10 Instagram alternatives
With all the Instagram fuss that's been going on, many have been turning away from the popular photo-sharing app.
Now, you're going to have a hard time finding the sort of social network that made Instagram such a hit. But there are a number of excellent photo-editing apps out there, with filters and effects superior to what Instagram offers, that still let you share your snaps with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, email, Google+ and pretty much anywhere else you like.
If there's a brilliant app that doesn't appear in this list, we'd love to hear about it in the comments below.
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Camera Zoom FX
AU$2.74
Camera Zoom FX is excellent. It has so many options for snazzing-up your photos. You can apply a range of filters with vintage and camera effects both before and after snapping the shot — and that's before you even get into fun effects, such as tilt shift, distortion and frames. On top of that, there's a set of tools for editing the image — crop, brightness, saturation. You can even drop in props, or create a filmstrip with your shots. You can do some really creative things with your photographs that other apps only tease at. Every time you use it, you'll find something new, but not in an annoying way — it'll be more like, "Cool, it can do that, too?"
Photo import: no
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: yes
Editing tools: brightness, contrast, saturation, crop
Share: any sharing app you have on your phone; includes Dropbox, email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, G+
For Android
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Pixlr-o-matic
Free
Pixlr-o-matic's strength lies in its filters and effects. You get a nice selection when you download the app, and then there are packs of filters and effects that you can opt to download. We like it, because the filters are actually interesting and look pretty great, although a lot of them will look better if you think about the composition of the photograph first.
We like the randomiser button that applies a filter, effect and frame in one swoop — seeing what you end up with is pretty neat.
Photo import: yes
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: yes
Editing tools: no
Share: any sharing app that you have on your phone; includes Dropbox, email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, G+
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Vignette
Free
We like Vignette, because it produces some really classy and authentic-looking, retro-style photos. It's a little bit fiddly to use, and the free version comes with seven styles to try out. Naturally, you get a lot more with the AU$3.99 paid version, but the free version is great to play around with.
Photo import: yes
Filters: yes
Frames: no
Effects: no
Editing tools: brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, rotation
Share: any sharing app you have on your phone; includes Dropbox, email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, G+
For Android
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Retro Camera
Free
Retro Camera is, we admit, a little bit gimmicky; it replicates the look of an older film camera, and you change the effects it produces by selecting a different camera, which are all based on (but are not quite the same as) vintage cameras. There are only a few, so it's a bit limited; like Vignette, there is a paid version; unlike Vignette, though, is doesn't offer much more beyond the removal of ads.
Photo import: no
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: no
Editing tools: no
Share: Facebook, Twitter, email
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Pudding Camera
Free
A lot of apps offer the good ol' Holga and Polaroid mainstays, but if you want a few more fun things to play around with, then check out Pudding Camera. (Why "Pudding"?) Like Retro Camera, you select the camera you want, but it includes multi-lens cameras for mosaic-style shots, which is pretty neat, and a fish-eye lens. You also get to choose your film, so you can opt for black and white or oversaturated in the lens configuration of your choice.
Photo import: no
Filters: yes
Frames: no
Effects: yes
Editing tools: no
Share: pudding.to, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, email
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Snapseed
AU$5.49
Snapseed was awarded Apple's iPad app of the year for 2011, and, once you get into it, it's not hard to see why. It has a large range of filters and effects for gussying up your photos — we like some of the fancy-schmancy ones, but if you like your photo edits subtle, then Snapseed does that, too. We particularly like the spot editor that allows you to select an area and adjust brightness, contrast and saturation in a very localised fashion. Everything's customisable — we can only recommend that you get in there and try it out for yourself.
Photo import: yes
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: yes
Editing tools: sharpen, brightness, contrast, saturation, auto-correct, ambience, white balance, structure
Share: email, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter
For iPad
Photo taken with the kind permission of Morris and Sons.
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
FX Photo Studio HD
AU$1.99
FX Photo Studio HD is, as the name implies, a photo editor focused on eye-popping effects — as you can see by the spiffy rainbow-filter-mosaic-effect combo we're rocking above. There's a large number of both to choose from, in addition to a relatively comprehensive editing toolbox (although not quite Snapseed levels of tweakability). Some filters tend to lose a bit of detail, though, so if it's sharp macro shots that you're trying to edit, then this probably isn't the tool for you.
Photo import: yes
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: yes
Editing tools: contrast, brightness, saturation, hue, gamma
Share: email, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr
For iOS
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
PhotoToaster
AU$1.99
PhotoToaster does things a little differently. You can select menus for exposure, effects, vignette, filters and frames. In each of those menus, you'll find a number of presets to flick through, but you can also tap on a button in the upper left of the filmstrip-style menu. This will bring up sliders for you to adjust the finer points of each item — for example, the texture and intensity of an effect, or saturation, mid-tones, highlights and a bunch of others for a filter. It's very customisable; of course, the downside is that it can be a bit fiddly, as well.
Photo import: yes
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: yes
Editing tools: crop, rotate, straighten, remove noise
Share: email, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, SMS, Twitter
For iOS
Photo taken with the kind permission of Morris and Sons.
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Adobe Photoshop Touch
AU$10.49
Adobe Photoshop Touch is a pared-back version of Photoshop for iPad and Android tablets, and, for what it is, it's very good. If you do a lot of image tweaking and wish you had something to carry around with you, then it's definitely worth your time. However, if all you want is to put filters over your photos, then Photoshop Touch is probably not the droid for you. Most of the tools deal with the finer points of image editing, and the number of filters and effects available is small, compared to other apps on this list.
Photo import: yes
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: yes
Editing tools: it's Photoshop — hello
Share: Facebook, email, Creative Cloud
Photo taken with the kind permission of Morris and Sons.
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Photo Editor+
AU$0.99
Photo Editor+ is pretty light on the filters, too. Where it does work is with its other options. It includes options to draw on the screen and add text, as well as red-eye reduction, whitening and blemish-removal tools, all of which work quite well. For an extra AU$0.99, you can also get the ability to add stickers to your shots. OK, so maybe it's not the most grown-up thing we've ever seen, but who wants to be all sepia all the time, anyway?
Photo import: yes
Filters: yes
Frames: yes
Effects: yes
Editing tools: brighten, contrast, saturation, sharpness
Share: email, Facebook
For iOS
(Credit: Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Percolator
AU$1.99
Percolator isn't really a photo-editing app — not like the others are. It kind of does only one thing, actually. We just really like it. What it does is break your photo down into circles. You can choose the size of the circles, what kind of circles and even make some colour and opacity tweaks. Alas, we tried running a Percolated photo through the Percolator again, but it seemed wise to our tricks. Nevertheless, it's excellent fun to play with when you just want to do something silly.
Photo import: yes
Filters: no
Frames: no
Effects: yes (well, one)
Editing tools: no
Share: Twitter, Facebook
For iOS
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