Cool Apps For Android You’ll Wish You Found Sooner

All professional photographers have a photo editor where they process their creations. Most of them are well-known applications whose names can be known even to people who are not versed in this skill. However, not everyone uses only them; little-known programs can also sometimes adequately compete with popular favorites. Low popularity, lack of finances, poor monetization, and high competition are the 4 horsemen of the marketing industry apocalypse. Because of them, even projects that had good potential are closing down. We have to look for a worthy replacement. So, let's find a photo editor app for Android that will be a good companion in your career.

How Much Apps Have Changed the Lives of Photographers

How can you imagine life without auxiliary applications? They have already become an indispensable part of our lives and are popular even among those who have nothing to do with the photo industry. How long has it been since someone posted a photo on social networks without processing it? It is color correction, removing unnecessary details, or applying filters. 

In the past, Photoshop was used only by real professionals; the complex interface was not given to everyone, and prices made everything even more complicated. It took hours to retouch photos, and the limited tools did not help. Now, almost anyone can do quality processing for free; cool apps for Android can easily handle it. It's easier to follow trends, retouching takes minutes, and a couple of clicks will be enough to clear the photo of unnecessary objects.

Drawing Apps are as Good as Editors.

While you're trying to find decent photo editors, we suggest trying a little drawing. How well will drawing apps cope with photo retouching? They can be used for this, but there are a few nuances; after all, do not forget that they are created for drawing.  Let's try to compare them with the photo editor app Android to see the difference and decide for ourselves if image editors can compete with it.

As we can see in the table, there are drawing apps for Android. MediBang can handle basic photo processing, but it is clearly inferior in capabilities to the others. Ibis Paint X shows itself a little better than the previous one, but the clear winner of our little competition among graphic editors is Krita. The cool free app for Android, which artists choose, will surprise photographers with its capabilities as well. And yet, artists' best friends will cope with this task worse than special programs for retouching.

Ibis Paint X

One of the most famous drawing apps for Android, it is free of charge and has a large number of brushes and filters, which is why many users like it. It will show itself well in retouching because it will not be a problem to remove skin imperfections, lighten or darken the photo, or remove objects manually, just like a stamp in Photoshop. 

Its main disadvantages are overloaded advertising in the interface, poor optimization for large photos, for example, from SLR cameras, and problems with realistic color correction. It will cope with simple retouching perfectly, but for more complex tasks, it is not suitable. 

Krita

An equally popular program, especially among digital artists, with a large arsenal of brushes. You can use it to brighten and darken, remove defects, and spot repair the brush. If that's not enough for you, you can download the brushes you need. Professional work with layers supports blending modes, grouping layers, and their unlimited number. Supports a large number of formats and flexible color correction. What else do you need to make a photographer happy?

Everything can't be so perfect; there are minuses everywhere, and Krita is not an exception. The interface is oriented toward artists, and for beginners, it will be a dense forest. You will have to customize brushes and other tools yourself. A good program requires a good device, so a weak gadget can slow down when working with large files. Still, this program is hardly suitable for professional retouching because it requires AI tools, which it does not have. 

MediBang

A completely free app, with no hidden fees, yet supports all platforms with project synchronization? This is it, that selfless app, or not really? Huge variety of brushes, over 1000 including textured brushes. Layer blending modes include Multiply, Screen, and Overlay. 

At this point, you can take off the rose-colored glasses and look from the other side. Limited professional tools, limitations in working with layers, and problems with color correction. It's fine for basic artistic processing, but retouching isn't the strongest point of this program.

The Longest Step in Photo Processing is Choosing a Filter

They are as indispensable in the art of photography as knowledge of the basics. Their effect can be created with the help of various improvised means, for example, by painting a transparent film with a colored marker and taking photos through it. And you can simply use already ready-made ones in applications. Let's choose together the best application for photo filters, which will become your new assistant.

1. VSCO. With fine-tuning colors and more than 200 different options, one of them will definitely appeal to you. However, some of them are still only available with a subscription. No ads and a minimalistic interface that everyone can understand. Cinematic filters imitating Kodak, Fuji, and Ilford films.

2. PicsArt. Is 1000 effects a lot? But PicsArt thinks the choice is just right: retro, grunge, and neon. Tools for double exposure, background replacement, and masks and layers like in Photoshop. Most features are locked without a subscription, but the price is not very high.

3. Snapseed. Doesn't have many filters, just over 30, but it is good for professional correction. Manually adjust light and color with curves and HSL, and most importantly, it's completely free.

4. Prisma. 300+ options with a focus on paintings, including Van Gogh, Picasso, and anime style. Mx can be applied to videos creating art videos. Optimized for phones, but a significant disadvantage of the free version will be watermarks.

Unlike the previously mentioned programs, this one emphasizes artificial intelligence. Smart AI filters can replace the sky, given the reflection of water and shadows, and add fog, rain, and sunlight. Realistic textures of glare, dust, and light effects. There are some great examples on the homepage; be sure to check out the site to see how it really works.

That's Why an Editor is Only Half the Success

Many will say that apps do everything for you. Effects, removal of unnecessary objects, retouching, color correction, and many other things allow us to improve our photos. But don't forget that 80% of the beauty of a photo depends on knowledge and expertise. No programs will correct gross mistakes made during the photo shoot. That's why they are just our assistants who allow us to add the right atmosphere to the photo and remove some imperfections that we can't control. Now you know how to get out of it and make a drawing application work for you if you don't have your usual companion.