iPad Photo Workflow
This application gives a photographer an easy way to load images from their camera card onto the iPad, and then cull and name the photos. As a hobbyist photographer, I wrote this application to make my least favorite part of photography more fun allowing me to cull and name photos while traveling, in the field, or on the couch. Also, with Affinity Photo I do most of my editing on the iPad.
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Given the camera images are loaded onto the iPad you need enough free memory on your iPad to hold all your images you will be working on.
How to Get the Apps
There are two versions of the app. The Lite version is free so you can try out the basic flow and see if it works with your iPad, camera images, etc. The non-Lite version has all the extras that make it fun and costs a few bucks (one time purchase).
Photo Workflow Lite
Photo Workflow
App Details
Home Tab
The application opens to the home tab. The home tab is used to:
- set the "Base Folder" where images offloaded from camera cards go
- initiate camera card offload
- select which group of images offloaded to cull/name/etc
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Presss the '?' button for help at any time. All tabs have a help button.
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The application will work with images taken in raw, jpg, or raw + jpg modes. When raw + jpg is used the app culls the jpg files and names raw and jpg files. The "Trash Extra Raw Files" button is used to trash the raw files that match the jpg files that got culled after culling is complete.
Getting Camera Images
Images from the camera card are copied into a subfolder of the "Base Folder" that was set on the home tab. The first step is deciding if this subfolder is an existing subfolder or a new subfolder named with the current date and the "Folder Name" entry.
The next step is setting if photos were taken in Raw + Jpg mode. And if the images EXIF dates get added to the filenames. In Raw + Jpg mode all Raw files are placed in a RAW subfolder.
If enabled, each image gets the EXIF date in the format YYYY-MM-DD_ prepended to the filename (Y/M/D for Year/Month/Day).
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Copy speed off the card will depend on the card, iPad, and card reader used as well as the image file sizes. My recent test of 509 raw + 509 jpg 24 MP images on my 11in M1 iPad Pro took 4min 13sec to copy all files onto my iPad.
Culling Images
In the culling tab each image shows on the bottom (when in portrait mode). If the image is worth keeping it is "pinned" and moves to the top. As each image shows at the bottom it can be compared to any / all of the pinned images on top to decide if the new image should be trashed, the pinned image should be trashed and replaced with the new image, or if both should be kept (pinned). Both images can be zoom/panned to check focus etc.
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The upper left button shows all pinned tabs to quickly switch which pinned image shows. You can toggle if the filename or exposure info shows, and many additional features re in the menu (shown).
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If you would rather cull looking at one image at a time or just looking at thumbnails of all the images, those can be done in the viewing tab.
Naming Images
Naming of the image files will add the text added in the "Stays" field as well as the text added in the "Clears" field. After each file naming the text in the "Clears" field is cleared unless the lock button is pressed. The curved arrow button can be used to access text entries from previous file namings to use them again.
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The "All" and "Pinned" option are available to add text to all filenames at once or all pinned filesnames at once. They also support simple find and replace.
Viewing Image
The viewing tab starts out with thumbnails of the images. Selecting an image opens it to full screen and from there swiping or arrow keys can be used to go through the images.
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Culling can be done here as both thumbnail and full screen images have pin and trash buttons. Just use the help "?" button to figure out what all the other buttons do.
Additional Features
There are a few additional tabs. The trash tab allows seeing images that have been trashed and supports untrashing the images. The settings tab allows enabling an optional pinned tab, and showing of info like supported cameras, supported file types, etc. The optional pinned tab is like the viewing or trash tab but just shows pinned images.
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Some other features that may not be obvious:
- Swiping can be used to move to previous/next images if the image is not zoomed in.
- Filenames in culling and viewing tabs can be double tapped to enter a quick renaming interface.
- Trashed files are just moved into a "TRASH" folder inside the active subfolder of images so no images are deleted until the "Delete Trash Directory" button on the home tab is pressed. At that time the TRASH directory and its contents are deleted and then can be found in the "Files" app's "Recently Deleted". It can take a few minutes for content to show in the recently deleted.
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Enjoy!
Here is a Video of
the Advanced Features
WARNING: Your images are important to you so do not erase or format your camera card until you are sure you have backups of your images. You must come up with a workflow that makes sure that happens. This app may not find all your images / video files on your camera card. Your iPad may have issues or files may get corrupted or deleted from your iPad.