Apple iPad, Day 22: Pictures and Photo Editing on the iPad

30 Years With the iPad: Day 22

1 of the nearly blazing omissions on the creative iPad, and most anticipated features of the iPad 2 is the presence of a tv camera. For nowadays's 30 Years With the iPad brand, I am winning a look at the capabilities of the iPad 2 when it comes to both taking photos, and redaction them later on the fact.

To be fair, the destination of this series is to search the iPad As a replenishment for a PC, not a camera. My notebook has a front-facing webcam built in, just taking pictures is non something combined generally does with a Microcomputer. Only, the iPad 2 can take photos, and fritter away videos, so I am going to digress somewhat and see how it performs.

It is fair, though, to analyze how asymptomatic the iPad fills the role of PC when it comes to photo editing. In the 30 Days With Ubuntu Linux series last month, I also devoted a day to comparing the GIMP image editing tool in Ubuntu with Adobe Photoshop in Windows. Information technology seems reasonable to see how well the iPad 2 can uprise to the same sort of comparison.

The image on the left is from an iPhone 4. The image along the right is from an iPad 2.

Winning Pictures

It seems a diminutive unnatural to take a picture with the iPad 2. Holding a 9-inch tab up and framing the photo is a a good deal different experience than using a smartphone like the iPhone 4, OR an actual television camera. In fact, I can't imagine a scenario where I would have my iPad 2 and not my iPhone 4, so I am much Sir Thomas More likely to snap a picture with the iPhone.

It turns out, though, that the unwieldy size up of the iPad equally a camera is not the only reason to opt against it. The camera sucks. The iPad 2 has a pitiful sub-megapixel camera, compared to the 5 megapixel camera on the iPhone 4. That agency that a pic shot on the iPad 2 is a 960 x 720 look-alike, while the iPhone 4 photo is 2592 x 1936–more than seven multiplication the pixels.

Despite the hype, it's not whol almost the megapixels, though. On that point are very much of factors that go into capturing a select pic, and megapixels is a comparatively kid scene. The iPhone 4 as wel has new features absent on the iPad 2 tv camera, though, like HDR mode, and a flash.

I took a picture of my coffee mug using both the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4. The photos were shot as identically as possible, but the difference in the quality of the pictures is startling. The iPad 2 pic has poor contrast and tinge saturation, and the image is grainy and noisy.

I don't know what Apple was intellection. After fashioning iPad users wait a year to get the television camera they likely in the first site, they put a camera in that takes picture about as good as my Sony Mavica from 1999. It is better than nothing and will arrange the trick in a pinch, but I would never choose to withdraw a picture with the iPad 2 if other options are available.

Editing Pictures

OK. So, I have ruled unfashionable taking whatever award-winning photos with the iPad 2. That is fine. The larger display still makes the iPad 2 a better platform for manipulating and editing photos after the fact irrespective what device the characterization is condemned with.

Getting a picture from the iPhone 4 to the iPad–especially without involving a PC–can be a tad tricky now, but when iOS 5 and iCloud collide with the street photos will be automatically and seamlessly synced between devices.

30 Days With the iPad — Attractive photos is not something I generally do with my PC, but editing them is.

I started out aside downloading the Adobe brick Photoshop Express app. If I was on a Windows PC, I would probably be using Photoshop, so information technology seemed like a good melodic theme to reckon what Adobe has to pop the question on the iPad.

The respond is "not much". Photoshop Express is about as close to Adobe Photoshop as Windows Paint. The app itself is free, but I also purchased the Adobe Camera Pile add-on which includes additional features to reduce interference, and also has a timekeeper function in case I want to set the iPad 2 up and rush over to jump in the photo myself.

Photoshop Express has the basic tools tyro photographers might use to touch up a impression. I ass crop the picture, and rotate or flip it. The app as wel lets Pine Tree State change the dividing line, pic, tint, and saturation of the image, and sharpen the image or slenderize noise. Throw in some borders and effects, and that pretty a lot sums up Photoshop Express.

I asked my wife–a paid lensman–to have a look as well. She is an advanced user of Photoshop CS5, and makes her living editing photos exploitation Adobe software, but Photoshop Express is merely non in the same league.

I did several inquiry and found a different app called Photogene. Photogene is a much more powerful photo redaction app than Photoshop Express. It is still non Photoshop CS5, simply IT has many an of the more advanced features my wife expects to feel when editing a photo–comparable white balance, histogram, and curves.

As a less advanced user, there are also a few things I apprise about Photogene. One is the A/B button. I fire hit changes to the various settings and those changes are reflected on the image, but I can tap the A/B clit to see what the image looked like before I started messing with it as a equivalence. After I am done screwing the picture up, I hindquarters also just tap "Original" to au fon undo everything and go back to the manner the picture was when I began.

I also equal the Export feature in Photogene. It lets me save the edited photo to the iPad 2 Pic Library, or I can base it to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox, or Picasa. I can also print information technology, email information technology, upload IT via FTP, or simulate it to the clipboard.

The Finding of fact

Can the iPad supercede a Microcomputer for a professional photographer? No. The tools available lack the hi-tech features that a professional photographer needs, and the limited RAM and storage capacity of the iPad would make up an issue when impermanent with much larger images from high-end digital camera equipment. Professional photographers should definitely stick the Personal computer.

For the other 99 pct of the world, though–those of USA who just want to touch in the lead photos to military post on Facebook–tools like Photogene proffer many than enough functionality. Getting photos from a camera surgery smartphone to the iPad is cumbersome now, merely when iOS 5 gets here the iPad tin handle the photo editing needs of average, and even more advance hobbyist photographers.

Just don't use information technology to shoot pictures.

Read the last "30 Days" series: 30 Years With Ubuntu Linux

Sidereal day 21: Apple App Store Annoyances

Mean solar day 23: Using the Front-Facing Camera on the iPad 2

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