Six iPhone photo apps you shouldn't live without

One of the greatest developments in photography in recent years is the improvement in camera quality on smartphones. I have a DSLR, but I don't take it along on most of my everyday outings. Sometimes, though, extraordinary moments happen during those everyday routines. For those, I use my iPhone to capture memories. These apps will help you do the same. Whether you want a simple editor that will change your photo with a tap, or the option to control every enhancement you make, you'll find something you like in these six apps.

AfterLight: This app, formerly known as Afterglow, is one of my personal favorites. Editing is quick and simple giving your photo a new look in seconds. There are 15 adjustment tools to enhance photos. Once you've made your needed adjustments, there are 26 original filters and 13 guest filters that you can apply. Filters can be layered for different effects. The app also features 42 textures and cropping, rotating, mirroring, and straightening tools. You can finish off your photo with one of AfterLight's 21 frames. (I'm not a fan of frames, personally). The app is $0.99 in iTunes.

Camera+: This is the app that I use to take all of my photos. I don't use the built-in camera app at all since downloading Camera+. It is leaps and bounds better than the regular camera, even before using any editing tools. Before snapping your picture, you can tap the screen to adjust both focus and exposure to make sure you're getting the best picture possible, straight out of the camera. The stabilizer reduces the number of blurry pictures you'll have, and the app has a grid to help you line up your shots. There is a zoom in the app (and it's better than the built-in camera's zoom), but read here about why you should never, ever use the zoom function on an iPhone. The camera has some really amazing effects, borders and crops to improve the look of your photos, but download it just for the improved photo capabilities. You can get it for $0.99 on iTunes.

Instagram: Yes, Instagram has been around a while, but it's still one of my favorites for filters. It's been around long enough that I don't need to cover all the features with you, but my favorite filters are Walden, Amaro, Earlybird, and Lo-fi. I also love the tilt-shift feature for focusing in on the elements I want. Instagram is one of the best apps for sharing photos on your social networks. Best of all, it's free.

Normalize: Meet the anti-Instagram. Normalize is an app designed to remove those funky filters that you apply to your photos. It claims to improve photos by turning them back into what they're supposed to look like, making colors more vibrant and improving clarity. I haven't personally used this app, but if you only have the Instagrammed versions of your pictures saved and want to change them back, this may be a good option. Normalize is $0.99 in iTunes.

Pic Collage: I use Pic Collage for its collage function only, but my teenage nieces love the app for its borders, stickers, and text options. Personally, I feel those detract from a photo, but who am I to judge? If you like those sorts of things, this is one of the best apps for them. A review from Cat Johnson on their iTunes page sums the app up nicely: "It's kind of like photoshop for first graders." The app is free in iTunes and is also available for Android devices.

Snapseed: Snapseed was my favorite app last year and is still one I use quite frequently. It has too many features to list them all, but suffice it to say that it is one of the best photo editing apps available for mobile devices and it's free. You can make adjustments to your photos by simply sliding your finger across the screen. It also lets you make enhancements to a specific area of the photo rather than the entire photo. There are plenty of filters and frames for finishing photos, but it's worth downloading for its editing functions alone. Editing is so simple with Snapseed. It's also available for Android devices.

All images provided by the author.