Friday, March 25, 2011

Let's Talk Ipads and Photography

I got an ipad last summer, and it makes my life easier in many ways.  I use it to quickly check my email and scan the internet.  I love it for watching Grey's Anatomy and Modern Family on ABC Player and a ton of different streaming videos on Netflix.  Of course, I use it to read books, too.
Recently, I've also been exploring its uses for photography.  I got the camera adapter as a Christmas present, and I use the ipad to review pictures and decide which ones to delete from my memory card.  This is particularly useful when I'm doing photo shoots for the school sports teams.  I take 10-12 shots of the team.  On the ipad I can quickly and easily compare them and decide which 1 or 2 to upload to my computer.  I have also used it in a photo walk class to do a critique session.  The display is so large and bright that it's the perfect way for 3 or 4 people to really look at the same image.
And now, I discover that there's all kinds of cool photo editing apps for the ipad!  There's a great review of a bunch of them at this site.  I installed the free one called PhotoPad by Zagg, and had some fun playing with it.
I took the daffodil picture above and easily created these two images:

Kindof fun, huh?  In a more realistic vein, I took this sports portrait:
Did a little photo editing (removed red eye and adjusted some cropping and color) and then turned it to sepia to get this photo, which his mother really loved:
I've been very happy with this as a free app, and I'm considering some of the paid photo editing apps recommended in the article.  I'm curious about whether any of you have used them and what you think of them.  There's also this article on ipad photo effects, rather than photo editing.  They're all paid apps, but I'm considering "Camera Bag" (a filter app that looks to be kindof hipstamatic like) for $2.99; Color Splash (turns the picture black & white and then you go back in to add color in selected areas) for $1.99; and FX Photo Studio HD (which seems to be almost more of a photo editor than effects-adder) for $2.99.  I know that these duplicate some of what you can do in PSE or photoshop, but the advantage seems to be in portability (I can do this all without a computer) and in ease of use.  Again, I'm curious as to whether you've tried any of these and what your take is on them.  And whether you have used an ipad in your photography in any other ways.
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9 comments:

Amy said...

Rinda, I don't have an ipad so I can't offer any reasonable advice. But, I do like the sound of the portability and I can imagine it would be very handy for photographers out on location. The apps are reasonably priced so I would think purchasing them and having a good play wouldn't break the bank and then you would have some cool tools to work with while you are waiting for the end of the next basketball or baseball game!

JO SOWERBY said...

ooh an ipad how decadent. i love the iphone apps using hipstamatic when i cant use my normal camera like at the moment as the batteries have gone flat and i cant find my charger :(
Jo xxx

scrappyjacky said...

This is all beyond me,Rinda!!!But I agree with Amy that they sound very reasonably priced....so probably worth taking a chance.

Anonymous said...

Perfect timing! I have an iPad on order and it's supposed to arrive on Tuesday. I can't wait. I'm getting it for travel as much as anything else, so I don't have to lug my laptop with me. Tracy has the camera adapter so I'm all set with that. I'll be checking all the links here this weekend.

Cheri said...

no iPad here. not one in the future either. but i do have to say that the sports photo turned sepia really makes that young man's smile pop!

Anonymous said...

hmmmm.. i may have to go and download one of these ... how does it integrate with your iphoto after you edit them?? i found that my iphoto can't resize iphone pictures for uploading to the CS site ... does it make any difference?? or does the ipad just turn into another storage device as far as iphoto is concerned?? we may have to chat at the next house crop.. you are going, right?? :D

Mariana

Sian said...

No ipad here, but I hadn't ever considered how useful it would be for photo editing. Interesting post!

Em said...

ooh i'd love an ipad - great images of the daffs!

Alison said...

DH is talking about getting an IPad...maybe I'll be more encouraging after reading this!:)