One of the advantages of my studio being temporarily closed is that I have a bit more time to research current apps available for usage for my personal smartphone photos.  I wanted to share with you some apps for your mobile devices that I use and that are either free or very reasonably priced to give me a creative edge for personal fun.  Go to your App store and search any of the names below.  Some include free trials to try before you commit.

VSCO Cam | Free | iOS | Android

A highly popular filter photo editing app for mobile.  VSCO’s filters have a softer, more authentic look that resembles real film, compared to the over-saturated looks of many Instagram filters.

Photoshop Express | Free | iOS | Android

Adobe Photoshop Express includes lighting, color, and sharpness options.  Keep in mind, it does carry the natural limitations of a mobile app. Nonetheless, what it does on a smaller platform is still super impressive.

Live Collage | Free | iOS | Android

Live Collages has a wide variety of layouts. It contains several options for photo organization, both classic and fun, with interesting and colorful backgrounds. Plus, you can add customized text in different fonts, colors, and sizes.

Camera+2 | $2.99 | iOS only

This app has many of the classic photo editing tools like color tints, retro effects, and crops. This app includes an image stabilizer, which helps you capture the sharpest photos possible. Do you remember in past columns I strongly advised not to use your Zoom?  Well this app lets you zoom in up to 6X while keeping the quality!  Add to the mix, the Clarity filter, and you have my FAV app to date!  Look at the range of Zoom; ie dog collage.

Visage | Free | iOS | Android

I like the Visage app which lets you add some special effects, like a “Pop Art Style” filter that can make your selfie look slightly Warhol-esque.

Photomyne |$5.99 | IOS | Android

Many of you may be going through piles of photos, negatives or slides trying to get them organized and filed while we honor the “Stay At Home” policy. You may consider these next three apps; all made by Photomyne. The price, at $9.99/mo for each app, is a bit more steep than most of my apps but the pro’s outweigh the cons in my book. Take advantage of their 3 day free trial. That may be all you need to get you motivated to get through those memories.

Photo Scan; Scan multiple physical photographs into a single shot. The photo scanner auto-detects picture boundaries, auto rotates, crops and saves them directly into a digital album. I personally love the “Tagging” feature.

Film Box; Hold your film strip vertically in front of the light source (which is a link provided on app), long press the capture button and see the negative magically scanned and images revealed! The app automatically inverts colors and enhances the image from your old negatives.

Slide Box; Most of us may have slides but no projector to view these memories. This app converts photo slides into digital images. Once scanned, save and share these old memories!  This is me from a 1985 slide.

I hope these fun apps keep you occupied while we stay at home!