The estimated reading time for this post is 7 minutes
Sometimes you want to look your best and sometimes you want to look worse. Perhaps you think only want to look better, but sometimes it’s fun to see what special effects can do to your looks, for better or worse!
You can put on your best outfit, visit the salon for a new hairstyle, and invest in serious dental work. But no matter how much you try to improve your looks in the real world, apps can make you look even better. Or worse…
Apps to Make You Look Better
AfterFocus
Have you ever wanted to be the star of your picture, but background people or places got in the way? With AfterFocus you can blur out the background to make yourself the focus of the picture.
After you take a picture, just draw around the image you want to be clear and the app will recognize the image, blurring everything else in the picture. You can add special effects to the blurred area or to the focused area.
AfterFocus is available free for Android devices at Google Play and for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch for $0.99 at the iTunes App Store.
iMadeFace
If you’ve ever wanted an Andy Warhol-like cartoon image of yourself, you can create one with iMadeFace. This simple app lets you create a cartoon face, no drawing skills required.
Just pick out an outline of a face in a shape you like, then pick out facial features, hair, sunglasses, ears, text or other elements. Swipe left and right to pick features, swipe up and down to pick colors.
Want to see what you’d look like with hair as blue as Marge Simpson’s? Try out blue for your hair color!
The app even has a random feature so you don’t have to rely on inspiration or artistry for cool cartoon images.
Have fun playing around with your image then save it to your camera roll. You can also share the image on social media or email. You can also save an image to contacts so you can make cartoon images for your friends.
iMadeFace is available free for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch from the iTunes App Store. In-app purchases are available for packs of facial elements.
Hollywood Camera
This app can turn you into a Hollywood movie star by adorning you in costumes from famous movies. If you ever liked to play dress up, you’ll love this app.
Hollywood Camera was developed using the Hollywood Costume exhibition from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. This app lets you don costumes from famous movies to turn you into a star. The app includes 16 different costumes you can place on your picture, either from your photo library or from a photo you take with your phone’s camera.
The app gives you information about each costume, including the film and year it was released, the character and the actor who wore the costume, as well as the costume designer. Costumes include classics from films such as The Blues Brothers and Vertigo, to more contemporary films such as Mama Mia and Gladiator.
After you dress your picture with your favorite costume, you can save it on your camera roll and share it with your friends using Facebook, Twitter and email.
Hollywood Camera is available for $0.99 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store.
Image Editor
This app contains a cornucopia of effects to help you enhance your images. Choose from costumes such as superheros, clown, astronaut and others. Add special effects to your photos such as snow, flowers and frames. The app comes with filters to change the colors or add a special oil painting effect. You can spend quite a while with this app trying all the different options.
When you’ve completed your artistry, you can share your image with others using Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Picasa, Skype, email or Bluetooth.
Image Editor is free for Android devices at Google Play.
Facetune
Wish you could look as good as those air-brushed models in magazines? Now you can, with the help of an app. Facetune helps you look your best by removing wrinkles, blemishes, gray hairs, and other features. Reshape your face, nose, eyes, ears or anything else you want to tweak.
You can whiten your teeth, brighten your eyes, add color to your cheeks, and give yourself a total makeover without a trip to the salon.
The app also has filters to give your photo a different hue. You can also add frames to your pictures.
After you’re satisfied with your transformation, you can share your creation on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr or email and save it to your camera roll.
Facetune is available for $1.99 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store.
Image Editor
Not to be confused with Image Editor above (though confusion seems inevitable), Image Editor is a sophisticated app that allows you to manipulate photos to make them what you want. You can add filters, drawing, text and other edits to your photos.
What makes this Image Editor app unique is the ability to layer photos. So if you have a picture of yourself, but want to add a custom feature, such as a new background, hat or superhero costume, you can add a new photo to layer that photo on top of your image.
Here’s a video showing you how Image Editor works:
http://youtu.be/Sb2_SyPXNtc
Image Editor is free for Android devices at Google Play.
Apps to Make You Look Worse
Drinking Mirror
Drinking Mirror is an app from our friends at the Scottish government, and by friends I mean “party poopers”. Drinking Mirror shows you the effects of your drinking over the course of 10 years.
Choose a picture of yourself, then let the app know how many alcoholic drinks you imbibe per week, from zero to 10+. The app then gets to work altering your image to demonstrate the effects of your drinking on your face over ten years.
Now I’m not calling the developers party poopers because they’re trying to help you cut down on your alcohol consumption. Their goal is quite noble and if you’re trying to curb your drinking habits, this app could be a very effective deterrent. The ravages of alcohol simply aren’t pretty.
What makes this app a real downer though is seeing the effects of time alone on your face. Even if you choose zero drinks, then let the app work its “magic”, the results of aging are, let’s say sobering.
If you’re brave and/or insane, you can share your after photos on Facebook. Most people will probably prefer to keep their after photos well hidden.
Drinking Mirror is available for free for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch at the iTunes App Store and for Android devices at Google Play.
McDonald’s MouthOff
Hey, it’s April Fool’s Day, but this app is for real. MouthOff is a free app from McDonald’s that turns your mouth into a fish mouth. Frankie the Fish’s mouth, to be precise. The mouth moves as you speak, making you appear to have a fish mouth. You can pick from four different fish mouths.
But what really makes this app fun and addictive is the Fishy Fishy rap song. Feel free to play the song over and over again as you dance around your house, office or local fast food restaurant.
Purchase of Fish McBites is not required.
Here’s a video of the app in action. Try to keep your feet still as you hear this song. Bet you can’t do it!
McDonald’s MouthOff is currently unavailable.
Other Fun Image Enhancing Tech
For more ways to edit your images, check out:
- Mad Lips, which inserts a video of your mouth speaking onto a picture
- PicMonkey, a feature-filled photo editing website
- FotoSketcher, software that can turn your image into an artistic creation
- Art Bellies Pocket that lets you add artistic effects to your images
Bottom Line
Use apps to help you show a better or worse face to the world. Why let reality get in the way of how you look? Let tech help you alter your image for better or worse.
Who knows? You may even want to use your enhanced image as your new Gravatar!
Have you used apps to alter your image? Did you make yourself look better or worse? Were you able to listen to the Fishy Fishy song without dancing? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Hi Carolyn,
These apps look interesting, but I think I’ll stick to Live Gallery and PhotoScape for now. I did some good edits of buildings last night. I’ll use them for tomorrow’s post. I haven’t taken many photos with the bad weather, but went out yesterday. I even photographed the new born lambs at the farm. I have better photos of some of the farm buildings. I have afew places in mind for the summer, but the snow hasn’t melted yet! Have you seen Google maps, treasure maps today!
Hi Mike, Yes, those are great photo editing programs as well. The ones I discuss today each have a unique feature not found in other programs, such as the cartoon image, the fish mouth or the effects of drinking. They’re designed to affect the way you look, some in addition to common editing features. But if you’re editing scenery then most of these apps aren’t the apps for you!
I love Google Treasure maps today. The Street View periscope is very cool!
HI Carolyn
Awesome share!
I’m always looking for these type of apps, you have shared very useful apps and I will surely like to try imadeface, it appears to be great.
Thanks for this great share.
Sapna
Hi Sapna, Thanks, I’m so glad you enjoyed this fun apps. I had a blast putting together this article over the past few weeks. There are a lot of apps that offer unique features that I am excited to share with you!
Hi Carolyn,
This is so very interesting 🙂
I never really knew now they even have apps to make you look good or bad! Yes, I know some photo editor software like you had earlier written about – Fotosketcher – that but to know about these apps was interesting indeed.
Who wouldn’t like to look good and remove all those blemishes and wrinkles from the face. Or as you rightly mentioned you can even use any of these apps to create a new Gravatar for yourself. I need to forward this to a young friend of mine who would love playing around and seeing herself in these new faces. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this with us. Hope you had a lovely Easter and get-away. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, these apps have fun and unique features for changing your appearance. They’re especially great for kids who love to play dress up or make themselves look like a comic character. Most of them are so very easy to use that even adults can use them!
Thank you for the warm welcome back. I had fun traveling but it sure is great to be back home!
Hi Carolyn
That is a great collection of Photo apps. Too bad none of them is available for my Windows Phone. Maybe I should invest in an Android device soon.
By the way, I was able to listen to the Fishy Fishy song without dancing 🙂
Hi Thomas, Yes, I actually looked at each one of these, but none was available for the Windows Phone or any other platform. The iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch iOS platform was by far the most popular for these types of apps.
So, how did you manage to do that? I have not been able to do that, which actually is not a problem. Whenever anyone in my family is in a bad mood, I just play the Fishy Fishy song and everyone starts dancing. Very handy! 🙂
I love this post Carolyn! These are all fun, easy apps to use if you like to share photographs. I can now throw out my wrinkle creams and stop wasting my time – I’ll just airbrush all of my photos from now on :-). My 8-year-old son found an app that transforms your face into a bloody vampire or rotting zombie. Needless to say, I looked very grim after he was done with my pic! He also found a funny one that switches the faces of two people in the picture. It was quite amusing when he switched my mug for his – I was taken aback at how much we actually look alike!
Hi Ruth, I’m so glad you like these apps! Yes, they can save you a lot of money on cosmetic dentistry or surgery. Bam! Instant beauty! 😉
Could you share the names of those apps? They would be very cool to check out! I see a Halloween article in my future. 😉
Zombie Booth 3D and Face Juggler :). According to my 8 year old son…the app expert.
Thanks, Ruth! That’s a big help. >-)
I do have The Walking Dead app, that’s pretty cool; I might change my Avatar to that.
I’m going to save up my money so I can get Facetune, then I can really take some years off and have some nice teefus too. How cool is that?
Thanks for sharing; always an adventure…:).
Hi Bill, Yes, you can really cut your bills at the beauty parlor with these apps. Just use the apps anytime you want a new Gravatar and you’ll be all set! :-bd
If photos can be changed so easily, how will lawyers be able to submit photo evidence in courts?
Hi Jerry, They will have to provide expert testimony under oath that the images have not been digitally altered.
Thanks for your question!
So now that I have a good camera with my new iPhone I’m definitely going to get a few of these. I like the first 2 plus the Facetune. I would love to see what I look like without any wrinkles and white teeth. Yeah, my teeth were stained when I was young from prescription medication and no amount of whitening in the world will help. Dang it!
I think that would just be fun Carolyn so thanks for sharing these. Oh boy…
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I predict a slew of new Gravatars will be popping up after people discover these apps. Suddenly everyone is going to look much better. Wow, Imagine we are all going to have a much prettier Internet thanks to these apps. Unless, of course, someone uses their image from Drinking Mirror. Then the Internet would not be a prettier place!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying your new iPhone, Adrienne! :-bd
Crazy! I had no idea that some apps were available free on Google Play but at a cost for iPhones. I’m loving my new Google Nexus more and more! =)
Can’t wait to download AfterFocus and Facetune. And a know a few friends who can benefit from Drinking Mirror! =)
Hi Samantha, Yes, I’ve seen it both ways, where the iPhone app was free but the Andriod app wasn’t and vice versa. More often though, the Android app is the free one.
I hope you enjoy these fun apps!
I have actually been looking for a new photo app for my iPhone, and I think that I found it in AfterFocus, that one looks awesome. Thanks a lot Carolyn, I’m about to download it and start testing 🙂
Hi Jens, Yes, there is no shortage of photo editing apps, but these apps each have unique features to make the most of your photos. Enjoy AfterFocus, Jens!
Hi Carolyn,
These look great fun and might inspire me to make more use of the camera on my android. Many thanks for the share!
Sue
Hi sue, Yes, having a phone on your camera is very convenient, both to take pictures and to edit them. Enjoy the apps!
hey carolyn mentioned a bunch of really funny apps here haha…i love the facetune and drinking mirror…time to try this out for real in my android 🙂
Hi Gautam, Yes, I’m so glad you like these apps. These apps are fun and useful, just the kind of apps I love sharing!
Hi Carolyn,
All of them are really interesting apps. I think I need the anti tobacco app which shows the effect of tobacco smoking and chewing on people. I just lost a relative to tobacco and if we could show people what their faces would be after years of taking tobacco, it might have a strong deterrent effect .
Hope you are having a great time 🙂
Hi Ashvini, I’m so sorry about your relative. I’m with you 100% about the smoking mirror app. That’s a great idea to illustrate the effects of smoking on faces.
Now if we only knew a developer who could code… 😕
Carolyn – This was a pleasant surprise of a post from you. Having a little humor along with the information shared is always welcome, and I actually ended up downloading two of the apps on my phone.
Will play around with them and see what they have to offer, and let us see how much time I can spend on them 🙂
Thanks for the share.
Hi Praveen, Tech can be a lot of fun, as these apps demonstrate.
Which two apps did you get?
Carolyn,
Nice round up and collection for Camera apps. Hollywood Camera and FaceTune looks interesting to me. These days lot many apps for camera driven needs and most of them are great 🙂
This really enhance our work so easy many time. I believe Hollywood Camera we can make some fun with kids and FaceTune as well.
Thanks for sharing the info Carolyn.
Hi Vijay, I’m so happy that you like these apps. You’re exactly right, these apps are great for adults and kids. Hollywood Camera is the ultimate fun app for kids who like to play dress up. These apps can also get kids started with photo editing skills which could prove quite useful in their later years. :-bd
“Amazing list of apps.
I have recently purchased an Android phone and I really thank you for sharing information about some amazing photo apps. They are really cool.
The Hollywood camera app is really fantastic and I am very very very excited to try this one. I hope they release this for Android.” s s
Hi Jack, Very exciting that you have a new Android phone! Yes, these apps will be a great addition to your new phone.
I also suggest that you check out one of my favorite apps that’s available free on Android (and iPhone): Field Trip https://wonderoftech.com/field_trip-app/
Enjoy!
Hi Carolyn, these photo apps are real fun. Not only that, we all want to be a hero in our photos, these apps will help you show yourself a hero even if it isn’t so in the actual pic. Really useful apps, thanks a lot for sharing.
Hi Bryon, Yes, great point. We can all be heros in our pictures, even if we’re not so in the original image. Thanks for sharing that!