Best iPhone and iPad apps for professional photographers: Take your shooting and your business to the next level!

By Leanna Lofte
last updated

The iPhone and iPad apps every pro photographer needs to better and more easily manage photos, portfolios, payments, expense tracking, location mapping, contract signing, and more!

As a professional photographer, the iPhone and iPad can be excellent tools for your business. You are probably already aware that there's a lot of great apps out there focused on editing photos, but if we're being real, as a professional, you're not going to use them. However, there are many other great apps that can help compliment your business, and we've rounded up some of our favorites.

Shoot and Sell

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If you're a photographer who offers prints and canvas to your clients, then Shoot and Sell is a fantastic app to show off how your clients' photos will look on the wall, even their wall. Designed by by the creators of Photographer's Wall Display Guides, Shoot & Sell is sure to help you generate more sales from each client.

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FolioBook Photo Portfolio

FolioBook is your digital portfolio. Forget showing your website with Safari and use FolioBook to show off your work to potential clients. It lets you create a custom branded home page and as many galleries you'd like with up to 200 images per gallery. You can also create slideshows with transitions and music. The amount of customization that FolioBook allows is incredible and really lets you create a portfolio that reflects you and your brand.

Square

As the owner of a small business, utilizing a point of sale system like Square will simplify your life and impress your clients. People don't like carrying around checkbooks and cash, so accepting credit cards is a vital aspect of any business, and Square is a great option that will keep your costs down and bottom line up.

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Easy Release - Model Release App

If you're a portrait photographer, you likely have your clients sign model releases and other contracts. Easy Release is a great app that comes preinstalled with some great release forms. You can also edit them to be more tailored to your business or create your own from scratch. Each release can be branded with your business and you can email to your clients immediately after they sign them.

PDF Expert

If you prefer to stick with the contracts and release forms you've already created and formatted into PDFs, you can still go paperless with PDF Expert. You can easily keep all your forms organized, and since PDF Expert supports annotation, your clients can easily sign the forms as if they were printed out in front of them.

Rego

When it comes to portrait photography, location is key, and Rego will help you keep track of all your favorite spots. With each location you can add photos and make notes about the lighting and anything else you want to remember.

Things

Running a business requires a lot of various tasks, and with Photography in particular, each shoot is like an individual project each of which has a set of required tasks. Things for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, is a great trio of apps to keep you on track and organize your business. It's a bit pricey and isn't the prettiest of apps, but it works really well.

Trip Cubby

As a photographer, you are likely driving all over the place to different shoots, and since all those miles are tax-deductible, a solid mileage tracking app is a must. Trip Cubby is an awesome choice and makes this daunting task a lot less cumbersome and is designed with IRS compliance in mind.

Trip Cubby does not support the iPhone 5's larger screen, and this is normally a huge turn-off for me, but it's truly one of the best options out there.

Quickbooks Mobile

One of the most difficult parts of running a business is keeping track of the finances. If you use Quickbooks, then the iPhone and iPad versions are a must. Having the ability to stay on top of your business finances on the go is a great convenience.

Dropbox

To successfully run a photography business, you must keep a lot of paper work, including contracts, release forms, invoices, financial records, and of course photos. The last thing you need is for some freak accident to cause you to lose it all, and with Dropbox, you can rest assured that your files are forever safe. Many of the previously mentioned apps in this list include Dropbox integration which makes it one of the best cloud solutions out there.

Your favorite apps for professional photography?

So there you have it! iMore's best apps for professional photographers! Did we miss any other great apps? What apps do you use to compliment your photography business?

Leanna Lofte
Leanna Lofte

Former app and photography editor at iMore, Leanna has since moved on to other endeavors. Mother, wife, mathamagician, even though she no longer writes for iMore you can still follow her on Twitter @llofte.

11 Comments
  • Thanks for the list! By the way, this should be handy when it comes out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jamesflynn/luxi-incident-light-meter...
  • I backed that project!
  • Me too!
  • And me! looks really useful and a good example of excellent KickStarter project well managed.
  • Does someone knows the "Scroll Web" app??
  • I use a couple of apps a LOT in my photography business. 1. Kiosk Pro
    I have an offline version of my own website in my iPad 2 and my portfolio's are well catered for in it too! All branded and looks lovely! Also works fantastically well at wedding events if Im chatting to a couple and anyone is waiting they browse my site and my portfolio while waiting to chat to me...stops them walking away and has secured me many a booking! 2. Softsign
    Once people have seen my work (often by the app above) then I've gone all PDF in my contracts so I can complete a booking all on my iPad 2 with a client. Once it's done I can hit a button and it will email them a copy of the booking / contract and a 2nd copy goes straight to my DropBox too where I have a folder called printqueue (google for details) and when I get home it's already waiting for me in my printers out tray ready to file.
  • Nice list. I like it.
  • Another good candidate for your list is Photo Shack HD. A great photo/video organizer, rate, and annotate app that manages all of your iPad photos without having to duplicate any of them. You can view your photo's metadata as well, and create nested levels of folders to organize your photos into. http://www.applgasm-apps.com/photo_shack_hd.html
  • For photographers using Lightroom, a good app is Mosaic Archive. Mosaic allows me to see my Lightroom photos on my iOS devices and backs up my photos. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mosaic-archive/id627973694?ls=1&mt=8&at=...
  • For editing photos or adding special effects like filters, try Photosplashfx Editor app. This app is one of my favorites for photo-tweaking thanks to its straightforward interface and powerful effects.The app’s interface has been improved to align with iOS 7’s clean, simple look. A few improvements have made it easier to use,
    The inclusion of free new effects packs is also a great touch.This app comes with all basic and advanced features with great user interface for entry level and advanced users
    • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-splash-fx-plus-hd-editor/id6567976...
    • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-splash-fx-plus-editor/id654528873?...
    • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-splash-fx/id482487175?mt=8&affId=2...
  • Instafusion Image Blender-The Best Apps to Improve Your Instagram !!Instafusion Top Photo-Editing Apps for Iphone and Ipad(Universal)!! https://itunes.apple.com/app/id70915790?at=10l3Vy