Best Photography Apps for Smart Phones

sm4him · Jan 14, 2012

What are some of the most useful photography-related apps that you have on your smartphone? I'm thinking more of apps to aid regular photography, rather than the camera apps themselves, though I have several of those I sometimes play with.

I have a 'droid phone: my two favorite apps for photography are the Sundroid app and my DOF calculator app. I'd love to find some others that are really useful or interesting.

Oh...well there's also the TPF app, of course.

Big Mike · Jan 14, 2012

I was going to mention a DOF calculator and a sunrise/set app...but you already have that.

SunnyHours · Jan 14, 2012

I actually got an iPhone 4S and with good lighting it's pretty good. The only thing is no Manual settings. I'm looking for an app that allows a little more freedom but I don't think there's one yet (if ever...).

KaPOWitsCHRIS · Jan 14, 2012

Photo FX and Instagram on the iPhone

TheBiles · Jun 13, 2012

I find that Sun Surveyor is vastly superior to Sundroid. Gives you full paths of the sun and the moon on a compass, plus a ton of other cool stuff. Exposure Calculator is also nifty if you hate mental math and use a lot of ND filters or bulb exposures.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

480sparky · Jun 13, 2012

The Photographer's Ephimeris by Crookneck Consulting (There's both a phone app as well as a version for your computer)

Photo Tools by hcpl

gps4cam (geotag app, of the two I have I prefer this one)

Geotag Photos (another geotag app, requires a computer with internet connection)

Photography Calculator

Other apps I use that aren't 'photo' apps, but still apply:

App 2 SD (moves many apps to your SD card if you need to free up the phone's memory)

Compass

Flashlight

Google Sky Map

GPS Test (nice GPS utility!)

Stop Watch & Timer

Voice Recorder

Of course, I use Google Maps and Street View as well.

Since I only use my phone camera for basic documentation purposes, I have none of the millions of editing apps that are available.

sm4him · Jun 13, 2012

Glad someone dug up this old thread, because now I have some new apps to check out!

I'll look up both of those mentioned by TheBiles, and several of sparky's suggestions too.

sparky, I LOVE the App2SD app--and Google Sky Map was the very first thing my son (who teaches, among other things, the astronomy merit badge at scout summer camp) downloaded. I could just sit out in the backyard at night with that thing for HOURS.
I use my Flashlight app perhaps more than any other app I have.

I hadn't heard of GPS Test though, and don't know that I have a Voice Recorder (which I REALLY could have used yesterday!) so I'll check those out as well.

Another non-photo app that my son recently downloaded for me and saved me a TON of time was App Backup & Restore. It stores what I assume are little "setup" type files for all your apps, onto your sd card. I recently had to have my phone worked on, and the service tech said that they'd have to run an upgrade on it, and then I'd have to reinstall all my apps. I have a LOT of apps. I would have had to go into both Google Play Store and Amazon Apps and chosen each app and re-installed it. Instead, my son downloaded this app, did a backup of everything (which admittedly took a while), then they did their update (which didn't fix the problem, but that's another story). Then all I had to do was reinstall the Backup app, and go through and select which ones I want to reinstall (which was also a good opportunity to NOT reinstall some I never use)--and then set my phone down for about an hour while it worked on reinstalling all my apps. :lol:

Another non-photo app that I USE in my photography is the Audobon field guide apps. I have Audobon Birds and Audobon Insects & Spiders. Great way to try to figure out what little critter you've just taken a picture of! I think they are usually kinda expensive, but they often go on sale. I picked up the Audobon Birds as an Amazon Free App of the Day, and then got the other one for $4.99 a few weeks later (which is, by far, the most I've ever paid for an app!). Generally, about 90% of my apps are free ones, and the others are like 99 cent apps.

Dao · Jun 13, 2012

I pick up the Audobon Birds app as well at that time. And that is GREAT app!

beecam light meter app is also a nice once for photography

480sparky · Jun 13, 2012

GPS Test gives you your coordinates, as well as which satellites are in view, their signal strength, how accurate your location is (31', 7, 58' etc. error), heading, speed, compass, altitude, and 6 time functions (local time, UTC, date, sunrise, sunset)

bunny99123 · Jun 13, 2012

Photo FX on my Ipod. I use it alot. Of course they size it in square demensions most of the time if you choose to print. I just resize them and add a frame in PS. I have printed alot of them and they print in high quality. Also, Color Splash, if you want black and white with something color in it. It saves time on PS, and prints very well. Reflection: gives the mirror effect, and Water Photo, it does a good job giving the appearance the photo is next to water even with reflection and ripples.