Darkroom Labs, my photo printer of choice has just sent me scans of a few rolls of Lomography brand film and I am loving the colors.
See these images and more on my photography website.
Free Spirit
Darkroom Labs, my photo printer of choice has just sent me scans of a few rolls of Lomography brand film and I am loving the colors.
See these images and more on my photography website.
When I first published this guide in early 2019 the goal was to simplify my post-process photography workflow using the 2018 iPad.
Now, with my newly upgraded 2020 iPad Pro, the hardware has improved and the photo software developers have taken advantage of it. So will I.
An iPad photography workflow has to include everything from importing your images, culling out the ones you don’t want, processing, and then exporting to hard drives, your portfolio or for printing.
Ideally, I want to trust that the iPad can take the place of my laptop as my personal photography developing studio.
The MacBook will be continue to be my main driver but I don’t want to take it with me everywhere I go either. I need the confidence to take my iPad everywhere I go for my next shoot or my next trip.
Now I believe I can.
We can now directly import photos from our memory cards, we have mouse & keyboard support, desktop-class web browsing, a filing system, connect to external displays, access and use external storage, and more.
Working on a tablet feels as comfortable as we do working on a laptop but with added benefits such as better battery life and support for mobile data connections.
Before, it was a challenge to import images into an iPad. We had to first import photos to the native iOS Photos app, then import into our software app of choice and then immediately delete the redundant copies to save space. This was a big hassle that hardly seemed worth the time, but we made do. Now we have access to eternal hard drives and a cloud-based filing system that will allow easier access to images.
Apple Photos has been fine-tuned for performance as well as simple editing and presentation of images.
Overall, the iPad operating system has been reworked to allow us to speed up the workflow and process our images faster.
Adobe’s suite of photography software has taken advantage of these improvements and once again, sets the standard. Coupled with their cloud support,images I take on one device is accessible to all my other devices almost instantly.
Other software developers like Pixelmator Pro, Darkroom and Affinity Photo have native versions on all devices as well for those wanting an alternative to Adobe. All are now professional grade apps for iPad OS.
I don’t ever plan on taking photos with my iPad due to image quality and bulk awkwardness but it is an amazing tool to help plan and organize my photo shoots. Update the amazing camera app Halide may have just changed my mind on this. More on that later.
I’ll have a list of locations I have scouted ahead of time, a shot list of things I want to capture and even a mood board for inspiration. Thanks to the Apple Pencil, I have had clients sign paperwork before and after we worked together and sent the final copies to them right away.
And let’s not forget that music in the background is a great way to keep the energy going during a shoot or while working on the post-process. All possible to Apple’s iPad and software services.
IMPORTING CAMERA PHOTOS ON AN IPAD
When I am traveling or shooting at home, I have my SD card almost full of RAW images. The iPad is a great tool for working with those shots, but they need to get on to the tablet first.
My main method is using the Apple camera SD/USB-C adapter to import the photos directly into the iPad. Another way is to transmit them wirelessly from the camera to the iPad although this is not as smooth or fast as I’d like need. Another dongle connects my images taken with my iPhone to the iPad but with the advantages of a cellular data connection this may be obsolete. Images from my phone are then stored into the Cloud and can be retrieved on the iPad.
The least convenient option is to bring along an external hard drive and connect it to the iPad with a separate USB/USB-C dongle and import the images to the aforementioned Files app.
It doesn’t matter what option we choose, the workflow is simple: plug your SD card in and transfer your images as needed. Then, you can either transport those files to Lightroom or your iCloud Photo Library from the disk by connecting it to your iPad, or you can access them directly from the drive via the Files app for later use. All these options are ideal because you want your photos to be backed up and not lost.
With the improved file handling, managing photos on the iPad is no longer as challenging as it once was. No matter what approach you take, your images are organized and managed the same integrity you’d get on the Mac.
I have two approaches to processing my images in the digital darkroom, basic editing with my presets that emulate the look of analog film stock or advanced editing where I am adjusting light, exposure, curves or HSL toning.
With basic editing, the only tool I need is my index finger. In advanced editing I use either a mouse or the Pencil for the finer details.
There are a variety of software apps I use, and each one brings something unique to my desired final images. Because when I want to quickly experiment with different looks, I will use VSCO (Visual Supply Company) or Darkroom.
I’ve been using VSCO for about six years now and enjoy their filters. They’ve been diligent in maintaining the analog film stock filters but it is cumbersome to work with in that you have to individually import your shots to their app to develop them. At one point, I honestly believed and still hold out hope that VSCO will over take Instagram with their beautiful web presence and social engagement.
Darkroom takes the place of Snapseed for my go-to. Don’t get me wrong, Snapseed is a fantastic, free app but it was purchased by Google awhile back and well, I am anti-Google. Darkroom connects seamlessly to the Apple Photos app so I don’t need to import my images each time. Just open and edit. With its own set of filters, it has a ton of editing tools, including curves, HSL, exposure, contrast adjustments, grain, sharpening, and more such as using those those same tools to transform your videos as well.
As good as Darkroom is, when it comes time to edit photos from my camera, I almost always turn to Lightroom. Lightroom’s library is where all my camera photos live, and the editing capabilities are sophisticated and familiar to me after years of use.
When it is time comes to for advanced editing work, I rely on Pixelmator Pro and Lightroom.
Pixelmator Photo is new to me, thanks to one time purchase price and their 50% discount that I took advantage of last week. I was hoping that it would finally allow me to ditch the $120 a year subscription to Adobe but it isn’t there, yet. PP has continued to make improvements and allows me to build up my catalog of film emulsions as well as take advantage of their amazing editing tools powered by Machine Learning.
These ML-based capabilities are compelling because I can use them to color-match from another image and replicate from an inspiring photographer’s image. PP is seamlessly built in to the operating system and can access images directly from the Apple Photos app or Files app.
As good as PP is, when it comes time to editing photos, I almost always turn to Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom’s library is where all my camera photos are stored in catalogs, and is second to no one when it comes to organizing decades worth of my Archives. The editing tools are most familiar to me since version 1 way back in 2007. Now that they have gone to the cloud, I have access to all of these tools and images on every device for immediate access and processing .
All the software applications that I mentioned above support the processing and editing of RAW files, which is crucial to my desire to create large files without losing data integrity.
The last step to an all iPad workflow is moving our processed images to their final home wether it be your hard drive, your social media, a client’s inbox or the printing lab.
Here is what I think is missing from an iPad only workflow and where it could do better:
No tethering option for starters. With my camera plugged into my laptop I can immediately transfer images for review and saving and then make adjustments as I shoot. Not possible with iOS yet.
No real way to print directly from iPad to the printer.
Better externally display support. Sidecar, the iOS feature which allows you to use the iPad as a second screen to your Mac is fine, but limited in size and resolution quality.
These limitations are not enough to get me to stop using the iPad for my photo workflow, it just means that in the next few versions of iPad, we’ll see these upgrades soon.
The iPad is a great workspace for editing your photos. It is my personal, mobile photo lab. I can process my images in bed or on a plane or even in between photo shoots when I am out and about.
None of these benefits I have mentioned today were possible a few years ago. I love the advancement of technology, don’t you?
Enjoy a walk for the sake of walking. No expectations, no pressures. Take your camera and find something unique to capture.
Photography as a zen meditative practice.
Found this image while cleaning up some files on the hard drive. I think this was an accidental selfie but it does convey some unknown emotional reaction.
A night out with friends is always a good idea.
A visual journey on the Texas/Mexico Coastline.
It was time to recalibrate and reset my mind, body and soul and take a vacation. Having been denied a trip to the Chihuahuan desert plains near Terlingqua and Big Bend National park twice, once to COVID and the second time due to wildfire, I had to think of another destination. The idea being somewhere I haven’t been, remote and less people. So let’s head down to the Boca Chica Beach on the Mexican border.
Along with MissAdventure, we drove down all the way through Texas with visits to Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, South Padre Island and finally, Boca Chica.
Beaches are considered as highways in Texas so of course I decided to do just that and ended up stuck in the sand for ten minutes until we wedged it out. Next time, go for the compacted sand closer to the water. Later on we did just that. Rolling down the windows, beers in hand while driving the maximum speed allowed of 15 mph. I enjoyed every minute of it but was mindful of the rising tides and driving up closer to the deeper bits of sand on the beach so we turned back.
Having parked our little mule on the tarmac we then set foot south for three miles towards the Mexican border and the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way we were treated to the most concentrated collection of sea shells I have ever seen dumped onto the shores. We even discovered five washed up Portuguese Man O’ War jellyfish, er, hydrozoan, excuse me, and catfish. Did you know that there were PMOWs and catfish in the Gulf of Mexico? I didn’t, and this added to the adventure. Finally we reached the river that divides two countries and waved to the vacationing Mexicans on the other side. Life is different when you see it from this perspective. What are boundaries? Why are they needed? Why do we still use the term “foreigners” and who the hell wants to put up a wall that prevents us from being proper neighbors?
After time spent on the border we decided to trek the three mile stroll back. At one point we had the whole beach to ourselves and it was glorious.
Due to the high winds and rising tide we decided not to set up the tent on the beach or start a fire, opting instead to spend the night in the SUV. We were treated to views of the Space-X launch facility and workers assembling the Starship overnight.
The next morning I woke up early to see the crews still maintaining the spacecraft in preparation for a test launch. After finding suitable restroom facilities in the dark and behind a sand dune, we treated ourselves to the sunrise coming in over the ocean and then fed the seagulls and grackles their bread breakfast and decided it was time to head back before Space-X had the road closed for two days. Too bad we weren’t allowed to stay on the beach any longer.