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iPad2 for Photographers and Creative Professionals Tablets, Slates - do they have their place? - part 2 of 1 2 3 4 5 6

by Mike McNamee Published 01/06/2011

Usage Scenarios

Professional Photographer or Digital Artist

On-Location Photographer with Portfolio The screen on the iPad is stunning, and accurate enough to show off your images reliably. Having your entire portfolio with you all the times could quite conceivably lead to work you might not otherwise have secured.

If you're a Mac user, you can probably get away with using iPhoto and syncing all your images to the iPad. Windows users, and arguably Mac ones too, would be advised to check out "Pad Folio", an app designed to just this, and it does a great job.

The Photographer with Client Viewings

As with showing your portfolio, being able to do a client viewing anywhere, anytime, could be a significant advantage. Photographers branching out in to videography will also appreciate the iPad, as it's capable of flawlessly playing HD-quality video and audio. The speaker on the device is small, but louder and clearer than you'd expect. If audio is more crucial, any 3.5mm headphones will do the job nicely.

If you currently use, or are considering using some type of digital photoframe for your business, a tablet might well provide this function and be more flexible in providing other functionality.

An optional accessory for the iPad2 even allows for HDMI output to a Full-HD TV or HDMI-enabled projector. If you want to show images and video to more than a few people, this would be a good investment.

A VGA adaptor is also available, which would allow output to any monitor or projector - for some this might actually be a more sensible option.

Dropbox or Box.net Access

We concede that smartphone apps are available to access these services too, but opening PDFs, Office docs and images on a larger screen is sometimes desirable. The iPad has clients for Dropbox and Box.net - two of the most popular "cloud-storage" services, and allows you to upload new photos from the iPad as well.

Apple also offer a "Camera Connection Kit" - consisting of two adaptors which allow you to read images directly off an SD card, or, using a USB cable, directly to the camera. According to the specs it supports both JPEG and RAW mode, as well as H.264 and MPEG-4 video standards. Be aware that video codec issues can be a nightmare, but fortunately still-image import is much better.

You need to check compatibility with your own kit, but these should let you download your images to the iPad for viewing. Once downloaded you can send them directly to clients, using either email or the likes of Dropbox. Technically the same is true of a small laptop, so this functionality isn't new, but could replace this function.

Skype Calls

Assuming you have Wifi access (or a SIM from Three "3") you can use Skype, on the move from, your iPad. Currently the Skype client is the iPhone version, so it's not a perfect fit in the iPad screen, but everything still works, including video calls from both the iPad's front and back cameras!

During a video Skype call on the iPad the battery does last at least twice as long as a Macbook Pro doing the same thing, an impressive feat in itself.

A word on the iPad's cameras - they are designed for video only, the still picture quality is really rather poor. This is not a problem in our opinion, since you'll look a complete clown taking a photogrpah using a 10" tablet anyway! For their designed purpose (internet video calls), the cameras are fine.

The Photographer's Ephemeris* (TPE) - $8.99 * An ephemeris is a table of values that gives the positions of astronomical objects in the sky at a given time or times. Different kinds of ephemerides are used for astronomy and astrology

This app provides an overlay of sunrise and sunset onto a Google Maps image with a mapping of the position of the sun (and moon) and its elevation during the day. As such it is a valuable tool for architectural photographers or even to forewarn a wedding photographer of the likely sun position at a venue they are unfamiliar with.

You can even determine when the sun or moon will be visible behind nearby hills and mountains.

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Contact Mike McNamee

1st Published 01/06/2011
last update 21/07/2022 08:46:24

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