6 FREE Photo Editing Apps to use for Instagram

I have put together a list of my favorite free photo editing apps to help edit your photos for Instagram. Instagram is a visual platform and creating beautiful eye-catching photos is one of the most important elements to content creating. All of these apps can be downloaded straight to your phone, and are fairly simple to navigate.

I am not a professional photographer; I just want to create pretty pictures of books! Finding photo editing tools that are free and simple are a MUST in my book! After you create stunning and original photos, hopefully using some of the free photo editing apps provided here, I have a few other tips to help grow your Instagram or Bookstagram account as well.

Photo Editing App 1: PICSART

PicsArt is probably my favorite photo editing app in terms of adding elements into my pictures. I will typically edit the lighting of my photo in a separate app and then put the finishing touches of the photo in PicsArt. My favorite editing features for the app include the Stickers, Brushes and Retouch.

Stickers: There are hundreds of stickers available on the app and MOST of them are free. There are some stickers that will only be available through PicsArt Pro but there are plenty of free options if you don’t want to purchase the full version of the app. I used the free version to edit my photos my first 2 years on Instagram, and only recently decided to splurge on the full version of the app. I will admit to loving having access to everything the app has to offer, but I was able to edit almost everything I needed with the free version as well.

Here is one of my insider editing tips for placing stickers or adding cut out photos into your pictures. Take advantage of the opacity slider. I find that if you lower the slider by about 5% the additions look more natural. It’s also fun to play with the texture of the photo by varying the opacity of each of the stickers if you place multiple stickers into your photo you can edit some of the stickers down to 10% opacity, some to 25%, etc.…and the result creates a photo with texture and depth, which can be quite visually striking.

Brushes: The brushes feature is very similar to the stickers feature but doesn’t allow for the same amount of precision. Brushes has a set item that you choose, and when you place your finger on the photo a random group of whatever items you picked will appear on the photo. You do have the ability to edit the brush strokes after placing them on the photo by clicking on the eraser tool. If you are wanting to edit a lot of small objects into your photo, such as letters or stars, the brush tool is a great place to start.

ReTouch: Retouch is for your pimples! Or at least that’s what I use it for. The feature allows you to edit and “retouch” the photo, specifically it focuses on your face and skin showing. Honestly, I am not a huge fan of editing my face because I think faces should look the same in photos as they do in real life, cause they are amazing just as they are.

However, I have not quite reached the place of enlightenment that will allow me to post a photo with a planet sized pimple on my face and that is when this feature comes in handy. There is also a feature that will allow you to change the color of your hair which I have had a lot of fun playing around with.

Photo Editing App 2: PS ADOBE Express

This is my favorite photo editing app when it comes to fixing the lighting composition of the photo. I am sure that there are plenty of photo editing apps out there that will allow users to edit the photo in extreme detail and provide dramatic lighting backgrounds, but I am an amateur photographer. I want an app that is easy to navigate, but also provides enough editing details to customize the photos lighting and aesthetic to my liking.

I have also found that there are certain editing features that are more important to focus on depending on what type of energy you are trying to evoke with your photos and feed. For example:

Temperature: The temperature slider will allow you to edit the photo’s color temperature. If your feed and photos are warmer you will want to slide the bar to the right…towards the yellow color spectrum. This is perfect for cozier feeds. If you want to display more crisp and cooler toned photos, then you will want to slide the bar to the left toward the blue color spectrum.

If you slide the bar just slightly to the blue your photos will pop with a crisp energetic aesthetic. This is perfect for feeds that are youthful and happy. If you slide the bar further to the blue your photos will evoke a more dramatic aesthetic. 

The temperature of your photos and eventually your overall Instagram feed is very important to creating a cohesive aesthetic. If you are attempting to create a cohesive feed, sticking to one color temperature is very important. I would also recommend researching color theory when deciding what colors you want to display in your feed. People are influenced by color a lot more than you would think!

Sharpness: Editing the sharpness of your photo can go a long way to creating a romantic visual. When I am editing photos for my classic books, or when I attempt to create photos that I deem “beautifully aesthetic” I KNOW, I AM SO HUMBLE! I always blur the photo to create a dreamier aesthetic. For all you 2005 Pride and Prejudice fans out there, just picture Macfadyen walking through the field in all that fog! It’s a dreamy romantic scene, not only for the flowing coat sexy walk, but also because the image is slightly blurred and hazy.

The same could be said for editing photos that you want to pop. Edit the sharpness just slightly sharper than the starting point and the photo will exhibit a brighter more energetic aesthetic. I would use caution when editing photos sharper though because it tends to pixelate the photo.

Brightness: In my opinion editing the brightness of a photo can make or break it! I am a huge fan of natural light, if in direct sunlight I typically like to take photos between 10-11 and 2-4  so that the photo doesn’t turn out too bright, but I will admit to preferring photos on the brighter side of the spectrum as opposed to dark.

It is all a matter of opinion though! 99% of the time I will edit a photos brightness to slightly more than the original brightness warranted. However, if you are editing the photo on your phone make sure you are viewing the photo with your phone’s brightness turned at least half way up. I tend to keep mine lower but this provides a skewed perception of the photo.

Contrast: When I first started editing photo’s I went contrast crazy! I would slide the contrast as far as I was allowed because I loved the pop of colors. Contrast made my somewhat red hair turn TOTALLY red, and my pale skin turn TOTALLY pale and I looked like a vampire. This of course was a personal goal for me so the contrast was always used! However, I have since taken a step back and decided that using too much contrast makes the photo look phony. If you want your photos to look natural stay away from too much contrast!

Photo Editing App 3: LIGHTROOM

I have only just started using the Lightroom editing app for my Instagram pictures, and I will be perfectly honest and say that it’s not quite my jam. You are able to edit your photos the same way that PS Adobe allows you to edit, but something about the set up seems more complicated in my opinion.

You do have the ability to add and use presets in Lightroom though, and that is a huge draw for people who create feeds that are truly cohesive. One difficulty that I run into when trying to use presets is that I can never make 2 different photos look the same after using a preset. AND ISN’T THAT THE POINT? 

If I take a photo outside in natural lighting the preset might wash out that particular photo, and if I take a photo inside the preset might not be enough to add enough light into that photo. Your next option is to edit the photos, but even then, you might not achieve a perfectly similar photo in terms of temperature and brightness. This is why my personal journey with Presets ended very early. Don’t let this discourage you from trying out presets though! Go forth and experiment.

Photo Editing App 4: TOUCH RETOUCH

Retouch is my go-to photo editing app for taking elements out of my photo. For example, If I take a picture at the beach and a tourist in a speedo is standing directly behind me…I don’t want that. I have found Retouch to be the easiest editing tool for taking out unwanted objects or speedos. It can only take out so much before the photo starts to become distorted though.

There are probably more detailed photo editing apps for removing objects from photos that will allow you to really manipulate the photo, but I have not come across anything that was free that worked better than Retouch. I am open to suggestions if anyone knows of anything though!

Photo Editing App 5: PHOTOLEAP

Formerly called “Photofox”, this photo editing app allows you to create multiple layers of images. So, if one feels the need to cut out Colin Firth’s face and add it to a photo of oneself, one would use this app to add in each Colin Firth face. The free version of the app only allows you to add 2 layers. You will need to save your progress and open a new photo with each saved Colin update to add more layers.  You can upgrade to the PRO version if you want to create more layers.

I have recently stopped using this app for editing image layers into my photos after deciding to upgrade to the PRO version of PicsArt. PicsArt offers image layering with its Pro version of the app and I find it slightly easier to navigate. However, if you really do not want to pay for the upgrade on any of the apps then using the free version of Photoleap definitely works!

Photo Editing App 6: FILMORAGO

This is technically not a photo editing app, but in case anyone has a need for video editing tools I included this one into the list. I love using this app to edit my videos! It’s easy to use and is actually helpful! I started using Filmorago when researching different editing tools for my reels for Instagram. My main need for the app was to find something that would allow me to edit the video in reverse, and to play with the timing of the video. 

I went through 4-5 other video editing apps and continued to run into glitches in the videos I would create after saving them. This was the only app that created a smooth final product after distorting the speed or reversing the video. Instagram allows you to edit the speed of your reels in the app, but it only allows you to edit the speed to a certain degree. I needed more!!! There are in app purchases but I have found that I can create everything that I need to with the free version of the app so far!

Since I take photos with my phone I tend to spend most of my time editing my photos with my phone as well. I am also prone to laziness and am NOT tech savvy so I need whatever is the easiest option to navigate. I don’t do complicated when it comes to editing!

However, if you are really wanting play around with editing your photos I would also recommend Photoshop. You can download it onto a laptop or desktop which will provide a bigger picture, and Photoshop provides a greater amount of photo editing power. To access the full version of Photoshop it is $52.99 a month (or $25 for students) so that just might not be the best option for you right now, and that’s ok!

There is a Photoshop single App download that is $20.99 per month if you do not need access to everything the full app provides. It all depends on what your needs are at the moment. There are tons of photo editing tools that can provide results and are still free! I hope some of these options help you create the photos you desire!