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Recommendations from Forum on using iPad Pro for photo editing


steve of stonehenge
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I am looking to buy an iPad Pro (9.7inch, 128GB) soon to be used when I travel.  Whereas I am able to edit photos on my iPhone, I really want a bigger workspace and more enjoyable experience.  Photography is a hobby and the iPad will increase my fun...I think.  It will certainly be lighter than carrying a heavy MacBook Pro on a nine hour flight and lugging around an extra 4 pounds (2Kg) for two weeks in Europe.

 

I plan to use Lightroom Mobile when on the road.  With the SD card reader plugged into the Lightning port of the iPad, I can download all my photos to the iPad for "light editing" on Lightroom Mobile and share the keepers with friends and family via iCloud Photos.

 

So my questions for the Forum:

 

  • Anyone else try this?  Your results?
  • Problems/issues?
  • Other apps to consider other than Lightroom Mobile and iPhotos/iCloud?

Thanks in advance for your advice/recommendations.

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Yep, tried it out multiple times. Adobe just updated LR mobile to make it raw capable! Importing them works with the SD Card adapter.

 

I have all my photos in the Cloud (CC subscriber), which is alone worth it (I can always show photos to someone on the go, have all my collections synced with LR on iPad and even the iPhone. Just low-res smart-previews but it's okay for viewing and sharing (this happens when importing onto the Mac of course).

 

Now, my observations regarding editing on LR Mobile (there are many, just a few that cross my mind right now):

 

File management (if you start the workflow on an iPad):

- You first have to import to the camera roll, then into LR (and delete the raw's out of your camera roll again - or end up with a lot of dead space otherwise).

- the Raws will be uploaded to your mac, but remain on the iPad, haven't found a way to get rid of raws after they're on my mac - I just wanna have the smart previews on the iPad once I'm finished, right?

- Still no keywords

...there's a lot missing of course, but it's kinda okay for a mobile app

 

Editing:

- For light editing, this is a good solution when on the go, but

- LR Mobile still lacks brushes (a missed opportunity since there's the great Apple Pencil),

- however they did just introduce graduated and radial filters - though missing some options

- raw capable when starting workflow on iPad - only smart previews when starting on the Mac

- still no real sharpening and noise reduction options (just presets and in the local corrections)

- so finishing is still done on a computer

 

Everything is a little dumbed down, but I guess it's okay when on vacation - sitting in the hotel-bed or in the plane flying home you can already start sorting out the good images, rate them and even edit raws - but you can't finish it because of missing features.

 

So, if I would figure out how to get rid of raws on the iPad and replace them with smart-previews once I'm home and have the raw's on the Mac, I would definitely bring an iPad only to vacation instead of the MacBook Pro. Also I miss Pencil compatibility features (brushes!).

 

Other apps I tried out include Pixelmator, but it's not an option unless for some fun with iPhone photos in my opinion.

A really great one though something different is Astropad, which let's you use your iPad as a graphics tablet. Playing around in LR and especially PS is great in combination with the Pencil. But it's something different of course... you need a Mac running the programs in the same Wifi network, it's just a remote-kind app, but works great without a cable connection.

 

Oh I use an iPad Pro 9.7"/128GB too btw.

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In reference to your comments below:

 

 

"File management (if you start the workflow on an iPad):

- You first have to import to the camera roll, then into LR (and delete the raw's out of your camera roll again - or end up with a lot of dead space otherwise).

- the Raws will be uploaded to your mac, but remain on the iPad, haven't found a way to get rid of raws after they're on my mac - I just wanna have the smart previews on the iPad once I'm finished, right?

- Still no keywords

...there's a lot missing of course, but it's kinda okay for a mobile app"

 

I'm wondering if it makes sense to shoot RAW + Jpg then only load the Jpg to the iPad.  I don't currently use Creative Cloud (but that may change) so I don't think the edits on the iPad will sync to the Mac later on.  I don't see that I will do a lot of heavy duty editing on a trip.  I do like the concept of editing on the iPad versus the iPhone or worse yet a MacBook Pro.  

 

And I'm wondering if you can shoot tethered with the iPad in the field.  That bigger monitor of the iPad versus the tiny LCD screen on the back of the camera would be really nice.  

 

I guess I'm just going to have to buy the iPad and start using it to develop a good workflow.  Practice makes perfect.

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About shooting raw&jpg: iOS handles raw & jpg as pairs, as long as the file names are the same - it just displays jpg but imports both, keeping the raw in the background and even uploading it to iCloud.

You could however use Sonys Playmemories app, pretty sure you can just select jpgs for transferring there...

 

Haven't tested a tethering app, but would be interested too!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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