Mobile phones are getting more powerful each day. If you have an iPhone, it's a pretty good camera AND a powerful computer at the same time.
In the era where social distancing is a term that might stick around for a while, everybody is making content - from your local yoga teacher to your kid's school to the neighborhood restaurant. And you know what? I bet most of it is created on phones.
Now, I'm not saying that you should never again hire a professional content creator (such as photographer or videographer). But for the basic social media content creation, your phone will have you covered most of the time.
Here's a list of apps that can expand your phone's photo and video capabilities. I use all of them (and then some). Most of them exist for both iOS and Android. Some of them are free, some of them are paid - but not unaffordable. Scroll down for the list or watch the video for even more apps and a brief demonstration of each of them!
Coming light
Light is the most important thing in photography. If you're working with daylight, you've noticed it always changes. This app can precisely show you the start of a golden or blue hour. There's also a map where you can see where's the light coming from where you are at different times of the day.
SKRWT
Perspective distortion can be annoying. It can also be the most prominent sign that a photo was taken with a phone. SKRWT gives you a set of excellent tools for perspective correction.
Snapseed
Snapseed is a free photo-editing application that can do a lot, and it's great for basic corrections. Be wary of the filters and effects, because most of them are too strong and can look amateurish. Click here for the iOS, or here for the Android version.
Lightroom CC
If Snapseed and SKRWT had a child, which also happens to be the industry standard in photography, that would be Adobe Lightroom CC. It is slightly less powerful than its desktop counterpart, but it can sync to the cloud, and you can buy third-party presets for it. You can use it for free, but a monthly subscription is required to unlock all the features. This way you can also get Photoshop bundled in, which is not a bad thing!
VSCO
VSCO (short for Visual Supply Company) has been around since 2012. Today it's an editing app with an impressive range of presets (from film emulations to more pragmatic ones like the filters made for artificial light). VSCO also enables you to make simple animations using photos, videos, and basic shapes and comes with a built-in social network for creators which, unlike Instagram, doesn't have likes. A yearly subscription is needed to unlock all the features.
RNI Films
Rni makes film emulation presets for Lightroom and Capture One, but they also make several editing apps for your phone. The looks are subtle and look cleaner than in other similar apps (like VSCO), which is great when you want your photos to have a subtle polish (and look edited) but don't want anything overpowering.
Halide and Spectre
Coming from the same developer, Halide and Spectre solve a problem that the native camera app on iOS, albeit great, doesn't allow you to do anything manually. Halide is a camera app that can shot RAW and have manual exposure settings (or manual focus, if you need it). Spectre uses computational photography to shoot long exposures (thing light trails or super silky bodies of water). To use Spectre, you do need a tripod for your phone, but they're quite affordable!
Do you have an app to recommend? Let me know in the comments! Also, if you liked the video, please consider subscribing to my YT channel.