In some embodiments, an image processing application executing on a processing device detects an object in an image that is in a field of view of a camera associated with the processing device. The image processing application further determines, based on the object detected in the image, a recommended filter for the image from a list of filters available for filtering the image. The image processing application causes a display device to display a user interface that includes a contextual user interface control. The contextual user interface control indicates that a context-aware image filtering mode is available for the image. Responsive to receiving a selection of the contextual user interface control, the image processing application enables the context-aware image filtering mode by automatically applying the recommended filter to the image to generate a filtered image and causes the display device to display the filtered image.