Color filter apps for iPhone
In the App Store you will find a huge variety of photography apps. Photo filter apps are very popular, with which you can add all kinds of fun effects to your photos, without the need for an SLR camera. Your photo suddenly looks a lot more original. A snapshot of a cup of coffee suddenly looks like an artistic masterpiece. The choice is enormous, which is why iCulture has made a selection of the best color filter apps for the iPhone for you.
- VSCO
- Snapseed
- Hipstamatic
- Retrica
- Afterlight
- Photoleap
- Polarr
- Mextures
- A Color Story
Color filters give your photos that special effect that suddenly makes an ordinary photo much more beautiful. You know it from Instagram, of course, but there are many more photo apps with which you can achieve even more spectacular effects.
VSCO: professional photo filters
VSCO powers the beautiful effects professionals use in Adobe Lightroom and other professional camera apps. In VSCO you can taste it for next to nothing. This is the best all-round photo filter app, which basically offers everything you’re looking for. It contains spectacular filters, 20 of which you can use for free. We also really like the black and white filters. The filters are divided into collections, so you can easily find them.
VSCO is free but you can purchase additional collections. There is also a social platform, similar to Instagram.
Instagram: effects for the masses
Anyone who really wants to take distinctive photos will have to look a little further, but Instagram is by far the most popular iPhone app with which you can easily add a color effect to photos. Not all filters are equally useful and the black and white filters are not very strong, but the warm colors of Hefe and X-Pro II can brighten up any cloudy day. You can easily brighten photos with one button and there are various options for focus, vignettes and contrast, which you can just as easily ignore if you don’t feel like it.
In addition, Instagram has the most vibrant photo network in the world. Since the app’s inception, it has been a fun activity to follow people just for their food photos, aerial photos, everyday life or whatever they record. Never forcing, but always nice when you receive comments and likes on your snapshots. Even if you don’t use Instagram’s photo filters or edit photos; you probably want to share the result in this app anyway.
The app contains a range of filters, from subtle to extreme, with new ones added regularly.
We have several tips about Instagram filters:
- This is how you change the intensity of Instagram filters
- Here’s how you can use Instagram filters without sharing your photo
- Here’s how to sort and hide Instagram filters on iPhone
- This way you can set which Instagram filters are visible
- This way you can set which Instagram filters are visible
Snapseed: for versatile photo filters
Snapseed is also an app with many fans and a large number of photo filters. The nice thing is that you can also create filters yourself and share them with others with a QR code. With the standard filters you can choose from black and white, vintage and special filters for portraits. But it also contains all kinds of spectacular effects, which will really make your photos stand out.
The app’s interface is also very simple: at the bottom you see the Looks, Tools and Export tabs. It will be clear that you have to go to the Looks tab for the filters and effects. For edits you can go to Tools and when you are done, export the end result. Despite the multitude of functions, the app is still packed with possibilities. Even a photo expert can get started with it. And it’s completely free too, thanks to parent company Google (which may use your photos and other data to build a profile).
Hipstamatic X: for food filters and more
A veteran in the App Store and still – rightly – highly rated. The app is surprisingly often used for food photography these days.
The big advantage of this app is that it has a huge amount of ‘lenses’ and ‘film rolls’ (all can be purchased separately via in-app purchase), while the amount of content is surprisingly well sorted. What is immediately noticeable is that Hipstamatic really tries to approximate the old-fashioned analog camera feeling: the app calls filters lenses and shows them as a camera lens that is screwed onto the Hipstamatic camera. Very retro.
Retrica: for retro photo filters
Retrica contains more than 55 filters in a clear interface. The choice is huge, but luckily you can also have a random effect selected so you can see if it might be something. You can use this app alongside your normal photo editing apps. The main thing is that it is fun to use. With an in-app purchase you can expand your photo effects collection to more than 80 filters.
Afterlight: subtle effects for selfies
The popular Afterlight has not one, but two types of photo filters. You have color filters that adjust the color tones of the photos and effects that you can apply over the photo. The latter include, for example, lens spots, sun reflections, noise, stripes and dots from a cinema screen. You can mirror them and it takes no effort to add more layers on top of each other.
The color filters themselves are divided into standard filters and filters from other users. There is also a seasonal offering and filters from well-known photographers. The great thing is that the photo filters are quite subtle, so that they mainly radiate a certain atmosphere. Each filter can be customized with editing tools so you can create your own look. There are also special effects such as selective coloring, double exposure and dust on the lens. The subtle effects are especially suitable for self-portraits.
There is also a Clarify function that allows you to clarify photos. You can always undo an edit. Or crop photos into a certain shape, such as a heart or letter. The special ability to superimpose several photos semi-transparently completes the possibilities. It is not so popular for nothing.
Photoleap (Enlight Photofox): for creative photos
With Photoleap Editor by Lightricks (formerly Enlight Photofox) you create digital art, so to speak. It contains all kinds of effects, with standard filters such as black and white, sepia and vintage. But also Duo filters, so you can use color gradients in two colors. It also contains useful editing tools. You have to pay for unlimited use and the price has risen considerably in recent times. If you still have the old version of Enlight (without the addition ‘Photofox’), you can continue to use it as long as it still works. But otherwise you’ll have to pay – with prices rising to almost 100 euros for all tools.
Polarr: photo filters for landscapes
Polarr contains all kinds of filters to experiment with. However, they are best suited for landscapes, because you can apply all kinds of weather effects to them. Consider light leakage, lens flare, snow and clouds. You can convert a photo you took in the middle of the day into a beautiful sunset. Or choose a rain effect, so it looks slightly different. You can also create filters yourself.
Mextures
If a standard sepia filter isn’t enough, you’ve been using Instagram’s Valencia since the beginning and you find each filter looks the same, then maybe you should take a look at Mextures. This is not an app to quickly put a filter on a photo, but to make filters yourself.
By adding layer upon layer of different effects, you create a color filter that only you can use. Unless you share it in the app with other users. This also applies to the filters that professional photographers have made. Mextures specializes in gritty, grainy effects. Just as you automatically get brown clay with clays of different colors, stacked filters actually naturally become coarse-grained and raw. This way you can give photos the texture of a painting on canvas or otherwise give them a surreal effect.
Afterwards, save your filter and have it available next time. This way you can then apply a filter in an instant. Your filter.
Mextures already contains 26 standard filters, which are based on popular film techniques, but also on artistic textures. You instantly give a certain atmosphere to a photo. All standard filters are free, but you have to pay for the Pro filters.
A Color Story
An app created by Instagram influencers. Then you know what you get: a nice app that is especially suitable for selfies. What A Color Story does especially well is ensure that you use consistent colors on your Insta. If you like to choose a certain shade, this app will ensure that it is better matched.
With A Color Story you go one step further than the standard Insta filters. It contains 100 filters and 40 effects that you can overlap to create a unique combination. There are also 20 editing tools. The app is free, but you must become a paying member to use all the tools.
Other photo filter apps for iPhone
- Pomelo Filters (Free + IAP, iPhone, iOS 10.0+) – Contains more than 60 filters that you can customize. You can even use the Live filters before taking a photo. Also offers simple editing tools.
- Darkroom: Photo and Video Editor (Free + IAPiPhone/iPad/Mac, iOS 15.0+) – A photo editor that can be used in any direction.
- Rookie Cam – Photo Editor (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad, iOS 13.0+) – Just like with the Retrica app discussed above, you can apply the filters live in the camera. So you know in advance what the effect is.
- Cymera (Free + IAPiPhone, iOS 10.0+) – This app is specifically intended as a ‘beauty app’, i.e. for making selfies more beautiful.
- Filterra – Photo Editor (Free + IAPiPhone/iPad, iOS 14.0+) – An enormous amount of filter packs, where you can layer the effects, just like in Mextures.
- Infltr – Unlimited Filters (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad/Mac, iOS 14.0+) – An unlimited number of filters, this app promises. Some are very subtle, but with so many options that it will keep you busy for a while.
- GoDaddy Studio: Logo Maker (Free + IAP, iPhone/iPad, iOS 15.0+) – Previously this app was called ‘About’. Not the most convenient name either, but the acquisition of GoDaddy has not made things any better. Not actually a photo filter app, but an app to put your own text in beautiful fonts on a photo. You can increase the contrast with the photo by making the photo lighter or darker.
Not quite what you’re looking for? At iCulture we have even more overviews:
- The best photo apps for iPhone and iPad
- The best photo editing apps for iPhone and iPad
- Advanced camera apps comparison
Opening photo: Evan Blaser/ Flickr CC
