Software for photo / video editing, business & travel
A common question I always get is regarding what gear I use to do what I do. In terms of physical gear, I’ve made a whole section just for that. You can see it here. However a big part of my work is the software and apps I use. Below I have listed them out and also discuss pros, con and how they fit into my work.
Website, blog, portfolio, newsletter, store
Let’s start with where you are right now. I use Squarespace as my main online hub. This blog and website is on Squarespace, my newsletter and store is also hosted and managed on Squarespace. This is my one stop shop for my entire online business. I use either the online portal or the app to manage everything under one roof.
The domain is from Godaddy and my email is from Google. Online payments are managed by Stripe and Paypal. Between these 5 services, I am covered for everything website and online business related.
Photo Editing
There are 3 main apps that I use for photo editing. Lightroom is the default go to for a few reasons. Firstly is the cloud backup and sync. This is especially great when travelling and having the ability to have everything accessible on any device. There have been many times where I needed a photo, opened up Lightroom on my phone and got what I wanted. Secondly I find Lightroom to be the easiest and quickest editor.
Next we have Capture One. This is a more advanced editor with sophisticated tools for colour and tone manipulation. Also I find Capture One to render Fujifilm files a little cleaner and shaper than Lightroom. I use Capture One as my second editor especially when dealing with client and commercial photography. I keep both libraries in sync.
Finally we have Affinity Photo. This is like Photoshop, only better. There is no subscription, a better layout and all the tools one would need for image manipulation, compositing and editing. I usually use Affinity Photo to create my YouTube Thumbnails, clone out crap in my images and apply the Orton Effect.
Video Editing
This is a simple one. All my video editing is done in Final Cut Pro. It’s easy to use, has everything I need for basic video editing and works flawlessly within the Apple ecosystem. The new iPad app is not too bad too. I don’t do any special effects in my videos so I don’t use Motion, although I have it installed just in case. Compressor is great for batch processing video clips. Finally I use Epidemic Sound for all my music and sound effects.
Social Media
There is only one app I would suggest here outside of the obvious. This app is called Unfold and it’s what I use to create my photo collages.
Design
For creating all my online products, books and any design work I use Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher.
Travel
There are a few apps that I always gravitate to.
- Citymapper is the best for any type of public transport in most major cities.
- Tide Pro can literally save your life and help you plan a seaside or riverside walk. It shows you tide times and heights.
- GPX Tracker is a quick GPS recorder. I use this if I am not sure where I am or want to record a route quickly.
- Footpath is a more advanced GPS recorder and one I use to import GPX files and navigate around cities.
- OSMaps is great for hiking around the UK.
- AllTrails is another amazing worldwide hiking app.
- Trainline is good for trains in the UK and EU.
- Maps.me is the best offline map.
- Sky Scanner, Booking.com & Airbnb are invaluable.
Productivity
You’d be surprised to know I don’t use any fancy app for managing my time, schedule notes and tasks. This could be a whole separate blog where I go into more detail, however here I will keep it high level. I use all the default Apple apps for mail, notes, tasks, brainstorming and calendar.
Entertainment
Reading is done in form of Apple Books and News where I also pay for magazines. Apple Podcasts and Music for listening and YouTube / Netflix for watching. Although I don’t really use Netflix that much so should just delete my account.
I hope this has answered some of your questions regarding software that I use. If you have more specific questions, please just send me a DM on Instagram.
Thanks for reading!