7 Best iPad Apps for Photographers | 2023 Edition

What are the best iPad apps for photographers who want to put the finishing touches on their images? Here are our top 7.

We will suggest some photo editing apps that can enhance your photos. If you’re a photographer who uses an iPad, there are numerous apps that can help you beautify your photos. No matter if you’re a professional or amateur, the right apps can improve your workflow and enhance the appearance of your images.

Top 7 Best iPad Apps for Photographers

This article will showcase a selection of best iPad apps for photographers. The featured apps are great at organizing and editing photos. Our list includes both free and paid options.

Adobe Lightroom

Lightroom is one of the most popular photo editing apps and offers comprehensive features for photographers. The app lets you organize and edit your photos, including the ability to make color corrections, adjust contrast and brightness, and add special effects. We especially like the quick and accurate masking of people and objects. 

The powerful masking tool allows you to edit your photos even more precisely and selectively. For example, it is possible to edit people in the foreground and the background separately. Also, the ability to edit multiple photos in parallel with the same settings is especially useful for wedding photographers. Lightroom is also capable of editing RAW files, making it especially useful for professional photographers who want to get the most out of image files. The app also offers a sync feature that lets you sync your images between your iPad, iPhone, and Macbook. In addition, Lightroom is a super app to categorize your photos neatly.

Price: Adobe Lightroom is free in the basic version. If you want to use cool features like the Repair Brush, you’ll need to subscribe to the app for $11.89 per month. If you already have a subscription to the desktop version, you can use the paid iPad version at no additional cost. 

Affinity Photo 2

Affinity Photo 2 is a professional photo editing app designed specifically for the iPad. The app is considered the best Photoshop alternative. Once purchased, you can use it forever and receive all updates. This is probably one of the biggest advantages of Adobe Photoshop. Affinity Photo offers a wide range of features aimed at professional photographers and graphic designers.

You can perform complex edits with the app, including the ability to create and edit unlimited layers. The app also supports working with RAW files. In addition, Affinity Photo offers a large number of precise selection tools such as the Lasso and Magic Wand tool or the Correction Brush. Super handy is the full PSD compatibility: the app offers full PSD support and allows you to open and edit Photoshop files directly in Affinity Photo.

Price: Affinity Photo 1 costs a one-time fee of $23.99 on the iPad, giving you a much more customer-friendly pricing policy than the Adobe programs.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator is an image editing app for the iPad that is aimed more at beginners. The interface is intuitive and beginner-friendly. Still, Pixelmator offers extensive editing features, including the ability to adjust colors, change contrast and brightness, and add special effects, as well as create layers. Pixelmator also gives you the ability to edit RAW files and makes it easy to share images.

The interface is designed to be user-friendly with minimal buttons and functions, making it easy for inexperienced users to navigate. The editing functions can be found on the right side and layers left, ensuring an organized workspace. Tabs are also arranged simply and clearly. In addition, the app offers cool features based on “Machine Learning”. With its help, you can, for example, significantly increase the resolution of a photo without losing quality.

Price: Pixelmator costs a one-time fee of 11.99 euros.

Also Read: Testing the best tablets for Photographers

VSCO

VSCO is an app that is especially popular with Instagram users. The app offers numerous filters and effects that quickly and easily make your photos look fancier. You can customize the filters and effects to your liking to personalize your pictures. VSCO also offers a photo community where you can share your pictures with other users and get inspired.

What we like is that the filters and edits you apply to photos in VSCO are rather gentle and don’t look too artificial. Also, just like in Lightroom, you can always go back to the original image and undo the editing steps. Photographers who like to experiment with filters and presets will find a lot to like about VSCO.

Price: You have the option to try out the app at no cost for a week. Once that trial period is over, you will need to select a subscription plan: either pay $21.99 yearly ($2.49 per month) or pay $7.99 each month.

Snapseed

Snapseed, a popular image editing app developed by Google, offers a variety of useful tools to enhance your photos without requiring expert knowledge. You can correct mistakes, improve image quality, add filters, and more. The app features an easy-to-use interface with cool tools like brushes and spot correction. Plus, its filters are impressive. Best of all, Snapseed is a free app that allows you to quickly and easily edit your photos to your liking.

Price: Snapseed is available completely free for iPad. 

Darkroom

Darkroom is a user-friendly app that provides a range of image editing tools for free. It enables you to make adjustments to your photos, such as cropping, rotation, exposure, and so on, with speed and efficiency. Additionally, Darkroom has a selection of filters that you can use to enhance your photos quickly and easily.

We are particularly fond of the effect tools in Darkroom as they enable you to alter bokeh, lighting effects, depth of field, and more even after taking the photo. This makes it easy to give your photos a distinctive appearance. Additionally, we appreciate the inclusion of curves and gradients, similar to those in Lightroom, which allow for precise color corrections and adjustments. With these tools, you can achieve your desired look with precision. It’s worth mentioning that Darkroom also supports video editing.

Price: The premium version costs $7.99 per month.

Facetune AI Image Editing

If you’re looking for an app specifically for editing portrait photos, Facetune is a great choice.

Facetune has amazing tools that allow for quick photo retouching. With these, it is possible to remove or reduce skin blemishes, wrinkles, and whiten teeth. Additionally, you can change eye colors and use filters specifically designed for portrait photos. The makeup tools are also fun and amazing, letting you add lipstick, eyeshadow, and blush, or highlight eyebrows and eyelashes. There is a Before and After view that allows for a comparison of edits and shows their effect on the original image. Selfie videos can also be optimized quickly with Facetune.

Price: Facetune offers a free trial for seven days. After the trial period, there are three payment options: an annual subscription for 5.99 euros per month, a monthly subscription for 11.99 euros per month, or a one-time fee of 239.99 euros.

Well, these were the top 7 picks for the best iPad apps for photographers. We suggest you try every app on the list once and then decide which one fits the bill for you.