I have a massive “swipe file” of illustrations from online portfolios. I use them for inspiration when I design or draw something. Owidig is a website that can suck every image file from a website and save it to your computer. It’s easy to use once you get the hang of it, but here’s a good video to get your familiar with it. — MF

I use Google’s AI to find particular photos out of the 200,000 photos I have taken. First I uploaded all my 200K photos to Google Photos using their app so the upload runs in the background; new photos will automatically be uploaded in the future as well. Then I search through the photos using keywords. I have not labeled, categorized, or captioned any of the images. I type in basic terms, like “barn”, or “procession” or “sailboat,” and Google will find and display all the pertinent images. It can do simple compound queries like “barn + snow” or “procession + umbrella” that are more selective. It is free. — KK

I use my local Costco to get good photo quality prints from my photo files. They are usually ready to be picked up overnight once uploaded to their website. An 8 x 10 costs $1.79. A huge 20 x 30 inch poster is just $10. The quality is surprisingly decent. — KK

Insta_Repeat is an Instagram account that beautifully highlights common cliches on Instagram. Like view through tent hole, or standing on white van. Hey, travel and outdoor Instagramers, don’t do these! Try something different. Yet I follow it because arrays of the cliches are mesmerizing in their nearly identical images. — KK

I’m trying out Splash, a cool free experimental photo search engine from 500Pixels. You sketch the rough contours of a photo you seek in color, and it will display two dozen images that “match” your sketch. The match is mostly in color, mood, and rough shapes, but it does present you with some interesting images, all licensable. — KK

Piskel is a web-based utility for drawing “pixel art” in the vein of retro video games. You can create static or animated images, and download them as animated GIFs. The interface is intuitive. It’s surprisingly powerful and fun to use. — MF“

I use Google Images Search anytime I need pictures for a talk, website, presentation, or idea scrapbook. It’s not obvious, but you can filter the search results for those images that let you legally reuse them. Click the Tools button (to the right of Settings) beneath the Google search box, select “Usage Rights” and then choose your filter. (You can also filter by color, size, type, etc., in addition to license directly from Advance Image Search page.) The results will be a pile of select images that have Creative Commons or other fair use status. — KK

My favorite use for the Fujifilm Instax printer is for printing out small photo gifts. It’s portable, so you can take it to parties, and it only takes a few minutes to wirelessly connect and print out photos straight from your phone. — CD

I’m old school. I take photos with a camera that I process on my Mac. That makes it difficult to post to Instagram — the new home for photographers — because Instagram insists you upload photos only from a phone. Flume Pro is a $10 app for Macs that lets you drag and drop photos from your desktop directly into your Instagram stream. (The free version is a handy Instagram stream manager.) Works for me. — KK

I’ve used Canvas on Demand twice now and I am very satisfied with the quality of their premium thick wrap canvases. Sign up for the newsletter and wait for their 50-70% off promos, which happen about once a month. — CD

Upload any image to Web Resizer and shrink it to a manageable size. You can also round the corners, tint or sharpen the image, or apply other filters. It’s faster than Photoshop, and free. — MF

The best photographer blog and/or photo magazine for both pros and newbies, and for all photographers in between, is on the web as PetaPixel. Sure, they have the latest nerdy camera gossip, but they also have plenty of features about the million different ways people actually capture and use images. Every day I am amazed and informed. Add it to your RSS feed. — KK

I’ve been a very serious photographer for 45 years (!!!). Even though I’ve had one book of my photos published by Taschen, I have never used a state-of-the art professional camera. I have always relied on good-enough amateur level cameras. For the past 10 years, I’ve used Panasonic Lumix superzooms. They suit my cultural photography perfectly. They are silent. They are featherweight (I carry them all day, weeks on end.) They have flip out screens so I can shoot stealthily, with subjects unaware. They are cheap. They super zoom from wide angle to telephoto, very fast. The model I’ve used for the past 3 years, the FZ 300, has a super zoom (600mm equivalent) with a constant 2.8 lens. It’s been great. For my subject — recording the vanishing cultures and peoples of Asia — this camera is perfect. — KK

I needed to make a cartoon thumbnail portrait of myself so I used a free app for iOS and Android to render my photo into artwork. Prisma uses artificial intelligence to “redraw” any photo on your phone into a painting done in 20 different artistic styles, including cartoony ones. (It’s similar to a previous app Prizmo, but renders the art almost instantly.) — KK

A friend who took a mountain of photos in the last century (1950s-90s) recently asked me how to get all his old analog photos digitized, cataloged, online, and printed. Here is what I told him: I get all my old stuff (slides, negatives, prints) scanned at ScanCafe because the price is right. They have the cheapest yet most reliable scanning service. I box them up quickly and sort them after they are scanned. The files are returned on a DVD or a thumb drive. But you need time, several months, since they send them overseas (with incredible care and safety). For faster service, when needed, I use Costco. They scan at 600 dpi which is more than enough for most purposes. Costco is fast, but they don’t scan negatives any more. Only slides and prints. And they save to DVD, but not everyone has a DVD reader these days. If you need mild retouching on the old photos, Wirecutter makes some good recommendations of scanners who retouch. To manage and organize all my scanned photo files I use Lightroom. It’s standard issue for any serious photographer; I couldn’t work without it. (I currently have 230,000 photos in Lightroom.) Its image processing interface is better than Photoshop 99% of the time. You don’t need the subscription cloud version; the standalone version of Lightroom is still available and fine. — KK

My recent discovery is that I can use my iPhone keyboard as a mouse to scroll through text and place my cursor exactly where I want it. All you have to do is hard press the keyboard. This makes editing text on an iPhone a million times less frustrating. — CD

I use the Marco Polo Video Walkie Talkie app (iOS, Android) to keep in touch with my family who all live far away. I’m in a “group” with my mom, 2 siblings, and 2 nieces. Even though we live in different time zones we can all carry on a coherent conversation and be more connected. I like that I don’t have to worry about videos expiring, and when I check in at night the videos I missed load automatically so it plays like a mini-movie of what my family did throughout the day. I also think it’s much easier for kids to use than Snapchat. My 6-year-old niece is a pro at using filters to make creative video messages that always crack me up. — CD

Google Keep on iPhone (Free) makes it painless for me and my Android partner to stay synced-up on shopping lists and reminders. — CD

Here’s a tip for zooming on smartphone maps. Instead of pinching to zoom, tap the screen twice, but leave your finger on the screen on the second tap. Then slide your finger up or down to zoom in or out. — MF

My two-year-old iPhone 6 Plus wasn’t holding a charge as well as it used to. I ordered the iFixIt battery replacement kit for $25, which includes necessary tools, and excellent step-by-step instructions (video and PDF). It took less than 30 minutes, and I enjoyed looking at the inside of my iPhone. — MF