Thrainn Kolbeinsson

App overview: Planning trips, editing, analytics & more

through trial and error these have become the apps I use the most

Technology has definitely made life easier in many ways - but sometimes it doesn’t necessarily feel like it gets simpler. All sorts of applications are designed to do exactly that, make things easier. But my simple mind can get more cluttered the more apps I’m relying on. There seems to be an app for everything and often many serving a similar purpose. So I decided to put together a list of the apps that I currently use the most for mobile editing, scheduling posts, creating stories, file management, planning trips and more. Most of them are free but some have in-app purchases or advanced plans that have to be paid for. And since you don’t need an app for everything, I also sneaked in a certain website that I use from time to time.

Photo editing, stories & feed planning:

Snapseed

This is a powerful but pretty straight forward photo-editing app. It has loads of editing tools and filters which are easy to use (even supports RAW files). Although I do most of my editing in Lightroom, it can be handy to be able to do some quick and basic adjustments on the go.

Price: Free.

Adobe Lightroom

I only recently got the mobile version of this super powerful editing app. If you know your way around Adobe Lightroom for desktop, getting the hang of this will be very straight forward and super useful to do some professional-level editing on the go. Even the local adjustment filters are easy to use. Obviously there are some things that are missing from the desktop version but still nothing major. See a little before and after using Lightroom mobile below.

Price: $9.99/month

Unfold

This is a super convenient toolkit to create appealing visual stories. With many templates and forms to choose from you can customize your stories as you want and keep them separate and saved for later use. Very handy.

Price: Free.

UNUM

I often get asked how to edit consistently and make your photos have a similar feel. I don’t know why I’m mentioning that here, because UNUM has almost nothing to do with that. Except, it does help with lining up your social media feed to give a cohesive look. Simply import your images into a grid, move them around and see how the overall look of it. You can link it to your account and then it’s just drag and drop until you’re happy. To finish with an answer to the random beginning, there are many ways of going about editing consistently and I’ll be making a separate post about that later. But UNUM can give you an indication if one or more photos don’t fit the general look of the grid.

Price: Free.

BEFORE a quick edit in Lightroom Mobile.

Analytics, ideas & organization:

Iconosquare

I’m not the biggest fan of statistics and numbers but I understand the value of knowing how your social media is performing. And I am a fan of everything that saves me time. That’s where Iconosquare comes in. It’s is a powerful app for analytics, management & scheduling posts (even automatic posting). It also helps with keeping track of unread comments and planning the feed. Finally it provides me with all the statistics I would need to show possible clients the amount of reach and impressions they could expect (based on averages across custom periods).

Price: $30/month.

Google Keep

I’ve only recently started using Google Keep. It basically combined two other apps I was using before (Notes and Wunderlist). This is a very convenient app to quickly put down your ideas or store blocks of text that you’d like to keep easily accessible. You can choose between typing those notes, recording them or even drawing. Another feature I like about this app is the checklist, nothing mind-blowing but still nice to have this all in the same place.

Dropbox

A big part of my file management and organization. Dropbox is a cloud storage service, which means you can copy your files to the cloud and access them later, across devices. Syncing the files and folder you want between your computer and the cloud. Basically it’s saving me a lot of time while still keeping my file structure according to my preference.

Price: Free.

Location scouting, hiking & trip planning:

Google Maps

I guess most people use this app already to navigate from place to place. The feature I probably like the most about it (aside from being a creepily accurate map of the whole world) is that you can save places with custom pins, as part of your planning. Another feature I use a lot is measuring distance from place to place, seeing if I can reach a certain spot with a drone or if I have to use my lazy legs to get there.

Price: Free.

Google Earth

Basically Google Maps on steroids. Google Maps is still definitely my go-to app for navigating and saving places. But when it comes to location scouting, planning trips and virtual exploring, Google Earth has become the King and the Queen. It offers a 3D representation of Earth based on satellite imagery, so you can get a way more accurate feel for how the terrain of a certain area looks like. It’s not perfect, but still pretty amazing.

Price: Free.

Maps.me

It’s a pretty basic app which offers offline maps for navigation and hiking, with GPS. So if you think you’ll be out of service you can download the map of a certain area and safely find your way around. It also has many off-the-beaten-track hiking routes and many landmark names that Google Maps doesn’t have.

Price: Free.

PhotoPills

Photopills is a powerful app you can use for timing and planning locations for shoots. It offers sun and moon position predictions, both seen from above in 2D and virtually while using the camera of your phone. So you can see where the sun will be, at 11:37 on your next birthday. It’s not perfect but usually you can adjust it to be more accurate. It has some extra features like exposure calculator, depth of field, time lapse sequences and more.

Price: $9.99 one time.

Google (website)

Like I said at the start of this post, there seems to be an app for everything. However, if the thing I need to know can simply be typed into my browser, I will politely decline your app and just ask the almighty Google. I use this mostly to quickly get information about tide times and sunset/sunrise times.

Price: I guess we’re playing the product right there.

Weather & wind forecast:

Yr.no

Yr is a Norwegian website and a mobile app for weather forecasting made in collaboration with the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (NMT). You can basically search for any little area you’re thinking of visiting and see what the Norwegians think you might expect then and there.

Price: Free.

Polar Pro

This is mainly made for the drone-flying people out there, but it does have some features that can benefit the non-drone-flying people out there. Straight off the bat, you’re greeted with information about the current weather, wind speed and magnetic interference (KP index) and even a count down to golden hour. It can also guide you with your combination of filters and camera settings.

Price: Free.

That’s pretty much it. I hope you found some value in the overview but if you have an app that could substitute any of these or serve as a good addition, let me know!

Disclaimer: This is not done in collaboration with any company and I’m not receiving any compensation.