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iPad photography workflow?

D

DrTwoFish

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 25, 2008
64
27
Hi all,
I'm considering picking up a 10.5" iPad as my first iPad, and one of my primary uses would be editing photos from my Nikon D7100. I currently use Lightroom for organization and tweaks, but my subscription deal is about to expire and I don't really want to keep paying in perpetuity. I'm considering shifting over to Apple Photos, doing the iCloud thing, and trying Affinity on iPad for editing beyond Photos's capabilities. Thoughts? Would RAW files work with this plan? Thanks!
 
Is there an app that would allow me to edit photos on the ipad pro with just the pencil without the need of a computer? I'm debating if there is a way to shift to ipad pro and just export the final image to my library anywhere?

Just wanna see if i can break away from the computer as the pencil/tablet is much nicer visually to work with (no, i don't want cintiq)
 
OP: seems there is a pertinent discussion on another thread. I am very interested in this capability as well. Keep in mind that, although I purchased Affinity Photo due to their current limited-time discount, I have not yet tried it out.

In short, it seems that Affinity Photo on iPad can not only access photos you save via the mac into iCloud but can open those RAW files directly into the iPad app. It also seems that you can save it back to iCloud (or onto the iPad) after you edit. If this is correct, then I will be very pleased to thoroughly try this out.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/affinity-worth-it.2048653/
 
I would guess we will all know more about the practicality when IOS 11 delivers the File app that just might make it easier to more images to/from SD cards, connected hard drives or dongles,.....etc. The cloud does me zero good on location in Alaska, Kenya, or most of SMNP.
 
I've only used Camera+ App on my iPhone for quick editing. If I need to do a quick edit to post a photo on the web or give to a client I will use either Photo or Camera+. Shoot photo from D750 - send via Nikon wifi app - edit in Camera+ - send to client or upload to web.

Editing on iPad seems to be doable. When the 3rd gen iPad came out I was gungho on using my iPad for editing and showing pics. iOS ## allowed you to do a slide show on the lock screen. Months later Apple removed that feature to migrate the iPad to mirror all the other iOS devices. For me it was disappointing cause I really liked that feature. So now the iPad sits but I'm now looking at the newer iPad to use for quick editing and showing clients photos.

OP what I did when buying the iPad was to test it out in the stores. They will have several apps for editing. Check it out. If you buy the iPad, download a few apps and pick out the ones that fits your needs. Add Lightroom, Camera+, Nikon Apps to your iPad. Get the wireless adapter if you don't have it already.

https://www.adorama.com/inkwu1b.html
 
I'd wait and see on iOS 11 as MCAsan noted. Currently file management, esp raw files, is a bit of a challenge with an iPad workflow from a camera. Even with the iPad's own camera; you have to use a third party app to take RAWs. The way that apps must keep their own files as opposed to the camera roll, and how iOS shows the jpg instead of the RAW can be aggravating. But maybe that's gonna change.

Editing single images is nice, and the iOS apps are sometimes better for some chores. As well as being very very affordable, or free (Photoshop Fix and Express, eg, or Snapseed). But batch stuff, metadata work, fast culling, and some other stuff still is too much work. But we'll see; if they make files easier to manage maybe at least on the iPad Pro they'll be getting more macOS features rather than vice versa.
 
Jumping in to share my thoughts, but also to solicit feedback (sorta piggy-backing off your original question).

I'm also thinking of getting the 10.5" iPad Pro. I always said I could ditch my personal laptop if/when I could have a really awesome workflow for storing/editing/sharing photos. Photo editing is really the only use I have for my laptop anymore.

I was thinking of setting up a Dropbox (or, more likely iCloud Drive) and uploading all of my raw photos to the cloud. I have the benefit of having a work laptop, so I'd likely do it on the laptop; though I have a Lightning-to-SD card reader that I haven't tried... not sure if it'll work the same.

Then I'll use some photo editing app that I haven't decided on yet to edit and export any shareable photos. I currently use Photoshop Express on my iPhone for quick edits. I'll export them to the Photos app, and for redundancy, maybe Google Photos or Flickr.

Anyone have any thoughts or feedback on what I'm thinking of doing?
 
MCAsan said:
What will you do on an extended trip if you can't upload to any cloud service?
Click to expand...

I, personally, don't intend on taking any trips longer than 2 weeks, and that's once a year. If the Lightning-to-SD adapter doesn't work, then I would just wait until I get home to upload and edit photos (which, I know, negates this concept in a big way -- but for me, is a less common scenario).
 
Freida said:
Is there an app that would allow me to edit photos on the ipad pro with just the pencil without the need of a computer? I'm debating if there is a way to shift to ipad pro and just export the final image to my library anywhere?

Just wanna see if i can break away from the computer as the pencil/tablet is much nicer visually to work with (no, i don't want cintiq)
Click to expand...

According to their website, Pixelmator supports the Apple Pencil. I don't have an iPad Pro, so can't confirm nor tell how good it is. However, I use it on my iPad mini & Mac. Decent app. It has iCloud support, so if there's a feature on one device & not the other (or at least easier on one), it's easy enough to switch.
 
Pixelmator and Affinity Photo both support Apple Pencil.

I have imported Canon RAW files from iCloud into Affinity Photo and processed them and edited them on my iPad Pro 9.7". It is quick and quite easy to do.
 
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Planky said:
Pixelmator and Affinity Photo both support Apple Pencil.

I have imported Canon RAW files from iCloud into Affinity Photo and processed them and edited them on my iPad Pro 9.7". It is quick and quite easy to do.
Click to expand...

Do you import your raw files to iCloud using a computer or your iPad? If iPad, what do you use?
 
I have tried to import into Affinity directly but it does not see my lightning to USB camera adapter. Photos sees it but makes a JPEG out of the RAW photo on importing.

I have used my MacBook Pro to download the 22MB RAW image and put it on iCloud Drive and then opened it in Affinity successfully.

I want to try the newer lightning to USB adapter with the extra power input and see if it will allow Affinity to see my CF card in a card reader. My current USB to lightning adapter just complains that the accessory requires too much power.
 
Planky said:
The new version of Affinity now shows RAW pictures in Photo and successfully imports them as RAW and allows you to develop them.
Click to expand...


Serif is a a huge roll with Affinity Photo for both the iPad and desktop. This should be an even more interesting combo after the updates in IOS 11 and High Sierra.
 
I’ve tried Lightroom and affinity. I just can’t see it replacing my windows or Mac workflow
 
I'm really interested in doing this as well I think it could be a really natural way to interact with the image using touch and pencil. I have affinity but I haven't done too much with it on the iPad but I was playing with it on my mac. It always seemed to me like the iPad was loading up the jpeg and not the RAW image so I used it mainly for viewing images before I got home and didn't mess with editing too much (I'm just learning though so I'm sure there is a way to do this I was probably just not too worried about making it work because doing this when I got home was perfectly fine with me).

I'm thinking I may wait for IOS 11 and see how it goes, seems like they made some improvements to the photos app itself and if the files app makes it easy to load and edit images I could imagine the iPad being the way I load things into the cloud since it's so mobile. Basically once I hit wifi I could back up my images to the cloud and bring them down to local storage later when I get home. That could be really nice if something happens on the trip and I lose a card or something happens to the camera.
 
I can see Affinity for desktop/laptop and iPad replacing my Adobe CC subscription as soon as they release the DAM function and it works OK.
 
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