How to edit photos on mobile

During your last vacation, you took a lot of photos with your mobile phone and, after returning home, you decided to make a selection of the most beautiful ones, to upload them to an album on the social networks that you frequently use. Before doing so, however, you would like to give an extra touch to those that have come out better and, for this reason, you would like to know how to edit photos on mobile effectively.

If you are not very practical with the use of the smartphone and if you are interested in knowing if there are photo editing tools that allow you to obtain satisfactory results, you will be pleased to know that you have come across the right tutorial and at the right time! In the course of this guide, in fact, I will explain step by step how to use some native Android and iOS tools dedicated to editing photos and also how to succeed through valid third-party apps.

How do you say? Does the topic intrigue you and you can't wait to find out more? I can imagine! Okay, take a few minutes of free time, sit comfortably and, smartphone in hand, carefully follow the instructions contained in the next paragraphs, in order to identify the app that's right for you and find out how to use it for changing the photo. Are you ready to get started? Yup? Very well! At this point, all I have to do is wish you a good read and, above all, a good time!

Google Photo (Android / iOS)

The first application that I recommend you use to edit photos on your mobile is Google Photos. This is the free app developed by Google available on Android and iOS, which is mainly used for multimedia management of the contents in the memory of your device and their online synchronization on Google Drive.

However, it must be specified that the space offered free of charge by the service is unlimited only if the upload takes place via the option High quality, which limits the resolution of content to 16MP for photos and 1080p for videos. Otherwise, for resolution upload original content, the free space is 15 GB, expandable for a fee starting from € 1,99 / month.

Su Android app Google Photos it is present by default as it is pre-installed in many devices. If this is not true for your device, download it via the Play Storepigging your pulse Install in correspondence with the card of the same. Up iOSInstead, download it for free via the App Store, identifying it via the search engine and then pressing the button Ottieni / Installa. To confirm the app download, use Face ID, Touch ID or type your iCloud account password.

Once installed, launch the Google Photos by pressing on its icon that will have been added to the home screen or drawer, then log in with your account Google and make sure that the Backup and synchronization is active and set to High quality, to be able to use the unlimited space.

Once this is done, identify, through the section Gallery o Album, the photo you want to edit and tap it to view it. Now, to change it, press the icon ofgear located at the bottom and use the buttons visible on the screen to make adjustments.

For example, the button of a sticker is used to apply changes via filters while pressing the icon of thegear, you can adjust the parameters concerning the light, colore and detail. If, on the other hand, you want to change the orientation of the photo, press the icon of ruler. To confirm the changes, click on Save, which is located in the upper right corner.

Snapseed (Android / iOS)

Among the most famous free applications dedicated to editing photos on mobile there is certainly Snapseed, a famous application developed by Google that offers, at no cost, numerous tools for editing photos on both Android and iOS.

The strength of this app is certainly its extreme simplicity of use, as well as the ability to edit photos both in a simple way, through the use of filters, and through the use of professional tools for editing and / or photo retouching.

To use the app, download it via the Play Store of Android or theApp Store iOS, by pressing the button Install (Android) or on those Ottieni / Installa (on iOS), then on iOS, authorize the start of the download via Face ID, Touch ID or entering the password of your iCloud account. At the end of the automatic download, start the app by pressing the button apri, or touch its icon that will have been added to the home screen and / or drawer of the device.

Once the application is started, you consent to the requests that are shown on the screen, relating to access to the camera and the multimedia gallery, in order to be able to use Snapseed in all its features. Once this is done, press the button capacitor positive (+) lead located in the center and select the image you want to edit.

Now choose whether to modify the photo using one of the available effects or whether to use one of the tools in the section Instruments, such as the button Calibra (is called Calibrate image on iOS) which allows you to modify the main parameters of a photo in an advanced way, such as brightness e contrast.

The modification takes place through a gesture system: with a swipe from top to bottom (or vice versa) you can choose the parameter to be modified and then adjust it through a swipe from left to right (or vice versa). To confirm the changes, press the icon √ located in the lower right corner, then save the image in the device memory by pressing the button Export located at the bottom. Now, in the menu that appears, choose one of the options related to saving and exporting that I am about to show you.

Premendo sul pulsating Save su Android you can create a copy of the original photo by saving it on your device. The button Save, on iOS, on the other hand, it is used to overwrite the original image and, in this case, you must consent to the modification by pressing the next button Modification. Still on iOS, tap on Save a copy, to save a copy of the original image.

Be on Android that on iOS, if you want to save a copy of the photo with a specific resizing, format and quality, press the icon (...) located in the upper right corner and by pressing on the menu item Settings, select the options you are interested in regarding the wording Image resizing e Format and Quality.

Done this, on the menu item Export, presses on the next item Export to save a copy of the image with the previously indicated export parameters. Also, on Android, by tapping on the menu item Export as, you can choose to save the image to a different folder on your device. Alternatively, use the button Share to share the image with another person or export it to another application.

VSCO (Android/iOS)

Another free application for Android and iOS that is widely used to edit photos on mobile is VSCO. If you have never heard of it, it is a famous professional tool for multimedia editing, which allows you to edit a photo in an advanced way, with a fairly immediate use.

Even if the app can be used at no cost, some modification parameters and some filters are subject to a fee: to obtain them, you need to subscribe to the program VSCO X which, with a price of € 20,99 / year on Android and € 21,49 a year on iOS, allows you to have unlimited access to all the filters and all the editing tools of the app.

To use VSCO, therefore, download the application using the button Install from the Android Play Store or press the buttons Ottieni / Installa of the iOS App Store and, in the latter, start the download via Face ID, Touch ID or entering the password of the iCloud account.

At the end of this operation, start VSCO, pressing on its icon that will have been added to the home screen of your device, then, at the first access (on Android), choose whether to create an optional account or to go directly to the modify, by pressing on the symbol X located at the top.

If you want to start editing a photo immediately, press the icon with the symbol of a machine photographic (is the symbol of square on iOS), then presses the button capacitor positive (+) lead and you agree to the requests that are shown to you regarding access to your device's media gallery and camera.

Now, select the image to edit and press the button Import located at the bottom, then press the icon with the symbol of a gear so you can use the VSCO editor. To modify the image, choose whether to apply filters (they are those visible in the section with the symbol of square) or whether to manually apply changes to parameters such as exposure, contrast and hue, the latter visible by pressing the icon ofgear located at the bottom.

Photo (iOS)

If you own a iPhone or iPad, you can easily make basic changes to images through the use of the app Gallery, i.e. the free default multimedia management application on iOS.

To proceed, start the app in question by pressing on its icon on the home screen (it has the symbol of a multicolored flower), then locate, in the folder Gallery o Album, the image you want to edit and tap on it.

Fatto ciò, pigia sul pulsating Modification, which you can see located in the upper right corner, and start using the tools located in the bottom bar. The symbol of the ruler allows you to crop the image, the button shot allows you to apply filters in real time, while the icon of the Magic wand (located at the top right) is used to improve the photo automatically.

If, on the other hand, you want to manually modify the parameters such as for example Light, Color and Black and White, tap on the symbol of stopwatch located in the menu bar at the bottom and select the parameters you want to modify, pressing them to expand the relative submenu. To adjust the selected parameters use the gestures, swiping from left to right or vice versa.

When you have finished making changes, click on end to automatically apply them to the original. In case of second thoughts, you can restore the previous version of the modified image, by pressing first on the image, then on Modification and infine your voice Restore. Then confirm the restore operation by pressing on the item Revert to original.

More tips for editing photos on mobile

There are so many applications that you can use to edit photos on your mobile, both for free and for a fee: the ones I have reported to you are among the best, but there are also others that are worth considering.

Now even the most famous companies in the digital sector offer solutions of this type: the software house is a clear example of this Adobe, known for Photoshop and other professional multimedia editing software, which has released several free apps for smartphones or tablets suitable for editing photos, whose operation follows that of its famous PC software: Adobe Photoshop Express (Android / iOS) and Adobe Lightroom CC (Android / iOS).

Other interesting applications, which you can consider to edit photos, are Autodesk Pixlr (Android / iOS) and Prisma (Android / iOS): Two tools that I told you about in depth in my tutorial on photo apps, as well as in my guide dedicated to photo editing apps.

In this regard, to know the names of many other applications absolutely recommended for editing photos on your mobile, I suggest you read my tutorial dedicated to applications to improve photos or the one in which I tell you about the ones that are the best. to take perfect photos, like for example Photo Editor (Android).

Finally, I suggest you refer to the archive of my guides dedicated to photo editing in which you can find various tutorials on the apps to be used for editing photos in every aspect and possibly also similar suggestions on how to edit photos online or through computer programs. .

How to edit photos on mobile