7 Easy photo editing tricks and Apps for Android and iPhone

Major photo-editing tricks on Android and iPhone smartphones, possible editing operations easy to do on the photos taken

The smartphone is now the camera at hand for everyone, that thanks to its applications allows also to touch up, process and improve the photos taken.

These tricks of photo editing on smartphones can really be surprising for their effectiveness and even if they will never be comparable to the precision modification of programs on PC or tablet, however, are easier and affordable for everyone.

1) Combining photos together 

Combining photos in multiple layers to create a single image is one of the most common tricks you can do with a computer image editor, which often requires some experience.
On smartphones you can use the Adobe Photoshop Mix application, free for Android and iOS and all automated.

You can then open an image, tap the Plus icon to add a new layer to the project (another image above the existing one), pinch and drag the second image to place it and then use the button Crop.

use the Smart and Add buttons to paint the areas of the image that you want to keep, the Verify button (bottom right) to complete the effect and sort the second image cropped over the first one.

With the Crop tool on the screen you can use the Refine button and then the Feather button to make the fusion between the layers more homogeneous.

2) Cropping objects from photos 

Another professional trick that you can easily do on a cell phone is to blend the background so you can remove unwanted objects from photos as if they had never been there.

You can therefore eliminate strangers in the background or not very photogenic objects such as bins.

While this change can be done, as seen above, even with Photoshop Mix, there is a better app called TouchRetouch for Android and iOS (costs 1.99 dollars).

Then load the image to be corrected in the app, touch the button to remove objects and then the Brush tool

In Settings you can set the size of the brush that allows, using your fingers, to delete the pixels in order to maintain the background below.

The app attempts to use the surrounding areas of background to make removal as simple as possible and to repeat the process to be as accurate as possible.

Photoshop Mix and Touch Retouch have already been reported in this blog among the
– app to change or remove the background in the photos
– App to remove people from the photos in a simple way

3) Adjust the focus of the background 

The cameras of some more expensive smartphones like the iPhone XS they are able to adjust the depth of field (essentially the focus on the background of an object) after taking the photo.

The same type of functionality (called Bokeh Effect), which should arrive soon in Google Photos, can be obtained on Android smartphones using the Afterfocus app (also available on iPhone), with which it is easy to blur the background to make the mode special shot as a portrait.

Another great application to blur the background on Android is Photo Blur, to adjust the effect of depth of field after a picture has been taken.

4) Color Correction 

One of the most common problems that occur when taking pictures around, when the lighting conditions are not ideal, is that the colors are too bright or the brightness is too dark.

To correct the colors in the photos, you can use the iPhone Photo app using the Color editing and adjustment function.

Even in Google Photos for Android and iOS, you can do the same trick from the Edit options, using the color adjustment sliders or even the automatic correction feature.

5) Illuminate the shadows 

About lighting in the photos, we can then exploit the artificial intelligence of the phone to perform some tricks of photo editing that otherwise they would be rather complicated.

To illuminate only the darkest areas of a photo, without changing the rest of the image, Snapseed for Android and iOS is one of the best tools to use.

With an image open on the screen, go to the Tools tab and then select Optimize Image.
Tap the slider icon at the bottom to see the brightness and contrast options, to darken light areas and lighten dark areas.

The changes will be previewed directly in the thumbnail below.
The automatic adjustment button (the magic wand) at the bottom allows you to apply the corrections that Snapseed deems necessary for the image.

6) Correcting imperfections 

As an app to make a photo more beautiful we can choose Pixlr for Android and iOS for its ease of use and its free availability.

You can upload an image in the app, tap the Toolbox icon (bottom left) and use the Heal brush from the list of displayed options.

With the Spot function you can eliminate small imperfections by adjusting the slider down and changing the size of the brush used.
The Shade and Shine tools then allow you to darken and illuminate the points in the image.

7) Correction of image distortion 

If the photos require correction of lens distortion or correction of perspective, then SKRWT for Android and iPhone is the ‘app to use, which gets fantastic results with minimal effort.
For a loaded image, you can select one of the many tools available at the bottom of the screen, including horizontal or vertical perspective correction and the rotation tool.
The lens distortion fixator is one of the most effective features and can be useful if you have taken pictures with a lens adapter or a GoPro.

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