I just received my iPod here in Panama a few weeks ago and I’ve since been very busy teaching classes, putting together local exhibits and trying to get re-located from moving to an unfamiliar neighborhood. So I still haven’t spent nearly as much time with it as I’d like and certainly don’t consider myself an expert. So please take this blog from that perspective.
At left you see what an album looks like when you open it. Tap once on any image and you instantly see it full screen.
So far, I just LOVE it. Since it’s already won me three new exhibit spaces and an important assignment, I’ve already more than earned back my investment. It’s usefulness as a very effective means of showing portfolios and shoot results make it the best accessory a pro photographer can own. After all, it doesn’t even matter if you don’t have the equipment to shoot that you’d like to have if you can’t make it pay for itself.
Having an iPad means that you can show your portfolio or shooting proofs to anyone, anywhere. Thanks to a backlit LED screen with a non-diffused, “glossy” surface makes looking at images is much like viewing transparencies on a light box. It also has a much wider viewing angle than a computer screen if more than one person at a time needs to look at it.
But beyond the technical reasons, iPads (and other “slates” to come) can show a portfolio or review a shoot much more effectively than can a computer in the same way a portfolio in a book can: You can pass it around and each viewer can flip through photos or “turn pages” by sliding from one full screen photo to the next. For the viewer, it creates her own personal experience. She can take as much or as little time as she likes with each photo. At the swipe of a finger, she can go back to thumbnail view and instantly pick a photo from a whole different series or go to an “album” view to see an entirely different portfolio that can be either related or not.
There’s a huge advantage over using a book portfolio where the photographer’s concerned. You can make as many portfolios as you like just as fast as you can collect the images in Lightroom or Aperture and then export them as JPEGs perfectly sized to fill the iPad screen. You then just use iTunes to link the iPad to your computer and it automatically downloads whatever folder you’ve designated to hold your “photo albums.” You can then set it up so that whatever you’ve edited on your computer either replaces or adds to whatever’s in the Photos folder on your iPad.
I’ve even found a cure for the one thing I miss the most: The ability to put titles and captions or file numbers under the photos so that the people you’re showing them to can request specific images…or even just be able to know what the subject is and where it was shot. I just use the Image Processor (File > Automate > Image Processor) to resize the image onto a black background that leaves enough room under the photo for the text I want to put there. I put a stop on the Action that allows me to type in the text and I then just type away. I tend to put different information under each photo by cutting and pasting it from a list that I’ve created in a word processor to make sure that the whole list is complete and has the right number under it. I create that list by looking through the Lightroom thumbnails and making the list in the same order that the thumbnails are in, since that’s how they’re exported as well. I’m sure that eventually, there’s going to be a better way to do this for the iPad, but the important thing is that it works right now…and very well.
The other reason the iPad’s a great tool for photographers is that it can be a fantastic reference tool to have in the field. I can put my entire library of photography books on even the basic 16GB version of the iPad. It will run not only all the iBooks in the Apple iTunes store, all the iPad apps (including, already, so interactive quick reference digital photography “text books”) but can run Amazon’s Kindle application (downloadable from the Apps Store) and the Adobe Reader for any PDF books from any of the eBooks sites. So, no matter where you are, there you be with all the info you need about anything you might want to shoot and experienced recommendations on how to do it.
What else does the iPad do?
Well, that’s a very long list, but here’s a quick rundown on what’s most likely to be of interest to photographers:
• It can show movies, too…important if you have one of the new cameras
• There’s even an iPhone app (which would probably work just fine on an iPad or iPod touch) for Photoshop World that lets you enter your personal schedule, tells you what’s available when you don’t have anything else scheduled, and lets you track breaking news that is announced or happens during the event or trade show.
• Can visit lots of photography web sites, such as www.photo.net, www.dpreview.com, or while on the road, especially if you have 3G
• Lots of other information when on the road, such as Google Maps (but you have to be someplace that’s mapped…will come with time), language translators for both Occidental and Oriental major languages. I want an app that will translate what I write into the language of the country I’m in. Haven’t found one yet, but that doesn’t mean that one won’t exist at some point.
• Other things it can do: Watch movies, play games,
• Best if you label photos in Photoshop while posting. I often label with subject type and number so that I can write better labels after showing the photos to people who know more about the subject.
• Several good reference books and apps
The Downside (although most of these are actually advantages. If you want a computer, buy one for less):
• Don’t even think about processing your photos on it. It just doesn’t have the memory capacity to make that practical. You need at least a heavy-duty laptop for that.
• Not compatible with Flash (but most of the Windows “slates to come” will be)
• Not a computer…it’s education and entertainment
• Sucks for typing. You may want to get the keyboard if you have serious web work to do (such as teaching classes on line at Sessions).
• No good for downloading photos or editing them…use your laptop
• 150,000 apps isn’t enough yet
• Not enough storage to be useful as a download device. Take along your laptop for that and processing.
• Printers and other USB devices don’t work on the iPad
Please let me know your own thoughts on this by leaving your comments here. Thanks.
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