Taking great photos for your social media accounts is imperative if you want to gain new followers. People love great photos and when you uncover new content to post you can then add your content to a range of great photo apps to get the best message out of them.
The following apps offer a variety of different frames, filters and tools for enhancing your photo. They can be used alone or together. In some instances you may use a filter in one app and then the text tool in another to get your message out with your photo. Your aim is to take a great photo, write your business name or brief product description on the photo and have as many people share that as possible. That’s why you need all of the following apps in your repertoire – it keeps your content fresh and unique.
Instagram – While Instagram doesn’t have the most elaborate camera, it does have a range of filters to enhance your photos. The best thing about Instagram is that you can post your photos directly to your followers. Unlike Facebook, you can reach a wide new audience by using hashtags. For example, if you hashtag #beautiful under your post on Instagram other users can search via #beautiful and see your post. This is a great way to get new followers and likes for your post.
You can also search for other users who are using the same hashtags as you or create your own individual hashtags for your followers to find what you’re posting. It’s more of a networking tool than a camera but that’s what makes it our top pick for best photo app for small business.
Enlight – While Instagram is free, Enlight costs around $6.49 in the iTunes store. Cost aside it is a great app for altering photos and giving them a cool edge. Enlight will do what a combination of other apps will do so it is handy to have without having to open up a range of other apps. You can add text or filters but you can also adjust the image by sharpening and decreasing or increasing shadows or highlights. Simply select one of the tools from the extensive menu and drag your finger from left to right to increase or decrease.
Enlight is a photo adjustment suite at your fingertips. There are so many options for overlaying images and adding colour to backgrounds to make pictures absolutely pop that you can’t go past it as tool that will help enhance your social media presence and provide great photos for your website.
Adding text is one of the best features about this app. This is the tool you need for writing your business name, web address or hashtag on your photos. Alternatively, you can type a cool quote on your photo as these have a high share rate and will increase your profile.
Camera+ – This app is the ‘souped up’ version of iPhone’s own camera app. Another paid product (about $3.79), Camera+ has additional features to the Camera app that purport to take crisper, clearer and generally better photos that its free counterpart. If you’re taking product photos for your website this app offers extra stabilisation and clarity. Other extra features include effects, lightbox and separate exposure and focus.
Camera+ is the upgrade you need to have for a small cost. It will help improve the quality of the pictures you are taking for an extra touch of professionalism.
Afterlight – This app goes for $1.29 in the iTunes store with in-app purchases. The in-app purchases include different filters and frames. You can pay the extra $1.29 for these filters but don’t need them. Afterlight is an easy to use photo adjustment app that allows you to quickly brighten or colour your photos by selecting the tool and then swapping the adjustment bar left or right depending on your preference. So, rather than applying a pre-set filter you have a bit more control over how you want your photo to look.
There are also some great frame and filter additions to give your photo a 70’s vibe like turning your photo into a letter of the alphabet or applying a dust or light filter that makes the picture look like it was taken with an old camera. Tre cool.
Waterlogue/Brushstroke – While these are different apps they offer a similar service and are both worthwhile in their own regard.
Basically, Waterlogged takes your photographic masterpiece and turns it into a watercolour painting. There are a variety of different options for exactly what kind of watercolour you would like and it makes for an interesting twist on the standard photo application.
Brushstroke offers a similar premise to Waterlogue except that it turns your photo into a painting using acrylics and oils. Get set to create a work of art where you can select your painting style and even the kind of canvas you used. The canvas allows texture to the photo like you painted it yourself. Another great feature of this app is that you can select ‘ship’ allowing you to send it straight to a canvas printing store and hang it on your wall. But, for business purposes this is another great app for creating website content and interesting social media posts.
Using either of these apps allows you to upload your photo into a variety of social media platforms or simply save to photos to use where you like.