. Very happy with the app. ☺️
I love the filters and the way it makes my photos look, but it has been crashing every time I try to edit a photo here lately. Really wishing I could find away around this but nothing has been working 😕