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We may take dozens, hundreds or even thousands of photos with our smart phones. But when we take a special photo we want to make sure that photos looks its best.
Whether it’s a photo of a scenic vacation spot, a family gathering, a beloved pet or a fun selfie, our photos can preserve our cherished memories. We can also share our photos with others on social media to enhance the experience.
Fotor is a free photo editing app and website that can help you make the most of your photos. Although Fotor comes with many editing tools, it’s easy to use and simple to master. You can use Fotor to edit and share images and create collages of your favorite photos.
Fotor App
Using the Fotor app is simple and intuitive. To use Fotor, download the app and create an account. Allow the app access to your photos on your phone and choose the image you want to edit.
The app has dozens of choices for you to edit your photos, ranging from basic to advanced. You can adjust color, saturation and red/green/blue levels of your photo. Crop and rotate your photo to adjust how it looks.
You can add Effects, such as Serenity, Retro and Vintage. Within each effect are many choices of filters. A slider lets you choose the intensity of each filter.
Add stickers, text and frames to customize your photo. The app has stickers for the seasons, such as Chinese New Year and Love for February.
Tap the check in the upper right corner of the screen to save your changes. Tap the X in the upper left corner of the screen to undo your edits.
Focus is one of Fotor’s editing tools that is advanced but easy to use. The tool blurs the image except for a focal point you choose. You can keep the focus on a circle, oval or bar shape on the photo with the remainder of the image blurred out. The app lets you control the level of blur on the photo.
With the winter image below I used Fotor to add a blue filter, then used the app’s Focus effect to blur the photo, other than a circle around the tree which remains focused.
When you’re satisfied with your edits, tap the sharing button in the upper left corner of the screen. Your photo will be saved and you’ll be able to share it using email, text message and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more.
Most of the tools on Fotor are free, but some features must be purchased, such as the Scenes feature in the iPhone app and some stickers. The app shows you a demonstration of the effect is so you can try it before you buy it.
The app only works in portrait view so editing photos in landscape view or panorama photos can be challenging on the app.
With this panorama photo I added a filter using Fotor, then used Focus to blur the photo other than an oval around the ruins which stay in focus:
Community and Competition
If you’re particularly proud of an image you’ve edited with Fotor, you can add it to the Vision section of the app, a community where people share their images. You can get inspiration and share your images with others.
Fotor hosts competitions for the best images. Enter your favorite photos for a chance to win in different categories. You can enter competitions with the chance to have your photos purchased for prices such as $50, $80 or $100. The app also has competitions where the prize is to be featured in the app.
Availability
You can get the app free for:
Website
Fotor also has a website where you can edit images online. The service, similar to Canva or PicMonkey, is free with paid options. The Fotor website also helps you design images for social media, with preset dimensions for cover photos on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube and more.
The Fotor website also has a helpful blog and tutorials for information and inspiration. You can see sample effects and learn how to created them using the website and app.
Your Thoughts
Do you edit your photos? Do you like editing tools that are powerful but easy to use? Which editing features do you like to use?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
Informative indeed 🙂
Yes, I’ve used Fotor earlier, but only through their site, just as a few other photo editing sites one looks around for, though finally settled with Canva for a while now.
I hadn’t explored the app earlier, as I wouldn’t be able to edit the images, for which my kid’s have installed another app that does the basics. But they do use a few editing apps on their phones. I certainly need to give this one a try, as it does sound pretty simple. The filter feature is wonderful, as it does give a new shade to the whole image, making it completely different, and if you add certain effects to it, all the more better. Ah, don’t we love to play around with images! I do! 🙂
Thanks for sharing it all with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, the Fotor app makes editing your photos easy. I have used many photo editing apps where the learning curve was steep but this one is simple and intuitive.
You’re right, playing around with our photos is fun and I like how you can try out edits and then undo them if you don’t like them. The app saves the edited photos and doesn’t replace the original which is handy.
Yes, if you’re already satisfied with Canva then you could stick with that. But if you’re looking for other backgrounds or editing tools, you may want to give the Fotor website a try.
It looks from the images that Fotor works well. I will use this for sure.
Thanks for the review.
Hi Robin, I’m glad you like Fotor. I hope you give it a try and that you enjoy editing and sharing your photos.
Thanks Carolyn for an informative post on one of my favorite topics – photo editing! I spend a lot of time evaluating and using photo editors of all kinds – free and paid versions.
I will list a few of the 100+ that I have on my iPad (among several hundred others I’ve tried and discarded)
For standard photo processing I use three Adobe apps
– PS Touch, Photoshop Mix and, Lightroom
– as well as Photogene, Pixlemator and Snapseed
For special effects I use a very, very wide variety including
– PhotoDelight, Photo Studio HD, Facetune, SketchMe!, Enlight and Image Chef+
My go to photo utilities are
– SnapStill (extract a good photo from a video), GroupShot (replace individuals in group photos), Exif Photos (examine photo metadata)
Finally, of the dozens of “framing apps” I prefer FrameMagic for its ability to create multiple image frames combining both still images and videos.
I have not discussed all the apps that replace the standard camera apps. In addition to incredible additional features not in the standard apps, many of these also have editing features. Apple messed up the standard camera app by making Burst Mode automatic. If you try to take a shot by carefully pressing the shutter button, you are likely to get a dozen burst photos – a horrible design feature. I don’t know of any other camera app that has that major flaw.
Hi Gary, Wow, you do have a lot of photo editing apps! I have a lot too, but what I like about Fotor is how easy it is to use. I’ve tried a lot of apps that have great features but are quite complicated to use. After I figure out how to use the features, I might forget by the time I use the app again.
Fotor offers a lot of features, both advanced and basic, in one app that’s simple to use. You may want to check it out.
I completely agree with you about burst photos. I’ve gotten used to it but whenever I give my iPhone for someone else to take a photo, I end up with dozens of photos instead of one!
Thank you for your beautiful review application. My girlfriend has repeatedly praised Fotor. And now it’s my turn to test this application.
Hi Nadya, I’m so glad you enjoyed this review. I hope that you enjoy using Fotor as much as your girlfriend does.
Carolyn,
Excellent post. Love the before and after pics in your post so we can get a sense of the power of this software. Is this similar to the editor software that is built into Instagram, when you go to upload a photo to Instagram? I’ve always thought that that software built into Instagram was Very Handy and wished that I could use that for all my Galaxy S5 pics, NOT just the Instagram ones.
Thanks again for a great article and great website!
~ Jupiter Jim
Hi Jupiter Jim, Thanks for your kind words. Yes, some of the editing tools of Fotor are similar to the ones in the Instagram app, but Fotor has more tools that give you added control for editing. For example, the Focus tool on Fotor discussed above is similar to the Tilt Shift feature on Instagram. But Focus on Fotor gives you more choices in shapes that remain in focus and the intensity of the blur. Focus also lets you add pixelation to the blurred part of the photo, which isn’t a feature Instagram currently has on its app.
Using the tools on Instagram is quicker if you’re posting your photo there, but if you want to make the most of your special photos, or aren’t using the Instagram app, then Fotor is worth trying.
I hope you give it a go and enjoy using Fotor, Jupiter Jim!
Hey Carolyn,
Well as you know I really don’t use my cell this way but I have used their website before. I have a couple of favorites that I use and I’ve tested Fotor out a few times so for making pictures look cooler and adding things to them it’s a fun program to use.
I think the before and after photos that you used really did give us a great example of the types of things that this app can do and I know that people are always trying to change things up. Make them more unique.
Awesome share and cool app and program. I recommend that everyone take it for a test drive. I think they’ll have fun with it.
Enjoy your week.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Good point, you don’t have to use the Fotor app, you can use the website if you don’t take photos on your phone or don’t have a smartphone.
Many people do take lots of photos with their smart phones but may prefer to do edits on their computer. The good news is that Fotor gives you a choice of the app or website and both are free for most features.
Photo Editing’, you can find features such as basic edits, effects, frames, clip art and add text. You can do basic adjustments such as crop, rotate, and resize your image.
The function for basic edits is almost similar like the ones you find on software such as Adobe Photoshop. You can control the white balance for the image, adjust tone and straighten your images. It doesn’t have functions such as replacing color, adjusting color tone or adjusting curve like Adobe Photoshop as Fotor is more for basic editing rather than complex.
Hi Christina Lynn, Thanks so much for pointing out the advanced features of Adobe Photoshop. You’re right, Adobe Photoshop has many advanced features, but some people will appreciate Fotor because, unlike Photoshop, Fotor is free and easy to use.
People who are into professional editing should check out Photoshop. People who want a simple, free way to do advanced edits should check out Fotor.
Hey you; will it pass muster on my tinder app? I’m going for my college look? It might not be that stout, huh?
Sounds cool, I think I’ll give it a try.
Hope all is well and you’ve figured out how to still go out in public now that you are almost a household name.
Hi Bill, Always great to hear from you! By the way, it still counts as a blogiversary if the only post you do all year is a blogiversary post. I’m just sayin’…
I’m 100% certain you don’t need editing to make the most of your profile pic, Bill. Your YouTube video channel shows the real you!
Hi Carolyn, Fotor offers is turning your image into an HDR image. An HDR image is an image that is as close as it can get to what your eyes are actually seeing. Usually professional photographers uses HDR as they want to make their photos looks more realistic. It is very unlikely for someone who wants to do basic editing to use HDR, so this feature is pretty much a bonus.
Hi Mitesh, You’re right, Fotor does offer HDR editing on a separate HDR app and website. I didn’t cover the HDR features of Fotor because the services are separate from the basic website and app. Thank you for pointing out that Fotor does offer HDR editing as well.
Hi Carolyn,
That’s informative. I tried Fotor long back and i didn’t tried it again. I didnt liked the UI at that time, but it seems the latest one is pretty good. I will give it a try again and see all the features of it. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Hemanth, Did you try the website or the app? The app was updated last week so the Fotor experience might be quite different for you now.
I hope you like Fotor better now, Hemanth.
Hey Carolyn, I Tried App on iPhone. Yes the Fotor app UI cleaner now.
Hi Carolyn
Never knew it has an App as well. I earlier used it on its site to customize a few images but now got to know its so many benefits.
Actually there are so many such resources available both free and premium online that is why it gets so difficult to pick the best one.
On the basis of past experience one can pick the best one but here again it all depends upon editing needs of a person.
Many thanks for sharing such a wonderful review
Have a great rest of the week.
Hello Mi, Yes, there are many photo editing apps available, both for free and paid. The key is to find the one that works best for you. I hope you find the best one for you, Mi.
Hey Carolyn,, great write up.
Fotor looks pretty cool, might have to try it.. I like using the Samsung editor that comes with the Note 5.. and I also use Pixlr if I need some deeper editing options.
Hello John, I’m glad you are going to give Fotor a try. It sounds as if you enjoy editing photos and you may like the features that Fotor offers.