New Video: Mobile Photo Editing with iPad 2 and Camera Connector Kit
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 11:36AM
For $30, the Apple Camera Connection kit turns the iPad 1 or 2 into a mobile workstation for photographers. There are two options to get your images off the camera and into the device. SD cards can conveniently be plugged right into the card reader, while compact flash (CF) users are forced to connect the camera through a USB and the Apple connector. Since my DSLR (Canon 40D) uses the CF format, I had to use the latter process.
Once connected, I turned on the camera and watched as the contents of my shoot at Central Park appeared on the iPad's screen. These were all RAW files (.CR2) and the Ipad had no problem recognizing them. There is an option to import all, or just certain selections. I picked a few of my favorites and watched as they were transferred into the "Photos" library. A dated folder was automatically created for organizational purposes. It was now time to edit using the new Filterstorm Pro app.
I opened the image in Filterstorm Pro and quickly went through a basic edit. While adjusting images with your finger tips is a lot of fun, the capabilities of the program are actually quite sophisticated. Of all the amazing functionality of this app, the most useful part is the ability to apply changes with a mask. For example, instead of adding saturation to the entire image, it can be selectively applied to a certain group of flowers. I was then able to set the color temperature with the White Balance slider, add a slight vignette, and a hint of sharpening. In less than three minutes I had a finished version saved to my photo library. From there I emailed myself a 6mb file, and saved a copy to DropBox. All of my original images remain on the memory card.
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Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for the info Chris. I don't use an iPad but do my editing on a desktop. Is this Filter Storm software available for desktops? Also, why is "sharpening" needed. A general question. Isn't the image already sharp with quality lenses? The use of a tripod also ensures sharp imaging. So why this added sharpening in the post production?
Ed, it's not a desktop solution, but rather a mobile editing tool for traveling photographers. If you've been reading this blog for any period of time, you'll know that I'm a firm believer in using a tripod nearly 100% of the time. I am also an advocate of quality lenses, and use a wide selection of them in my daily shooting. In this tutorial, I am showing just a few of the many features of the software, sharpening being one of them. I'd also like to point out that most images that are optimized for web viewing can suffer from being downsized to a 100kb file. As such, a hint of sharpening is often recommended for the best viewing experience.