The art of communicating has now been enhanced by thousands of apps we can add to our hand-held mobile devices.

In the past, graphics, photo editing and video production were all expensive time consuming processes understood only by the experts – today there is an app for that! Everyone expresses their inner Steven Spielberg and Ansel Adams using these new platforms. Photo sharing has become the vocabulary of today’s relationships. From Instagram, Flickr, Picasa, Kaptur, to Tumblr, everywhere you look are photo sharing sites with millions of uploads per second.

Here are a few apps to check into:

Diptic – $.99
This app lets you create photo collages. Just choose your photos, and you can insert three to five of them into a grid of your choice. Tweak your collage with borders and frames. Done!

WordFoto – $1.99
WordFoto takes your own words to create graphic images of the words. Suggestions for words to use for your posters or postcards: SPACIOUS, CONVENIENT, GREAT MANAGEMENT TEAM, UNPARALLED SERVICE — whatever makes your community unique!

Incredibooth – $.99
This app turns pictures into strips of photos like those taken at a photo booth. Make them at team member parties!

Pic Stitch – Free
This app (also available for computers) combines multiple pictures into one shot. This is great for brochures, floor plans, and follow up postcards.

Picmonkey.com – Free
On the next page is an image I created using a feature shared in the last issue. The image was in a blog and a data download but had very little value change and was unimpressive looking. However the data it represents is spectacular. I need the image to match the data. I “Tonitized” it with my artistic flair and PicMonkey.com.

I changed the brightness, sharpened the color and added a lighting touch as well as graphics. I finished my creation with a drop shadow and museum frame. I especially love the “Kiss my data” caption with the hot pink lip print! I LOVE this data, so “Kiss my data” was my creative way of sharing my passion for this content! TA DA!

This does not require much skill except you do make creative choices and a person will be more successful if they have an “artist eye”. The great part about this is that it operates on your desktop and not your phone. Professional photos can be uploaded online, artistically enhanced, saved, and then shared across platforms. Artistic photos and brand messages can be shared on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram and Snapchat. Images are a key component to your digital footprint online.

These apps allow you to customize your images to make them, your apartment community, and YOU unforgettable!