16 Apps to Simplify Your Photo Business

16 Apps to Simplify Your Photo Business

It’s that time again! We’re wrapping up our #WorkLessWednesday posts with 16 apps that will increase your productivity and save you time. One of the perks of being a photographer is the ability to be mobile. Whether you’re at the office or on the road, there are so many great apps to help you #MakeItSimple right from the palm of your hand. Read on to check out some of our favorites.

Productivity & Organization Apps

1. 1password

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Most websites or memberships these days require “high security” passwords that are nearly never easy to remember. We all know it’s a bad idea to use the same password for everything, and writing it down in a notebook or somewhere on your smartphone isn’t secure either.

There’s a simple solution called 1password. All you need is a single password and the app holds all of your unique passwords in its super safe vault. Passwords are automatically generated when you visit new sites making all your future logins incredibly simple and efficient. Plus, you’ll rest easy knowing your identity is safe and sound.  

2. Any.do

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Any.do is your ‘to do’ list on steroids. It not only allows you to go way beyond your generic ‘to do’ lists (though it does those too). You can set up reminders for all your tasks and events, sync across all of your devices, share your lists with others so everyone is on the same page and able to work from the list, add attachments, comments, and a whole lot more. If you’re a list maker, this app will be your new best friend.    

3. Trello

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Trello is a productivity tool that is excellent for collaboration as well as a great way to manage your projects or assignments in a single view. It eliminates the need for back and forth emailing as everything for a particular project/client/assignment/whatever the case may be, can be seen by everyone involved with updates in realtime. Trello is the perfect visual tool for visual creators (read: photographers).

4. FlightAware

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FlightAware is a must have for any photographer who travels because it can track the flight status of any commercial flight in the world (and any private flight in the US and Canada) in real-time. You’ll receive push notifications for any gate changes or delays, so there’s no need to check the monitors or listen for announcements. They also have full-screen maps built in for those who are so inclined to check the NEXRAD radar overlay.

5. The Photographer’s Ephemeris

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Have an outdoor shoot and want to know if the sun/weather is going to cooperate? TPE does that and more. It’s a map-centric sun and moon calculator that will tell you how the light will fall at any location, at any time so you know what is the best possible time and place to shoot.  

6. Evernote

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Evernote was probably one of the first apps you downloaded when you got your first smartphone, but it has exploded from its simple note-taking beginnings and can do so much more. It’s an incredibly flexible tool that syncs seamlessly with their extensive library of apps. Whether you’re recording notes, thoughts, photos, reminders, directions, recipes, working with a team or on your own – whatever the case may be, evernote can pretty much do it all. And, everything is stored in the cloud and accessible from any device.  

Finance Apps

7. Mint

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Mint is the app that syncs with all your finances to ensure there are never any surprises. It tracks and categorizes all of your purchases and deposits across all of your finances – banking, credit, loans, cars – you name it. You’ll receive reminders when you have a bill coming up, alerts for unusual activity or a low balance, and you can also create goals and budgets to help yourself get ahead.

8. Everlance

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Everlance is a sleek and easy to use expense tracker & mileage log. Every time you drive to a photoshoot, to meet with a client – or anything related to your business, really – you could be saving big time on your taxes and this app calculates that for you. Not only does it automatically track your mileage, but it also allows you to easily track deductible expenses so you’re able to get the maximum deductions for your taxes.

9. Expensify

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Expensify is the all-in-one expense tracker making your life a whole lot easier, especially when it’s time to get those taxes ready. Just snap a photo of your receipts, import all credit card transactions, capture mileage, time, and other expenses. You’re also able to log and bill client hours and another great perk of this app is that it works even when you’re offline.  

Business & Social Media Apps

10. NPPA cost of doing business calculator

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Determining what to charge for a service or product can’t be done until you know what your costs will be. NPPA has created a helpful calculator to help you determine just what those costs are. You’ll see all of the annual expense fields that need to be accounted for, and it helps in determining what your weekly cost of business is and where your prices should begin.

11. Shake

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Shake allows you to create legally binding agreements simply and easily. You can either upload your own contract, or answer a few questions and use one of their built in templates to generate one for you. You can send an agreement to a client or both sign together on the spot using your smartphone. No scanning, printing or paper, yet completely legal, incredibly easy, and best of all – no lawyers required.

12. Easy Release

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Getting model and property releases couldn’t be easier with the Easy Release app. You no longer need to print and file away paper releases which can potentially be lost, stolen or destroyed. This app allows you to create professional model and property releases and have them signed right from your phone or tablet. And because they’re secured in the cloud, you’ll never lose track of them.  

13. Hootsuite

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Whether you were practically born with a smartphone in your hand or you consider social media the enemy, there’s no denying that it can be a beast to keep up with. Hootsuite is an incredibly useful tool that allows you to manage your many social networking channels and schedule future posts. It keeps you informed and notified, allowing you to post speedy replies to those who comment. It also has detailed analytics that let you know which posts are working, and which are not.

14. Pocket

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In any given day you’ll see dozens of articles from news sources, social media, email, or any number of other web sources. Instead of spending your time reading articles as you get them or missing out on important info, you can save your article or video to the Pocket app. Then, when you have some downtime, you can read what you’ve saved in your pocket at your convenience.

15. Lightroom

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If you’re using the creative cloud, you’ll love the Lightroom app. It gives you the professional quality that comes with the full lightroom program with much of the same functionality, yet it allows you to share the images with your smartphone or tablet making posts and sharing that much easier.  

16. PhotoShelter

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The PhotoShelter app allows you to take your website, archive, sales, and client galleries with you wherever you go. Whether you need to send images to a client, check your account statistics, stay relevant by posting to social media channels, or dig into your archives at a moment’s notice – the PhotoShelter mobile app allows you to manage your entire image archive without having to be in the office or plugged into a hard drive.  

Any apps you’ve found to save big on time that are great for your business? Share in the comments below!

 

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There are 12 comments for this article
  1. Marie at 5:45 pm

    This is a great list! I also recommend Snapseed for photo editing on mobile devices. The user interface isn’t as intuitive but the features are really robust (and there are no annoying ‘upgrade’ or ‘buy’ prompts!)

  2. Michelle at 1:53 pm

    Lovely article and will look at what you offer, for online. I have photos want to display and have a reference sure, this will be good. Any tips on how to frame my photos or should they be uploaded with a name on the photo, don’t like watermarks! I have Canva I know, any tips?

  3. ELiomar Santo at 5:36 pm

    One suggestion, include the app PS Adobe Photoshop Express, it is free, simple and functional.One suggest, includ in tthe list the PS Adobe Photoshop Express, simpl and functionality.

  4. Andrew Miller at 12:48 pm

    Excellent list and I use a few of these already. I’m not sure I would use some of the financial apps. Also, as one of the other commenters has mentioned why not include PS in the list? LR is great but PS puts the cream on top!

  5. Chuck at 12:47 pm

    I like Trello, but it drives me nuts that they still don’t have time tracking, Gantt charts or task dependencies, like free Bitrix24 does. I’m sticking to Bitrix24 until Trello changes that.

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