Free Photography Apps You'll Love

If you want to take something different than just a “regular” picture, check out PopBooth. It actually turns your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into a mini photo booth. It’s a lot of fun at parties. Share the resulting photo strip via email and/or post on Facebook. If that’s not enough, for about $3, you can order a hard copy (actually, a set of two), and have it mailed right to you or a friend anywhere in the world.

Another very cool sort of photo you can take very easily with an iPhone is a panorama. Photosynth is the quick and easy way to do it. Simply press the start button and pan side to side, up and down. Boom, panorama! Just save it for your own purposes, or let Photosynth publish it to Bing maps for the whole world to see.

But whatever sort of photo you take, you may want to edit it. PhotoPad by ZAGG is a nice solid editing app. All the basics are covered, like crop, rotate, resize, color adjustment, and more. In addition, there are some nice touches like red eye correction and some basic filters. You can also use that photo you’ve just edited to create a ZAGGskin (decal for your iDevice) and order it right from within the app.

Want to go beyond basic editing? BeFunky does include some basics, but also sports a fun collection of over two dozen filters, effects and frames to punch up your photos. No ads or registrations to distract from your photo experience. Share directly to Facebook and Flickr from within the app.

You can never have enough filter apps, and this one is particularly sophisticated and yet easy to use. Take pictures within the app or choose from your camera roll. Add a cool vintage look, similar to Hipstamatic, but without the price tag. It’s universal, so grab it for your iPhone, iPod touch, and your iPad.

Universal app MoreBeaute2 is designed for use in portraits, to smooth and brighten complexions for a more youthful and beautiful look. However, I have also found it to be extremely useful for brightening up an underexposed photograph. Sure, you can use a regular editing app to increase the brightness, but sometimes the lighter areas of the photograph get blown out in the process. MoreBeaute2 will often do the job of brightening in a more gentle and natural way.

There are plenty of things you can do to your photos besides editing and adding filters, though both of those are covered in this app. You can also give yourself a little makeover, adding “make up” or hair color, whitening your teeth, removing acne, and slimming your face. Create a photo collage with your favorite photos. And share photos with your social networks. This free app gives you so much functionality, it’s hard to believe it’s free. There is also a separate iPad version as well as paid versions on the app store.

If having everything in one app isn’t your thing, and you just want a nice, solid collage maker, check out Pic Collage. This is easy to use, free, and universal. You can even order a hard copy within the app and have it mailed anywhere in the world!

Known as much for its lovely and supportive photo community as it is for its filters, the popular app Instagram will bring out your creative side for sure. There are no ads and no in-app purchases. It’s a filter app meets social network for iPhoneographers, and it’s just plain fun. Find out for yourself what all the fuss is about.

Postagram is designed for, but not limited to, Instagram photos. You create a postcard and personalize it with text (up to 140 characters) and the photo of your choice, then mail it to anywhere in the world. The 3X3 inch photo can actually be popped out of the postcard and saved.

Create gorgeous scrapbook-style labels for your photos with Labelbox. Choose from a variety of ribbon and text styles and then swipe and type to add it to your photo. In-app purchases allow you to download even more label styles.

Don’t worry, videographers, I didn’t forget about you. You’ll find a solid photo editor here. Splice your video footage, photos, and music from your library. Add borders, transitions, and effects like Ken Burns to create a sophisticated video product.

If you’re looking for silly rather than sophistication, check out Cartoonatic. Shoot actual cartoon-style video in real time. With ten different artistic effects, you can have a lot of fun with this one. In-app purchases give you more effects, remove ads, and allow you to take still photos as well.