In 2008 and 2009 I completed a Project 365 series. In a nutshell, I took a photo a day, every day for two years. The projects were draining and exhilarating, all at the same time.
In 2008, I retouched the photos as little as possible. This helped me really get to know my camera equipment, and rely on things like F-stops and correct light balances to get my photos the way I wanted them. I’m a better photographer for it.
For 2009’s project, I retouched my photos a good bit more, working with Aperture and Photoshop to help extend the artwork from the camera into the Mac more than before.
While I took 2010 off, I am re-starting the series in January. For 2011, I had planned on processing and retouching my photos exclusively on my iPad.
However, after a little testing, I’m not sure I can.
Why the iPad?
My tablet is pretty much always with me. This means I could work on my images at home, at school or at work. This would be much more flexible than my old system of importing images into Aperture every evening at my iMac.
Secondly, the iPad just feels like the future. It would be very badass to complete a project of this magnitude with it as the main workhorse.
My Setup
I have the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad.[1. Check out my review here.] My two cameras are a Canon Rebel XT, which is about 5 years old, and a 3-year old Canon PowerShot G9. Both are great rigs. I have (somewhat obviously) the iPad Connection Kit.
The rules of Project 365 include the stipulation the photo must be posted online by midnight to count. I have a pro account over at Flickr I use for these and other photos. I include the photo number and date in the title in this format:
Title of Photo [###/365; MM/DD/YYYY]
Testing with the iPad
In testing, I had the following photography apps on my iPad. Please note this links go to the developers’ webpages, not to iTunes:
Additionally, I’ve been using Mobile Fotos to upload images to Flickr.
If you have any others that you like, please email me suggestions.
In addition to looking at the features of these apps, I examined the way the apps treat the photo files themselves.
I took my test photo with my G9 in full-auto mode, with the ISO dial turned to “HIGH.” Here is the photo without any edits, except for downsizing for faster loading here.
The full-resolution image is over on Flickr.
The original image is 3000 × 4000 pixels at 180 pixels per inch. The file weighs in at 3.5 MB and is in sRGB. The files I imported directly from my G9 and the files I imported to the iPad and then to the Mac are identical in every way. In short, the iPad’s Photo app preserves the original file’s data and size
Let’s look at these apps.
App #1: CameraBag
CameraBag is a native iPad app, taking up all the screen space. However, the UI uses a lot of non-standard elements, but is easy enough to understand. CameraBag has numerous filters, borders and cropping options. Filters themselves each have several variations. It is capable of some really nice effects.
CameraBag has two downsides. The first is that the app only does heavy-handed filters. There’s no color correction here. This is true of many iOS photo apps. Heavily filtered photos are in style right now. Personally, if this is done well, it can really add to a shot. Sadly, not many people (or apps) do it well.
The second downside has to do with the files CameraBag exports. My 3000 x 4000 image ended up being 1875 x 2500 after export, even on the highest setting. My image is a full 1/3 smaller after being edited in CameraBag. A real bummer.
This is the photo after being edited in CameraBag.
App #2: CrossProcess
CrossProcess is an iPhone app that left me scratching my head. The interface is very simple — select a photo, select some options, and it overlays a colored layer on top of the image. However, the interface is too sparse. There’s no feedback when options are changed that they have taken affect. The effects are sometimes great — and sometimes awful. Sadly, I couldn’t ever get the effect I wanted right off the bat.
CrossProcess does, however, export images full-sized, making it a rarity among the apps I tested. Sadly, the lack of fine control is too big to ignore.
This is the image after being edited with CrossProcess.
App #3: Instagram
Instagram is not only an iPhone app, but an entire web service that allows uses to snap a photo, lay a filter down and post it to Twitter all very quickly. It even includes an Inbox to keep up with fellow Instagram users.[2. Ben Brooks isn’t a fan of this. I’m not sure I am, either.]
The filters in Instagram are amazing, but the app forces a square crop region on every photo — there is no option to turn this off.
Probably due to its primary function as a web service, the app exports photos at a measly 612 x 612. That means my Instagram exported photo is just 21 percent of its original size. Just unacceptable.
Here’s the image post-Instagram.
App #4: Photogene
This app is the only one in my testing that does substantially more than just heavy-handed filtering. Photogene comes with filters and with more traditional adjustment tools, including Exposure, Levels, Temperature and even Curves.
Photogene is easy to use and pretty fast. However, it shrunk my original image 20%. WHY!?!?
This is the photo after being edited with Photogene.
App #5: Plastic Bullet
Plastic Bullet is a cross between Instagram and CrossProcess. It will cycle through several heavy filters, but doesn’t offer any customization. To make up for this, it has a lot of filters, and most of them are quite good.
The app exports full-sized images. That is, when it doesn’t crash while exporting. Which is what usually happens.
This is the photo after running it through Plastic Bullet.
App #6: PS Express
The elephant in the room here is Adobe’s Photoshop Express. It offers both rich photo editing tools like Photogene, as well as several simple filters. It exports photos full-sized, and can even tie into Adobe’s cloud service, making photos availble within the iPad app and on photoshop.com
PS Express is the best photo-editing app I’ve found for the iPad.
A Plea to App Developers
Guys, I know that the iPad can save photos full-sized. If some developers can get this right, everyone should be able to get this right.
While we’re on this subject of things that aren’t being done right, let’s talk about EXIF data. Why can’t you keep EXIF data intact? I never took any photos with an iPad. No one has.[3. Yet.]
Just as importantly, there are a class of photographers that want to do more than just put a heavy filter on top of our photos. Let us tweak — truly tweak — our photos, like we can on the desktop.
iPad Project 365?
At this point, I don’t see completing a year of photos on the iPad being super reasonable. To maintain a full-sized image, I’d be limited to just a few apps. Hopefully this feature will become more commonplace. In the meantime, PS Express will be my main go-to app for photo adjustment. It really is great — which is sorta rare for an Adobe product these days, sadly.