A famous photographer once said that the best camera in the world is the one that you have on you, and these days that almost always means your smartphone. With advances in sensor and processing technology, it's now possible to take very good images with a piece of tech that we all own... but how do you get the best out of your camera phone? This week we’re going to introduce you to four of our favourite editing apps that we're sure will help you do just that. 

Available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone, Facetune is the perfect app for anyone who posts a lot of selfies. We were impressed with the level of control and adjustability available in this app, featuring blemish removal and liquify tools that allow you to give your selfie a little touch-up or full makeover – the choice is yours. The Facetune website also features easy to follow tutorials that allow you to do anything from restoring old photos to removing acne or adding textures to your images.

When it comes to elegance in design and simplicity of use Fotor steals many of the headlines. This community-based photo editing app is incredibly intuitive to use and powerful enough for the BBC to liken it to a mini Photoshop. As well as the usual filters and effects, Fotor’s most exciting feature is ‘Focus’ which allows you to create similar depth of field and out of focus areas as a DSLR. It’s very convincing and almost endlessly adjustable.  

If you’re the kind of smartphone photographer who likes to push the processing boundaries, Pixlr is definitely the app for you! With filters, effects and overlays that combine in over 2 million ways, this app provides almost endless possibilities – from beautifying your selfies to producing wacky works of art. We’re also impressed with Pixlr’s excellent collage tool, which is intuitive and rewarding to use.

Often described as the cream of the crop in the photography app world, VSCO Cam is for the serious photographer who happens to also use their smartphone. It’s less filter-intense than many apps, but more than makes up for that with the quality and power of its editing tools. VSCO also has the most vibrant community of photographers attached, thanks largely to the powerful journaling tool.

As always we'd love to hear your feedback on this week's blog. If you decide to give one of these apps a try and come up with something amazing, don't forget to send us a file so we can print it onto canvas for you!