What Apps Do Photographers Use: 20 Must-Have Apps in 2024

The Photographer’s Companion app is a game-changer for professionals in any photography style. It eliminates the camera’s automatic mode, allowing you to have full control over our settings.

One of the standout features is the ability to calculate alternative exposure. This is super useful for managing ND filters and achieving those stunning long exposures. Additionally, the app provides tools for measuring depth of field, hyperfocal distance, and even simulating bokeh effects.

The Photographer’s Companion stands out among other apps for photographers with its bespoke content customized to the user’s camera model. The app provides specific guidance and settings tailored to your camera.

Compatibility and price: Android, free and paid versions, $3.49

The Photographer’s Ephemeris app is a must-have for landscape photographers who are passionate about capturing sunrise, sunset, and the golden hours. It provides accurate data, maps, and essential information on the position of the Sun, Moon, and Milky Way.

The app is incredibly helpful for planning compositions or determining the best time for sunrise, sunset, and other events like blue or golden hour. Just input your current location and the landscape feature you want to capture, and TPE will provide a timeline to choose the desired date.

This photographers app also offers information on depth of field, hyperfocal distance, and more. It even features augmented reality and visual search functions, making it a valuable tool for outdoor photographers. Besides, TPE also alerts you to upcoming events like Blue Hour or Golden Hour.

Compatibility and price: iOS, $9.99

PhotoPills offers a wide range of tools and features for planning and executing your photography shots. Whether you’re into landscape or astrophotography, this app has got you covered. It helps you scout locations, find the best time for capturing Milky Way or Golden Hour photos, etc.

From aligning the moon behind a landmark to capturing star trails or planning a time-lapse sequence, this versatile app can assist you every step of the way. It combines a map, calculator, and celestial almanac into one, making it an indispensable tool for photographers.

With its augmented reality features, you can overlay the hyperfocal distance on your scene and see if your lens will achieve sharp focus from near to far. Additionally, if you’re planning a long exposure, this photography app can help you calculate the correct aperture and shutter speed.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, $10.99, in-app purchases

Sun Surveyor is a fantastic tool for scouting and planning locations to capture celestial subjects. It’s incredibly useful when you’re planning a photoshoot during sunset or golden hour, or if you want to line up the sun with a specific landmark.

This photographers app also has a live camera view and an interactive map, which makes it easier to visualize your shots and align them with real-world features. The augmented reality feature overlays the paths of the sun and moon on the landscape, giving you a better understanding of how they will interact with your composition.

Sun Surveyor also includes a 3D compass, local map, and street view. You can set alerts for important events and the app offers powerful prediction and visualization tools.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, $9.99

ProCam X gives you full control over exposure, focus, and white balance to fine-tune your camera settings. The app offers various shooting modes, including night mode and burst mode. The live histogram and focus peaking features are also great for capturing well-exposed and focused images.

ProCam X stands out among the best photo taking apps with its face detection feature, which ensures better focus on people, something portrait photographers will particularly appreciate. The burst mode is handy for capturing multiple shots in succession, reducing any motion blur. The built-in HDR function is also a nice touch, improving contrast and reducing camera shake.

The app also excels in video recording, with an anti-shake function to reduce motion blur. It even has face detection for portrait videos. If your device supports it, you can even capture images in RAW format for maximum quality.

Compatibility and price: Android, $4.99

One of the key advantages of Camera+ 2 is its intuitive interface. It’s specifically designed for iOS, so navigating through the app and improving your photos is a breeze. It has every chance to become your best photo taking app as it offers the manual mode that gives you complete control over shutter speed, ISO, and white balance.

Another great feature is the RAW capture support. The shooting modes, such as Smile mode and Stabilizer mode, are also handy additions that make capturing the perfect shot easier. The focus ring and macro mode are also helpful for getting those up-close and detailed shots.

The app also includes a variety of editing tools, filters, and effects to enhance your photos. The built-in RAW editor is a nice addition to enhance your iPhone photography experience.

Compatibility and price: iOS (iPhone and iPad), $7.99

The Camera Zoom FX Premium shines with its professional-grade controls. With full manual DSLR controls, you have the freedom to adjust focus distance, exposure, shutter speed, etc.. The stable shot and voice-activated modes are also handy for getting steady pictures without even touching your phone.

Another great feature is the variety of real-time filters and effects. This photographers app also offers configurable modes and settings, so you can customize your shooting experience to get the perfect shot in any circumstance.

This iPhone photo editor allows you to access and edit photos stored elsewhere on your device. You can apply various color effects, distortion effects, and collage options to your photos.

Compatibility and price: Android, $4.99, in-app purchases

The Moment – Pro Camera app offers full manual control over both photos and videos, allowing you to adjust settings like shutter speed, ISO, and white balance. Being one of the best photo taking apps, it supports a variety of lens options, including wide-angle, telephoto, etc.

The built-in stabilizer is a game-changer when shooting videos, especially in outdoor or moving situations. The app also has a slow-motion and a slo-mo timelapse mode, which can add some cool effects to your videos.

Saving photos and videos in HEIF, JPG, and RAW formats is a plus, as it allows for more flexibility during post-processing. The app also provides tutorial videos to help you get started and learn how to make the most of its features.

Compatibility and price: iOS, $6.99

Unlike other light metering apps that rely on your smartphone camera, myLightMeter Pro uses your phone’s built-in light sensor to measure both incident and reflected light. It even has a battery protection feature to prevent draining your phone’s battery, which is a thoughtful addition.

It also features a stylized interface design, saved lens presets, EV compensation, hyperfocal distance calculations, and even automatically selects ISO settings based on your selected lens and aperture.

One of the standout features of this photography app is its ability to record and display exposure data on your smartphone’s screen. You can select the area on the screen you want to meter, and the app will automatically show you the appropriate shutter speed.

Compatibility and price: iOS ($3.99) and Android ($2.99)

Instead of relying on online charts or estimating distances, the app calculates hyperfocal distance for you, saving you time and ensuring accuracy. This is especially useful for landscape photography, where a shallow depth of field can make your subject stand out.

Hyperfocal Pro also has a database of camera models, so it can provide accurate calculations for any settings. It even has an augmented reality view that shows you the focus point in your image.

Another great feature of this photographers app is the ‘profiles’ option, where you can save different camera/lens/shooting parameter combinations for easy access. Plus, it calculates the angle of view and field of view, giving you a comprehensive understanding of your shot.

Compatibility and price: Android, no ads and in-app purchases

The Exposure Calculator helps you determine the best camera settings for different lighting situations. It’s designed for smartphones, so it’s easy to navigate and input your ISO, shutter speed, and aperture settings.

As one of the best apps for photographers, it can determine the correct shutter speed when using ND filters. This is a common problem for many photographers, but with this app, you won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Plus, if you’re into long-exposure photography, the app allows you to use a countdown timer to notify you when your exposure should be finished. What’s more, you can save your camera settings for future use. Just input your settings and save them in either Manual or Auto mode.

Compatibility and price: iOS, free

The Fix The Photo Editor & Retouch App is not just an ordinary photo editor; it’s like having a team of the best retouchers at your fingertips. What sets it apart is that it doesn’t depend on AI for its edits, instead opting for manual processing of your photos.

Whether you’re aiming to smooth skin, eliminate blemishes, or make subtle adjustments, you can trust this photography app for top-notch results. It can also sculpt your body and handle background editing effortlessly, providing realistic outcomes.

The Fix The Photo Editor & Retouch also boasts a user-friendly interface. Just upload your photos directly to the app and provide detailed instructions for the team; you can even place individual orders for specific retouching needs. After just a few hours, you can download your enhanced image, and the results are truly impressive.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free to download, Free Test Order, in-app purchases

VSCO offers a wide range of film filters and editing tools that allow you to enhance your photos and videos. The user-friendly interface of this free video editing app for iPhone and Android is suitable for both beginners and professionals.

One key feature of VSCO is its ability to capture images in RAW format. This is a great advantage for photographers who want to have more control over their editing process. Additionally, VSCO’s curated collection of film-inspired presets adds a unique touch to your images, giving them a distinct and artistic feel.

Another advantage of this app for photographers is its community of unique photographers. Similar to Instagram, you can connect with fellow artists, find inspiration, and share your work.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free and paid version ($19.99/year).

Adobe Photoshop Express is truly amazing for editing and creating stunning images on the go. You can add filters, text, stickers, frames, and more to enhance your images. Creating collages is a breeze with just a few taps. Additionally, the app lets you create stunning panoramas and HDR photos.

The app also provides a range of adjustments including auto enhance, exposure, and sharpness. Removing red-eye and blemishes is a breeze, and you can easily crop your image or use the eraser tool to remove unwanted areas.

Another impressive feature is the ability to capture RAW files, which allows you to retain all the colors and details in your photographs. The app also supports various plugins, such as those for Lightroom Mobile and the GIMP, making it one of the best photography apps for editing.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free

Snapseed is definitely one of the most popular apps for photographers. The UI is simple and easy to navigate. One standout feature is the selective adjustments tool, which allows you to modify specific areas of a picture. This gives you great control over your edits.

Another advantage of this Android photo editor is the non-destructive editing feature. This means that any changes you make won’t permanently alter your original photo, but rather layer on top of it. This gives you the freedom to remove or modify individual edits at any time.

Snapseed has many filters to choose from. It even allows you to rotate, straighten, and blur images, adding depth and creativity to your photos. The masking feature is also worth mentioning, as it allows you to apply adjustments to specific areas of an image.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free

The Adobe Lightroom Mobile offers a range of editing tools, including light & color adjustment, and even black and white effects. What’s more, LR Mobile helps you stay organized by providing a library-like catalog where you can sort and find images using various criteria.

The app’s UI is beginner-friendly, however, it also offers advanced options and intricacies for more experienced users. The recent addition of the Healing Tool, and versatile Dehaze, Split Toning, and HDR features makes it one of the most popular portrait photographers app.

Lightroom Mobile also allows you to export your images in various formats and even add a watermark to protect your copyrights. The ability to access and edit your photos from anywhere is a major advantage for photographers on the go.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free to download, in-app purchases

Afterlight boasts a wide range of tools and features that can truly enhance your photos. From crop and transform options to adjustment tools, filters, textures, creative effects, and even text and artwork, this app has it all. You can also add frames and professional photography watermarks easily.

In Afterlight you can blend two photos using the Double Exposure effect to create unique and artistic compositions. Additionally, the app even provides advanced editing tools like curves and selective hue/saturation/lightness adjustments.

The app also has a robust built-in camera tool, so it has the potential to be your best photo taking app. It offers various settings like a timer, a rule of thirds grid, and even a bracketing mode. Besides, it supports a variety of file formats, including RAW and JPEG.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free, in-app purchases

TouchRetouch is a powerful and affordable photo editing app for photographers. It’s particularly great for quick edits and enhancing portraits. It also offers tutorials, which is great for beginners. It’s really easy to use and has a lot of useful features.

The app’s “object removal brush” is a fantastic feature. It highlights the area you want to remove with a green overlay, making it easy to get rid of unwanted elements in your photos. It can even remove blemishes and spots on the skin or clean up graffiti and stray hairs.

TouchRetouch also offers other features like various filters and brushes, brightness and contrast adjustments, and the ability to add frames or borders to your photos. You can even crop your images or share them on social media.

Compatibility and price: iOS ($3.99) and Android ($2.00)

Simple and easy-to-use Adobe Creative Cloud Express offers a wide range of templates for various social media platforms, making it convenient for creating graphics, videos, and even websites. This free video editing app for Android and iOS also provides access to Adobe fonts and stock images, which adds to the overall quality of the designs.

Customization in CC Express is a breeze. You can easily change colors, text, and icons to create unique and appealing designs. Additionally, the ability to save your work and edit it later is a great feature.

In terms of key features, the app offers drag-and-drop tools, Adobe Sensei technology for automatic background removal, video trimming, etc. Another advantage of this photo-sharing app for photographers is the integration with various platforms, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, GIPHY, and Typeform.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free

Flickr is one of the best photography apps for storing and organizing your images and videos online. You can create albums, tag your images, and even collaborate with other members of the Flickr community.

One of the standout features of Flickr is the ability to upload photos and videos at full resolution. Additionally, the advanced statistics tools provided by Flickr can be incredibly useful for tracking how your photos are performing.

Another advantage is the support offered by Flickr. They have a dedicated forum and knowledgeable staff who can assist with any issues. They also provide tutorials and guides to help you get started. In Flickr, you can limit the download size of your photos, add watermarks, and even set a password to ensure your privacy.

Compatibility and price: iOS and Android, free, in-app purchases