We all know that Instagram photos don’t look the way they do without a little behind-the-scenes work. I mean, come on, when was the last time you took a photo and at least didn’t use some kind of editing? However, there are two types of people who make mistakes: those who over-edit and those who don’t do enough. I’m not the greatest or best at photo editing that can turn an average image into a work of art, but I like to think I’ve found a happy medium. The key to making a photo look good, whether it’s a landscape or a group of people (or anything in between), is the photo editing apps you use. There are thousands of them out there and I have tried many, but not all of them have worked the way I wanted. So instead of making you search for the right app to make your Malibu sunset picture stand out, I’ll save you some time and effort and tell you the best apps to download.

camera+

This app allows you to upload multiple photos at once, so you don’t have to deal with editing an image and then saving it, adding another image, etc. The filters (or what the app calls “Scenes”) that it comes with are amazing, except for the clarity one, which is insane and shows off every blemish possible. You can also do everything from brightening your photos to adding multiple filters to an image. The app gives you the option to reduce the filter you choose, so it doesn’t come out so intense and your image looks like overloaded garbage.

Facetune

This app takes some practice to use, and if done wrong, you can end up looking like an alien. Basically, this photo editor is used to smooth out skin blemishes, make you look slimmer, and you can even remove unwanted elements from the image completely. I love this app simply because when you’re in the mood to post a bikini photo but you’re not feeling well, you can fool your followers and edit yourself to look like Bella Hadid.

VSCO

This app is cool. VSCO has killer filters, and like Camera+, you can reduce the effects so your edits don’t look overdone. VSCO is different from other photo apps because you can basically put it in your portfolio in the sense that you can create a profile. You can then share the link to your profile so people can see pictures you liked but didn’t like enough for the gram.