Video Tutorial | 3 tips on Creating Lens Flare with No Sun

In this video, I show you how to accomplish this look using just one off-camera flash to create a unique lens flare. It took a lot of playing around with different setups to get a very natural-looking lens flare but once I did it became a technique that I was able to reproduce quickly on shoots and at weddings. You can watch the full tutorial here:

Tips for Capturing Fake Flares with Flash and No Sun

The reason for coming up with the technique is simple: I began having a lot of clients request lens flare in their photos. Often times we are tasked to create or emulate sunlight when it doesn’t exist primarily because clients want a certain look, so I wanted to find a way to give them what they wanted without adding it in later in post.

Here are important tips on creating a very natural looking lens flare.

1. Use The Right Lens When Capturing Flares (Real or Fake)

Find a lens with good flare qualities by testing it in natural sunlight and spend time getting to know how to not only produce lens flare but also how to control it. Most newer lenses, lenses manufactured in the past 5 years or so, typically have coatings on the front element to prevent lens flare, but you’ll find that older, manual focus lenses will yield perfect flare qualities.  Three of my favorite lenses for producing unique and artistic lens flares are:

• Leica 50mm Summilux f/1.4 ASPH (my personal favorite)
• Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton Classic
• Canon 50mm f/1.2L

2. Learn To Control Fake Flare

Once you have a lens that can create artistic lens flare, the next step is learning how to control it. You want to be able to use it in a way that makes a good image more interesting and powerful. I’ve seen so many photos where the lens flare doesn’t add anything to the image and the photographer relies on the flare to make an average photo look interesting. My goal is to always enhance an image with the addition of lens flare to support the existing artistic attributes of the photo. More often than not, I use lens flare to help draw the viewers attention into exactly where I want it to be.

I know that if I shoot the Leica 50mm Summilux wide open at f/1.4, it will create a very pronounced line in a circle or rainbow-colored streaks that will also wrap around in a distinct circular look.

If I close down the aperture and go anywhere above f/5.6 it will start to produce sun stars. I love the look of the lens flare that the Summilux produces when shot wide open so anytime that I’m intentionally trying to produce flare I shoot with the lens wide open.

3. Make the Fake Flare Look Natural, Even Though It’s Fake

Once my clients began expressing their love for the photos that they’ve seen of mine with lens flare, I started playing around with reproducing the same look using off-camera flash. The biggest challenge I ran into was making it look as natural as possible. I’ve personally found that lenses that produce good fake flare often do so when the sun is at its brightest and just slightly above the subject.

To reproduce this look, using a regular flash requires a decent amount of power. As you can see in the video, I’ve found that a 200 w/s strobe yields the best results, and typically I’m firing it at ½ power. Sure, I could use a regular flash but I would quickly run into recycle issues since typical pocket flashes only produce 50-75 w/s of power. I’ve also found that using a MagGrid reduces the light spill and creates a small source of light similar to how the sun’s rays hit the lens. I pair this with a full CTO (color temperature orange) MagGel to match the color of the sun during golden hour. The other thing to remember when it comes to making fake flare look natural when using artificial light is to match the location of where the sun would actually be.

You can’t be shooting in the city and set the flash up to fire with a building directly behind it. When shooting in the city I like to find gaps in between the buildings where the sun would naturally be shining through had it not been cloudy or already set.

4. Live View Helps You Visualize the Fake Flare

The last tip, and probably the most important, is to use Live View when shooting. Using LV when creating lens flare with real sunlight will allow you to see how the lens flare will look before you press the shutter giving you more control. It also allows you to take a shot and immediately see the results so that you can make a quick adjustment to get the flare where you want it. You’ll hear my shutter firing away at a few points in the video, I’m basically watching how the lens flare looks and adjusting the angle of my lens to get the flare exactly where I want it.

5. Enhance Fake Flares in Lightroom or Photoshop

Cloudy days don’t have to ruin your shoot if you’re hoping to capture sun flares. By strategically placing and using flashes, you can recreate sun flares and enhance them in post.

If you add flare to one image, be sure to do so for all of the images in that scene; otherwise, the image with fake flare will not match the rest of the images. Do it for the scene, or don’t do it at all.

Our approach to enhance fake flares:

• Expose for ambient light
• Find light direction
• Place flash to follow light direction
• Add a flash gel (CTO is optional)
• Set flash power (typically to 1/1)
• Angle flash to shoot towards lens

Exposure goals for enhancing fake flares:

• Maximum dynamic range
• Bias: Preserve shadows

Conclusion

That’s it, nothing too complicated other than finding a good lens that creates realistic looking fake flare with natural sunlight and learning how to reproduce that same look with a one-light setup. I totally understand that this type of look isn’t for everyone and I know there are a lot of photographers who do everything they can to avoid getting lens flare in their photos, I get it. I nailed down the one light setup for producing lens flare once I got tired of explaining to my clients who did like it that I wasn’t able to give them that look on overcast and cloudy days. Just like anything else it comes down to repetition and practice to make it look convincing. You can see more of my work on my Website and Instagram.

Personally, I have clicked well over one million photos in my career, and the number of images that I’ve truly “lost” has been limited to a couple of unimportant snapshots here and there, thankfully. However, I have had a few memory cards “go corrupt” on me, and each time I was able to retrieve all the photos!

First, it is important to start by understanding how memory cards work. Also, just as importantly, you need to create a simple, safe workflow procedure and then never, ever cut any corners! Cutting corners, and sheer forgetfulness, will be your worst enemies.

Unfortunately, the fact is that human error is far more common or likely than actual memory card failure. It may sound silly, but, don’t accidentally format a memory card if you’re not absolutely sure you’ve transferred the photos!

In this article, we’ll provide you with workflow steps for basic SD card recovery, (or any memory card, of course) so you can give yourself the best chance (the last chance!) of never truly losing images.

Memory Card Recovery | How To Save Your Images!

Duplicate Your Images As Immediately As Possible

Your absolute best line of defense against any sort of data loss is redundancy, AKA, having a backup! So, duplicate your images as immediately as possible.

Most high-end cameras these days have dual card slots, and therefore all serious photographers should be recording raw images to both cards at once, especially if you are getting paid to click photos! If you do this, the entire issue of a memory card getting corrupted usually becomes a secondary, last-resort emergency.

[Rewind: Tips for surviving a potential memory card disaster]

If the worst happens, there are two categories of problems that you face: Data corruption, and physical memory card damage. As you might imagine, one is easier to deal with by yourself!

Physical Memory Card Damage

Cards can crack open, (both CF / SD) or have the contact points damaged, or be physically bent or punctured etc. (Surprisingly, water, especially freshwater, is a rather survivable event! Saltwater is nasty stuff, though.)

[Rewind: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Cheap Memory Cards! (Sandisk Yikes!)]

Unfortunately, if a memory card is physically destroyed, there is not much you can do except to either carefully attempt data recovery, (see below) or send the memory card off to a professional recovery service. The good news is, if you’re willing to pay a price, sometimes even a highly damaged memory card can be recovered.

Steps to Recover Data Corruption

Okay, so, let’s assume that your memory card is at least in good enough physical condition to be plugged into a card reader. (If it’s physically falling apart, you probably don’t want to get bits of it stuck in your camera, but a cheap card reader can be sacrificed!)

If you were using dual card slots, then the first thing to do is to check the other memory card, of course. What if you weren’t using dual card slots, or what if both cards are somehow not displaying images that you know should be there?

In this worst-case scenario, there are two common problems: either a single image has gone bad, or the whole memory card has failed.

Step 1 | Immediately stop shooting on the corrupt card!

No matter what, the very first thing you do when you suspect that a memory card has encountered a problem is, STOP SHOOTING! If you keep shooting on that “bad” memory card, all bets are off.

Why is this so important? Because of over-writing. In most cameras when you “format” a card, it does not actually erase or destroy the image data on that card. It simply tells the card to “pretend” that the current images aren’t there, which allows the camera to write new image data onto the card, on top of the old image data.

If this happens, if the images you wish to recover get overwritten by newer images, then you’re really, really out of luck. Maybe the CIA or FBI can help you. (Or pray to the magical ENHANCE gods?)

So, remove your memory card immediately, and finish your photoshoot on a different card.

I pre-print a few “BAD” labels on a P-Touch labeler,
and store them in my card wallet for an emergency.

Step 2 | Inspect The Memory Card for damage

Assess the situation: does your camera not even “see” the memory card at all? Is it giving you a specific “ERR” message or code, or memory card warning? Is it telling you to format the card?

Or, can you actually see images on the card but one or more of them look visually corrupted, or are showing up as an “X” thumbnails?

Whatever the case, quickly jot down some notes and then remove the problem card, label it as “BAD”, and put it in your memory wallet.

Step 3: Run Image Recovery Software

There are many different memory card recovery applications out there, some are free and some cost a few dollars. I prefer the ones that cost somewhere in the $20-50 range; they seem to get the job done very well.

Try companies like Salvage Data for professional data recovery, RecoveryFox, or my favorite (on my Mac) is called PhotoRescue, from www.datarescue.com. I’ve been using this app for over ten years, (more often to help friends than myself!) and it has never let me down. In case anyone is wondering, yes, I’ve had better results with this application than with the name brand, Sandisk memory card recovery and Lexar memory card recovery applications.

On my PC, I use a more powerful (and a slightly more expensive) app called Data Rescue PC3 from ProSoft.

If you’re hoping for a free solution, I’ve heard success stories about a program named Recuva. As I mentioned, most memory card companies offer their own memory card recovery software, either for free or as a trial, but I can’t say that any of them work better than the apps I prefer.

How to perform memory card recovery

As you run the recovery software, even with its default options you’ll often be lucky, and it will immediately pop up with every photo that wasn’t recently over-written. In fact, if it’s been a long time since you shot the card all the way to 100% full, (I almost never do this anyways) …then you might wind up finding all kinds of images from many, many different shoots, going back many months!

There’s a small chance that one or two images might be truly corrupt; these might have been the culprits that caused your card to trigger the error message in the first place. Recover these images anyway, and try reading them in multiple different programs including the name-brand (Nikon, Canon, Sony) raw software that came with the camera. (Such as Nikon View NX) You might at least get lucky with a full-resolution JPG preview, if not the raw file itself.

Unfortunately, sometimes nothing comes up at all. If this happens, just try running the recovery again; do a deep scan, or advanced scan, or whatever additional options your recovery app has. If this fails, try another recovery program!

The least productive outcome is that your computer simply doesn’t recognize the memory card. The good news is that even if the card isn’t visible in Explorer or Finder, your recovery app may still see it. (You’d likely also be able to see the memory card in your disk utility application, if this was the case.)

If the card simply isn’t reading in your computer at all, you can try cleaning the contact points and re-inserting it a few times.

*Quite a few laptops have SD card readers that can get finnicky due to firmware; maybe try an external SD card reader, instead of an internal one.

Hopefully you’ve gotten nearly all your images back by now. Your software recovery has transferred the raw photos to your computer, and you can breathe that sigh of relief.

Of course, before you go back to work like nothing ever happened, be a responsible photographer and retire that memory card! (You did buy a memory card with a lifetime warranty, right?) Don’t take a risk with that card again; send it in for a free replacement. Especially if you’re a working pro.

What to do with Water Damage to Memory Cards

Okay, back to the physical aspect of things, before we wrap up. Believe it or not, water damage to memory cards is actually very survivable! In fact, a whole lot of folks have joked about how they accidentally put an SD or other memory card through the washing machine, and they figured what the heck, they might as well put it through the dryer too… lo and behold, the card then worked perfectly!

I would never recommend putting a memory card in the dryer, of course, but instead simply drying the card off with a towel and leaving it in a warm, dry place. (If your accident involved salt water, take a fresh damp cloth and wipe down your camera, lens, and/or memory card! Salt is like cancer to electronics.)

You can try the bag of rice trick, or you can use some of the anti-humidity desiccant packets. However, all you really need is low humidity and time. (If you live in Arizona, just let it sit out for a day or two!)

If you do this, instead of jamming your wet memory card into your camera/computer, you might not even need to run recovery software!

(Again, I’d recommend retiring & replacing that memory card! It’s the responsible thing to do.)

[Rewind: When is it time to retire an old memory card?]

Step 4: When All Else Fails, Call for Backup

So, you’ve tried everything and you still can’t recover any images. Maybe the card is physically damaged, or maybe it is just totally corrupted.

Either way, there may still be hope. Data recovery specialists have tools to perform actual SD card repair, or rebuild any type of memory card or hard drive, both physically and electronically.

My personal favorite, DriveSavers, is one of the most trusted names in data recovery. Their prices aren’t cheap, though; if you’ve lost only a few images on a small memory card it won’t cost you too much, but if you lost a whole hard drive, you’ll quickly look at costs in the thousands of dollars.

Conclusion | SD Card Recovery Is Possible!

Hopefully, your memory card recovery efforts don’t come to that. Or if they do, hopefully, you have photographer’s insurance that can help pay for it. Either way, no matter what the problem may be, there’s a very good chance you can recover images from a corrupt or damaged memory card.

If you have any questions or would like any additional input on a particular aspect of this process, or the overall safety workflow, please comment below!

Happy clicking,
-Matt-

Video: 5 Tips for Better Beach Portraits

Through a decade of experiences photographing weddings, portraits, engagements, and more at the beach, I’ve developed these 5 beach portrait ideas and tips to make the most of the beach’s stunning scenery for better images. For this video, I’ll be photographing my friend, Chelsea. I’ll also be using the Canon EOS R5 paired with the Canon 28-70mm f/2L lens. Let’s jump in.

Here’s what we’ll be covering in this article:

1. Photograph Along the Water Line
2. Look For Natural Frames for Beach Portraits
3. Photograph Beach Portraits in the Shade
4. Showcase the Landscape in Beach Portraits
5. Find a Foreground for Interesting Beach Portraits

Photograph Along the Water Line

When shooting beach portraits, take advantage of the water line as a natural leading line in your composition. Position your subjects along the edge of the water, where the sand meets the waves. This not only adds a dynamic element to the image but also helps create a sense of depth and perspective. The gentle waves rolling in or retreating into the ocean will add a touch of motion to the scene, making the photo come alive.

I love photographing against the water because the foam reflects the light back at the subject. This natural bounce light creates a subtle fill. I’ll show you an example.

I often like to photograph couples along the water line. I got low and framed Chelsea against the sky and had her walk as waves came up and got this image.

A bonus tip is to frame the subject against the highlight in the water. Pull the angle over to the bright reflection and you can capture a great profile image.

With the fill from the waves, we end up with a beautiful portrait.

Look For Natural Frames for Beach Portraits

Beaches are often adorned with natural frames that can enhance the composition of your portraits. Keep an eye out for palm trees, driftwood, rocks, or even beach umbrellas that can act as frames within the frame. Framing your subjects with these elements not only adds visual interest but also helps draw the viewer’s attention to the main focal point—the people in the photograph.

Photographing your subject by themselves on the beach will look great by itself. However, the subject is doing all the work. To mix it up a bit, look for natural elements to help create some interesting poses and frames for your image. Our beach has some great rock formations we’ll be using to naturally frame Chelsea.

I used the sun to frame Chelsea and exposed dark in order to preserve highlight detail. I’d normally use the histogram but in these types of scenes, it’s often difficult to tell when you’ve lost information.

After, I came in closer and used the rock formation to entirely frame Chelsea. This is a technique I use a lot for my engagement clients. I let just the right amount of sunlight peek through and we end up with this beautiful portrait.

Photograph Beach Portraits in the Shade

The harsh midday sun at the beach can cast unflattering shadows on your subjects and cause them to squint uncomfortably. Instead, opt for shooting during the golden hours—the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. During these times, the sunlight is softer and casts a warm, flattering glow on your subjects, making them look more radiant and reducing the chances of harsh shadows.

Beaches with a lot of cliffs will have many shaded areas you can photograph under. The natural light coming from the sky itself rather than the sun provides a large and soft light source that is great for beach portraits.

The rocks provided a great formation for creating foreground and background elements. I also had Chelsea look straight ahead to capture the light on her face.

Showcase the Landscape in Beach Portraits

While your primary focus may be on the people in your beach portraits, don’t forget to showcase the stunning coastal landscape as well. Incorporate the vastness of the ocean, the textures of the sand, and the colors of the sky into your compositions. This not only adds context to your portraits but also helps evoke the feeling of being at the beach.

Our clients know us especially for this style of images. We capture a vast and wide shot of the landscape with our subjects framed small somewhere in the scene. This rock formation provides a great opportunity for this type of shot.

It’s important to underexpose if you’re photographing your beach portrait against the sun. Check the histogram to make sure the image isn’t clipped on the highlights and capture as much information as possible.

With Chelsea posing in unique shapes, we end up with these stunning images that showcase the environment. These are the types of images we often use for the covers or prints of our wedding and engagement clients.

Find a Foreground for Interesting Beach Portraits

Adding a foreground element to your beach portraits can create a sense of depth and dimension in your images. Look for interesting objects, such as seashells, beach toys, or beach grass, to place in the foreground of your beach portrait. By doing so, you’ll add visual interest and lead the viewer’s eye into the main subject—the people in the portrait.

I use this beach portrait tip for our wedding clients. For example, I’ll often take a photograph with the ring as the foreground. Here, I’ll be using the sand since we have that in abundance.

I used a fast shutter speed to freeze the sand as it tricked down. I let the sun slightly peek out from behind Chelsea and we end up with these images.

Conclusion

Beach portraits offer a fantastic opportunity to capture the natural beauty of both the subjects and the coastal environment. By photographing along the waterline, looking for natural frames, shooting in the shade, showcasing the landscape, and creating a foreground, you can elevate your beach portraits to new heights. So, grab your camera, head to the nearest beach, and start capturing stunning portraits that will be cherished for years to come.

I hope you enjoyed this article/video. Be sure to refer these five beach portrait ideas and tricks if you’re ever in a pinch. The beach provides countless opportunities for amazing photos for any genre, whether it’s wedding, portrait, family, etc. We use these tips and tricks for our own engagement and wedding clients and have gotten consistently great results. Be sure to check out our Premium Channel where we have full courses on Weddings, Engagement, Maternity, and more. You’ll see in practice how we use these tips to capture images that wow our clients every time.

The concepts below apply equally to a $20 umbrella and a $400 octa. Once you understand the system, you can look at any modifier and predict what it will do to your light before you ever fire a shot.

Video: lighting modifiers cheat sheet

You can find our model, Sammy, on Instagram (@boom_shenanigans).

The gear used in this tutorial

For the flash, we used a Profoto A10 on a stand, paired with a Canon 5D Mark IV, a 100mm lens, and a tripod with a remote to trigger the off-camera flash. Most of what’s covered here translates directly to any flash unit — the principles don’t change with the gear.

[Related Reading: Photography Lighting Equipment — The Best Light for Your Budget]

Tip 1: Soft vs. hard light

This is the most commonly confused distinction in lighting, and getting it wrong leads to buying the wrong modifiers. Soft light and hard light have nothing to do with the modifier material or whether light passes through diffusion. They have everything to do with the size of the light source relative to the subject.

A large light source produces soft light with a gradual transition from highlight to shadow. A small light source produces hard light with a sharp, clearly defined shadow edge. That’s it. Size determines softness.

To demonstrate, here’s what bare flash looks like compared to no flash at all — both shot at 1/200, f/4, ISO 100, which cuts the ambient light entirely so the only light in the image is from the strobe:

The sharp line on Sammy’s cheek where highlight transitions to shadow — that’s the tell of a hard light source. The flash head is small relative to the subject, so the light is hard.

Two practical implications worth internalizing. First, the sun is enormous physically, but it’s a pinpoint in the sky relative to us, which makes it one of the hardest light sources in nature. Second, in macro photography, photographers often use bare flash at close range on a tiny subject — and because the flash is massive relative to that bug or flower, the light is actually quite soft despite no modifier being used.

Tip 2: Soften hard light with a modifier

Adding a modifier increases the apparent size of the light source, which softens the light. An umbrella is the most affordable and accessible way to do this — a basic shoot-through umbrella runs around $20 and turns a small hard flash into a much larger soft source.

Two things to know about umbrellas specifically. Set the flash head to its widest zoom so light fills the entire umbrella surface — you want the full face of the umbrella acting as the light source, not just the center. And keep the umbrella at a reasonable distance from the flash head; too close and you’re not using the full modifier area.

The tradeoff: adding a modifier costs you flash power. Soften the source and you lose output. In our tests, adding the umbrella at identical power settings produced a noticeably darker image:

To compensate, we increased flash power by two stops — which equals four times the output, not twice. One stop doubles power; two stops doubles it again. Once you account for that, the umbrella image shows clearly softer highlight-to-shadow transitions than bare flash at the same effective brightness.

Distance also matters. Moving a modifier farther from the subject makes it appear smaller relative to them, which hardens the light even if the physical modifier size hasn’t changed. Move it closer and the apparent size increases, softening the light further. You can use distance to dial in light quality without changing modifiers.

Tip 3: Diffused vs. specular light

This is the second distinction that gets mixed up constantly. Soft/hard describes shadow edge quality, based on source size. Diffused/specular describes the quality of light on the skin itself, regardless of shadow edges.

Diffused light passes through white material, which scatters it in multiple directions. The result is even, matte light on the skin with minimal shine. Specular light bounces directly off a reflective surface — typically silver — and hits the subject without scattering. The result is more direct, with pronounced highlights on any surface that has texture, oil, or moisture.

A silver-lined bounce umbrella demonstrates this clearly. Compared to a white shoot-through umbrella at the same power, the silver umbrella produces more output — the silver reflects more light directly at the subject — and the skin shows more pronounced specular highlights:

Specular isn’t worse — it depends entirely on the shoot. For fitness portraits where you want sweat and muscle definition to read strongly, a specular silver modifier is exactly right. For beauty or headshot work where you want even, flattering skin, diffused white is the better call.

And here’s the part that trips most people up: you can have a large soft source that’s specular, and a small hard source that’s diffused. A large silver reflector is soft (large) and specular (silver). A small strobe firing through a single layer of diffusion is hard (small) and diffused (passes through material). They’re independent variables.

Tip 4: Main light vs. fill light

Every lighting setup has a main light — the primary source that creates the shadow pattern — and an optional fill light that reduces the intensity of those shadows. The ratio between main and fill controls how dramatic the image feels.

A v-flat from V-Flat World with the white side facing the subject acts as a passive fill — it reflects the main light back into the shadow side of the face without adding a second flash. Move it closer to the subject and the fill strengthens; move it farther away and the shadows deepen:

Remove the fill entirely and the shadows go dark — which reads as more dramatic. Add fill and the image opens up and feels lighter. Neither is correct by default; the choice depends on the mood you’re after.

This same principle applies outdoors. The sun becomes your main light; fill comes from open sky, clouds, or a reflector you bring. You still have control — it just requires reading what’s available in the scene and supplementing where needed.

Tip 5: Light control

Umbrellas are underrated modifiers in many ways, but they have a real limitation: they don’t control where the light goes. When light hits an umbrella, it bounces backwards and spills in every direction through the scene. For some setups that’s fine. When you need to keep light off the background or restrict it to a specific area of the subject, you need something more directional.

The zoom function on most flash heads gives you a small degree of control — zooming in narrows the beam and reduces spill on the background. It’s subtle, but visible when you compare wide versus zoomed at the same power.

For serious control, add a grid. A honeycomb grid physically channels light forward, preventing it from spreading sideways. The tradeoff is a modest loss in output — budget an extra half stop to a stop of power when adding a grid. The control you gain is worth it when precision matters.

Tip 6: Mix and match modifiers

Once you understand what each modifier does, you can combine them intentionally. Grid plus umbrella, for example: the grid tightens the beam so only a portion of the umbrella fills with light, while the umbrella diffuses that light before it reaches the subject. The result is more directional than umbrella alone, softer than grid alone, with a gentler highlight-to-shadow transition than either produces on its own.

Experimenting with combinations is the fastest way to build intuition. After a few sessions, you’ll be able to look at any modifier — a beauty dish, a lantern, a strip box — and predict what it will do based on its size, surface material, and whether it controls spill. That intuition saves money and saves time on set.

Flash modifier types: which one to use and when

With the principles above as a foundation, here’s a practical breakdown of the most common modifier types — what each one does, where it works, and where it falls short.

Flash gels

Gels alter the color of flash output rather than its quality or direction. They serve two purposes: corrective (matching flash color to ambient light so the two blend naturally) and creative (deliberately shifting color for effect). A CTO gel warms flash to match tungsten indoor light; a green gel matches fluorescent. For creative work, gels let you paint with color in ways that would be impossible or expensive to replicate in post.

Pros: Affordable, lightweight, easy to carry in any kit.

Cons: Requires understanding how gel color interacts with white balance settings — the wrong combination produces results that look unintentional rather than creative.

Best for: Correcting flash-to-ambient color mismatch; creative color work in editorial and commercial shoots. See our full guide on using flash gels for creative and corrective effects.

• MagMod MagGels
• Profoto OCF Gel Starter Kit

Reflectors

Reflectors are among the most versatile and underused tools in portrait photography. Outdoors, they can serve as a main light, a fill, or a rim — depending on how you angle them relative to the sun. In the studio, they bounce main light back into shadow areas passively, without needing a second flash. On-camera, bouncing flash off the white side of a reflector creates a larger, softer source than direct flash.

Pros: Extremely portable, inexpensive, no batteries required, highly versatile across shooting environments.

Cons: Difficult to use consistently when handheld; output varies as the angle shifts. In bright outdoor conditions, bouncing on-camera flash off a reflector loses a lot of power. High ceilings or off-white walls limit bounce options indoors.

Best for: On-location sessions, lifestyle shoots, outdoor portraiture where portability matters more than precise light control.

• Westcott 40″ 5-in-1 ($40)
• Westcott Omega 10-in-1 ($100)
• Fotodiox 40×60 5-in-1 ($40)

Beauty dishes

Beauty dishes produce a light quality that sits between an umbrella and a softbox — softer than bare flash, but with more contrast and definition than a large diffused source. The metal dish construction bounces light off a central deflector plate before it reaches the subject, which creates a distinctive wrapped quality that’s flattering on faces without losing shadow definition entirely.

Pros: Highly controllable light quality; works beautifully with a grid attachment to keep light off the background.

Cons: Many don’t collapse, require substantial flash power, and the better systems are expensive. Setup and breakdown take more time than umbrellas.

Best for: Studio portraiture, fashion and beauty work, any situation where you want flattering but defined light and have the time and assistance to set up properly. Watch how we built the shot above using a beauty dish.

• Profoto OCF 24″ Beauty Dish with Deflector Plate
• Glow 22″ White Beauty Dish for Bowens Mount

Bounce cards and mini beauty dishes

These small modifiers attach directly to an on-camera flash and redirect some of the output upward or forward to create a slightly larger, less harsh light source than bare direct flash. They’re not going to replace an umbrella, but for run-and-gun event situations where you need something better than bare flash without slowing down, they earn their place in the bag.

Best for: Tight editorial portraits, events where direct flash is unavoidable, situations where setup time doesn’t allow for stands and modifiers.

• Favorite: Fstoppers Flash Disc ($50)
• Budget: Impact Strobros ($29)

Snoots and grids

Both snoots and grids are about control rather than quality. A snoot narrows the beam into a tight spotlight, useful for hair lights, rim lighting, or isolating a subject within a wide scene. A grid uses a honeycomb pattern to channel light forward while allowing a slightly wider spread than a snoot — less output loss, but less precise. As covered in the principles section above, either choice costs you some flash power, so plan accordingly.

Pros: Precise, pinpoint light shaping. Effective for accent lights and complex multi-light setups where spill control matters.

Cons: Lower-quality grids can spill more than expected or cut light too aggressively. Test before relying on them on a paid shoot.

Best for: Hair lights, rim lighting, environmental portraits where you want to spotlight a subject within a wider scene, first dance shots in dark reception rooms.

• XP Portaflex Snoot ($10)

Ring flash

Ring flash surrounds the lens and provides flat, even frontal lighting with a characteristic halo shadow around the subject when shot against a close background. It’s a distinctive look — immediately recognizable in fashion and editorial work. Not a modifier for general portraiture, but effective for its specific aesthetic.

Best for: Fashion editorial, tight beauty portraits, any application where the ring flash look is the creative goal.

• Favorite: Expolmaging Ray Flash 2 ($140)
• Budget: DIYP Ring Flash Kit ($25)

Dome and sphere diffusers

Dome diffusers attach to an on-camera flash and scatter light in all directions — some forward onto the subject, some upward to bounce off ceilings and walls. The result is a combination of direct and ambient fill that feels more natural than bare direct flash in event environments. For wedding receptions and events where you’re moving constantly through varied lighting, a dome is one of the most practical modifiers you can carry.

Pros: Portable, fast, produces more natural-feeling event light than bare direct flash. Adds ceiling bounce automatically.

Cons: Not as soft as an umbrella. Some dome options retain specularity. Results vary depending on ceiling height and color.

Best for: Weddings, events, receptions, any fast-moving situation where you need better-than-bare-flash results without slowing down.

• MagMod MagSphere
• Gary Fong Lightsphere
• MagMod MagBounce

Umbrellas

The umbrella is the workhorse of the modifier world — inexpensive, fast to set up, and genuinely effective at producing a large soft light source. The limitation, as covered above, is spill control. Light bounces off the umbrella and goes everywhere in the scene. For simple one or two-light setups where you just need good soft light and don’t need to restrict it, umbrellas are hard to beat at the price point.

Pros: Inexpensive, fast setup, highly portable, produces a large soft source effectively.

Cons: Light spills throughout the scene with no directional control. Can create distinctive umbrella-shaped shadows on walls that are hard to eliminate in post.

Best for: Simple one or two-light portrait setups, group photography, on-location sessions where speed matters and spill isn’t a concern.

• Favorite and budget: Impact Umbrella — White Translucent 33″

Softboxes

A softbox does what an umbrella does — diffuses and enlarges the light source — but with the addition of directional control. The tent-like construction prevents light from spilling sideways, keeping it aimed at the subject. Add a grid to a softbox and you have a large, soft source with significant control over where that light goes and doesn’t go. That combination is what makes softboxes the default choice for studio portrait work.

Pros: Soft, diffused light with far better spill control than umbrellas. Grid compatibility makes them even more precise. Available in a wide range of sizes and price points.

Cons: Larger and slower to set up than umbrellas. Some higher-end options are expensive. Not ideal for photographers who are moving constantly through an event.

Best for: Studio portraits, couples, families, any controlled environment where setup time is available and light quality matters more than speed.

• Favorite: MagMod MagBox Pro 42″ Octa Softbox
• Budget: Aputure Lantern Softbox (2.2′)

The system in practice

Here’s the mental model that makes all of this click. Before buying or reaching for any modifier, ask three questions:

First, how large is the modifier relative to the subject? Larger equals softer. Smaller equals harder. Distance from the subject modifies this — closer means larger apparent size and softer light.

Second, what surface does the light interact with? White diffusion material scatters light for an even, matte quality on skin. Silver bounces light specularly for more output and more pronounced highlights. Both have their place.

Third, does the modifier control where light goes, or does it let light spill freely? Umbrellas spill. Softboxes contain. Grids and snoots restrict further. If light hitting the background or walls is a problem, you need something with directional control.

Answer those three questions about any modifier and you’ll know what it will do before you fire a single test shot.

If you want to go deeper on flash technique and modifier use in real shooting scenarios, our Flash Photography Training System covers everything from one-flash fundamentals to multi-light setups for weddings and commercial work — including the exact modifier choices we use on real jobs.

For a visual reference on how these modifiers pair with specific lighting patterns, see our guide to portrait lighting patterns and our breakdown of five one-light studio setups you can run through in under 10 minutes.

Bonus: portrait lighting cheat sheet

This is an older visual reference that covers light placement and how shadows fall across a subject’s face at different angles. For those who learn better from diagrams than descriptions, it’s a useful companion to the modifier concepts above — you can see exactly what the light does at each position rather than having to visualize it.

The full-size version is available at DIY Photography.

Why Become a Preferred Vendor

Studies have conclusively proven time and again that word of mouth advertising is the most effective. By successfully establishing strong relationships with vendors, your ideal clients will likely choose, you increase your opportunity for referrals.  Achieving this status with multiple venues and vendors can transform your business, but it requires more than just talent. Here’s how to elevate your service and become the photographer everyone wants to work with for their event.

Deliver High-Quality Results

In a photographic landscape overrun with countless people running around with “prosumer” gear, quality is going to be a major factor in your success. You have to exhibit quality in everything you do, otherwise, you will be numbered with the masses where it is far too easy to fade into oblivion.

You have to set yourself apart. All of the other vendors are paying attention to how things are going, how things look, and the level of service the other vendors are providing. You can rest assured that they are paying attention to you, too. How are you handling stressful situations? How are you treating the members of the bridal party? How obtrusive/unobtrusive are you? After the fact, once you and the couple start sharing pictures from the big day, how do they look?

Ensure that every step of your process, from start to finish, screams quality and attention to detail. Vendors only want to refer people to other vendors that they are comfortable with and that will reflect positively on them.

Be Easy to Work With and Have a Great Attitude

Your demeanor and professionalism can set you apart.  The first step to becoming a preferred vendor is ensuring that you are collaborative, flexible, and positive, making a potentially stressful event easier for everyone involved. A can-do attitude and the ability to work well under pressure are qualities that make vendors eager to recommend you.

In contrast, if you cause additional stress on the vendors involved, either with your procedures or your attitude, you can develop a bad reputation and see your referrals dry up.

Capture Images that Other Vendors Can Use for Their Marketing

Being intentional about capturing images that can serve vendors’ marketing needs can significantly bolster your status as a preferred photographer. Pay attention to the details of each vendor’s contribution, whether it’s the intricate floral arrangements, the elegant table settings, the exquisite catering, or the unique venue setup. By providing vendors with high-quality, usable images of their work, you not only supply them with valuable marketing material but also demonstrate your understanding and support of their business goals. This thoughtful approach not only enhances the appeal of your services but also encourages vendors to actively promote your work and establish a symbiotic relationship that benefits all parties involved.  For more information, see this article on How Wedding Detail Photos Are Your Secret to Marketing Your Studio.

Deliver Images in a Timely Manner

If you would like for a vendor to passionately promote your brand, you need to make it worth their while. As photographers, how to do this seems to be a no-brainer to me. Everyone needs high-quality photos. You simply need to determine how the vendor might want to receive these photos. Should you print off some large photos for them to display? Would they prefer images for social media or a blog post? Don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation to determine which is most applicable to their vision & marketing goals.

Timeliness is crucial. Establish a reliable workflow that allows you to deliver stunning photos within an agreed timeframe.  Consider using a good set of Lightroom Presets, AI Photo Editing, and a online photo gallery to speed up your workflow.  Quick delivery times can impress not just the newlyweds but also the vendors who are eager to see and use your photos to promote their services.

Tag the Vendors on Social Media

Leverage social media to build a network and become a preferred vendor. When you post your beautiful photos, tag the vendors involved. It’s a powerful way to acknowledge their work, enhance visibility, and foster mutual promotion.  When using Instagram, be sure to add others as a collaborator.

Recommend Other Vendors on Your Own Website

Create a preferred vendors list on your website. This not only provides value to your clients but also strengthens your relationships with those vendors, making it more likely they’ll return the favor.  These pages are not only good for referrals, they are also great for traffic from Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Set up Styled Shoots that Benefit Everyone

Initiating styled shoots is a brilliant strategy to showcase your creativity and collaborative spirit. By organizing shoots that bring together various vendors—from florists and event designers to bridal boutiques and makeup artists—you create a platform for collective creativity and cross-promotion.

This not only enriches your portfolio with diverse, eye-catching content but also strengthens your relationships with these vendors, increasing the likelihood of becoming a preferred vendor. When each participant gets stunning imagery that highlights their products or services, it’s a win-win situation. Moreover, these shoots can spark new ideas and trends in the wedding industry, positioning you and your vendor partners as forward-thinking leaders.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask

Once you have established a benchmark of extreme quality in your photography, your customer service, and your professionalism at the event, don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone and ask for what you need. Sometimes, taking the initiative is all it takes to secure a spot on their list.

Conclusion

Tips for Black and White Boudoir Photography

To create stunning black and white boudoir photographs, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Understand The Purpose and Vision

First, lets start with understanding the purpose of taking a black and white approach to boudoir photography.

• Create a Timeless Feel – Black and white photography has a timeless and classic feel that can evoke strong emotions and convey a sense of nostalgia or intimacy. The magic of black-and-white boudoir photography begins with its ability to transcend trends.
• Remove Distractions – Black and white also highlight shapes, contours, and textures, accentuating the human form and the fine details of lingerie or other wardrobe choices.
• Convey Emotion – By removing color, attention shifts to the emotion conveyed in the subject’s expression and body language, making the images feel more intimate and raw.
• Create a Moody Feel – The play of light and shadow becomes a central character in the composition, creating depth and drama that color images often cannot replicate.

Lighting and Composition Techniques

Lighting is the foundation of great black-and-white boudoir photography. The interplay of light and shadow becomes even more pronounced in monochrome. Soft light creates a gentle, romantic feel that enhances the subject’s features, while hard light introduces bold, dramatic contrasts that sculpt the body and add intrigue. Don’t be afraid to keep your light a harder (and less diffused) to emphasize the shadows. Also, don’t be afraid of darker, moodier lighting that hugs the left side of the histogram.

Communicate with the Client

It’s important to communicate photo editing styles with clients because the editing process can drastically change the look and feel of the final images. By discussing editing styles beforehand, the client can have a better understanding of what to expect from the final product and can provide feedback on their preferences.

Additionally, communicating editing styles can help ensure that the photographer and client are on the same page and can avoid any misunderstandings or disappointments. By being transparent and collaborative in the editing process, the photographer can create images that meet the client’s expectations and provide a positive and satisfying experience.

Photograph in Color

Rather than photograph in-camera in black and white, photograph the boudoir session in color (with a RAW format) and make the black and white conversion in the photo editing process.  This ensures that you have maximum flexibility in case you change your vision.

Conclusion

Black and white boudoir photography is a timeless and elegant approach to capturing the sensuality and beauty of the human form. By following the tips and inspiration outlined in this article, you can create stunning and artful images that celebrate your client’s unique beauty and individuality. Remember to communicate with your client, choose the right location and wardrobe, and create a safe and comfortable environment. With practice and creativity, you can master the art of black and white boudoir photography and create images that are both stunning and empowering.

Available for both Windows and Mac, Aiarty Image Enhancer uses locally run AI models to sharpen, denoise, restore faces, remove distractions, and upscale images up to 32K. But version 3.11 leans even further into practical photo restoration, adding several refinements designed to make results look more natural while smoothing out the editing workflow itself.

Aiarty is also pairing the release with a 49% off lifetime license offer, which brings the software to $79 with unlimited updates and no subscription. Between now and June 8th, you can use the coupon code “ANNIVERSARY” at checkout to receive additional savings. The cross-platform offer can be found here.

What’s New in Version 3.11

While some updates focus on output quality, others are about making the process itself feel less fragmented.

One of the more notable additions is new Color Modes (30% and 100%), which give users more control over enhancement intensity. Rather than leaning too hard into aggressive corrections, these modes seem designed to help strike a better balance between restoration and realism.

Version 3.11 also introduces Quick Editing Tools, including crop, rotate, and flip. These are small additions, but practical ones. Who doesn’t want improved quality of life for using software? For users doing light restoration work, it reduces the need to bounce between apps just to make basic adjustments.

Another significant update is enhanced HDR output, paired with TIFF and DNG export support. For anyone preparing restored photos for print or archival use, higher bit-depth export and improved tonal handling are meaningful additions.

There’s also improved RAW processing support and upgraded HDR tone mapping, which aims for more natural highlight and shadow transitions. This can prove particularly useful for faded or low-contrast originals.

Collectively, the update feels less about flashy new tools and more about making restoration results more believable.

Restoring Faces Without Overdoing It

One of Aiarty’s strongest features remains Face Restoration, and it’s central to the software’s appeal for older images. Using AI trained for portrait detail, the tool can reconstruct facial features, including eyes, contours, and skin texture, all while avoiding the waxy or artificial look that often plagues automated restorations.

For old family photos or soft-focus portraits, the dedicated face enhancement tools are especially relevant. Readers interested in that specific workflow can see more here. What stands out is that the goal doesn’t seem to be inventing detail, but recovering what is likely already there.

Beyond Restoration: Noise Reduction, Upscaling, and Object Removal

Old photos often come with more than blur. There’s grain, dust, scratches, and sometimes very limited resolution. That’s where Aiarty’s broader toolset comes in. Its intelligent noise reduction is designed to clean up scans or low-light images while retaining texture in hair, fabric, or skin. AI upscaling remains a major part of the platform too, allowing users to enlarge files dramatically while preserving believable detail.

For photographers wanting to repurpose smaller legacy files for modern displays or print, this is a core strength. You can learn more on the software’s upscaling tools here.

It’s worth noting, Version 3.11 also continues support for AI Object Removal. This is useful for cleaning scratches, dust, or unwanted distractions without resorting to more complex retouching tools. And for larger restoration projects like digitizing old family prints, batch processing makes it practical to process groups of images at once.

Three AI Models for Different Image Types

Rather than relying on one generic enhancement engine, Aiarty includes different AI models depending on what you’re restoring:

• More-Detail GAN v3 focuses on generating additional clarity in skin, hair, fabric, plants, and architectural detail.
• Real-Photo v3 leans toward faithful restoration with balanced detail and natural rendering.
• AIGCsmooth v3 is aimed more at digital artifacts, anime, or AI-generated imagery.

That separation is useful because old scans, portraits, and synthetic images rarely benefit from identical treatment.

A Simple Workflow That Stays Out of the Way

Another thing Aiarty does well is keep the workflow approachable.

Import an image, choose an AI model, adjust enhancement strength, preview the results, and export. That’s essentially the process. For photographers used to spending significant time masking, denoising, and sharpening in separate steps, that simplicity is part of the appeal. Because processing happens locally rather than through cloud rendering, there’s also the privacy and speed advantage that many photographers increasingly care about.

Who Is It For?

The obvious audience is photographers restoring personal archives or older client work, but the tool feels broader than that.

It could be useful for:

• Photographers digitizing family or film archives
• Content creators cleaning up low-res assets
• Designers repurposing older imagery
• Everyday users who just want to rescue imperfect photos without learning advanced retouching

And because the software runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, it’s clearly aimed in part at Mac-based creative workflows.

Final Thoughts

Aiarty Image Enhancer 3.11 feels less like a dramatic reinvention and more like a thoughtful refinement of an already useful tool. The improvements to tone mapping, RAW handling, quick edits, and restoration controls all point toward a more polished workflow, especially for users focused on old or imperfect photographs. For photographers who’ve been curious whether AI can help restore images without making them look artificial, this update makes a stronger case than earlier generations of these tools.

With the current 49% off lifetime license offer, it may be a good time to experiment. Also, as a reminder, you can enter the coupon code “ANNIVERSARY” at checkout to receive additional savings:

• $5 off for single-product purchases (Aiarty Image Enhancer Lifetime License is available at $74 only)
• $10 off for bundle purchases

The coupon is valid until June 8th!

Surprisingly, some of the most helpful tools photographers can use to manage their workload come in the form of mobile apps. In fact, there are several apps available to lend an assist to help get the job done from start to finish, and most are available for both Android and iOS users (with exceptions, of course). Many of these apps are free with in-app upgrades for special features, and even those that cost money up front won’t break the bank. For what you save in time and hassle, these apps are more than worth the price of admission.

We’ve updated this article to include 21 of the best photography apps for professionals in 2021, and we’ve broken them down into four sections:

• Best Photo Apps for Planning a Shoot
• Best Photo Apps for Capturing Images
• Best Photo Editing Apps
• Best Photo Sharing Apps

Basic Photo Apps for Planning a Shoot

Let’s start with planning! Planning for a photo shoot requires preparing on multiple fronts, from communicating with clients to scouting locations and checking weather conditions for proposed dates. These apps have you covered for all of the above.

Unscripted 

(Free with in-app subscription options for full access to all features – available for Android & iOS)

The Unscripted app checks off several boxes for photographers throughout the entire photoshoot process. You can read a more detailed review we wrote for this specific app here, but it includes an easy-to-use client management system for keeping track of your shoot details (including contracts & invoices), as well as a posing guide, access to photography education resources, and some other features that would take several apps to match, like moodboards, a sun tracker, a guide for camera settings, and more. Having this app is like having an assistant on you at all times.

Sun Surveyor

($7.99 – Android & iOS)

You can find other apps for tracking the sun and moon, but Sun Surveyor offers much more. In addition to its functionality as a sun and moon guide, you’ll also get schedules for golden hour & blue hour, and you can use the app’s “augmented reality” mode, which behaves like a 3D map, to see how the sun, moon or Milky Way will look at the time you expect to shoot at your chosen location. A lite version is also available. I also recommend checking out the PhotoPills app, as it functions similarly to Sun Surveyor.

Tide Charts

(free – Android & iOS)

This app offers a cleanly designed, simple way to worldwide tidal estimates on your phone or other mobile device. Other features include access to lunar data, weather forecasts, and current radar. One unique feature you’ll find with Tide Charts is that you do not need internet access to use it. The app was designed to share tidal and lunar predictions without internet access. It’s worth noting that loading time is somewhat slow the first time you launch the app, but you should be good after that.

Yr.no

(Free on Android & iOS)

This is a solid go-to from the available selection of weather service apps out there. As the app’s creators note, their “primary goals” with the Yr app were “to secure life and property, while delivering useful and accurate weather forecasts to our users, preparing them for all kinds of weather.” The app has been available for over a decade and remains one of the more popular weather services in the world.

Basic Photo Apps for Capturing Images

A lot goes into capturing perfect images. The photography apps below will give you the tools you need to take professional quality photos on your smartphone, in addition to providing services like creating model releases, lighting diagrams, and more.

Camera+ 2

($7.99 on iOS)

This is an all-in-one photo app. You can capture photos (one at a time or in burst mode), make your edits, and upload the images to social media, all in one seamless workflow. Camera+2’s editing menu includes some unique options, like choosing your file format (RAW vs TIFF, for example), adding artificial flash and creating animated gifs, as well as more traditional features like cropping, rotating images, and making adjustments to brightness, saturation, tint, sharpness, and contrast. The app also includes custom filters.

Pro Camera by Moment

($6.99 on iOS)

You have to appreciate this app’s ability to shoot in RAW format while also giving you full manual controls on your phone. Moreover, you can use the app to shoot a time-lapse, long exposures, or go the opposite direction in burst mode. For those interested in shooting video, Moment provides a number of cool videocentric features as well, including color profiles, bitrates, dual-channel audio meters, and more.

ProCamera

($8.99 + in-app purchases – iOS)

As noted on their site, “ProCamera is an all-in-one app that features photo, video, and editing capabilities using state-of-the-art technology.” Some standout features include RAW photo captures, low light assistance, auto perspective correct, and rapid fire burst, among others. As advanced as the features are, the app’s design is intuitive and remains easy to use. If you’re an Android user, this app might just tempt you to jump over to iOS).

Camera360

(Free – Android)

In addition to its functionality as a camera app, this tool is also meant to keep you on task and meeting deadlines. Camera360 allows you to set timers for your tasks as you apply flash effects to photographs, adjust photo size, and check out the app’s mirroring capability, and more. You’ll appreciate the no-nonsense style of its layout.

Sylights

(Free – iOS)

While some might expect an app for lighting diagrams to fall under the “planning” section, it’s actually quite useful for quick reference on location. You can use this app to refer back to lighting diagrams that you’ve created ahead of time, or else quickly take note of new setups you try out in the field. Choose from a variety of lighting icons to create your very own lighting diagram. I would always recommend practicing lighting techniques BEFORE you’re on location with a client, but this professional photography app is great for keeping track of your favorite setups.

Basic Photo Editing Apps

Busy professionals don’t always have time to make it back to a desktop. Sometimes, when tasks need to be completed, they need to be done on-the-go, immediately. The apps below are the best for editing your photos anywhere, whether you need to do a quick edit or even throw in some retouching. We’ve also included some apps for stylizing your photos with textures and such, in case that’s part of your workflow.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile

(Free with in-app purchases – Android & iOS)

Adobe has continued to improve Lightroom mobile and it’s already a worthy opponent for the desktop version, with bonus points for portability. The Lightroom Mobile app also allows you to use the same filters & sliders to edit your images with the same precision as the desktop version. In fact, we used the app exclusively to edit the photos in the SLR Lounge Workshop, Creative Photography 101.

Photoshop Express

(Free with in-app purchases – Android & iOS)

People who use Photoshop premium for desktops will be shocked at how many of their go-to tools like noise removal, image healing, perspective correction, and others are found in the Express version. Easy to use, the Photoshop Express app acts intuitively for the user and makes it easy to flip, rotate, crop your images, and more. You can also use this app to create collages and add watermarks, borders & text.

VSCO

(free with in-app purchases – Android & iOS)

The VSCO app is equal parts photo, editing, and sharing app, but we’ve included it here for its unique and well-known editing capabilities. The app comes stocked with 10 presets (or over 130 presets with the paid version), but you can take the edit further with manual adjustment tools like crop, exposure, clarity, contrast, sharpen, straighten, saturation, shadow save, and more.

Snapseed

(Free – Android & iOS)

Snapseed offers incredible granular adjustments and slight modifications that are often too subtle for the average user. This incredible photography tool could be used for the finest adjustments for the most discerning eye, including straightening, cropping, saturation adjustments and more. Even though it’s free to use, Snapseed feels like a premium app.

TouchRetouch

($1.99 – Android & iOS)

The TouchRetouch app works wonderfully for removing blemishes and other unwanted elements from your images, often with a single touch. Some of the app’s available tools include a lasso, eraser, clone stamp, and more.

Afterlight 2

(Free with in-app purchase options – iOS)

Afterlight 2 offers high quality filters (130+ filters), real film textures (60+ textures/layers) and (20+) precise editing tools like advanced curves, selective HSL, overlays, gradients, and more. You can also add frames/borders to your images and top them off with type and other designs, each editable on its own layer.

Picsart Photo & Video Editor

(Free with in-app purchase options – Android & iOS)

The Picsart photo & video editor is one of the most popular apps in its field, and for good reason. You can use the app to quickly and easily cut objects out of the background, remove unwanted objects in a photo, change colors of objects in the photo, create collages, add text, and so much more, and that’s just on the photo side. The video editor includes a number of useful features like cropping and editing videos, adding music,  applying filters like glitch effects, creating slideshows, and more. After you realize how useful this app is for creating top trending TikTok and Instagram-worthy content, you’ll wonder how you got along without it.

Mextures

($1.99 with in-app purchase options – iOS)

The app gives users access to a library of over 150 texture presets, authentic film filters, and professional-grade adjustments make it easy to find your own look.” You can also apply custom presets and share your editing style with other users. Other features include the ability to add blendable layers (with up to 12 blending modes) for using gradients, textures, light leaks, grain, and more. Each layer can also be isolated and edited for texture, blend mode or rotation.

Basic Photo Sharing Apps

The apps in this section need no introduction, but they play an integral part in not only sharing photos but also helping build (and, in one instance, run) a photography business.

Pinterest

(Free – Android & iOS)

Photographers have long used Pinterest to share photos, create moodboards with clients, and grow their clientele. In essence, Pinterest serves as a massive search engine and offers photographers a great platform for expanding their reach and promoting/building their brand. The app is pretty user friendly, so you can easily share your photos to a variety of boards based on genre, style, subject, location, and more.

Instagram

(Free – Android & iOS)

Most photographers (and businesses in general) already use Instagram as part of their marketing efforts. While photographers often refer to other premium photography editing tools to adjust photos before uploading them to Instagram, the built-in filters are widely copied in professional presets and do a nice job of enhancing well-captured photos. This powerhouse app also links into social networks better than most other photo apps, which helps keep an efficient workflow.

GramSpacer

(Free – Android & iOS)

The GramSpacer app allows users to easily add line breaks for comments, captions, and bios on Instagram and TikTok. While this app has little to do with capturing your images, using it shows that you value aesthetics when presenting your work and it serves as a great asset for distributing your photos and videos on Instagram or TikTok.

Conclusion

We hope you found this list of photography apps for pros on the go helpful. There’s no shortage of apps to choose from, but a select number of them can legitimately help streamline your workflow and make your life as a photographer a little better.

If you have the time, here’s a look back at some previous favorites that are no longer on the list that might still be worth checking out:

• Pixlr Express
• Photo Grid
• Pics Play
• Awesome Miniature
• Paper Camera
• Color Splash

What are some other apps you use regularly as part of your photography workflow?