White spiral staircase at The Tate Britain in London

Art and culture

Expert tips for great photos

February 10, 2020

For great phone photos with that professional edge, we asked our #DCmoments City Guides experts to share their favourite photo-editing apps with us.

Marble interior of the Villa Torlonia in Rome

#DCmoments City Guide Rome

Nicolee Drake

I highly recommend using the VSCO app as it’s a great all-in-one tool for simplifying your mobile editing process. It has all of the editing tools you could ever need, and a beautiful selection of filters ‒ to be used sparingly, of course!

Your Rome City Guide

#DCmoments City Guide London

Alexandra Lhermite-Schwass

My editing process is never exactly the same, it depends on what each image needs but one of my favourite apps is Snapseed. I particularly love the selective adjustment that enables you to alter specific areas of an image. And I always like to do some final adjustments directly with the Instagram editing tools before posting.

Your London City Guide

Exterior facade of the Museum del Novecento in Milan

Remember an expensive camera isn’t essential, the secret is to have a creative eye for what makes a great photo and to have fun experimenting with your smartphone.

Elisa Maruca

#DCmoments Los Angeles Guide

Esther Lee

I mostly use Photoshop and Lightroom to edit. If I’m shooting on my phone I have several mobile apps I use as well. Afterlight is my favourite mobile app as it is good for different framing options and darkening shadows. It also has some fun filters that I like to use occasionally.

Your Los Angeles City Guide

Close up shot on the architecture of the Pershing Square

#DCmoments Milan Guide

Elisa Maruca

I have two mobile apps that I rely on for all my phone photos. I really like VSCO’s beautiful section of vintage filters (A6 and A4 are my favourites) and how easy they make photo editing. Snapseed is also handy for things like straightening an image or adjusting the perspective.

Your Milan City Guide

#DCmoments Paris Guide

Polina Burashnikova

When it comes to editing, I always start with the Lightroom app to adjust colours to fit my feed. I then correct specific areas of my photos using Snapseed’s Brush and Selective tools, or for portraits and selfies I use Facetune. I’m also a big fan of the Suxov app at the moment as it has some great filters!

Your Paris City Guide

If you found this useful, take a look at more photography tips and Insta-inspiration from our #DCmoments City Guides authors.

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