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Best Photo Editor Apps for Influencer-Level Pictures: Expert Review
Would you like a more polished look for the pics you post on social media? Find out which app will let you snap and edit the perfect selfie with the least amount of hassle.

Introduction
Few things represent our time better than the selfie. If you're looking to make them look particularly polished - for your social media or even a marketing campaign - you may be wondering if it's worth it to shell out a monthly fee for editing tools. Luckily, we tested our favorites for the job and compared them in fine detail, determining Adobe Photoshop Express as our #1 pick for its all-inclusive features with the Creative Cloud Suite. Here are all of our results:
The tradition continues
The good old piece of software still holds its own against a legion of newcomers. Even after 25 years in the business, Adobe has still got it, and if you have to pick a one-stop-shop, their Photoshop app is the one to turn to.
Why we chose Adobe Photoshop Express:
- A big name with a long tradition that lives up to its trustworthy reputation
- An intuitive user interface that will be easy to use even for the most inexperienced photo editor
- An enormous number of filters, retouching brushes, and special effects with amazing attention to detail
- $9.99 per month for a plethora of premium features and Adobe Lightroom is included for even more filtering power
- $49.99 per month will unlock a set of no less than 20 Adobe apps through Creative Cloud
Spring for the upgrade if:
- You are employed in the creative industry and need many different platforms to satisfy your professional needs - from raster graphics to vectors and even 3D modeling
Stick to free if:
- You're just looking to perfect your selfies for IG and don't necessarily want to make a living out of graphic design
Really you can't go wrong with Photoshop if you're looking to polish your social media presence. And if it's worth it to spring for the whole
Read Adobe Photoshop Express' Full ReviewA wonderful newcomer
This app injects a healthy dose of fun into the process. It is the one you simply cannot skip if you're looking to make some quirky yet beautiful imagery.
Why we chose Bazaart:
- Hundreds upon hundreds of artsy filters and collage elements that will turn your photos into something truly fantastic
- User-friendly enough to be a child's toy yet still powerful enough to satisfy the needs of a professional influencer
- Excellent connection to most social media outlets
- Very quick to load and apply any set of filters or effects
- Only costs $4.99 per month for an endless amount of creative options
All lovers of whimsical, weird, hilarious imagery should give this one a go.
Read Bazaart's Full ReviewStellar solution for flawless selfies
Not to be confused with the original, the second version offers so much more than its predecessor. A well-rounded platform for influencers from all walks of life.
Why we chose Facetune2:
- Designed with selfies in mind and a robust set of editing tools for retouched perfection
- A ton of automatic pre-sets for all sorts of looks and styles
- Can add natural-looking make-up or change the pattern of your clothing in just a few taps
- Free to download and try with enough features to give you a good feel of what the app is all about
- $9.99 per year is a steal for all these tools and features
Facetune2 also boasts an attractive, modern interface that is not only simple to use but also very fun. Definitely one to look into for putting your best face forward.
Read Facetune2's Full ReviewEverything We Recommend
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Our PickPHOTO FUN FOR EVERYONE
Tap into your creativity on the go with Photoshop Express–a fun, fast, and easy picture editor for one-touch transformations and photo edits–used by millions of creative individuals. Make pro-looking images with an easy-to-use digital studio on your mobile device.
Photoshop Express delivers a full spectrum of tools and effects at your fingertips. Personalize your experiences with sticker makers, enhance color gradients and imagery, create pic collages, generate memes, make quick fixes and heighten your share-worthy moments.
PERSPECTIVE CORRECTION
Instantly fix crooked images and correct distorted camera angles.
REMOVE NOISE
Smooth graininess, reduce color noise, and sharpen details to make your photos look their best.
APPLY BLUR
Use radial blur to blend out backgrounds and shift focus to specific subjects or full blur to create movement.
PERSONALIZE WITH STYLE
Customize images with the sticker maker, create memes and captions, style your text with a wide array of fonts and layouts, add borders and frames, and stamp creations with custom watermarks.
CHOOSE FROM HUNDREDS OF LOOKS, EFFECTS AND FILTERS FOR PICTURES
Dehaze pictures to remove fog in a scene, apply dramatic filters for pictures, and easily slide to adjust color temperature, vibrance and other color effects.
ASSEMBLE STUNNING PIC COLLAGES
Create professional-quality compilations by adding ready-to-use photo grid layouts and modifying borders and colors.
SPOT HEALING
Easily reduce blemishes and spots from selfies and portraits.
QUICK FIXES
Automatically adjust contrast, exposure and more with one-touch adjustments; easily crop, straighten, rotate for eye-catching layouts, and magically remove red-eye and pet-eye from your favorite moments.
QUALITY PHOTO IMPORT AND SHARING
Upload images from multiple sources and formats (including raw and TIFF), posting your favorites directly to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and other social platforms or share them in email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Line to inspire others.
Make photo magic happen with the Photoshop Express picture editor from Adobe - proud makers of the Photoshop family. Create fun, shareable memes, personalized pic collages and stickers.
Adobe Terms of Use:
You must be 13 or older and agree to Adobe’s terms and privacy policy.
http://www.adobe.com/go/terms_linkfree
http://www.adobe.com/go/privacy_policy_linkfree
Do not sell my information: https://www.adobe.com/privacy/ca-rights.htmlCostFreeFreeIn-App Purchases$2.99 - $34.99 per item$4.99 - $49.99 per item -
Runner UpBazaart is an award-winning photo editing and graphic design app that will help you easily create beautiful photos, professional designs and stunning collage art. Get ready to discover endless creativity!
GET CREATIVE 💫
• Magically remove the background from photos
• Cut out photos artistically with the eraser tool
• Add thousands of amazing backgrounds and stickers
• Add text using a great selection of beautiful fonts
• Select photos, scale, rotate, position, duplicate and flip with simple touch gestures
• Use photos from your gallery, Google Photos, Dropbox and more
• Create designs in a wide variety of preset sizes or in a custom size
• Save your image as a JPG or PNG (transparent background)
• Share creations on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Text, Email, and wherever you want
PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION 🍒
Premium is a monthly subscription providing full access to magic background eraser, a huge library of backgrounds, fonts and stickers, VIP support and removes the watermark.
Your Bazaart Premium subscription will automatically renew at the end of each term and your credit card will be charged through your Google Play account unless you unsubscribe. Refunds will not be provided for any unused portion of the term.
Need help? Please email us at support@bazaart.me and we will get back to you quickly!
BAZAART® is a registered trademark of Bazaart Ltd.CostFreeFreeIn-App Purchases$1.49 - $3.99 per item$4.99 - $47.99 per item -
Also GroovyFacetune2 is an easy to use photo editor that helps you retouch your selfies and acts as your own personal makeover studio. Get that natural beauty look in seconds and share it with your followers.
The next generation upgrade of the award-winning Facetune photo editor app provides a new collection of retouching filters and amazing image correction features. Get ready to win new followers and get more likes with your photos!
🔥🔥🧚♀️Upgrade your social game with Facetune2’s top-of-the-art selfie enhancer now! 🦄🔥🔥
💄 Powerful Tools for Selfie and Photo Editing
- Retouch your selfies, choose from dozens of free filters, blur your background and touch up your features using amazing photo editing tools
- Glam yourself up and use vibrant glowing filters to upgrade every photo for a fashionable look
- Easy Compare tool to compare before & after
- Get impeccable results with professional-looking photos
- Edit your selfie in real-time right after you snap it
🎨 Amazing Makeover Tools and Image Correction Features
- A wide range of high-quality beauty filters for unique editing and sense of style
- Use makeup brushes to retouch your features
- Use Reshape to re-adjust or tweak your selfie
- Tap to crop, blur, and fine-tune your photos for a beautiful look
- Enjoy amazing editing tools like colorful light effects
- Use Details to accentuate features you like. Brighten your eyes and make them sparkle
✨ Remove Zits, Pimples & Blemishes
- Get rid of zits, pimples and blemishes within seconds
- In a few taps, our advanced tools will remove any pores, blemishes or pimples and will
soften your skin
💁♀️ Smooth Out Your Skin
- Use Smooth to airbrush your skin to get a softer look
- Edit, retouch and refine any part of your skin to make it look naturally soft in every photo
- Blot away the shine from oily skin
Facetune2, the selfie enhancing app, gets every photo 100% glam and ready to make everyone stop scrolling. Step up your social game and share your selfies.
Share the enhanced photos with your followers and stay on top of the latest beauty trends! Send us your retouched pictures and selfies for a chance to be featured for free! https://www.facetuneapp.com/
- Facetune2 image editor’s terms of use: http://facetuneapp.appspot.com/files/facetune-terms.pdf
- Facetune2 image editor’s privacy policy: http://www.facetuneapp.com/files/facetune-privacy.pdfCostFree$3.99In-App Purchases$0.99 - $84.00 per itemNo
The 411 from our Appventurer
How we tested?
The apps we focused on come from very different backgrounds. Some are professional tools, others specialize in social media content. It was a bit tricky trying to apply the same criteria to all of them, but we somehow managed to cover as much ground as possible.
We compared the number of features available and also took the prices into consideration. This allowed us to see how much bang for your buck you can get from each piece of software and whether paying for it is worth it at all.
To make things easier, we used the same images throughout in order to see which app performs the best, gives the most realistic but also the most visually attractive results. Overall interface and compatibility with other apps were also on our list of priorities.
Why get the app?
Taking a selfie is so much more than just snapping a quick picture of your face. Since the advent of smartphones, it has become a veritable art form and a way in which everyone from reality stars to classical musicians chronicles their daily lives and adventures. It has even become a form of income for those with a large enough following.
Taking care of your social media presence does require a bit of skill. This is why, over time, many people have started opting for ways to digitally enhance their pictures and present a more polished look. Influencers and those employed in online marketing are particularly known for this, even if a small minority does go overboard with filters.
If you want a classy, beautiful, effortlessly perfected look, you will need an app that will let you fine-tune your selfies or indeed any other kind of image you wish to post. You really want to have these tools readily available at your fingertips right after snapping your picture, since airdropping to a computer to edit just to transfer back to your phone for posting is a major drag. Not to mention some of these apps are only available on mobile.
More About Adobe Photoshop Express: Our Pick
There are few programs more famous than Photoshop. During more than two and a half decades of its existence across numerous platforms, it has quite literally become synonymous with the process of retouching pictures. With the advent of smartphones and their ever-growing power, Adobe decided to port this powerful set of tools onto the new gadgets, and we must admit that they have done a wonderful job.
True to its original purpose, Photoshop Express casts a wide net and manages to cover each and every nuance of editing. This is not just about selfies - it is also about landscapes, cityscapes, multi-figure compositions, and everything in between.
The journey begins by logging in through Google or Facebook and allowing the app to access the media on your device. You can edit an existing picture or snap a selfie on the go. That's when the fun begins.
You can crop the image, add effect, superimpose a wealth of filters, remove blemishes, unwanted elements, and backgrounds, use the liquify tool to move your features around, remove noise, apply blur, and tweak things to perfection. Red-eye correction and stickers are, naturally, also a part of the free package. In addition, you can also create watermarks, use the amazing collage feature, and directly share your artwork through social media.
You can go for a perfectly airbrushed look or something more subtle - the choice is yours. The software doesn't favor one nor the other but instead offers you everything you may need to show yourself the way you like. This approach sets it apart from most other apps that try to simplify the process to such an extent that certain basic features are completely omitted. Photoshop does not make that mistake and offers a strong foundation as well as advanced features.
The free version is perfectly ok and will satisfy most casual users. For many, there will be no need to consider the premium option.
When it comes to the paid version, you have two options. One is to invest $9,99 a month and, for that sum, gain full access not only to Photoshop Express but also to the mobile version of Lightroom. This makes a separate purchase of the latter redundant and will save you quite a bit of cash.
The second possibility you have is reserved for those who want the absolute maximum from their software. It costs a staggering $49.98 but allows you to access the full palette of tools that Adobe has to offer - including the above-mentioned Lightroom, along with 18 other apps. Illustrator, InDesign, and XD are just a part of this amazing offer.
If illustration, design, or photo editing is something you do for work, this could be well worth the investment. Yes, the sum is a bit bigger than that paid for most other apps on the list but, for truly premium results, it can be a good buy.
Snags but not drags:
A comprehensive solution such as Photoshop offers a challenge for any reviewer. It took us quite a bit of time to find anything even remotely resembling a flaw. Perhaps the only one that would fit the bill is the fact that you cannot upgrade to the premium version through the app's interface and, instead, have to use the browser for the transaction. Of course, this can still be done on your smartphone, but it would be nice if the feature were actually integrated.
Apart from that, we couldn't single out any other issue. Some users may find the visual aspect of the app a bit too plain, but, fortunately, it more than makes up for it with an impressive selection of tools that will satisfy the needs of amateur and professional alike.
More About Bazaart: Runner Up
We must admit that this was an app we were completely unaware of prior to this little test. Oh boy, were we in for a surprise. It was almost as if it arrived in the form of a belated Christmas present. There are so many great things about it, we don't really know where to start.
For those as unfamiliar with it as we once were, you should know that this is a colorful, whimsical answer to all your social media prayers. Perfect for selfies or, indeed, any other form of visual content you wish to create, it offers an almost endless array of possibilities.
Silly ideas and crazy effects bring together elements of photo editing and graphic design into a seamless whole. New features are added on a regular basis, so you are likely to visit and re-visit this app many times over.
You start with a short free trial and only then have to pay a mere $4.99 on a monthly basis. It's half the price of Photoshop but doesn't lag much behind it. Of course, it's still far from a truly professional app, but it covers just about anything you can think of if your aim is to create cool, zany, hilarious imagery. If you're not satisfied, you can always cancel your payment.
Once you start editing, you will discover that you can remove any background from your selfie with pretty great precision, add a new one (colors, gradients, and images are available, but you can also upload your own), and superimpose any of the filter presets.
The interface is simple enough, even if it does take a bit of getting used to. There is, however, one thing you ought to bear in mind. This will not be the perfect app for getting that perfect, airbrushed, flawless look. Instead, Bazaart focuses on the "art" part - allowing you to add cute, scary, funny, or crazy effects. Stickers are also beyond amazing, and montage and collage tools do their job well. Layer them all up to create a true digital masterpiece.
You can literally spend days playing with the enormous database of stuff available. Of course, the whole thing doesn't come anywhere near Photoshop from a purely professional perspective but, if your aim is to enjoy your time and get cool results - this is the one to turn to. If you're not feeling particularly inspired, you can always check out Bazaart's Instagram page for ideas.
More About Facetune2: Also Groovy
Unlike Bazaart, it is impossible for anyone to say that they haven't heard of Facetune. The original app has become synonymous with the process of tweaking one's visage (sometimes to the point of it being unrecognizable). The sequel has plenty to offer.
It is more than obvious that the creators of this app have invested a lot of time and effort into coming up with a plethora of different options. You can use the software to change your eye and hair color, perfect your skin, resize your eyes, lips, or nose, reshape your brows, and add a good deal of makeup. You can even go so far as to change the clothes you're wearing - and add cool backgrounds too. Your skin could just as easily transform into something completely different, assuming a blue color or donning some reptilian scales. Frankly, the whole thing works better than most specialized makeover apps.
This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the complete package for upping your selfie game. You only have to pay 9.99 per year to unlock all premium features, making it one of the more affordable options on our list.
Most processes are pretty much automatic, setting you free from all the complicated features of more traditional apps. Compared to Photoshop, Facetune2 feels light and breezy, even if the former offers full control of the process and is ideal for professional visual artists. In that respect, Facetune2 comes closer to its major competitor - Bazaart. It's definitely geared more towards a younger crowd that spends their time on Instagram and TikTok.
Of course, you won't really be able to edit cityscapes with this program as it is very narrowly specialized, but we can honestly say that this is a perfect app for selfies - genuinely fun and a truly worthy successor to the original. You simply can't go wrong with it if your main aim is to create the best version of yourself.
Other Apps Considered
This app is a very good solution on its own but still somehow manages to feel a bit incomplete. Compared to Photoshop, it falls a bit short. Due to the package deal that Adobe offers (Photoshop + Lightroom for $9.99, all 20 of its apps for $49.98), it basically does not make sense to opt for just one piece of software. It is much better to pay an extra buck and get the complete package.
A very popular solution, VSCO has amassed a very impressive following in recent years. The Pro version (which costs a mere $19.99 per year) is even better, but it still does not manage to touch our top three. The app often seems surprisingly slow and will take a good while to load some of its numerous filters. On a phone made in 2019, this shouldn't take so long. Since it does offer a number of free features, you can try it out and see if you are able to tolerate this downside.
A decent enough app that, unfortunately, has way too many features hidden behind a paywall. This is not very convenient for anyone willing to test it because, as it is, it will leave a pretty dismal impression. After a free trial, it costs $7.99 per year. A reasonable enough price but not one we'd care to pay. Definitely not our favorite on the list. For any serious work, you will need to pick something better.
It's a good free solution but without any of the truly advanced options of Photoshop or the zany filters of Bazaart. However, since you don't have to invest a single dime, you might as well give it a go. A range of preset filters that you can edit (or even create your own from scratch) will keep you amused for a while. Cropping, straightening, frames, text, and vignettes - along with the ability to edit the depth of field - will be enough for any beginner.
Another quick and easy solution that, unfortunately, offers a very limited number of options. For a $2.99 one time payment, you can't really expect to get much, but we were still hoping we're in luck with Afterlight. Not really. It could serve you well if you're just dipping your toes in the waters of social media and don't have much experience in the field. If, however, your demands are substantial, better go for something more polished. You do, after all, get what you paid for.
For $4.99 per month, you can take advantage of over 300 art styles and superimpose them over your latest selfie. A creator's community lets you share your work and discuss techniques with other users. New filters are added daily, but you won't have much luck if you try to apply too many of them. Use more than eight different presets on top of each other, and it will shut down your app - each and every time. This doesn't seem very convenient for anyone looking to craft a particularly beautiful image.
A collage maker, a drawing tool, and a photo editor - in that particular order. It's great if you carry your digital pen with you at all times and your tablet has a pressure-sensitive screen. Otherwise, it's not exactly great, especially not for selfies. The "beautify" tool can remove your wrinkles, change your skin tone or hair color, and fix blemishes, but it's nothing to write home about. A few packs of stickers for iMessage don't really do much to improve the impression. After 5 years on the market, PicsArt could do more. If you're still eager to try it, you can take advantage of the 7-day free trial or pick individual filter packs before you decide to subscribe to the whole thing.
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Stefan Racic
WriterMy phone tends to be filled to the brim with apps I am either trying on for size of using on a regular basis. I use them for a variety of tasks, including sketching and creating art, keeping in touch with friends, being up to date with the latest news, learning about diverse spiritual practices and, of course, playing games!
With over 10 years of experience as a translator and writer, I channel my creativity into writing about things I enjoy. My education in business (I hold a bachelor's degree in operations management) is but one part of expertise. I have worked for art magazines, spiritual blogs, news and business sites, and now I explore the fascinating world of apps.
My previous work is as diverse as my interests. Fresh out of college, I was employed as a translator and interpreter at the fringes of the corporate world and the NGO sector. After switching to writing, I first focused on business news, then shifted to working for a series of art magazines (WideWalls perhaps being the most well known), and even wrote content for a couple of spirituality-focused apps for Labyrinthos Academy. Little did I know that I would eventually devote a good chunk of my time to writing about all sorts of interesting new apps out there.
Kyle
Well written article. I’m very interested in alternatives to photoshop