Recommended Photo Editing Apps for 2024 that I use myself
I use as few photo editing apps as possible for the same reason I use as few camera apps as possible: I'm a minimalist. However, finding the best photo editing apps is a personal venture that heavily depends on the type of photography you do and the photo editing features you need.
The purpose of this freshly updated blog post for 2024 is to provide a starting point to help you find the best photo editing apps for your type of photography. As I do mainly travel photography, I'll need a different set of editing features that you'll need.
Table of Contents:
Best photo editing apps for iPad an iPhone
Adobe Lightroom Mobile is the best overall photo editing app
Adobe Lightroom mobile has been my main photo editing app for iPhone and iPad for years for one simple reason: It offers the most complete package of editing features I need.
Adobe Lightroom Mobile on iPhone and iPad
In addition to standard features like adjusting light, color, noise reduction, and sharpness, Adobe adds new features year after year, such as:
- allowing you to blur the background of a photo, simulating depth of field using AI
- AI-driven masking allowing you to apply adjustments only to certain areas of a photo
- Color grading shadows, mid-tones, and highlights
- editing classic RAW and Apple ProRAW photos.
- Applying and creating presets
Sure, you'll need to purchase a subscription to use all the features of Lightroom Mobile. I've outlined Lightroom Mobile Premium review what's included in a subscription and why a subscription is worth the money.
So, suppose you're looking for an iPhone photo editing app recommendation that contains a complete set of photo editing features like manual and AI-driven masking, or that supports classic RAW and Apple ProRAW photos. In that case, I recommend looking at Lightroom Mobile. But beware: Lightroom Mobile is not a photo editing app for filter enthusiasts - though you can create your filters (aka presets) in Lightroom.
For an in-depth review, please read my blog's extensive Adobe Lightroom Mobile Premium review.
Touch Retouch is the best photo editing app for removing objects from photos
Touch Retouch is another evergreen and recommended photo editing app on this list. It survived many spring cleanings on my iPhone, and I've used it since it was released in 2011.
TouchRetouch on iPad and iPhone
Touch Retouch is the best app for retouching photos, from removing blemishes to removing people to removing fences and even entire structures. Given how many great iPhone photo editing apps were abandoned by their developers, I appreciate the developers of Touch Retouch for having updated this recommended iPhone photo editing app regularly during the past few years. Thanks!
Touch Retouch is one of the recommended photo editing apps I mentioned in the introduction. It does one thing and does it extremely well.
Touch Retouch works on iPhones and iPads. On iPad, it even supports the Apple Pencil. Of course, I have an extensive Touch Retouch review for you in the blog.
Use SKRWT App to fix perspective distortions
SKRWT app is another recommended photo editing app that does one thing and does it very well: It allows you to fix perspective distortions on iPhone and iPad.
SKRWT app offers three modules:
- The SKRWT module to fix horizontal, vertical, and barrel distortion
- The 4PNTs module for freehand correction of perspective distortions
- The MRRW module for creating symmetric mirror effects
Screenshot SKRWT on iPad and iPhone showing 4PNTS and SKRWT modules
SKRWT app was the first photo editing app of its kind that didn't reduce the overall resolution of a photo when fixing perspective distortions. Many other apps did and still will reduce the overall photo resolution when correcting perspective distortions.
In January 2022, the developers released version 1.5 to lay the foundation for future updates and to fix a few annoyances with recent iOS versions. I've been looking forward to this release that I could test during the development phase, and I've published an extensive review of the SKRWT photo editing app, which works on iPhone and iPad.
Adobe Photoshop Express is excellent for quickly applying adjustments to your photos
I began using Adobe Photoshop Express more extensively in 2022, mainly editing snapshots. I have no idea why Adobe calls this app Photoshop Express. Personally, I'd call it Lightroom Express. But independently of how i'd call this app, Photoshop Express offers several modules:
- A photo editor to manually adjust basic settings like lights, shadows, or colors or to apply predefined looks. You may know these looks like presets from Lightroom: a bunch of adjustments you can use with one click and then adjust them individually.
- A face retouching module for beauty retouching. With this AI-driven module, you can make people smile or add makeup.
- A photo combination module to combine two photos (a foreground and a background image) into a single photo
- A collage module to create photo collages.
From these features, I want to highlight the AI-driven masking feature that I can use to quickly select either the fore- or background and apply adjustments to the selection.
This feature may sound similar to the one in Lightroom mobile. However, the masking feature in Lightroom mobile is more sophisticated, allowing you to add or remove multiple parts of a mask. You can't do that in Photoshop Express
Moreover, you can use many editing features like the photo editing module of Adobe Photoshop Express right in the Photos App: It supports in-place editing for photos that are below 20 megapixels.
You'll need a premium subscription to use all Adobe Photoshop Express features. If you subscribe to one of the Adobe photography plans, you'll get a premium subscription of Photoshop Express as a bonus in addition to Adobe Lightroom Mobile Premium and/or Adobe Photoshop Premium (depending on the subscription).
To learn more, head to my Adobe Photoshop Express review. It works on iPhone and iPad.
Photoshop for iPad is excellent for sophisticated photo editing on iPad
After its release in 2019, Photoshop for iPad received a lot of negative press; feature-wise, it's still not even close to Photoshop on a computer.
But Adobe has added frequently requested features since then, and I've been using Photoshop for iPad more and more. Finally, In 2023, it made it to the list of recommended photo editing apps I use regularly.
Don't get me wrong: Photoshop for iPad is not even close to feature parity with Photoshop on the desktop. But as of 2023, it has almost all the features I need for editing photos on iPad:
- Great integration with Lightroom mobile on iPad: Send a photo to Photoshop on iPad, edit it, and send it back to Lightroom
- Generative AI using Adobe Firefly, like generative extend and generative fill to remove or add objects to a photo
- AI-driven background removal
- Gaussian blur (e.g., to simulate depth of field), liquifying objects, content-aware fill to remove objects from a photo, and much more.
To use all features of Photoshop on iPad, you'll need a paid subscription to a photography plan which includes Adobe Lightroom mobile premium and Adobe Photoshop Express premium.
If, you're wondering if Photoshop for iPad replaces tools like Touch Retouch and SKRthe TW app: if you're editing solely on iPad, then the answer is yes. But the answer is no, as I still edit my photos, mainly on my iPhone. I've used my iPad for more sophisticated edits in the past while I still do most of my edits on my iPhone. And I see no reason to change that anytime soon.
Summary
This is a personal list of the best iPhone photo editing apps for 2023 for my kind of photography: Travel photography.
If you've been following this list in the past, you'll notice that I dropped a few apps over the years, not because they're bad, but simply because I limit myself to a handful of iPhone photo editing apps I use. Whenever I add a new app to my list of recommended photo editing apps, I usually drop one or even two.
In the blog, you'll find a list of all iPhone photo editing apps I've used in the past and for which I've written a review and tutorials.
