Best iPad - Photo Applications

Best Photo Editing iPad Apps

To many people's surprise, the iPad is a great photo editor. To many the iPad is an awesome computer for watching movies, browsing the internet and playing games. But one of the family of applications for which the iPad is not as well known is photo editing application. Unlike the iPhone, the iPad has no camera. But if you bring photos from another source, you will be amazed at what some of the top Photoshop style apps for the iPad can do with your plain old photos. (Prices change so frequently on apps so I have not included pricing as it as out-of-date as quickly as I put them in!)

Photogene for iPad

Photogene for iPad - Photogene does the routine photo editing stuff and adds a level of fun tools to mobile photo editing. You can crop, straighten, sharpen, adjust saturation and curves, resize, apply a variety of effects, and set macros to apply a combination of commands (macros are a really nice feature for the more technically inclined).

Photogene is a great companion to the camera connection kit. It supports multiple RAW formats. Photogene can open up for editing very large files and supports an export resolution of up to 8 MP (21 MP on iPad 2). Photogene also allows you to export several photos at once and it supports a wide selection of export destinations, including Flickr, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, FTP and mail.

Filterstorm

Filterstorm is, in my opinion, the most advanced of the iPad photo editiors (so far). Filterstorm was designed for the iPad from the beginning, and is a study in the smooth interface of the iPad. The intuitive touch interface is all it's cracked up to be, and filters can be applied via brush, color range, or image-wide. You can also apply curves, filters, or other adjustments on a gradient, rather than at full strength over the entire image.

Sure there are some limits. The effects/filters are standard photo-editing fare - not as fun or cute as other editors and the output size is limited to 1800 x 1200 pixels maximum - but I suspect these limits will fade away with a future upgrade.

AntiCrop Photo Enlargement

It's easy enough top crop a photograph when you left to much space around the the subject. But what about the other way around - wWhen you shoot too close? Now, it's just as simple, with a new universal iOS called AntiCrop. It does one thing: un-crop your images.

If you've ever taken a hasty photo on your phone and didn't leave enough room on the outside, AntiCrop is the app can uncrop those photos by filling in the edges with just a few swipes. AntiCrop uncrops your photos by extending the picture's background. Similar to tools which remove blemishes from photos by using information from elsewhere in the picture, AntiCrop uses that same technique to uncrop your photo from the edges out, so you can get a bit more of that beautiful sunset in the photo, even if you didn't get it in the original shot.

Photo Transfer App

Photos From Your Computer to Your iPad

Without the camera on the iPad, you need to transfer photos and with Photo Transfer the process is easy and worth the money. Upload photos to a specific web address and then, on the app on your iPad, transfer them over. Couple of steps and you have photos you can edit while using your iPad in bed resting after a busy day.

PhotoForge2

PhotoForge1 was ported over from the iPhone and was among the first photo applications for the iPad, but it began to show it's age as others came along with more features. However, PhotoForge2 was rewritten from the ground up and puts this application back among the top photo editors.

Edit full resolution photos just like on your desktop. True layers support means you can now composite multiple photos into amazing works of art. Tools like curves and levels allow you to manipulate your photos with ease. Amazing filters and effects will allow even a beginner to transform their photos into masterpieces. Once your photo is ready to be seen by the world, easily send to friends and family directly from PhotoForge2. PhotoForge2 is a must have app for any photographer: easy enough for beginners to start getting creative, yet powerful enough for the professional on the go.

PhotoForge2 Demonstration

Adobe Collage lets you assemble creative collages combining images, drawings, video and text. Adobe Collage allows you to capture and bring together images, drawings, video, text, and files (PDF, PSD and AI files). You can search and import content from Google, Flickr and YouTube. Upload your files to Adobe Creative Cloud* to refine later or share with others. Free membership in the to Creative Cloud gives you 2GB of cloud storage plus the ability to sync between tablet and desktop, access files from the web, and easily share with others.

Masque

Masque lets you edit photos in a truly unique and fun way! Thanks to the Multi-Touch capabilities of the iPad, Masque is immediately useful and fun to work with for photo editing professionals and those new to photo editing alike. Masque exports to your iPad photo library, Flickr, or Facebook - and focuses on social media and fun. Combine up to four layers for any effect, and apply intuitive - and innovative - gradients, defined by the number of fingers you use to create them. Masque does not replace a full fledged photo editing software as it focuses on fun multi-touch photo-editing experience.

Masque Demonstration

PhotoPal

iPad Photo Editing

The PhotoPal interface is heavy on informative iconography which provides an interface where it is quite easy to find things. The app has plenty of editing features, including Spot Healing tool, De-noise and Gamma adjustment. Its Levels histogram is much easier to use than the one in PhotoGene. Some nice features are that with sharpen and de-noise, the app zooms in close to allow you to see the effect of the adjustment more easily. There are eight preset effects and you can crop, resize, straighten, flip and rotate your images. Once you're done, you can share the photos on Flickr, Facebook or Twitter, as well as email them.

PhotoGoo Photo Fun

PhotoGoo lets you turn your photos to Goo! Create hilarious facial expressions out of your friends faces. Make a work of art from your favorite downloaded images. When you are done you can save your work to your iPad or iPhone and show your friends! In this version you can upload your photos to Facebook albums and show your friends your handywork!

PhotoGoo

Photo Shack Pro

Photo Shack Pro for iPad is a photo management companion for the avid photographer. You can file, sort, organize, title, comment, zoom, rotate orientation, map, view detailed photo metadata (date taken, camera used) , slideshow, email, and file share your photos via iTunes. The feature I like best is that Photo Shack Pro runs off of your iPad's photo library, so you don't use up valuable space with two copies of each photo.

Make sure to download the new "Getting Started Guide" directly from within Photo Shack Pro's Help screen to get all the latest information on the current version of Photo Shack Pro. This is one of the few iPad apps to have this kind of support.

Photo Shack Pro is more expensive than most iPad apps - but it is a comprehensive and well supported app.