The iPad is a beautiful device. It’s a great size, gorgeous screen, portable, and has an app for everything. Well… almost everything.
We’re a couple of guys who are “serious hobbyists” when it comes to photography. While we’re not true professionals, we enjoy using professional gear, tools, and software. Adobe’s Lightroom has arguably been the best software for photographers released in years, allowing easy management of hundreds or thousands of images. And with the latest breed of digital SLR’s, creating that many pictures is as simple as clicking the shutter release button.
However, while Apple has the Photos application on the iPad and the ability to import from the camera using the Camera Connection Kit, it’s simply insufficient to manage your photos on the go. Wouldn’t you love to do at least some the same tagging, sorting, rating, etc, like you do in Lightroom, and then have those settings follow the images as they are imported into Lightroom?
And that’s exactly what Photosmith does. It’s not a replacement for Lightroom- it’s a travel-sized companion. It simply allows the same stuff to happen on your iPad, before you get back to your desk. And it does this without iTunes, and works on PC and Mac versions of Lightroom. You can maintain your same RAW workflow from beginning to end, using your iPad in the field. View (even 1:1 zoom) and organize your pictures in the field; use Lightroom at your main PC – it’s the best of both worlds.
Photosmith 1.0 has been sent to Apple for approval, and will be available in the App Store around the end of April, 2011. This blog is intended to keep anyone interested up to date on our latest happenings, musings, and general news related to the app.
If you have comments, please let us know- we really want to know what people want! Feel free to send an email to support (at) photosmithapp.com or visit http://support.photosmithapp.com
30 Comments
This sounds exciting. Will it also be useful for tagging, and rating after the images are in lightroom? I currently do this using an RDP client. I don’t do ‘critical’ work this way but it does allow my to get through a photo shoot and not be ‘locked’ away in my home office. (my wife likes me around, oddly enough).
Yes! That’s what this app is all about. The only thing we can’t do yet is sync flags (Pick/Reject) because Lightroom’s API doesn’t support it. But, we’re experimenting with a work-around that might work.
This looks promising!
When will the iPad app be ready for release?
Also, how soon willnthe work around for syncing flags be working?
We’re shooting for a late February / early March release date.
Syncing flags is still unknown at this time. We’re talking to Adobe now to see if there’s anything that can be done about it. It’s a limitation in their own interface, so not much more we can do about it without a change on their side.
If I already have my photos in lr and just want to take a collection with me to do some ratings etc in photosmith, will the plugin send over full size images to my ipad, or can i chose to send smaller rez images, just so I can look at them, and then sync only the new metadata back to my origials in lr?
At this time, Photosmith only edits going from the iPad *to* Lightroom. However, adding support for the opposite direction (what you have described) is very high on the priority list for the next version. In order to get 1.0 out the door certain things just have to wait.
Thanks for your reply. Though it was not the reply I was hoping for
For some reason, the Camera Connection Kit does not work for me (I shoot raw using Canon EOS 1D Mk II), so it seems 1.0 will not be that useful for me. But, I hope 1.1 will!
I don’t have an iPad yet, but am very interested in using one in the field to cut down on the amount of equipment I have to lug around. Its primary use would be for photography, and Photosmith looks very promising. When traveling, I backup my photos every night from the camera (SDHC card) to my current laptop’s hard drive. Since the iPad has insufficient memory for this, I would need to use an external drive. My question is: does Photosmith have the ability to export selected files (RAW + JPEG) or entire libraries to an external drive connected via the USB port on the camera connection kit? This is essential since uploading photos to online storage is not always possible or feasible.
Bjorn-
Apple doesn’t currently allow external devices such as hard drives with the iPad.
However, I’ve found that my 64Gb iPad is more than enough for a week’s worth of traveling. I shoot with a 5DMkII, which produces a 21MP image; 64Gb holds around 3,000 images. While I may take more than 3000 images per week, I never have 3000 “keepers”, so if I even do minimal work of throwing out the bad pictures, I find that I have plenty of room.
We’re exploring ways to extend the usable space onto a hard drive (notably, using HyperDrive), but given the current limitations of Apple and their app store policies, I can’t make any guarantees. I
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. I had not heard of HyperDrive. 64GB is not sufficient for my needs; I’ve just returned from 4 weeks of traveling through India, shooting 18MB RAW files with my Panasonic GH2. Even after deleting on a daily basis, I still end up with more than 100GB of files to backup. So an external drive is essential for me. If Photosmith were able to access external drive space that would be very useful. I understand that you can’t make any guarantees…cheers.
This is really exciting – keep up the good work guys!
A question though. I was just about to buy the Camera Connection Kit in preparation for Photosmith’s release but I’ve just read that, since the release of iOS 4.2, the adapter’s power output has been reduced from 100mA to 20mA. As far as I understand, the only cards the kit supports are SD, so everyone else has to connect to their cameras using the USB adapter. The lack of power seems to be rendering the kit useless for some people.
I wouldn’t have thought that any professional SLR needs external power, but the problems this has caused for one seemingly pro user in his review on the Apple website has got me worried (he didn’t specify his camera). Like ckhorn above, I also have a Canon 5DII. Will this change of Apple’s affect me? Is there a list anywhere of which cameras are affected?
Kieran-
This is the first I’ve heard about the power output being reduced (although admittedly, I’ve been busy programming/testing/bugfixing recently) in the CCK. It may be a way to limit the number of devices that are recognized over the CCK (ie- external hard drives, flash drives, etc). I’m with you – I don’t know why any pro-level camera (or any camera, for that matter) would pull it’s power from the USB line when adding images -it wouldn’t make sense.
However, I can confirm that I’ve tested the CCK on two different iPad 2′s and with three different cameras (two 5DII’s and a 7D), and didn’t experience any problems. I was testing the app and not the CCK, so it didn’t occur to me to test any other hardware, so I can’t confirm or deny other issues. I’d be interested in finding out what kind of camera that reviewer was using.
Obviously, this is something Apple would need to address if it’s an issue – we don’t have any control over the hardware…
Hi ckhorne – thanks for your quick reply
From what I’ve read in the reviews, Apple changed the power that the CKK outputs when they released iOS 4.2, so it doesn’t sound like it’s a hardware thing but rather a conscious software/firmware change. Either waz, if you’ve been testing Canon SLRs on iPad(s) with the latest iOS installed, I’m sure all’s OK.
The assumption, as you say, seems to be that they’re trying to prevent people from connecting external storage to the CCK. Why this would achieve this though I’m not entirely sure – if people have jailbroken their iPads so they can connect the self-powering MyPassport drives then I’m not sure what’s to stop them jailbreaking the power output. Equally, I don’t see how this would prevent self-powering drives, in particular the Hyperdrive, from working – I haven’t been able to find any reports of people having difficulty with the Hyperdrive but I also haven’t looked very hard (I first heard about the Hyperdrive last night when I came across Photosmith and this blog).
So, as far as I can tell, this change seems to only serve to annoy some Apple customers who just want to use the CCK for what it’s meant for without really achieving much else in the way of preventing “unauthorised”/unintended use. Unless, of course, the change was made for other reasons – reliability and/or safety perhaps?
Some of the reviews discussing this issue can be found here – Some reviews discussing this can be found here http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC531 . Just look for the ones which have 1 star. Similar reviews are also on Amazon UK but I also suspect they’re on Amazon US as well.
Hope this helps and doesn’t delay release in any way, I for one am waiting with baited breath
.
I meant to say above, this CCK issue applies to the original iPad and the complaints started to emerge late last year when iOS 4.2 came out. No idea what’s been done with the USB power output on iPad 2.
This looks like a great program to have. I have been looking at the iPad 2, but have not found how to take the pictures from the iPad to an external hard drive for traveling purposes. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
We’ve heard of a product called HyperDrive but we haven’t actually tried it yet.
Lovin the Photosmith tour, great news on the release date too!
Another questiom though, I only have the 16 Gb original iPad with under 10Gb free, so since I mainly use a single 16Gb CF card this will rarely give me enough space to copy all my photos from the card for sorting and deleting in Photosmith.
I’d like to avoid getting a Hyperdrive for the time being. Is it possible to work on photos that are still on the CF card? If it is possible, would it be prohibitively slow? Or, alternatively, can I move batches of photos from the camera for working on and then move them back to the camera? (I thought there were issues with transfering data from the iPad without iTunes but these things keep changing.)
Yet another question, sorry!
In your grand tour you say that, when rendering 1:1 previews of 21MP RAW files, Photosmith is “Faster than Lightroom 3 on my desktop for the initial zoom … around 2-3 seconds.”
Is this on the original iPad, or on iPad 2? As said I have the original so this is important for me.
When I was estimating the times, that was from an iPad 1. The difference is that we must reload the 1:1 data every time you open the picture, so while we may be slightly faster than Lightroom, Lightroom does cache the data, and so is faster every subsequent load. That’s simply the limitation of the iPad.
With regards to external storage: Apple only gives access to the files loaded on the device, and it’s not possible to offload those files so you can work with more. We realize this will affect a number of people, and will be exploring options in future versions.
I currently use shuttersnitch app. to view my jpeg images on my ipad, my camera allows me to use compact flash “raw” and sd “jpeg”.
Would your app allow me to tag my jpeg images on my ipad and upload to my Raw files on my hard-drive.
Hmm- I don’t quite follow what you’re asking, so I’ll try to answer the best I can. Photosmith is designed to work with the photos already loaded on the iPad, typically through the Camera Connection Kit. You can load images (RAW is preferred, but jpg also works) directly into the iPad, and Photosmith loads them directly. When you get back to your computer, simply copy your pictures off your iPad (or sync to Lightroom – either way).
As for integration with Shuttersnitch, it *may* be possible – I haven’t used it, so I can’t confirm either way. If Shuttersnitch saves into a folder that you can see when you start the Photos App, then yes, Photosmith will pick these up for viewing, tagging, etc. If Shuttersnitch stores the files only within it’s own app, then Photosmith won’t have access to them (as designed by Apple).
Yet another question. Will there be any functionality for tethered shooting? If not are there any plans for it?
One thing at a time…
What a great product you guys are working on! I was just wondering if you are thinking of making other versions to make Photosmith work with other tablet PCs out there — not just iPad.
Of course I understand that you’ve got your hands plenty full rolling it out for the iPad for now but just thought I’d ask.
Cheers
We don’t have any plans at the current time. The iPad in some ways is much easier because the hardware is standardized, whereas with other tablets, you may have an OS that may run on many different devices, making development much more difficult. The iPad is also more established, making the development cycle much easier for us to manage.
We’re not completely ruling it out, but right now, we just don’t have the resources to devote to recreating it on another tablet. Other than re-using the design, it’d pretty much have to be re-written from scratch – a daunting effort….
Makes sense. Thanks so much for the quick reply. I had actually ruled out an iPad until seeing your app. You guys should get a commission from Apple on iPad sales to photogs
Hi guys,
Congratulations on getting the app up on the iTunes store.
I want to emphasize what one of the other posters already wrote — there is a market for an app which will allow one to sync photos already on Lightroom on a computer back to the iPad.
The iPad is a great device to share and review photos, and I’d love to be able to sync photos from a specified collection or collections on Lightroom on the Mac back to my iPad, hopefully with the option to do some light categorization / keywording / rating / slideshows on the iPad.
Good luck!
I strongly agree with Slip!
Just purchased the app. Awesome. It will take me a few days to really put it to work. But looking forward to it. Running great on my iPad2.
The features that others mentioned sound like awesome ideas… There is so much potential for an app like this.
Keep up the great work, and in case nobody said it… Thanks…
This is just what I’ve been waiting for, and it’s looking great. Can’t wait to get a Camera Connector and fire it up!
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