In the last two months, I’ve spent a lot of time downloading different Windows 8 apps for photo editing. I think I’ve downloaded just about every free app I could find! I do a ton of photo editing, so I need different apps for different aspects. To save you some time, I’ve created a list of my favorites…so far.

Best Windows 8 Apps for Photo Editing

I do all my editing on my Intel AIO HP Envy Rove, which has an amazing touch-screen interface. You can use these apps on a Surface tablet or even a non-touch-screen PC with Windows 8 installed on it. I alternate between using the mouse and the touch screen depending on my mood. All apps below are free unless otherwise noted.

My favorite Windows 8 Apps for Photo Editing

Phototastic

Phototastic Windows 8 App for Photo Editing

 

The other day in my How I Spent My Holiday Vacation post, I showed you how I used Phototastic to create a fun Christmas collage of my son. So this time, I decided to try something a little different. I took a photo from a trip to Bushkill Falls and split it into panels. I think it came out pretty cool! The awesome thing about Phototastic is that you can create collages with just one picture all the way up to 25 images (with the Pro version, it only costs $3.49 though and is totally worth it!). My favorite aspect of Phototastic is that it creates a 3D effect with your collages, so they stand out on the page more.

Fotor

Paradise Stream Valentine's Day edited with Fotor Windows 8 app

 

I’ve used Fotor to fix up just about every picture I’ve taken since getting my Intel AIO. It’s my favorite of all the Windows 8 apps for photo editing.  The interface is incredibly simple, making it fantastic for basic edits. Fix lighting, contrast, color and other issues in seconds. The 1-Tap Enhance is one of the best of its kind I’ve ever seen, actually improving the overall look of the picture most of the time. After doing the 1-Tap, I fine-tune the image. Another feature I really love is the tilt-shift, so you can bring one part of the picture into focus while blurring the rest. I did that with one of my pictures from my 2012 trip to Paradise Stream.

Selektiv Light

Best Windows 8 Apps for Photo Editing

 

I just grabbed this one the other night and started playing with it. I love it because you can alter two parts of a picture completely separately. In the above example, taken during a day exploring nature, I wanted to keep my son looking like, well, a human, while altering the colors of the background to create a sort of fantasy land with purple water. While I’m sure you can use other photo editing software to achieve the same effect, Selektiv makes it a piece of cake. It took me less than 5 minutes to throw together a sample picture. If I spent even more time on it, I could have come up with something even cooler.

Photofunia

PhotoFunia Old Book Windows 8 Apps

 

Sometimes you just want to have a little fun with your photos without any particular goal in mind. Photofunia is just that…fun. I took a goofy picture of Jake from when we went on our Carnival Miracle cruise a few years ago and turned him into a page in an antique book. No real reason, other than it amused me. It took seconds to do it. The longest part was waiting for it to upload to the server and download again with the finished product. That took maybe 10 seconds total. You can do tons of other effects too, even put yourself on the cover of Glamour or Vogue!

 InPic

InPic isn’t really a photo editing app, per se, but it deserves a spot on this list because it gave me an easy way to upload my pictures from my PC to Instagram. I don’t have a fancy phone. While I do have a tablet that I use for quite a few things, I don’t really use it to take pictures. The alternate way of getting pics from my PC to Instagram was a pain in the butt. Basically, it involved uploading to Dropbox on my PC, downloading on my tablet, then uploading to Instagram. With InPic, it takes seconds to send any picture I want straight to my Instagram account, which means I’m more likely to actually REMEMBER that I have an Instagram! You can edit photos with the same basic tools that you’ll find on the Instagram app too, so it does count as one of the best Windows 8 apps for photo editing.

Do you know of any Windows 8 apps for photo editing that I missed? Prefer something different than I mentioned? Let me know! I’m an app junkie, the more the merrier!