6 Useful apps for a working photographer [and some more]
Apple’s iphone is a big hit with photographers because of it’s functionality, ease of use and the numerous applications available. This is my list of apps I that I think are great help to me These apps do not process the pictures I take but helps me plan the shoot. The list is in random order..
1. Sunrise & Sunset : [ 0.59GBP ] A very useful app when planning your day. It is always good to know the time the sun rises or sets.
2. AccuWeather: [ FREE ] I trust what accuweather says on my iphone for 15-day forecasts more than the BBC’s 4 day forecast. Hourly forecast is great too. Before I set off, I check the weather updates, this gives me time to improvise or adjust the shoot plan.
3. CCTerminal: [ Currently at 0.99$] I saw this Photo Pro magazine, installed it, upgrade my paypal account, passed their vetting and it’s worked really well! After several incidents on cheques bouncing, I found this a great tool. It protects me as a service provider and protects my clients from embarassment. I can e-mail the receipt to them too!
4. Second Shootr: [3.99 GBP] This is a brainchild of Plinkk Photography. It is very useful with wedding photography bookings. I’ve put together a set of fields that corresponds to my booking form so I have the details without taking copies of the contract with me. It is not perfect but it is a start. I read that SmartStudio app will be out soon, but for 17.99GBP – I will wait until I grow out of Second Shootr.Or of course until my husband finds time to work on my database and the app idea I have in mind.
5. Bento: [2.99GBP] If you have a more extensive database and forms in mind, this app is great. You make your own database from scratch. Time consuming maybe but it is 100% custom made.
6. Strobox: [FREE] I got this app recently and I love it! Although, I mostly use natural lights, I keep a small notebook with lighting diagrams with me for study and this app just make things easy. Another thing I use this for is whenever I look at images on the magazines I like, I try to visualise how it is lit. I create the diagram in this app, email it to myself and insert the image to the scanned copy of the picture or recreate the diagram on the computer using Huy’s diagram creator.
I know there is the Online Lighting Diagram creator by Huy which is great. At the time I was playing wit it, it does not have that many lighting objects to choose from. Now it has. And you can now also export your diagram to .JPG, .PNG or URL.
We know that about an hour before and after sunrise and sunset is great for photography beacause you have that beautiful warm light or that beautiful deep blue sky (good weather). If you are a fan of blue hour like me, then the BlueHour app is for you. It is great for landscape photography, it suggests the times. It is more expensive at 1.19GBP for what it does but since I find it ’s got it uses – so be it.
There are other apps out there like Xposure, DOF Master are great if you want to know the recommended distances for DOF.
From time to time, inspiration/ creative ideas are not there. There are apps that showcase other photographer’s work. I like the iFolio app because it’s got lots of interesting images from varied photographers.
If you are looking for an app for posing ideas, there are two apps available. One have great interface and organisation while the other have a great image collection. I think if they work together and put the best of each of their apps, they’d come up with a better product with great interface, well organised and a lot of images in the library.
There are hundreds other photography application for the iphone that comes up when you do a search. Most of these are for you to take fun photographs and not plan it.
I haven’t found any planner for other photography work yet. I hope to find one this year 
Otherwise, I’ll start suggesting the idea to some of my favourite image makers and hope they do it.
Thank you for reading.
Tags: apple apps, iphone apps, iphone photography applications
