Recent Apps Articles

Snapseed Urgently Needs These Features

Snapseed, developed by Google, is a popular photo editing app available for Android and iOS that gives a lot of bang for the buck, considering it's a free smartphone app. I love the software, but I wish it had some basic functions to make it my go-to editing app on mobile devices.

Airdata: An Essential Tool for Drone Pilots?

Whether you’ve just gotten a drone to escape quarantine via the skies, or you’ve been flying professionally for a while, having access to more detailed flight information can help make you a better pilot. Airdata, a flight data platform, promises to give pilots broad insight into their drone’s data. Do they deliver?

Adobe Photoshop for iPad Gains Curves and Apple Pencil Pressure Support

Adobe surprised everyone with a Photoshop for iPad announcement when they said it was "full Photoshop." Creatives were elated, but then later disappointed when that apparently meant the algorithms were the same as on desktop (good news), but the features were not (not so good). Major features such as Curves were not even available at launch, but today, at least some of that has changed.

Quarantined Photographer Shoots via FaceTime

While many photographers are using the lockdown to brush up on their skills or work on personal projects, this Condé Nast photographer found a creative alternative to producing full-fledged photoshoots with models.

The Apps You Need to Plan Photos

Whether you’re looking to plan a perfect landscape shot to coincide with an astronomical event or just want to previsualize some potential viewpoints before a trip, there are a number of free or inexpensive apps that can help you create your best images.

Why I Had to Hike a Mountain to Photograph President Trump

When I heard President Trump was coming to my hometown of Phoenix, I knew I had a unique opportunity to photograph a very special plane — one of the two Boeing VC-25As that use the call sign Air Force One. Of course, with no special access, I had to get pretty creative to get the image I envisioned — here’s how I did it.

A New Way to Take 3D Photos on Your Phone is Coming

Over the years, 3D has come and sort of gone, then come back again. We've seen it in the movies and in photography. After digital imaging got popular, I had a 3D Fuji camera, which was fun, but you either had to make expensive lenticular prints or watch on a 3D TV. Not a fulfilling experience.

New Disposable Camera App Already Over One Million Downloads

There have been many trends in photography, but one that’s been quickly picking up speed has been the disposable aesthetic, with celebrities creating separate Instagram accounts for their photos captured on film, like model Gigi Hadid, YouTube creator Tana Mongeau, and the app’s founder, YouTube creator David Dobrik, each amassing over 150,000 followers.

Want to Save Money on Your Adobe Subscription? Try This Simple Trick

Earlier this year, Adobe ditched the option to buy Lightroom for a one-off fee, forcing customers to take out annual subscriptions with monthly payments, and annoying a few people along the way. However, this subscription model does present a few opportunities to save money. Check out this simple trick.

If Everyone Hates Adobe, Why Is It Pulling in Record Profits?

Last week, Adobe reported that the fourth quarter of 2019 was the most lucrative in the company’s history, delivering annual revenues of $11 billion. Given that it’s rare to hear a good word said about Adobe in the world of photography and videography, why is the company still so incredibly successful?

Fstoppers Reviews the New CamRanger 2

Earlier this year, I wrote a review of the CamRanger Mini. As I mentioned in my article, I was looking for a way to remotely trigger my camera when I can't be located in a particular area for the action sports I shoot. I found the CamRanger Mini was a terrific device for remotely controlling a camera, but for me, I needed a little faster reaction time. So, now that the CamRanger2 has been released, will it satisfy my demanding needs?

Photoshop for iPad Is a Disaster

Photoshop for the iPad was touted as Adobe’s most important mobile application, with iPad owners very keen to use the image editing software. However, the app is lacking some key features, seems to have a horrific lag when using certain tools, and is now attracting shockingly bad reviews on the App Store. What happened?

Adobe Releases Photoshop on iPad

For the first time, Adobe today released proper Photoshop for the iPad. This isn't Photoshop Mix or any of the other past, smaller, less useful apps that broke out limited features of Photoshop in years past. This is the real deal, complete with PSD support and the ability to handle hundreds of layers (yes, hundreds).

Here Comes Adobe Photoshop 2020: Faster and More Efficient in More Ways Than One

One of the chief complaints of Adobe’s software across the board is performance. While many are angry about Adobe’s performance updates not living up to their standards for apps such as Photoshop and, more notoriously, Lightroom, some changes are coming. Additionally, it may also be time to shift the way we think about performance. Here's what's new in Photoshop 2020. Give it a shot.

Adobe Unveils Photoshop Camera App

Alongside a plethora of app updates and new releases, today, Adobe previewed the Photoshop Camera app at its Adobe MAX 2019 keynote presentation. Recently popularized by the ever-increasing capabilities in today’s most popular smartphones, computational photography is all the rage today. Photoshop Camera is Adobe’s take on what Apple, Samsung, and Google think they do best.

How to Double the Resolution of Your Images From the iPhone 11 Pro

The latest iPhone now offers some incredible features for photography. Considering the fact that the iPhone is the most popular camera in the world, it's great to see how Apple has continued to develop its cameras to offer even better features.

Did Adobe Improve Their Creative Cloud App? I Think Not

In March, I did a post that was critical of Adobe applications of late: lots of bugs, sometimes unintelligible offshore customer support, and their Creative Cloud menu bar app (on Mac OS) that seemed more a marketing device than a useful way to know about Adobe updates (on Windows, the Creative cloud app is launched from the Task Bar).

The Best Location Photography App You Will Ever Use

Do you like to plan your location shots? Will you be visiting a location and want to know where the sun is going to be at a particular time of the day? Will the building or mountain block the sun right before sunset? Well, if you're like me, you want to know these answers before you get to the location, and that's why you need this app.

Topaz Studio 2: Is It Worth Buying?

Topaz Studios seems to have endless releases of powerful tools for photographers, and many of us have at least one Topaz application or plugin in our collection of editing tools. So, just how good is the newly released Topaz Studio 2?

Fstoppers Reviews the Wyze Cam: A $25 Security Cam for Your Hotel

This is a look at how this affordable home security cam can be used for increasing security of your gear while traveling on assignment. Even though it was never designed for this purpose, unlike a lot of other options on the market the Wyze Cam has just the right features to make it possible.

The Best Way to Stabilize Your GoPro Hero's Footage

The GoPro Hero 7’s most talked about feature, HyperSmooth, can give gimbal quality stabilization without the need for any external hardware. But if you already own a Hero 5 Black, Hero 5 Session, or Hero 6, a software plugin called ReelSteady GO can bring that feature to your camera.

Instagram Deletes Dozens of Accounts With Millions of Followers Without Warning

Instagram recently deleted dozens of accounts, some with up to 13 million followers, in a mass purge that focused on meme accounts. The company did not give any explanation for the suspensions beyond "violations of terms of service," but there are several theories as to why the accounts were removed.

Instagram Will Now Warn Users if Their Account Is Close to Being Banned

Instagram has sometimes not been particularly forthright when it comes to decisions of account or content moderation, but that seems to be changing, as the company has announced that they will begin warning users whose accounts are in imminent danger of being banned because of violations.

Apps That Will Add a New Level of Intelligence to Your Photographs.

If you’ve ever wondered what plant is in the foreground of your last magical landscape image, there’s a few apps out there that can help. Those apps can also keep you from trampling rare and endangered species and habitat to get that epic Instagram shot, and along the way you’ll end up learning a few Latin names… maybe.

iPadOS Finally Makes iPad Worth Considering for Professionals

After a few compatibility and speed tests, for the first time, I will be leaving my laptop behind when I go on a seven day trip out of the country later this month. It’s all thanks to iPad’s new iPadOS, which this year will provide support for external drives and a group of other pro features we’ve been starved for since the iPad first came out.

Capture One Express: Straightforward, Powerful, and Free

What is Capture One Express? Simply put, it’s a totally free and simplified version of the Capture One editing software that still offers the same superior raw handling ability as the Pro version.

Fstoppers Review: NIK Tools Are Back With More Features and a Lower Price

Many of us remember the debut of NIK Tools in 1995. They were a powerful set of plugins for Photoshop that did color adjustments, created lovely black and white images, and could sharpen images and lower noise in them. Just about every photographer I knew snapped them up at $500.

How to Make Your Instagram Feed More Enjoyable and Useful


About 1 billion people use Instagram each month, that’s 1/8th of the world population. The top four countries other than the United Sates are Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Russia. That’s a huge variety of languages, cultures and perspectives, yet the most followed people on Instagram are celebrities.

Meet DJI AirSense: More Safety When You Fly

One of the biggest concerns when it comes to flying drones is airspace and safety. Drones must always yield to manned aircraft and now DJI has found a way to make this process easier than ever before.

Adobe Updates Lightroom with Photographer-Created Tutorials, Texture Slider, and More

Adobe's updates to apps across the Lightroom lineup today include a new Texture slider under the Presence pane for a finer alternative to clarity, tutorials created by photographers you know so you can follow along with their edits, additional tools that help others collaborate to add images to albums with you online, and more.

Apple Aperture, We Hardly Knew Ye

Apple Aperture began with a bang in 2005 and promptly became a favorite of many professional photographers. But what began with a bang ends in a whimper, as Apple quietly issued a support document with some bad news for those few photographers who were still using it.

I'm Falling Out of Love with Adobe and the Creative Cloud: Part 2

Late last month I did a post on my ongoing problems with Adobe and the Creative Cloud software and apps. I sometimes find Photoshop unreliable, as well as Bridge. I've also had numerous crashes with the Creative Cloud app too. There were a lot of good comments on my piece, and I also attracted some of the good folks at Adobe who were anxious to weigh in on my experience, which I welcomed.

Can You Re-Edit a Photo and Get a Better Result?

A few weeks ago, I beat Lee Morris in our Puerto Rico Landscape Challenge. With that victory, many of our readers said my edit in Photoshop was simply too over the top. Today, I try to re-edit my photo to see if I can create something a bit more realistic.

Pixelmator Photo Now Available on the iPad

The team behind Pixelmator Pro have just announced the launch of their software on the App Store having made the software available for iPad. It promises non-destructive adjustments, AI-powered enhancements, a number of presets, and full raw support.