Hi Lifehacker, I recently purchased my other half a DSLR camera for Christmas. She doesn’t have a laptop or PC, and I’m not sure we could warrant buying a computer for the purpose of touching up photographs. She does have an iPad Air, and I’m contemplating purchasing a single-bay NAS for photo backups (which will sync to my own NAS for redundancy).
Short of buying another computer, what do you think is the best way forward for backups and organisation? She’d use a tablet for the purpose of simple touch ups and organising/deleting photos. She isn’t computer savvy, so a simple solution is preferred. Thanks, Photo Plans
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Dear PP,
There are stacks of great editing tools on iOS that are optimised for the iPad. Examples include Camera+ (a feature packed all-rounder), VSO Cam (which contains Instagram-style filters), Photo Editor by Aviary, (a beginner-friendly image editor) Camera Noir (great for adding black-and-white), Snapseed (a touch-optimised photo editor with a solid Auto Correct mode) and Adobe Photoshop Express.
Our personal pick is Camera+ which will set you back $6.49. This is a fast and user-friendly photography app that comes with a swathe of useful features. It is still updated frequently, which means there’s always something new to tool around with. In addition to its solid editing capabilities, you can also use Camera+ to take photos from inside the app — handy for those times when your wife doesn’t have her DSLR handy. Crucially, the camera software allows you to set focus and exposure separately and comes with an inbuilt image stabiliser. You can download the app here.
Unfortunately, syncing your photos to a NAS is a bit trickier, since iOS doesn’t like exposing its file system. One possible solution is to transfer your photos from the camera to the iPad and then store them in the cloud using an automated service such as IFTTT . You can set IFTTT up so that any photos that appear in an iPad album are immediately sent to the online storage provider of your choice (supported options include Dropbox, Google Drive, Flickr, Box and OneDrive). You can also use IFTTT to send photos stored in the cloud back to the iPad for edits/touch-ups.
We’re also going to throw this one over to our readers. What’s the best solution for editing and storing DSLR photos using just an iPad? Share your tips and recommendations in the comments section below.
Cheers
Lifehacker
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Comments
3 responses to “Ask LH: How Can I Manage My Wife’s iPad Photos?”
Dropbox and Google drive both have built-in apps that sync photos directly to the Cloud. IPad photos app does the same in IOS 8.1. I think OeDrive can also upload photos. From a cost point of view Google Drive is cheapest, Apple most expensive most expensive. I prefer Dropbox, as it is the most powerful option (LAN sync, & only syncs delta block changes to large files. Many modern NAS also offer “Dropbox like” sync capabilities to iPads, but I have never tried these.
Do not even think about managing your photos on an ipad. You will end up with 100’s of photos all over the place and when you try to remove them you can only do one at a time,
in a word hopeless.
DSLR’s can produce fantastic photos and even some that are borderline can be made into acceptable by recording them in raw format and changing them by software. Again an ipad is not the device for doing that.
ipads are only good for showing photos, not producing changes or storing them.
Do all the work with a good PC or Mac and then store them in large format externally so you will have them in 50 years, but don’t commit to the cloud, you never now who will turn up with them.
This. Use the right tool for the job. There is a reason photographers use Lightroom, Photoshop, large matte monitors, keyboard/mouse, large hard drives etc.
Dear LifeHacker, I bought a 1963 Mini Cooper. How can I make it do 400 KPH? I got a Bugatti Veyron engine but it doesn’t really fit and the Mini Cooper tipped over. Other people seem to using Bugatti Veyrons and dedicated drag racers for this. What should I do?
If that’s your wife in the pic I’ll do it for you for free, please PM iCloud username and password 🙂
You do the photos I’ll do the….
sorry, really really sorry ….hahahaha