If you’re the creative director for your upcoming family holiday, or your friends have appointed you the designated photographer for your group trip, then congratulations – you’ve landed the most important job of the summer!

You may be lounging at the beach, hiking in the mountains or exploring a new city; this summer, capturing holiday memories with the people you love is on you. But no pressure here, all you need is your device and these specialised camera apps. Standard photos just won’t make the cut – they’ll make sure that every shot is a masterpiece.

With selfies it’s tempting to boost contrast or remove imperfections, which may look good in a small thumbnail, but over-processed images don’t always feel authentic. If you want to capture a natural look, Halide Mark III is a great choice. The app features Process Zero mode, which gives you unprocessed images that capture honest, beautiful light falling on faces.

Our tip: In bright outdoor light, use Halide’s live histogram to keep your highlights from becoming too bright. You can tap to lock focus and exposure separately for a perfectly balanced selfie.

Capturing summer landscapes, with the intense sunlight, bright skies, sparkling water and dramatic shadows, can be tricky. To manage this, you’re either a patient photographer who waits until golden hour for the perfect take or you rely on ProCamera. It can blend multiple exposures intelligently thanks to its superior High Dynamic Range (HDR) capabilities, making sure you effortlessly snap every detail.

Our tip: A crooked horizon line can ruin the greatest landscape shots. ProCamera includes helpful alignment tools so you can keep your horizons perfectly straight when photographing beaches, mountains and cityscapes.

Portraits are where you have to prove that you have an eye for photography, especially if it’s portraits of friends and family – everyone wants to look their best, which requires the right balance of technique and colour. Backed by a century of Leica expertise, Leica LUX brings both. You can use Aperture mode to create a beautiful background blur that makes your subject stand out. And with Leica’s colour science, you’ll capture warm, natural skin tones.

Our tip: Leica LUX’s built-in colour profiles (including BW mode) are ideal for dramatic backlit portraits at sunset.

This is the playful part of taking photos: Why settle for a regular holiday photo album when you can turn it into a Hollywood summer blockbuster with (Not Boring) Camera? The app uses professional-grade LUT (Look-Up Table) tools, the same colour grading technology used in feature film post-production, making your summer memories look like scenes from your favourite movie.

Our tip: Stack a warm LUT to capture the right energy for summer.