Parents take lots of pictures. They were taking them back in the days when moms would use up an entire roll of film and then run out to the one-hour photo place, pay a fortune for development and then eagerly sift through an entire pack of images of a baby looking away from the camera and a mommy with her eyes closed. And they are taking them now when moms have easy access to their digital cameras. And now, with the invention of the smart phone, taking family photos has become even easier.

And with this ease comes something even better — the apps to make every picture just right.

Here are five of our favourite iPhone photo apps:

1. Hipstamatic ($2): This app is so full of lovely old-school effects. You can change the lenses, the film and the flashes, and get a new look every single time. There is even a Flickr group to share your photos and to check out what amazing photos this app can take. Warning: It can be super addictive, and even though the basic app is $2, you have to pay extra for more lenses, film and flashes.

2. Instagram (Free!): Many apps out there offer fun filters, effects and borders, but the real beauty of Instagram is its ability to share your images with the world, quickly and easily. In one simple move, you can upload your photo to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous and Foursquare.

3. Diptic ($2): This one is especially great for when you take a series of similar pictures (think: family vacation) and want to share how much your little ones enjoyed their first roller coaster ride, but you really don’t want to scare away your friends and family in the process. Diptic allows you to tell a story by combining images into one photo. It’s really simple to use and gives you more than 15 different layout options and the ability to rotate and zoom your images to fit your needs.

4. Camera+ ($2): This app is nothing short of amazing. It could even be a smart-phone photography game changer. There are so many great features on it, including dozens of photo-improving effects and the ability to adjust the amount of effect you have on each photo, a timer, an image stabilizer, and an image burst option.

5. Crop For Free (Free!): Cropping is an essential part of photography editing. There’s absolutely nothing thrilling or exciting about this app, other than the fact that it does the cropping job easily and efficiently. It’s a must-have, especially when you’re trying to capture your child doing something ridiculously cute, but you’d prefer not to have the shirtless man giving the stink-eye to the camera in the background.

What about you? What are your favourite photography apps?