The Top 5 Apps for Livestock Photographers

Mobile apps are amazing and there are several which can help you be more productive and efficient as a livestock photographer. Here are a few I love. 

Weather Underground - Because so much of my livestock photography work revolves around working outside with natural light, it's important that I'm able to accurately predict the weather and plan with my team. Weather Underground (paid version) allows you to build custom forecasts for any activity, so you can set parameters that you believe make a good photo day, and it will deliver a bar graph to show you the best days and times to shoot. The forecasts seem to be very accurate up to four or five days out. 

 Sun Seeker - This app allows you to see the track the sun will take through the sky at any location on any day of the year. I find it extremely useful for scouting locations on our film sets, but it could also serve as an amazing asset for determining where to place a picture pen on your farm. Using the 3-D viewing tool, you can view a live feed of the camera while following the suns track for the selected date at your selected location. This will give you a really good idea of how to setup your pen to optimize the light, and also what times of day would be optimal for planning your shoot. 

Adobe Lightroom Mobile - This app will allow you to import and edit images on your iPad or other mobile device. It can be extremely handy for making fast edits and delivering images when the most important thing is to get the job done quickly and efficiently. I'm committed to my desktop workflow, but I have utilized this app when I needed to edit in a pinch, like on an airplane or while riding in a car. 

Having the right editing software is key to following a professional workflow and delivering exceptional images. When it comes to editing software, the industry runs on one standard: Adobe. 

Adobe Photoshop CC - Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly advanced image editing program, with tools that extend far beyond the need of the livestock photographer. Photoshop is used to make many edits to livestock photos, in particular, it's extremely useful for cleaning up image backgrounds, as well as removing flies, halters, dirt, and other distractions. 

Adobe Lightroom Classic - Adobe Lightroom is an exceptional tool for image organization, color correction, cropping, and delivery. It's an important part of my workflow because it allows me to organize and sort my images quickly and efficiently. A word of caution; I'm not a fan of Adobe Lightroom. I love Adobe Lightroom Classic for it's more robust and professional feeling layout. Be sure to watch which version you choose to download. 

Those are my top five apps. What apps do you love? Send me a note! [email protected]