If you own an iPad camera connection kit – while it’s certainly not the same as having access to Photoshop or other robust photo editing programs on your desktop – there’s still quite a bit of photo editing you can get done without spending a penny on a single paid app using nothing more than your iPad.

With three free apps, Effects HD, Adobe Photoshop Express and Foto Editor, along with three useful photography apps for the iPad we’ve reviewed in the past, you can edit your photos to your heart’s content, and easily upload them and share them with your friends and followers. From minor adjustments such as contrast and brightness, to adding more elaborate effects and borders, get your photos exactly how you want them before sharing them with the world.

Effects HD

If you have an iPad 2, Effects HD [iTunes link] allows you to take an image with your iPad and get to editing straight away. Effects HD gives iPad users a quick and easy way to edit their photos on their tablet.

Hit the camera icon at the bottom center of the screen to take a photo, or the photo icon at the bottom right hand corner of the screen to open an image saved on your iPad.

Effects HD comes with 12 filters including black and white, sepia, cross-processing and aging effects. While those are the 12 effects available with the free app, you can purchase additional packages with an in-app purchase.

The app comes with 8 frames, and like with the filters, you can get additional styles with an in-app purchase.

While editing your photo, if you find yourself wanting to revert to it’s original state, hit the refresh button at the top left hand corner.

Once you’re done hit the share button at the top right hand corner to save or share your photo.

You can save the photo to your library, copy it or mail it. From there you can also share it directly on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

FotoEditor

FotoEditor [iTunes link], like Effects HD allows you to quickly edit your photos but comes with more effects that you can apply to your photos.

Hit the flower icon to open a photo from your photo album.

You can then apply any of the effects available such as grayscale, negative or sepia.

You can also adjust the brightness/contrast, the RGB balance, gamma correction, and rotate or mirror the image.

Once you’re done, hit the save icon to save the photo to your library.

Of you can share it directly from the app on Facebook, Twitter or Picasa.

If you want to start all over again, hit the restore button to remove all changes you made to your image.

You can also look up your image’s properties, including it’s size and dimensions.

Adobe Photoshop Express

It’s no surprise that Photoshop would have a solid iOS app that gives you some pretty decent photo editing features to take with you on the go. Like with Effects HD, you can take a photo using your iPad 2 camera, or select a photo from your library to edit using Adobe Photoshop Express. [iTunes link]

You can adjust the photo, cropping, rotating, and straightening it.

You can adjust the exposure, saturation, tint, contrast or convert it to a black and white photo.

You can also convert your photo into a sketch, soften the focus or sharpen it.

Photoshop’s effects are surprisingly limited on the iPad with just 7 filters including Vibrant, and Andy Warhol-esque pop filter and Vignette Blur.

In addition to effects, you can also choose between 8 frames.

You can then save the image to your photo library or share it on Facebook or on your online Photoshop account.

How do you edit your photos on your iPad? Let us know in the next comments.

Image Credit: Håkan Dahlström