# Would you use your iPad & iPhoto to edit photos taken on your DSLR?



## Kid_Eternity (Mar 29, 2012)

This guy tried it out, and wrote a fairly even handed review of the experience.









> Since Apple’s first iPad came on the scene in 2010, people have wondered if tablets could stand in for computers. Few would argue they’re not up to casual tasks like Web browsing and emailing, but what about the more demanding ones? What about, say, photo editing? Until recently, that was firmly out of the question. The graphics and processing power of even the top tablets couldn’t hack it. But now, with the new iPad, I’m not so sure.
> 
> Apple’s latest slate boasts a Retina display with an astounding 2048×1536 resolution, all powered by an A5X processor with quad-core graphics. But as impressive as those specs are, if Apple had stopped there, so too would the question I’ve turned over and over in my mind. Without the proper software, all that hardware’s useless, and tablets wouldn’t be any closer to replacing their desktop cousins. Fortunately, that fact wasn’t lost on Apple, and it debuted a mobile version of iPhoto, Mac’s popular photo-editing app, alongside the iPad. The combination’s potent, but how potent?
> 
> With DSLR (Canon 7D) in hand, I was determined to find out if the duo could save me the trip to my desktop.


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## mauvais (Mar 29, 2012)

Would I fuck. I didn't spend £1,063 on a monitor for nothing. Well, I probably did, to be fair.

Anyway. No. Shit awful form factor suited to quick dabbling and very rough imprecise work on throwaway web images at best. It wouldn't even replace the simple bits of Lightroom.


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## Stanley Edwards (Mar 29, 2012)

Yes. For web use.

Spending a fortune on a monitor for your own use and profiles for printing is worth it, but we have no control over what end users see on their own cheap shit.


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## editor (Mar 29, 2012)

I used to edit photos taken on my digital camera with a Palm Treo - just pop out the SD card and put it in the phone. Basic results of course, but good enough for web work.


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## editor (Mar 29, 2012)

mauvais said:


> Anyway. No. Shit awful form factor suited to quick dabbling and very rough imprecise work on throwaway web images at best. It wouldn't even replace the simple bits of Lightroom.


You'd be better off buying a cheap laptop really.


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## maldwyn (Mar 29, 2012)

I'm lazy and would welcome the opportunity to recline on my sofa editing away.



My photo's look so much better on the iPad 3's screen


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## mauvais (Mar 29, 2012)

editor said:


> You'd be better off buying a cheap laptop really.


It adds a mouse and keyboard I suppose, but then you could do that with any non-iPad tablet. Either way, I've spent hours in front of a PC working on single photos, and god help me if I have to do that on a mobile device of any kind.


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## editor (Mar 29, 2012)

mauvais said:


> It adds a mouse and keyboard I suppose, but then you could do that with any non-iPad tablet


It also adds a far superior photo editing program like Photoshop etc.


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## Stanley Edwards (Mar 30, 2012)

Not photo editing, but...

I was talking to a bunch of school children from North London the other day about art and stuff. They asked if I liked drawing on an iPad. I don't. the only good thing they had to say about it was that there is no mess to clear away afterwards


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## Firky (Mar 30, 2012)

No but you can tell it has potential.


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## Kid_Eternity (Mar 30, 2012)

firky said:


> No but you can tell it has potential.



Never done it myself but yeah I can see this as a growth area...


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## pinkmonkey (Mar 30, 2012)

I take my ipad when i do trade shows, i take photos then edit them using photoshop and email them straight off to clients, i dont think Id do anything as elaborate as above, though.


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## Firky (Mar 30, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Never done it myself but yeah I can see this as a growth area...


 
Certainly. People on this thread are looking at it in entirely the wrong way. I am like Mauvis in that I have but tens of hours of 'work' into one photograph using my expensive monitor, 32GB of DDR3 ram and an SSD that's soul function is to run PS like a dream and it does. However the GUI hasn't really changed since I first used PS back in the late 90s.

What the iPad does is take a much more human approach to editing and makes it more tactile. Give it another five years when you can calibrate displays and PCs are a hybrid of mouse and touch screen, when they have perfected that then I think we will see a product worth using at a professional level. It just needs development and time. It also needs to make the transition from being a luxury item for using the internet to being a viable tool and not a play thing of those with a disposable income large enough to buy one.


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## pinkmonkey (Mar 31, 2012)

For some tasks its quicker, photo cropping, when theyre all different sized crops, youve got to do, its much quicker. I like very much that I can do what were once tedious tasks, lounging on the sofa with my feet up AND make a better job of it in half the time.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 31, 2012)

firky said:


> Certainly. People on this thread are looking at it in entirely the wrong way. I am like Mauvis in that I have but tens of hours of 'work' into one photograph using my expensive monitor, 32GB of DDR3 ram and an SSD that's soul function is to run PS like a dream and it does. However the GUI hasn't really changed since I first used PS back in the late 90s.
> 
> What the iPad does is take a much more human approach to editing and makes it more tactile. Give it another five years when you can calibrate displays and PCs are a hybrid of mouse and touch screen, when they have perfected that then I think we will see a product worth using at a professional level. It just needs development and time. It also needs to make the transition from being a luxury item for using the internet to being a viable tool and not a play thing of those with a disposable income large enough to buy one.


I'm always going on about this; Photoshop has what is euphemistically called a "power user" interface, which means "shit". But they can't change it - even tiny alterations to people's workflows causes heart attacks and bomb threats. Touch screens have the potential to combine UI device and result in a way that you just can't do with tablet or mouse - even just with the relatively basic graphics apps available, I've been impressed by the speed and direct connection you have with the content, and some things are practical in a way that they just aren't on the desktop e.g. rapid zooming for detail work. And the apps can be developed without all the cruft of past versions.

I look forward to touchscreen mesh applications particularly - the above counts times a million for 3d software.


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## editor (Mar 31, 2012)

FridgeMagnet said:


> ...I've been impressed by the speed and direct connection you have with the content, and some things are practical in a way that they just aren't on the desktop e.g. rapid zooming for detail work.


If you've got a Wacom tablet (and some laptop touchpads) you can do all that nifty zooming in too. Photoshop has got a complicated interface but then if you're doing serious edits, you really do need that level of control. Tablet/phone/iPad-esque apps are great for quick edits and rattling through often quite-powerful presets, but not so hot for precise adjustments.


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## George & Bill (Apr 7, 2012)

I'm fairly sure I would avoid editing in iPhoto, iPad or not.


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## mincepie (Apr 7, 2012)

I can see it as a good tool for the initial sort. I'm not sure it would replace a workstation with big monitor for accurate editing/colour work etc....  But for picking the good from the bad and maybe basic crops, metadata etc - yeah.

I don't have one tho!
Do have a big PC with Photoshop and Lightroom, dual IPS monitors, Waccom tablet etc.

I see Adobe has some sort of sync product for mobile platforms. It's not yet out for Android, so ive not tried it! http://www.adobe.com/products/revel.html

This is one of the things that puts me off tablets etc - it's hard enough doing the odd bit of work on the laptop and keeping it all together/in sync, it's too easy to end up with duplicated files everywhere, or having to faff around doing media management work.


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## pinkmonkey (Apr 8, 2012)

I keep all my current work in Dropbox so I dont have to care about syncing it, it all happens automatically.  Our clients love it too, they dont have to keep emailing us to see where we are up to, they can just check the Dropbox.


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