Make Your Old Phone Photos Look Better With These 8 IPhone And Android Apps

Make Your Old Phone Photos Look Better With These 8 IPhone And Android Apps

Looking for something to do while in coronavirus lockdown? I have just the thing -- it's simple, satisfying and doesn't have to cost you a penny. Your phone's gallery is bursting with photos you've taken over the years, desperate to see the light of day again and get a fresh new makeover. 

The app stores on iOS and Android are full of creative apps that can give your existing shots a whole new look, all from the comfort of your sofa. I've rounded up a selection of my favourites, so have a read, make a cup of tea (or that hot new dalgona coffee everyone's talking about), and settle down for an evening editing session. You can even turn your favorite shots into a photo book while in quarantine.

You can also check out these creative ideas to flex your photography muscles at home if you want to shoot and edit something new.

Google-owned Snapseed offers a wide range of exposure and color tools to make tweaks to your images, but also has plenty of filter options, from vintage styles to modern, punchy HDR looks. You can layer the effects up to create some interesting edits on your image. And best of all, it's totally free.

iOS and Android, some functions available for free, or $4.99 per month for full access.

Adobe Lightroom remains an industry standard for professional photographers and the mobile version is much the same. You'll find no stickers, animations or emoji here, but you will get fine grain control over your image and the same set of tools you'd find in Lightroom on desktop. It's the app I use the most to edit my own images on my iPhone and iPad, not least because the images sync in the cloud, letting me start on one device, and continue on another.

Photoshop Express has many of the same features you'd find in Lightroom, including exposure, contrast and color editing options, but strips out some of the pro tools and cloud syncing and, crucially, ditches the subscription fee. It's a great tool for tweaking your images to bring out their best, but you'll also find a decent selection of filters and overlay textures, as well as tools for making cool collages from your images.
It's not as open to wild creativity as other options on this list, but it's a solid editing app at a price that's hard to argue with.
iOS and Android, $7.99 a month or $30 a year.

Prisma doesn't deal with subtle filters and basic image corrections. Instead, its trippy filters will transform your images into often bizarre artistic creations. The results have a painterly effect and indeed many filters are inspired by artists such as Salvador Dali and Picasso. The filters are strong, and while you can tweak them, not every filter will work with every image. I found some to be more suited to portraits while other filters worked best with landscapes.

But it's great fun to experiment with and when you find a photo that works, it really works.

Bazaart's montage and collage tools let you combine multiple different elements -- from photos, to text, to graphics -- and layer them all up to create a finished work of art. It has tools that let you instantly erase the background from behind a portrait subject (I was amazed at how well it worked!) in order to put in a new background or layer up multiple effects. It also has a huge variety of templates to create gorgeous collages for Instagram stories too.
There are so many different ways you could try and composite different images together that the only boundary will come down to how creative you're feeling. Head over to Bazaart's Instagram page for some inspiration.

Like Bazaart, Photofox has powerful tools for removing subjects from background that let you composite in new backgrounds, or apply awesome effects. I particularly like Photofox's dispersion effect, which makes it look like your subject is bursting into particles (trust me, it's cool), as well as the glitch effects and the double exposure that overlays two images on top of each other.
As with Bazaart, there are endless possibilities of what you can do by layering and compositing different types of images and applying different effects to each.

iOS and Android, limited functions for free, or $19.99 a year with seven-day free trial.
VSCO began life making color grading presets for Lightroom and its roots are clear in the app today. Rather than offer stickers and animated gifs for Snapchat enthusiasts, VSCO is all about the more artful filmic color filters. The app has a huge range of presets available, including looks designed to emulate classic rolls of film from Fujifilm, Kodak and Ilford.
It's got a great selection of black-and-white filters too, making it a great choice to experiment with if you're into your moody monochrome shots.
iOS and Android, limited functions for free or $48 a year for the whole suite.

PicsArt has a huge range of editing tools available to you, from basic adjustments like exposure and contrast, through to cinematic color grading and dramatic filters that transform your images into painting-like pieces of art. There are loads of options for both the tone and shape of your face in selfies -- I won't go into the ethics of using these tools for "beauty" purposes, but I had fun in using the tools to intentionally transform my features into bizarre proportions.
There's a whole Instagram-style social sharing element to PicsArt as well, if you're interested in that. Personally I was mostly interested in the editing options.
Make sure to check out my guide on creative at-home photo projects, see our whole catalogue of awesome tips and tricks for better phone photos or see how the iPhone 11 Pro captured Scotland's beauty in my epic road trip.

Turn Your Phone Into A Webcam With The Best IOS And Android Apps

Like it or not, most of your human interaction probably takes place in front of a camera now. As social-distancing rules have shuttered workplaces, theaters, and bars across the world, homebound people are flocking to apps like Zoom and FaceTime to work from home, watch movies together, and remotely share a cold one.
But good luck partaking without a webcam.
While most laptops have built-in (usually abysmal) webcams, high-quality standalone webcams for PCs have become scarcer than toilet paper. Prices on Amazon have skyrocketed, retail stores like Best Buy are selling out, and even Craigslist opportunists are cashing in.
Hold up. Before you pay $400 for a used Logitech Brio, you should know you may already have a perfectly useful webcam substitute hanging out at the bottom of your desk drawer: Your old phone. Whether it’s an iPhone or Android device, you can convert it to a webcam in just minutes with the right app. Here’s how:

For Windows: iVCam
We tested multiple webcam apps for both iOS and Android devices, and concluded that iVCam from E2ESoft is the best for PC users. It lets you stream in multiple resolutions up to 4K, has low latency, works wirelessly or wired, and has an intuitive interface. Because it’s free, you’ll sometimes watch a short ad when you finish using it, but you can click out of it after three seconds.
Just download the app on your phone, download the drivers on your PC, and fire up your favorite videoconferencing app. “E2ESoft iVCam #1” will appear as a selectable webcam. If you want sound, you will need to also download E2ESoft’s Virtual Sound Card software, which is free. After installing it, open the iVCam app, click the three-line hamburger menu, select Play Audio To, and select E2ESoft VAudio. Afterward, open Settings (also in the PC app) and check the box to enable audio. You’ll need to select the same audio source in your videoconferencing app of choice.


For Mac: Kinoni EpocCam HD
Kinoni EpocCam HD is the best choice for Mac users. Yes, it’s $7.99, but the free version doesn’t include microphone support, which we consider essential. You can use it to stream wirelessly or via USB in up to 1080p resolution, from either your device’s front or back camera.
Just download the app, download the drivers for Mac, and fire up Zoom or your favorite videoconferencing software. It will see EpocCam as a selectable webcam, and Kinoni Audio Source as a selectable microphone.
Pro tips
As we discovered, converting a phone comes with some caveats.

Opening any other app on your phone will kill the video connection, so using a dedicated phone makes much more sense than trying to use your everyday phone.

In our experience, none of the apps are as reliable as a plug-in USB webcam. If you conference all the time for work and video dropping out could be catastrophic, you may still want to invest one of the best webcams, even if you have to pay out the nose for it.

The rear camera on a phone isn’t meant for use as webcam, so it doesn’t have a wide-angle lens. That means the image will appear more “zoomed in” than a traditional webcam would from the same distance. You can counteract this by simply sitting farther away, or by switching to the front (“selfie”) camera on your device, which typically has lower quality but a wider angle.

You may need to get creative with camera placement. Unlike a real webcam, a phone won’t perch conveniently atop your monitor, so you’ll need to consider how to aim it. A phone tripod or selfie stick could do the trick, if you’re crafty, or maybe you can use a phone dashboard mount for your desk. In a pinch, simple double-sided tape on the back of your monitor can do the trick, too.

Editors' Recommendations

19 Best Free Workout Apps You Can Do At Home In 2020

If you participated in the push-up challenge everybody was doing via IG stories, might we suggest this 30 Day Squat and Abs Challenge workout app? It will help strengthen both areas with detailed workouts.
Available on iOS and Android.
JEFIT
Once you download JEFIT, you indicate what are your goals and if you usually used to work out at home or at a gym. When that survey is complete, you’ll be able to choose suggested workout plans including a “no equipment at home” option and you’ll be able to set up reminders to work out at specific times during the week. Win-win.
Available on iOS.

Yoga Down Dog
Their tagline says it all: "Never the same class twice." So, if you're worried that you'll get easily bored with yoga workouts, think again. With more than 30,000 different workout configurations, your Monday flow will never be the same as your Friday flow—guaranteed.
Available on iOS and Android; free trial monthly subscription $7.99.

J&J Official 7-Minute Workout
This app from Johnson & Johnson (yes, the pharma company) offers 72 different exercises and 22 workouts that range from 7 to 32 minutes.
Available on iOS and Android.
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