Top 5 Photography Apps For Your Phone

Nowadays you don’t need an expensive DSLR to have fun with a camera – here’s a few apps you can download to get you feeling more snap-happy using your mobile phone.
1. Instagram
It comes as little of a surprise that Instagram has found a place on the list. Developers Burbn Inc claim that their app is enjoyed by 50 million people, and once you play with it a bit yourself you can’t help but believe them.
Instagram is available on iPhones, iPads, iPods and the more recent Android devices, and allows you to apply a multitude of filtered effects to your photos before sharing them on Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites.
Best of all is that the app is completely free, so you can inject some life into your snaps as often as you like.
2. 360 Panorama
As the name may suggest, 360 Panorama is an app designed to create panoramic images from a camera which would normally be too narrow to do so. Get snapping as you turn in a circle and watch the software stitch the photos together seamlessly, ready to share on Facebook, Twitter or whichever social network you frequent.
Similarly to Instagram, 360 Panorama is available on Android and most iProducts for a small fee of £0.69. Used with Facebook’s new Timeline cover photo feature, this app is a bit of a winner.
3. Photo Editor Ultimate
It wouldn’t really be fair to leave Blackberry owners out of the mix, so here’s an app you can download free from their App World.
Photo Editor Ultimate clumps together the ability to apply filters, edit, and resize photos ready to be uploaded to social networks and image hosting sites such as Imgur. It’s a pretty small file so unlike some photo editing apps, storage space shouldn’t be too much of a worry.
4. The Photographers Ephemeris
A fairly unique app which improves the quality of landscape and outdoor photos in a rather clever way.
The app calculates the sunrise and sunset times and places anywhere you happen to be in the world and allows you to calculate when and where the best photos can be achieved. This is a pretty handy tool if you’re planning on travelling some distance to get to a specific location to photograph – the last thing you want is to get to the site only to find it’s dark/raining/otherwise not optimal.
If you’re more interested in night-time photos then TPE has got you covered. As well as showing the rise and fall of the sun, the app can provide similar data for the moon and even help you with little things like the time that the moon will appear above a hill to get some stunning photos. What’s more, most features don’t require an internet connection to run so you really can take shots just about anywhere.
The bad news is that TPE costs $8.99 (around £5.73) for iPhones and a more modest £3.10 for Android devices. On the plus side, it’s just been released completely free for Windows/Mac/Linux so if you’re happy to research your destination in advance and hope that nothing changes before you get there then this is a good option.
5. Camera+
If you’re searching for good quality, professional looking photos then Camera+ is the app for you. Priced at £0.69 (though the developers say this is for a limited time) it provides your standard filtered effects as well as the ability to improve focus, lighting and exposure and even reduce blur.
Of course, it also comes with the ability to upload your snaps to Facebook, Twitter and wherever else you fancy, but for now it’s sadly limited to the iPhone.
Bonus: Color Splash
All of the above apps have certainly earned their place as must haves on the serious photographer’s mobile, but if you’re just after some funky looking pictures and a bit of fun in the process then Color Splash is a safe bet.
Costing £0.69, Color Splash allows you to create black and white images and bring vibrant colour to a specific area to create a dramatic and striking image.
It certainly has some good uses in the photographer’s repertoire, but it’s just as fun to play around with and give your friends bright red eyes or black teeth. Sadly, Color Splash is limited to Apple operating systems.