Somewhat Serious Chat About iPad Usage In The Digital Photography

[harcosparky]

I am curious to see if any professional, or any serious enthusiasts are using an Apple iPad in the course of their work.

If you are, what are you doing and how?

What Apps have you found useful?

What Apps have you found useless?


If this is in the wrong section of the board I apologize. I realize there is an iPad section, but since I am looking for information tied directly to photography I felt this would be a better place to ask.

 

[ronjon10]

I consider myself to be a somewhat less that serious enthusiast, but I do like taking pictures and I have decent equipment.

I use the ipad for looking at images in the field in a larger screen view. It'll display RAW images as well as jpegs. I don't use the ipad for any sort of organization or photo editing.

If you want to get really trick, you can jailbreak the ipad and use mifi software or get a third party mifi solution as well as one of those wifi enabled SD cards. This will allow you to effectively tether the ipad to the camera for real time viewing saving you the hassle of extracting the card to load the images to the ipad. It's even more trick if you have a camera with two card slots. You can send the jpegs to the wifi SD card and RAW images to the other card.

I also know of pro photographers who have portfolios on their ipads for meetings with prospective clients. They do this in addition to the normal printed portfolio work they would carry along.

 

[CrackedButter]

I consider myself a professional of sorts.

I have an iPad but it isn't in any way part of my photo editing work flow. I don't use it in the field with my camera equipment, other than to take notes and use it for referencing. I also use it to explain to people my ideas, mostly visually with older projects.

However...

As a digital portfolio device its great. I'm just about to buy FolioBook (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/foliobook-ipad-portfolio/id382451198?mt=8) as well. This is designed to replicate the real world portfolio book viewing experience, showing my projects to image editors.

I also contribute to a digital magazine called Latitude which can be found here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/latitude-magazine/id376823643?mt=8

In short, I use my ipad to present rather than to process images. I can't be bothered with the camera connection kit. Shooting raw as well makes the iPad incapable of satisfying my needs anyway. I edit everything on Aperture. I also have enough memory cards so I wouldn't use the iPad's disk space as some sort of photo backup device.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: I just found these 2 apps for the iPad. Including these in this post seem to contradict what I just said above...

CameraSync - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/camerasync/id406645727?mt=8

"CameraSync for iOS4 allows you to upload all pictures & videos from your Camera Roll to your Dropbox, iDisk, FTP server, Amazon S3 bucket, Flickr account or Box.net account.

Do you regularly take photos on your iPhone and want to make sure they're backed up and always accessible? CameraSync has got you covered.

Tired of e-mailing photos and screenshots to yourself just to get them onto your computer? Tired of having to connect your iPhone to your computer just to get a couple of new photos? CameraSync will make sure they're all ready & waiting for you."

Which becomes useful when used with this application:

PiRAWnha - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pirawnha/id409747795?mt=8

Which bills itself as "the only raw editor on the iPad.'

... but after purchasing these apps. How does one properly calibrate the iPad screen for colour accuracy?

 

[Kebabselector]

Personally I'd find it a bit too fiddly and limiting for any Raw processing to be honest. Also does it work well with CF cards?

Rather get a MBA for productivity as I can drop Lightroom on it. However as a portfolio device it looks superb, very tempting just for that!

 

[harcosparky]

I guess I should have put a little more info in the initial post.

I don't consider the iPad capable of any real editing.

I was wondering if there were any apps related to the business of Photography.

I did find one called iRelease.

It's a Model Release form generator that allows you to create a Model Release and have the model sign the release on the iPad. Haven't looked into it too deeply but I think it can create the release in PDF file and then email the release to all parties involved.

Something else I found out about was a way to take credit card payments and process them through the iPad. Working on this one right now and once done and tested I'll probably put up a review in the iPad section it is good for anyone who wants to take CC as payment.


CrackedButter - thanks for the heads up on Foliobook - I am looking at that one now.

 

[Cliff3]

I don't consider the iPad capable of any real editing.

Neither does the president of the company that publishes Photo Mechanic: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-10052-10708. I navigated to that page from John Nack's blog, which indicated that Adobe has investigated the platform as well and came to similar conclusions.

Until an iPad can potentially replace my laptop, it's simply an expensive gadget and near the bottom of my wish list.

 

[Consultant]

Until an iPad can potentially replace my laptop, it's simply an expensive gadget and near the bottom of my wish list.

iPad already replaced laptop in some businesses.

Let's see: Until photographers can deliver me ponies, they are simply an expensive joke and near the bottom of my wish list.

 

[Cliff3]

iPad already replaced laptop in some businesses.

This thread is quite clear about which business or enthusiastic pursuit provides the relevant context. And my use of the personal pronoun in expressing my opinion provided a very clear context for that opinion.

Let's see: Until photographers can deliver me ponies, they are simply an expensive joke and near the bottom of my wish list.

 

[VirtualRain]

Let's see: Until photographers can deliver me ponies, they are simply an expensive joke and near the bottom of my wish list.

BTW, I love my iPad and even own Filterstorm (a great photo adjustments app) and Apple's camera connection kit (which enables me to ingest photos directly from my 7D) but I find very little use for my iPad in my workflow.

However, it is a fantastic way to show pics to friends and family, especially in conjunction with the AppleTV using AirPlay.

 

[AndyGordon]

iPad Workflow

I use the iPad with Shuttersnitch, a Nikon d300s, an Eye-Fi card and MiFi.

Camera is set to RAW -> to CF Card, small JPG -> SD (Eye-Fi) Card
MiFi creates a mobile wireless network
Camera shoots RAW to CF and Small JPG to Eye-Fi card, which then transmits directly to iPad (Shutter snitch)

I get the benefit of exposure/focus previews on the 9" iPad screen as opposed to the back of a camera.

Same process can be used to also email directly from iPad JPG images via shuttersnitch

I use the cheapest and lowest spec Eye-Fi card that only handles JPG's, but that is all I need.

I am sure that over time this will get better - I can see using a combination like this for event work at some point

Andy

 

[AndyGordon]

My iPad Workflow

I use the iPad with Shuttersnitch, a Nikon d300s, an Eye-Fi card and MiFi.

Camera is set to RAW -> to CF Card, small JPG -> SD (Eye-Fi) Card
MiFi creates a mobile wireless network
Camera shoots RAW to CF and Small JPG to Eye-Fi card, which then transmits directly to iPad (Shutter snitch)

I get the benefit of exposure/focus previews on the 9" iPad screen as opposed to the back of a camera.

Same process can be used to also email directly from iPad JPG images via shuttersnitch

I use the cheapest and lowest spec Eye-Fi card that only handles JPG's, but that is all I need.

I am sure that over time this will get better - I can see using a combination like this for event work at some point.

When I get home, I use Aperture and JPG/Raw import - JPG's first as review, and matching RAW's when I have selected the photo's I want to keep.


Andy

 

[CrackedButter]

That's pretty cool how you can do that. That I might incorporate into a workflow if the speed isn't slow. I couldn't really use it for journalism but for studio stuff that's pretty good.

 

[AndyGordon]

Speed is not an issue - depending on size of image this can transmit to the iPad in seconds. fwiw, you can use exactly the same software/hardware combination with an iPhone or iPod touch if carrying around an iPad is an issue.

By using a MiFi (mobile 3g wifi) and my iPhone I have the options of 2 networks if I want to email out.

Cheers

Andy