5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Photographers

Every photographer knows the quote: "The best camera is the one that's with you." With that being said, for most people, that camera is their mobile phone. In fact, the iPhone is the most-used camera in the world. And with technology constantly progressing, we can take pretty incredible photos with our phones now. So, I thought I'd share some of the best apps so you can make best use of your iPhone camera. These are the apps that I've personally found to be the most beneficial. But you have other ones that you like, please share in the comments! And in no particular order, here we go.

1. Snapseed

Snapseed is a powerful image editing app that’s really easy to use, and it’s completely free to download from the App Store! This is one of the most popular apps with iPhone photographers, and is often said to be the one app that they couldn’t do without.

It has a great choice of essential adjustment tools for improving color and exposure, such as brightness, contrast and saturation. You can apply these adjustments to the whole image or just a part of it by using the Selective Adjustment tool.

Snapseed

Snapseed is free on the App Store.

2. Photoshop Touch

If the above apps seem like child’s play to you, then Photoshop Touch might be more to your liking. This is one of the most powerful image editing apps around. If you use Photoshop to edit and create images on your computer, then you’ll feel right at home with this app.

Photoshop Touch

If you’re a Photoshop user, this app contains many of the tools that you’ll be familiar with, including layers, blending modes, gradients and text tools, as well as the usual adjustments and filters.

This app is fantastic for creating artistic montages, blending different images together in unique ways.

The iPhone version of Photoshop Touch sells for $4.99 while the iPad version sells for $9.99, but it’s worth the money if you want access to the advanced creative tools that it offers.

3. ProCamera 8

ProCamera 8 is one of the best camera apps that has been updated for iOS 8. It is a completely manual camera which is great for experienced photographers. Here's some of the features the app sports:

ProCamera 8

• The fastest, highest quality and most advanced three-shot HDR, which is so accurate that it’s even possible to capture moving objects without ghosting.
• A dedicated Exposure Compensation (EV) dial
• ISO & Shutter mode which gives you full manual control over the ISO sensitivity and Shutter Speed on your iPhone.
• Complete color control to the White Balance option in the Control Panel.

ProCamera 8 is available for $3.99 on the App Store. 

4. Camera Noir

Camera Noir is used purely for creating black and white or monochrome images. It’s really simple to use, but can create some dramatic looking images by applying selective lighting to illuminate the most important part of your image.

Camera Noir

This app features a monochrome filter with three carefully-tuned settings that let you see the world in a classic way. You can easily shift focus and adjust exposure by tapping on your screen. Make sure nothing is left out of Instagram with square crop marks. And with the built-in level line, you know when your photos are balanced. You can even import existing photos from your camera roll.

Camera Noir sells for $1.99 on the App Store.

5. Faded

Faded

Faded rocks a beautiful design and is extremely easy to use. Not only does the app let you adjust exposures and shadows, along with a robust assortment of other manual facets, but it allows you to revert to a previous editing state at any time.

But it's stand-out features have to be it’s ability to export full-resolution photos and save custom actions. 

Faded is available for free on the App Store.

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A Portrait Session with Markos

I had a great portrait session a little while back with Markos (pictured above). Markos' mom really trusted my creative instinct, which was really nice. I was able to really decide how I wanted these photos to come out.

I wanted to get some shots that would really showcase the style that I'm going for. I like my photos to be simple, have natural lighting, and take place outdoors. I want these photos to take away all the distractions that we have in our lives today and plainly leave the personality of the subject for the camera to capture.

My photography inspiration whom I think does that very well is Elena Shumilova. And while I realize that we all have our own styles of photography and art, I'd like to take some of the elements that inspire that style and create my own (if that makes any sense at all).

If you're wondering how to shoot better natural light photographs, Jessica Drossin has a great tutorial up on 500px that you should take a look at. It even goes in-depth into her retouching process. You can take a look at that tutorial right here.

As always, thanks for reading. You can take a look at the rest of the photos from Markos' shoot, down below. Let me know what you think!

Facebook Page

Just a little update. I now have an official Facebook page up for Tyris Imagery. If anybody's reading this be sure to give it a like ;)

I might experiment with ads sometime soon, but I want my website to be completely finished first. Of course I'll share any lessons or tips I learn. Stay tuned!

Journeying Through a Photography Business

A few days ago I was taking with my friends and had a revelation. I realized that I wanted to be a photographer. A professional one that is. It was the strangest feeling. I've always loved photography but for some reason had never thought of doing it for a living. And so now the journey begins.

A few days later I was with some friends, one of whom is a professional portrait photographer. He gave me a lot of great advice, all of which I've been putting into practice.

A few hours later I was practicing something on my camera and asked my friend if I could just take a test picture. That test picture is the above one. It turned out to be a great accidental portrait. I couldn't be more happy with this shot. It's my very first portrait I've ever done.

This is an introduction to the beginning of my business. I'm in the middle of creating a website, making business cards, a Facebook page etc. I thought it would be fun to document this journey and share any tips or maybe even mistakes that you guys can avoid. Hopefully I'll look back on this post someday and see where it began.

If you'd like to see some of my work you can check out my 500px portfolio right here.