It's time to take your photos to the next level

Not every picture looks perfect. Whether you need fine-tuning or heavier editing or want to beautify it with a filter or change the look for dramatic effect, most smartphone cameras include basic editing features. They may even have advanced features like object eraser and spot color if you're lucky.

However, you’ll often need to venture outside your smartphone camera to get pristine shots. Of course, with all the great apps on Android, there are plenty for fine-tuning your skills, including some of the best apps for photographers.

As a new Pixtica user, you’ll have a free account with limited features. While the app is ad-free, even in its “trial mode,” you’ll need to upgrade to unlock all of its features. Luckily, the upgrade prices are very affordable; there’s a one-time purchase for $4.99 or an annual subscription for $2.99. This removes watermarks and unlocks more than 350 stickers, over 250 textures and backgrounds, over 70 filters, over 80 overlay effects, and much more.

If you're in trial mode, you won't have access to everything, and sometimes the max resolution will depend on your device. This app features a Magic Hours feature, which uses your location to display the blue and golden hours for the day, the perfect for finding the best outdoor lighting. Also, you can enable the Shake Indicator to ensure steady videos.

In the gallery, you can use creative tools to apply filters and effects, decorate with stickers, create memes, make size adjustments, and enhance portraits. The portrait enhancing mode primarily focuses on image backgrounds and does a commendable job of blurring and applying designs to them. Pixtica indeed does a little bit of everything.

This ad-supported app can completely replace your default camera app. Although it may take a little digging to find things, it gives you many features you’ll find in the best Android phones without paying flagship prices. Not all features may not be available on your device, though; they’re dependent on the device’s hardware.

You can adjust the camera mode (standard, DRO, HDR, panorama), camera resolution, exposure, white balance, and color effect. In addition, you can enable 11 types of grids and multiple types of each: 3x3, 4x2, crosshair, golden, triangle, and diagonals. The auto-level feature automatically rotates your photos, so they’re always level, but this mode also slightly decreases the image resolution.

Don’t skip the app’s settings, where you’ll find many features that can be enabled and customized to make Open Camera even more functional. From audio control options to image quality and format options to numerous on-screen GUI controls, you’ll want to take some time to review them all.

Don’t like the background in your photos? This app does an exceptional job of instantly removing and replacing them with templates. A few honorable mentions are magazine covers, marketplaces (eBay, Etsy, Mercari, Amazon, etc.), 70s portraits, podcast covers, modern art, Van Gogh, and social media (feed posts, stories, banners, cover images, profile pictures).

Once you find a template you like, you can do some fine-tuning. For instance, if you don’t like how your image is positioned, you can resize it and move it around. PhotoRoom also has its own selection of images you can choose to insert; however, many require a Pro subscription.

As you move things around, placement guides will keep popping up to help; however, you can turn these off in settings. You can customize each graphic on a template by adding effects, adjusting the look and feel, changing the color, and more. Unfortunately, resizing and batch editing are only for Pro members. The monthly and yearly Pro subscriptions come with a 7-day free trial so that you can test the waters before diving in.

Created by Google, this app has a simple layout, is free of ads, and is user-friendly. After opening a JPG or RAW image, you can choose a filter or manually adjust just about every aspect of your photo. There are 28 tools available, each with numerous options for fine-tuning and tweaking your photos. You can easily undo any mistakes, view your edit history and adjust, or remove changes individually.

Thanks to the tutorials within the app, you can learn advanced techniques and create stunning looks using a combination of filters and tools in just a few minutes. In Snapseed's settings, you can switch to the dark theme, choose the maximum image size for export and sharing, and your preferred image format and quality.

Once you’ve finished editing your photo, you can share it using the native Android share menu. You can also create a QR look code, which is especially handy because anyone who scans your code in the app can instantly apply your Look to their photo. Plus, with the View Edits feature, they can see just what was applied and adjust the photo as needed. You can even save these looks for re-use in the app.

Be warned: Footej is steep at $29.99 per month after a 3-day free trial, but with this, you get adjustable time-lapse, numerous advanced configuration options, and ad removal. Alternately, you can use the free limited version with full-page ads, which allows you to use the HD camera features and burst mode.

Camera modes include time-lapse, slow motion, video, photo, burst, HDR, raw, and panorama. You can use six color effects, including incandescent, daylight, auto, and manual. If you choose to enable the grid, there are five options: horizon, diagonal left/right, square, phi, and normal.

In Footej’s settings, you’ll find general, photo, video, and fingerprint gesture settings for even more customization. Unfortunately, a few options like high GIF quality, stabilization, and audio source options for videos are unavailable with the limited app version. Overall, Footej’s modern’s design and unique options make it a great choice if you're willing to pay.

If you’re an Adobe Photoshop user, you’ll love using this ad-free app when on the go. Not only can you edit photos, but there’s a built-in camera with automatic and professional modes (HDR capture mode is only available on supported devices). Plus, with a monthly or yearly upgrade (after a 7-day free trial), you can unlock premium features like the healing brush, RAW editing, masking, 150+ high-quality presets, video editing, cloud storage, and batch editing.

To get started, you’ll need an Adobe account. You can add photos from your device or via the camera and organize them into albums. With a free account, you get a few basic features, like adjusting the exposure and applying filters and limited sharing options. There are only a few options in preferences: you can automatically add images from a specific folder on your device to the app and adjust the RAW photo import options (such as automatically adding copyright).

With a free account, you can apply a small selection of basic presets and use almost all tools except masking, healing, geometry, and recommended presets, similar to Snapseed’s QR look codes. You can also explore the Lightroom community, find presets from other users to use and save, remix community photos, share your own. Take a look; you’ll be happy you did!

Since Photoshop Camera is another Adobe-created app, you’ll need to sign in with your account. Then, it’ll take you to the built-in camera, where all the magic happens. Here, you can browse and test out multiple free effects and filters (or lenses) in real-time to see how they’ll look before even taking a picture. If you don’t see one you like, the app features the Lens Library, where you’re sure to find something that suits you. There are over a hundred to choose from, and new lenses are added weekly.

Once you take a picture with the camera, you can also edit it in real-time. You can switch to a different lens and automatically or manually adjust them by changing the clarity, vibrance, exposure, contrast, saturation, and more. In addition, you can resize, rotate, flip, and crop.

You can even work with images you already have. If the app recognizes what’s in the photo, it will recommend the best lens based on the objects in your photo. Similarly, when using the camera, you can adjust the image before saving or sharing it. If fun and creativity are what you’re looking for, you’re sure to find that in the Photoshop Camera app.

500px is a popular community for photographers and shutterbugs who love browsing and sharing photos. Once you create an account, you’ll immediately start a non-renewing 14-day trial membership that lets you enjoy the full app experience. You can see statistics about your work, upload as many photos as you want, access liked photos, view photos offline, and more. After the trial period, you'll be downgraded to the free version unless you want to pay for one of the two plans the app offers.

You can view what's popular, community uploads, curated galleries, and access a ton of free and premium resources like articles, videos, workshops, and webinars. You can also participate in photography challenges where you can compete to win trips, gear, and cash prizes.

You can take a picture directly from your camera or add files already on your device. Photos can be licensed, allowing you to earn passive income from them if you want to go that route. An offline viewing feature lets you view photos without using your data; however, when 500px reaches 25% of your device’s capacity, it will start deleting older photos to make space for new ones. If community is what you want, this app is for you.

This ad-free app will cost you a one-time fee of $3.99, but it’s worth it if you’re looking for a convenient way to remove unwanted objects and backgrounds from your photos. With TouchRetouch, removing a blemish or minor imperfection on portraits and selfies can be done in just a single tap. For outdoor photos, you can remove power lines of all sizes automatically or manually. The app can detect meshes (like fences) and erase them within minutes. The clone stamp is excellent if you’re looking to replicate an object in your photo pixel-to-pixel; you can even choose a few mirroring options to customize the clone’s position.

Larger object removals can take extra time to get right and are best done using manual mode, but TouchRetouch’s auto mode is a Godsend for smaller objects. The brush tool lets you highlight unwanted objects with your finger, while the lasso enables you to draw around to select them. Plus, you can enable the tutorial to display helpful tool tips. TouchRetouch doesn’t offer much for beautifying photos, but it does a fantastic job cleaning them up!

No matter your skills or needs, these apps for photographers can come to the rescue and make a daunting task fun and painless. And if you're a beginner, that can make a difference in your craft. For instance, you can remove blemishes and artifacts with a tap and replace backgrounds with just a few taps.

Even for tasks that do require a little more work, you can often find in-app tutorials with step-by-step instructions to guide you along the way. So there’s no better time than now to find the perfect combination of photo editing apps for your workflow.

Charnita is a wife, pet mom, tech enthusiast, and part-time freelance writer with over 14 years of experience. She's done countless app roundups, product reviews, and tutorials! In her free time, she enjoys tinkering with gadgets, playing casual and cozy games, and spending way too many hours on YouTube.