How to Overlay Pictures on iPhone

This post will walk you through applying an image overlay effect on an iPhone photo. Here’s a quick guide to overlay pictures on iPhone based on the latest iOS platform.

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Image Overlay Effect in iOS

The presence of various photo editing tools makes it a lot easier for people to apply cool special effects to plain images. In fact, applying professional photo effects like image overlay with a smartphone would only take a few minutes or even seconds.

If you have an iPhone, you can create artistic photo effects like image overlay using a third-party application. Unfortunately, there is no native iOS app that’s capable of applying such photo overlay effects or superimposed images. In fact, the stock Photos and Camera apps are only capable of basic photo editing.

On a positive note, there’s plenty of third-party apps that you can use for this purpose. Most of these apps are downloaded via the App Store for free.

To give you some input on which app to use when creating image overlay effects of your iPhone photos, I’ve summed up five of the widely used apps for image overlays.

Different Apps you can use to Overlay Pictures on iPhone

As mentioned earlier, there is no native iOS app that’s capable of overlaying photos so you will need to use a third-party application for this purpose.

Below are five of the most trusty apps that you can find on and get from the App Store. Choose any of these apps to superimpose images by overlaying two photos or more on your iOS device.

1. PhotoDirector

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PhotoDirector is a free photo editor that allows you to animate and edit photos using a wide range of AI-powered effects. 

It’s deemed one of the best free editing apps for pictures with its all in one easy-to-use interface. With PhotoDirector, you can edit, stylize and animate photos, with powerful photo animation tools that can make still images look more realistic.

  • To overlay photos using PhotoDirector, just launch the app then tap Edit. Select the image from your Photo Library or use stock images. After selecting the image to apply effects to, tap Overlays at the bottom menu. Select the type of overlay effect you want to use. 
  • Among the preset options are Light Leak, Blender, Scratch, Grunge and Lens Flare. Tap on overlays in your selected category and apply necessary adjustments to the intensity of the overlay. Once you’re done making necessary changes to your overlay effects, tap the Check Mark on the top-right corner to save your photo edit.

Other types of image overlay effects you can use with PhotoDirector include Effects, Cut Out, Elements, and Add IMage.

Edited photos with PhotoDirector can be saved to your camera roll. You can also share or upload it to your social media account.

2. Canva

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Canva is a popular app for graphic design and logo making. It’s an easy to use photo editing software and video editor that’s used by many to create stunning social media posts, cards, photo collages, videos and more.

Its simple interface makes it easier for newbies to accomplish their very first photo editing and collage making projects. A wide variety of stunning templates are also available for starters.

For pro-users, there’s also a Canva Pro that offers premium templates, images, videos & graphics for personal, business, educational, and social media purposes.

  • To use Canva for photo overlays on your iPhone, you will need to download it first. After installing the app, launch it then tap the Plus (+) icon in the bottom-right corner of the app. Select Custom size on the next screen then choose your preferred template. 
  • After selecting your template, tap Uploads at the bottom of the screen then tap Upload media to choose the image file(s) that you want to add to your Canva image overlay project. 
  • You can choose an image from your iPhone’s Gallery. Select the image that you want to use as the background layer then tap the Plus (+) sign in the lower-left edge of the screen. Tap Uploads again then tap an image that you’d like to appear on top of the background image.

If necessary, edit the pictures using the preset editing tools and controls. Once you’re finished editing, tap on an icon at the top of your screen to save your project. 

3. Enlight Photofox

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Enlight Photofox is deemed by many as an incredibly powerful, easy to use image editing app for iPhone. 

With Enlight, you can enhance and transform a plain image into a stunning photo using preset effects and elements. 

  • To use Enlight Photofox, download and install the app on your iPhone then launch it. Scroll through the QuickArt selections and select Double Exposure to blend a portrait with a landscape photo to produce beautiful effects. Find and select the photo that you’d like to use, either portrait or group photo. 
  • To choose a stock scene to superimpose inside the portrait image, tap Overlay. 
  • To adjust the position of the superimposed image, tap Move then apply necessary adjustments.

Once you achieve the desired output, tap the Share icon to save your project in your photo library. 

4. Snapseed

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Snapseed is a complete, professional photo editing software developed by the internet giant – Google.

With Snapseed, you can produce fine tuned images using a wide variety of tools and filters such as healing, brush, HDR, structure, perspective and more.

In-app tutorials are also available to offer further assistance to starters who are trying to improve skills in photography.

  • To use Snapseed, download it from the App Store then install it on your iPhone. Launch the app then tap Open on the top-right corner to launch your gallery. Find the first image that you want to use and put on the bottom layer. Tap the picture that you want to overlay then start editing. Tap Tools then select Double Exposure from the menu options.
  • Tap the photo icon at the bottom of the screen then select an image that you want to superimpose. Edit the picture if needed. You can make the second image smaller or larger, or position it to where you want.
  • To adjust the opacity of the second image that overlays the first, simply drag the dot on the bar left. Doing so makes the second image fainter. If you want to make it darker, drag it to the right instead.
  • Once you’re done making necessary adjustments to your images, tap the Checkmark icon to save your project.

If you want to save your final output to other storage, tap Export then select any of the given options.

You can also export your overlaid photo straight to your iPhone’s Gallery for easy access.

5. Photo Blender

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It’s a simple photo editing app that allows you to merge photos vertically, horizontally, or in 2D by either blending or abutting them at their edges.

With Photo Blender, you can create stunning photo montages in high resolution, edit photos individually or the whole blend using the built-in editor functions such as filter, rotate, enhance, add text, draw, and more.

This app also supports 4 blend types including horizontal, vertical, a 4 square and 9 square.

Blended photo outputs can be saved in your iPhone’s gallery. You can also share your blends in other platforms through emails, messages and the like.

And that’s how to overlay images on an iPhone using five of the widely used photo editing apps for iOS.

Please keep posted for more comprehensive iOS tutorials and troubleshooting guides on this site. Or you can check out this YouTube channel to view more comprehensive tutorial and troubleshooting videos including recent iOS devices.

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