Photography Apps

The right app can transform how you shoot, edit, and manage your images — and the options have never been better. This section covers photography apps across mobile and desktop, from camera control tools and on-set references to editing apps and workflow utilities. We cut through the noise to focus on what's actually useful for working photographers.

Astropad Mini Updated to Support 3D Touch, Now Has Pressure Sensitivity and Is Free

Astropad Mini, the app that allows iPhone and iPad users to turn their device into a graphics tablet for the Mac, received a major update on Tuesday. The app now includes support for Apple's 3D Touch, meaning it can now recognize 256 levels of pressure, bringing it even closer to turning your iPhone into a fully functioning graphic tablet. 

TapTag Is A New Scavenger Hunt App For The Adventurous Photographer

A sense of adventure has always been a common trait among photographers especially those who photograph landscapes. This sense of adventure often takes us to some interesting and remote locations. Well now there is an app that allows you turn those remote destinations into a scavenger hunt for other adventurous souls to find.

Adobe's Free Color App Allows you to Sample The World's Colors with Your Mobile Device

We here at Fstoppers can forgive our beloved Trevor Dayley for jumping ship and joined the crew over at SLRLounge as long as he keeps turning us on to useful tools and tips like the Adobe Color CC app. This thing is so cool and it's free. Adobe never seems to stop enriching it's eco systems with improved connectivity and functionality.

Five Must-Have Apps for the Working Photographer

There are thousands of apps out there to expand your mobile photography capabilities, but what about apps that augment your abilities when you're holding a DSLR? Here are five of my favorite apps to enhance your productivity. 

How to Book More Wedding Photography Clients & Save Time with this FREE Web App

I came across a web app for scheduling appointments that was a complete game changer for my business! It's by far my favorite productivity tool. Every wedding photographer needs to check this out. It could be the missing link you need in your business to book more wedding photography clients. In my first week I was able to arrange seven meetings and book two clients. Wow!

An App to Help Photographers Find Workspace Away From Home

Culling, processing and editing jobs is a time consuming endeavor to say the least. Hours go by with you hunched over the Wacom as you find yourself leaning ever closer to your screen. Sometime you just need to get out of the studio (or your apartment) and find a different environment to keep yourself sane.

Apple Introduces 12-Megapixel iPhone 6s Camera and New "Live Photos"

Happy New iPhone Day! Today, that small startup in Cupertino known as "Apple" released their latest and greatest iPhones, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. But with all the hype and cool new features, we were mostly concerned with the camera and boy, did they deliver. 

Hipster Barbie Is Mocking Your Instagram Feed

Going on an adventure this weekend? Maybe a hike or a cool concert? You're probably going to Instagram it too, aren't you? Well, put your iPhone down, because Barbie (yes, the Hasbro toy) is killing it on Instagram better than you ever could. 

Agree: A New Way to Track Contracts and Payments for Your Photography Business

Keeping track of contracts and payments can be somewhat cumbersome. If you're like me, sometimes you want to write everything down and have an excel spreadsheet just to double check everything. Along with that there is a neatly organized folder on your hard drive, external, and hard copied in a cabinet somewhere.

Why Do Your Instagram Photos Suddenly Look Terrible on Facebook?

There has been a disturbance. Have you felt it? Some astute photophiles (not a word I just made up) have noticed a change in quality in their posts when Instagram pushed a photo to Facebook after the most recent update, 7.5. So I decided to run a few comparison tests of my own to see if the quality really was different, and why my photos suddenly started to look so gritty. 

You Can Now Post Portrait and Landscape Oriented Photos on Instagram

We never thought this day would come, but Instagram now allows you to natively post portrait and landscape oriented photos and video. The days of cropping, white backgrounds, and 640x640 pixel photos and videos are over (unless you don't want them to be). 

How to Build a Huge Following on Instagram in 3 Comprehensive Steps

The number one questions I receive when talking about Instagram is "How do I build a huge following like you?" and I usually laugh and reply "I honestly have no idea." Though this is true in some sense, there must something attracting these people to follow me by the masses.

Nearly 8% of All Instagram Accounts Are Fake

According to a group of Italian security researchers roughly 8% of all Instagram accounts are actually fake. Not a huge shock and slightly lower than other social networks like Twitter from their research. The real question is if it truly matters or effects engagement on an individuals account, that is where their data shows real value. 

Apple’s App Store Promotion Discounts Popular Photo & Video Apps to 99 Cents

As part of Apple’s current “100 Apps and Games” featured discount collection, 11 popular photo and video apps are on sale for a slim $0.99. The “Apps for Photography Lovers” selection seems to include something for everyone, ranging from editing tools to time-lapse and slow shutter cameras to interactive photo and travel books. 

Turn Your Photos Into Nightmares With Google's DeepDream Web App

Last week Google released its DeepDream code to the public to play with. This code was created while attempting to enhance a computer's ability to recognize a certain scene or object. This code was capable of doing some pretty creepy things to your photos, and now it has become a web app.  

Instagram Redesigned Profiles for Web, Finally Add Search Capabilities

If you're not familiar, Instagram released their web-based platform for the popular app back in 2012. With an odd place to announce the update, Instagram revealed via Twitter that they have redesigned their profiles for web to have simple yet strong search capabilities.

Adobe Finally Updates Creative Cloud Desktop Client to Solve Infuriating Pop-Up Issue

For those with Creative Cloud subscriptions, you may have been rudely and often interrupted by Adobe's Creative Cloud desktop client popping up in your menu taskbar (a very similar phenomenon occurred with both Mac and PC platforms). For such an annoying issue, it took Adobe quite some time to come to our rescue, but we can finally celebrate a new kind of independence.

Fstoppers Reviews Astropad Graphics Tablet App

Have you ever just wanted to transform your iPad into a graphics tablet? The ex-Apple engineer duo at Astropad HQ have done just that, over WIFI or USB to boot. It’s also 30 percent off for the next 48 hours. 

Finally, Instagram Has Upped Their Image Resolution by Almost Double

Finally, it seems Instagram has pushed past its original 640x640 image resolution and made way in almost doubling that to 1080x1080 this week. First noticed a few days ago when posting over the July 4th weekend my iPhone 6 Plus had not left my images soft when hitting the 'share' button but rather closely maintained its original image quality.

Adobe Announces New Stock Image Service

Yesterday, along with many other updates across its creative suite, Adobe announced new its stock image licensing program. The libraries are integrated directly into Adobe’s various creative software, making it incredibly easy for users to browse, test, and integrate stock images or graphics directly into their projects.

Google and VFX Studio The Mill Release 360-Degree Film 'HELP' for Mobile

The era of 360-degree filmmaking is upon us. Google, in collaboration with The Mill and production company Bullitt, has released the 360-degree short film "HELP" for free on Google's mobile storytelling platform Spotlight Stories. The film is full of explosions, aliens, and action all within a beautiful 360-degree world. 

Healing and Fill Content-Aware Tools on Steroids Using Affinity Photo

Photoshop has been around for quite some time now. It works great and every photographer has gotten used to it. It is a staple in my workflow alongside Capture One and Photo Mechanic. Until a few days ago, I did not think I would hesitate changing my retouching routine. After a few years of trials and errors I am finally somewhere I feel comfortable with my post-production.

How the Periscope App Can Help Your Business and Creative Education

There’s been a multitude of social media apps popping up for us to use at our leisure and it might be hard to stay up to date. The most recent of them being Periscope. Periscope was recently purchased by Twitter before it was even launched in the app store, and it’s steadily gaining traction.

Why This Video App Will Eradicate Police Misconduct

I was reading this extract on Reuters earlier and was blown away. It is fantastic to see how creatively camera apps are being used for the peoples' benefit for once, especially in the wake of the Walter Scott case.  

HTC One M9 Camera App Updated to Allow Raw Capture

Now that more and more people are using their smartphones as their main camera, and some have even done entire photoshoots with one, it was only a matter of time until manufacturers started allowing raw capture. For the newly released HTC One M9, that day is today.

[UPDATED May 1, 2015] Added sample images and link to full-res download.

You Can Now Hashtag Emoji in Instagram, but Should You?

With over 300 million users, Instagram is easily the best way of getting your images across to the world. Aside from its massive user base, Instagram's hashtag ability is one of the best ways of getting your images seen by the right people if used correctly.

New Shared Camera App by Hipstamatic Is Fun and Frustrating

A new filtered camera app that allows groups of mobile photographers to share in a timed shootout was released for iOS last week by app developer Hipstamatic. The free app, called DSPO, creates a collaboration of images via gallery or slideshow that none of the contributors can view until the session expires. But in a mobile photography world ruled by Instagram, Snapchat, and VSC

VSCO Raises $30 Million in New Funding

Visual Supply Co., the Oakland-based photography software company best known for their film presets and photo app VSCO Cam, raised an impressive $30 million in a new round of funding less than a year after raising $40 million last May.