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I love the way I can use various apps on my iPhone to edit and enhance my pictures. The dull and the flat can be transformed into little masterpieces, sharpened and toned to resemble more professional equipment, or taken to more abstract extremes. The big thrill is finding something dazzling hidden inside a picture destined for the trash.

Zoom here to see how a dud picture (Picture 1) is changed into something worth keeping. For those of you who are interested, I used Photoshop Express (Picture 2) to add HD enhancement which fortifies details and added the Orton filter to emphasise colour. Then it’s over to Tadaa which is a more versatile version of Instagram for those who want more control over the results, where I added the Otherworld filter for a more abstract look (picture 3) and finally the tilt and shift effects combined with a vertical vignette to lighten the sides and throw the central column into sharp relief. Sounds complicated, but it’s all intuitive and much more fun than Angry Birds.

Tadaa and Photoshop Express are free picture editing apps.