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SFPW Staff Picks: Favorite Photo Apps
Posted September 02, 2014 by Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Apps. Love 'em, hate 'em, or don't understand 'em, apps are here to stay. More become available everyday and, as photographers, they can be useful tools for photographing, exposing, processing, or sharing. We were curious what our staff uses, so we asked our full-time team, recent instructors and seasonal support staff: "Do you have a favorite photo app?" While we discovered that some staff members are decidedly old school others definitely have a blast checking out all the latest digital toys, from the extremely practical to the just plain fun. See what we use and why below:
Reid Callanan
Director
“I don't do a lot of apps, but I do use Instagram. Their new picture processing features are pretty cool, and I also use Hipstamatic. That's what I've got on my phone.”
Carrie McCarthy
Marketing Creative Director
“I definitely have a favorite. It's called Retro Camera. It's sort of like Hipstamatic but I like it because not everyone has it. It has all these fun retro camera options, like the Pinhole, the FudgeCan, the Barbl, the Xolaroid 2000, and my personal favorite, Little Orange Box.”
Melyssa Holik
Marketing Assistant
“I just started using The Photographer's Ephemeris, and I'm finding it useful because I shoot in some pretty remote areas and it helps me plan, even weeks or months in advance, what the light will be like at different times of day and night. Maybe there are people out there that have a really good sense of direction and can just visualize how the moonlight will fall on a specific rock formation in Utah in October... but I am definitely not one of them!”
Renie Haiduk
Director of Operations
“I love Hipstamatic, because I have found the perfect lens and film combination that renders images the way I would photograph with film.”
Cotton Miller
AV Coordinator
“Snapsy and Slow Shutter Cam. Snapsy is like Nik software, and Slow Shutter allows you to take a longer exposure than the camera would normally allow, it uses the video function to record for a long time and then compresses that into one image.”
Abigail Moore
Digital Lab Assistant
“Pocket Light Meter. Since my film camera doesn't have an internal meter, it's important. The app lets you select whether to meter for shadows or highlight, from anywhere in the scene, and it lets you preview what your image will look like at different exposures. My exposures are perfect every single time I use it.”
Brandon Johnson
Operations Assistant
“I don't have any apps, other than what my daughter downloads!”
Will Van Beckum
Digital Lab Coordinator
“I have a lot, but which one is my favorite? If I have to choose, I'd say VSCO Cam, a better retro filters app than Instagram. It allows you to be very subtle, so I can use it without it looking like I used an app. I process with that and then send my images to Instagram—I'm an avid Instagrammer, too.”
Instructor: The Portrait Essay
“My enlarger is my photo app, I'm a darkroom worker!”
Instructor, The Intimate Portrait: Connect With Your Subjects
“For now I'm anti-app!”
Instructor, Basics of Digital Photography
“The one that I've been playing with recently is called Miniatures. It's a tilt-shift time-lapse combo. It lets you set the interval for your time lapse, the duration, and the amount of tilt-shift effect you want. I just got it and it's my favorite right now!”
Instructor, Visual Storytelling with Audio
“My favorite photo app is actually as video app called MoviePro. I love it is because it shows an audio level on your phone. There are also a lot of adjustments for the camera. For example, you can lock your focus, white balance, and exposure, and that's especially important for video.”
Mark Woodward
Course Coordinator
“Instagram is my favorite, and only, photo app. A lot of the photographers I follow travel a lot, and Instagram gives me updates every day, instead of a blog where there's a delay.”
Leah Woodruff
Studio Coordinator
“My favorite app is Afterlight; it's the easiest way to edit.”
Emily Mason
Work Study
“I use Instagram, and Negative Me. Negative Me inverts negatives, so if you shoot film it's great for previewing what your negatives will look like.”
Alicia Turbitt
Course Coordinator
“I use Instagram, and that's about it.”
Stefan Wachs
Assistant Studio Coordinator
“I don't use any. It's not that I don't want to. I just haven't learned to use my phone well enough yet!”
Jeremy Wade Shockley
Course Coordinator
“Instagram is the app I use the most.”
Morgan Cadigan
Work Study
“VSCO Cam, because the filters mimic different film types, and I like the look of film. I feel like VSCO Cam does a better job of creating those effects than a lot of other apps.”
What are your favorite photo apps? Share them in the comments, or when you join us in Santa Fe or On The Road for a workshop this fall!
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