Top Smartphone Apps for Editing Underwater Photos

Almost every image above or below water can be improved with a little post-processing. Historically, this required specialized applications on your computer. However, with the increase in smartphone power and camera capabilities, there are more smartphone apps for editing underwater photos. So, the million-dollar question is which are the Top Smartphone Apps for Editing Underwater Photos?

Best App For Ease of Use: Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe is synonymous with photo editing. Anyone who is a photographer has heard of the magic Photoshop or Lightroom can do. However, these full versions of the software require a hefty annual subscription.

That said, Adobe has released a free app with limited functionality for use on smartphones. Adobe Photoshop Express is perfect for minor image editing, whether your images are taken above or below the water.

This app is available for iPhone, Android, and Windows store. The app allows you to do almost everything you would want to an image, including:

·       Cropping.

·       Adjust exposure and shadows.

·       Create highlights.

·       Adjust color temperatures, as well as saturation and tint.

The app also brings a few features that are more commonly found in Adobe Lightroom. This includes:

·       Changing vibrance to enhance some colors.

·       The ability to improve clarity, which adds sharpness and contrast.

·       Noise reduction to color and luminance.

If you are looking for a basic photo editor for your phone that won’t break the bank but will let you produce great results for above- and below-water images, Adobe Photoshop Express is hard to beat. The app is relatively feature-rich and has many functions. It also has lots of presets for publishing on the web to keep your Instagram reel stocked with images.

Photoshop Vs. Lightroom

One of the biggest questions photographers face is whether they should use Photoshop or Lightroom. This is because there seems to be a lot of overlap in what both programs can do. As a rule, Lightroom is perfect for bulk editing minor changes such as color corrections, White balance adjustments, and so forth.

For instance, if you have a ton of images from a dive where your strobe failed, Then you can use Lightroom to fix a bulk white balance and restore the red to most of your image. This is a task in which Lightroom will outshine Photoshop.

Photoshop is your dedicated heavy editing app. Where you want to make some deep changes to an image. Say, for instance, you have the perfect image of a coral pinnacle. Yet sadly, due to the busy dive site, the background has a diver from a different group in the distance. Removing the offending aquatic photobomber should take no time in Photoshop and is a task Lightroom can't perform. Heavy editing equals Photoshop, while light editing and adjustment are best done in Lightroom.

Use Your iPhone’s Native Editor

Historically, you have always needed an aftermarket photo editing app. However, as smartphones have become more powerful, they have become capable of some astonishing feats. Consider that a 4-year-old iPhone is about 100,000 times more powerful than the computer on Apollo 11, which took man to the moon.

The iPhone has added more and more editing functionality to its photo app. These are now so powerful that, in many cases, if you have an iPhone, there is no need to have any additional editing software if you only want to do some basic editing tasks on your images. So, what exactly can your iPhone photo app do?

The simple answer is almost any light editing task can be done natively on your iPhone. First, the biggest issue underwater photographers have is the loss of the red color with depth. Restoring this color and warmth is the first thing that many photographers learn to do. You can easily do this in your iPhone photo app by adjusting the white balance.

Users can also make a host of other edits, including cropping their images, adjusting contrast and saturation, and making their images sharper. Unfortunately, heavier image processing, like healing and clearing up backscatter, is beyond the native tool and requires a more specialized photo editing tool. We have a detailed article on how to edit your images directly on your iPhone.

Best Advanced Free App: Snapspeed

Not to be outdone by Apple, Google has released its free photo editor, Snapspeed, and it is a monster. The app brings almost professional-like photo editing capabilities to your smartphone. First of all, the app is free, which is stunning when you see its list of features. Not only is it free, but the app is not supported by advertising, so there are no annoying ads to bother you while you are editing. So what can Snapspeed do?

The app is very user-friendly and allows you to make a wide array of edits, such as cropping, white balance, contrasts, shade, sharpening, and much more. In addition, the app lets you work on RAW files, which is a rarity for free apps, which normally require a paid premium app. Features of Snapspeed include:

·       White balance adjustments.

·       Add various filters.

·       Cropping and resizing images.

·       Healing adjustments to deal with blemishes and backscatter.

·       Fix issues with Red Eye.

·       Create a double-exposure image.

·       Color adjustments, including converting to black and white.

Once mastered the app is easy to use, with many sliders that allow you to perform a large number of different types of edits with the swipe of a finger. So far, Snapspeed sounds too good to be true. So, does it have a downside?

 Sadly, yes, very few things in life are perfect, and that includes Snapspeed. While the app is amazingly powerful and used by many pros, this means that it is not the best for complete novices who may find it a little complex. Also, the app has a decent learning curve, so be prepared to invest some time and brain power learning to use it, which can be frustratingly counterintuitive at certain times. 

Final Thoughts

Finding the right app for you is ultimately a case of personal preference. Many photographers want an image processor that is easy to use, intuitive, and has a shallow learning curve. After all, they are not passionate about becoming world-class photo editors. They are passionate about creating stunning underwater images. After all, almost every underwater photographer would rather spend a couple more hours in the water taking more images than spend two more hours on their smartphone or computer editing images.

On the other hand, learning to photo edit to a high standard is interesting and challenging, and many photographers actually end up enjoying the process. With time and effort, they become masters and look forward to the creative photo editing process, whether on a smartphone app or computer. Only you know which one you are. If you are unsure, then experiment with various apps and programs and see if you can find out or if you fall in love with photo editing. Either way, one thing is certain: you will produce better underwater images regardless of which type you are.