I was called the app master this past weekend by my second shooter. LOL. I'll take it. Thanks Mike! It made me realize, I use a ton on freaking apps without really noticing. I figured it might help to do a brief summary of them, since there may be some hidden gems you didn't know about.

COMPUTER APPS

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP & LIGHTROOM
No duh, this is what I use to edit. Photoshop for removing people/objects, and more detailed edits on select photos. Lightroom for 90-95% of my editing.

ADOBE BRIDGE
I use this app to cull. I open my photo of all my raws from a wedding and hit spacebar to make the image fullscreen. I put on some fast-paced music and scroll through the thousands of photos hitting the "1" key along the way to star the photos. At the end of 4,000+photos, I try to end up with around 500, one-starred photos. It's a quick way to preview images and makes culling a lot quicker than Lightroom. Plus, Lightroom doesn't like a ton of images, so I only import the ones I will be editing. Whether you use Bridge or PhotoMechanic, I'd recommend culling prior to Lightroom import.

ALIEN SKIN EXPOSURE
I use this for grain, since it gives you a lot more control than adding grain in Lightroom. There's also some rad film border features and the bokeh feature can give your image a rad tilt-shift / freelens look without the $1500 Tilt-Shift lens cost.

JPEGMINI PRO
Not sure where this has been my entire life, but I recently added it to my workflow and it's incredible. Once I have the images final, I run them through JpegMini to reduce the file size. It takes out a ton of unnecessary information and colors not able to be seen by the naked eye. This in turn reduces file sizes from 8mb-15mb down to 2-4mb, and even smaller for my blog posts. Even if you're not a believer, give the demo a try. Trust. Most importantly it helps reduce the file size for my blogs which in turn makes my site load faster. I wrote an article on their blog about pricing and profitability and in turn got a promo code you can use for 20% off. Promo Code: TONYW

PIXIESET
This is how I deliver my clients' photos. It's easy to use as a user and easy for the clients. Win-win.

HONEYBOOK
If you don't have a client relationship management tool and you shoot more than 3-4 projects a year, stop what you're doing and go download the Honeybook trial. But wait, first use this link for 50% off. Not only will get you the best app ever for half off, but I give a free 30 minute photography mentor session upon you signing up since Honeybook kicks me back $200. Seems like a no brainer right? So what do I use Honeybook for? Contracts, payment, messages, questionnaires, finding shooting opportunities in our local area, connecting with other vendors, organizing my jobs, do I need to keep going on?

PHONE APPS

UNUM
I use this app to plan out my Instagram posts and see how my feed will look prior to posting.

LIGHT METER
Because I can't be bothered carrying one more thing, I use my phone as a light meter when shooting film.

VSCO
Sometimes I take the extra time to edit my iPhone photos for my insta stories. It's also a great app to bump up a little sharpness and contrast on your already edited photos. When editing, I prefer the A-series filters. I believe these are based off Portra film, which is my favorite film stock. A6 and A4 are my specific favorites.

FILMBORN
Made by Mastin Labs, one of the best preset makers in the business. You can edit your photo with legit film stock like Fujifilm, Ilford and Kodak Portra. Yes, please.

MEXTURES
Cause you know you want to be like the cool kids and add some grit and grain to your photo.

LIGHT BOX LOUPE
This will invert your screen B&W or color to use your phone as a negative loupe. So fun!

NOTES
What, why? There is so much power in the notes app. Here are a few ways I use mine: I create a photographer's version of the wedding coordinator's timeline on my notes app. I can also share my notes with my second shooter, so they have it. I create a shot list of some of the details or experimental photos I want to make sure I nail and use the little checkbox feature to check them off as I nail them. Again, I can share and work in real-time with my second shooter. I also use this for the family photo list to make sure I don't miss a shot. I have a note full of my hashtags that I can copy and paste from. Lastly, I use it to take notes. Hahaha.

UNFOLD
I haven't started fully using this yet, but a lot of my photog friends use it and I love the look it provides for making cool Insta stories and emulating film.

SQUARESPACE ANALYTICS
I keep a close eye on who comes to my site, from where, what pages they visit, etc. Keeping an eye on those things can help you focus your efforts as you improve your site in the future. Also, you can see what traffic sources are driving to your site to see how your marketing is performing.

What did I miss? You have some banger apps I should know about? Find some awesome new apps through this? I'd love to hear from you, shoot me a DM on Insta below.

DM ME @TONYWODARCK ON INSTA

Need help improving your skills on these apps or for your business in general? I offer various sorts of mentor sessions. Give them a look through the link below.

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