The best camera apps to use on the go, for editing, retouching and planning photo shoots on your mobile phone or DSLR

Smartphone technology has come on in leaps and bounds, and the integral cameras that come with most modern phones are now capable of capturing high-quality travel images. For now, phone cameras have yet to provide the sort of depth-of-field control, lowlight capability and interchangeable lenses that you get when shooting with a DSLR or mirrorless camera – but in good light they capture images well, and most people would be hard pressed to spot the difference. The fact that we almost always have a phone to hand and can capture, edit and share images in seconds from that same device makes it invaluable, and even professional photographers regularly use mobiles as part of their workflow. There are numerous apps designed to help you with planning, capturing, processing and sharing your mobile images. Here are five that will help take your mobile travel photography to a higher level. PhotoPills (iOS/Android, US$9.99) It is easy enough to find sunrise and sunset times anywhere in the world, but the PhotoPills app takes things a step further, allowing you to see where and when the moon, the sun and even the Milky Way will be at any given time. How to stop dating apps selling your information online The app allows you to check out locations virtually and to find the best compositions for light as far in advance as you wish, giving you the best chance of being in the right place at the right time to get the perfect image. The app can prove a valuable tool once you get to grips with the basics, and it is a whole lot easier than fumbling around in the dark, guessing where the sun will rise. Filmic Firstlight (iOS & Android, free/US$7.99 a year for premium features) Firstlight was launched in December 2019 by Filmic, which also produces the popular mobile filmmaking app Filmic Pro. The app allows you to shoot in DNG/RAW format for more dynamic range in your mobile photos. It also gives a good degree of manual control, which is helpful in difficult lighting situations. Like many apps out there it also has filters, which are applied at the time of capture (in JPEG mode only). It has the ability to switch colour channels to not only produce familiar retro-style images but to also replicate infrared images. It does an excellent job of this, though you might want to be sparing with the weird-looking infrared image posts, as it soon gets old. Most features are available in the free version, while more filters and other options come with the subscription-based premium version. Snapseed (iOS & Android, free) The original and quite possibly still the best and most user-friendly mobile image-processing app out there is Snapseed. The app has been around since 2011, regularly gets updated and is incredibly easy to use. You can process regular camera images if transferred to your phone (by Wi-fi or from drives/cards), as it works with RAW images and allows you to output at high resolution, which is ideal for posting your best camera shots on the go. There are many intuitive processing tools within the app. The “tune image”, “curves”, “selective” and “brush” tools are particularly advanced, and not far off the capability of more expensive desktop software options. Lightroom Mobile (iOS & Android free basic app and US$4.99 for premium features) From its sluggish beginnings, the Adobe Lightroom Mobile app has come a long way in the past year or so, and now offers many of the features of Adobe’s industry standard Lightroom desktop image processing software – which most professional and many enthusiast photographers subscribe to through a monthly package (with this, the app’s premium tools are included). There is a fully functional camera built into the app, although I would still advise on shooting outside the app, and then processing within the app to keep things separate from the Adobe ecosystem. This is a good stand-alone processing app, which comes into its own when used with an iPad to process batch images on the go (either transferred to the device from a separate camera or shot on the device). Images and the edits can then be synced via Wi-fi and the Adobe Cloud to Lightroom on your desktop computer, which is a slow process but very useful for travelling and utilising down time. China is using social credit apps to ‘gamify government’ TouchRetouch (iOS & Android, US$1.99) This is widely considered the best app for removing unwanted objects from your images. Whether it’s people cramping your picture, an unwanted sign or ugly power lines, TouchRetouch allows you to remove them easily and to a level of accuracy usually only found in desktop software such as Photoshop. Using the lasso tool, brushes and other options in the app you can clean up pictures with ease. This is a useful app at a great price.

The best camera apps to use on the go, for editing, retouching and planning photo shoots on your mobile phone or DSLR

With these five apps you can take travel photography to another level, whether you’re shooting on a mobile phone or using a camera Snapseed is user-friendly, full of intuitive processing tools and has a proven track record; Adobe Lightroom Mobile offers features you’d expect on a desktop

With these five apps you can take travel photography to another level, whether you’re shooting on a mobile phone or using a camera

Snapseed is user-friendly, full of intuitive processing tools and has a proven track record; Adobe Lightroom Mobile offers features you’d expect on a desktop