5 Best Photo Editing Apps for iPad

Editing photos on the iPad has many advantages: It's more portable than editing on a computer, and you can also edit a mix of photos from your smartphone and your camera's RAW files. The App Store has a ton of great photo editing tools that take full advantage of the iPad's capabilities.

Table of Contents

• 1. Lightroom CC
• 2. Apple Photos
• 3. VSCO
• 4. Photoshop Express
• 5. Darkroom

1. Lightroom CC

Lightroom CC is my all-time favorite iPad photo editing app for a number of reasons. The interface is easy to navigate, and you can sync your edits across the desktop and smartphone apps in real time. Plus, you can use the app in the Adobe Photography Plan alongside Lightroom Classic. We recommend using Lightroom CC and Classic together for more comprehensive editing.

It’s easy to transform your photos in Lightroom with a variety of presets in the app; you can even have Lightroom recommend specific settings for your photos, and you can add your own as you develop your own photography style. You also have access to many of the same features as in Lightroom Classic, such as color grading and camera profiles. You can adjust certain aspects of your photos, such as noise reduction and chromatic aberration removal. Both are available even when you import photos from your smartphone.

Lightroom CC makes it easy to erase blemishes, like spots. When using the app, you can easily revert to a previous version if you don't like some of your most recent adjustments; you can name each version if you want to keep things organized.

While you don't need a full Adobe CC All Apps subscription, it's still worth purchasing the $9.99/month Adobe Photography Plan to get access to Lightroom CC.

2. Apple Photos

While Lightroom CC is great, you don’t need to pay for photo editing software to edit photos on your iPad. The Apple Photos app works just fine in many cases. If you’re new to photo editing, you should start with Apple Photos and then invest in another tool once you’ve learned the basics.

When editing with Apple Photos, you can apply many of the best iPhone camera filters to the photos on your device. This is my favorite feature. It works really well on both smartphone photos and JPEGs imported from Fujifilm cameras. Just like when editing on iPhone, you can adjust the intensity of each filter used. To compare it to the original, just tap on the photo.

Apple Photos has many of the same tools as Lightroom. For example, you can adjust saturation, vibrance, and exposure. However, you also have access to a few other tools; you can change brightness and black point, for example. Both are underrated, and if you choose to buy Lightroom, you should consider how you can use Apple Photos and Lightroom together.

3. VSCO

Comparing VSCO and Apple Photos is a good idea before deciding which app you’ll stick with. VSCO has a lot going for it. For example, while many of VSCO’s filters require a premium subscription, the free options available are just as good. VSCO’s filters are more “artistic” than Apple Photos (and even many of the filters you’ll find in Lightroom). They also look great on photos taken with smartphones and cameras.

VSCO also gives you access to a bunch of fun sliders; for example, the Fade tool lets you give your photos a more blurred look. This is especially effective when you’re shooting high-contrast photos and want to tone down the overall effect, and is also great for creating a vintage look.

You can adjust exposure, crop VSCO photos, tweak white balance, and change saturation. Some of the best features, like adding grain and split toning, cost money. But if you don’t want to subscribe to a premium plan, you can use other apps to add these effects to your photos.

In addition to photo editing, VSCO lets you share your creations with the community.

4. Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express is one of Adobe’s more valuable mobile apps and a great companion to Lightroom and VSCO. Sometimes you might want to use all three tools together, as there are certain things that Photoshop Express does better than the others. One example is that cropping images for social media content is much easier in Photoshop Express, thanks to its customizable presets.

One thing people really like about Photoshop Express is how easy it is to edit specific objects and subjects in your photos. You can usually select the object you want to edit when you select a slider; you'll see a thumbnail for each object.

Photoshop Express has a lot of editing features, such as options to adjust whites, blacks, temperature, and tones. You can also reduce brightness and noise in your photos. Photoshop Express also has some repair features, such as brushes and clone stamps. You can also create collages and more.

The only real complaint about Photoshop Express is that it’s generally better at editing JPEGs or camera RAW files that have been converted to JPEGs. So people often do more editing in Lightroom if it’s a RAW file and then import that file into Photoshop Express to finish it.

Note : You can also access the Split Toning feature, which is quite similar to Lightroom's color grading tool - but not as good.

5. Darkroom

If you don’t want to pay for access to Lightroom CC, Darkroom is one of the best alternatives. The interface is very similar, with many of the tools — like Contrast, Clarity , and Highlights — identical to what you’ll find in Lightroom. One feature I particularly like about Darkroom is that you can split between Highlights and Shadows to add as much color as you like.

When you want to quickly make overall adjustments to your photo, use Darkroom's presets.

Darkroom has a Tone Curve slider for your entire photo, along with RGB histograms for the reds, greens, and blues in your photo. You can also revert your photo to a previous version if you want. Another great feature of Darkroom is that you can choose between different grids, which gives you more editing control. The app lets you edit RAW and JPEG files.

Photo editing on the iPad offers a lot of advantages and flexibility. After trying out a few different apps, you should have no problem finding one that meets your needs. While some apps require a subscription to access all the features, that’s not always the case. And in many cases, you can find what you need for free.