iPad apps and workflow for photographers (Part 1)
Today’s iPad for photographers post is a guest post from fellow wedding and portrait photographer Mark Cornwell.
It seems like I have had an iPad for months and months. The truth is that within a very short time indeed it has become something that I now consider indispensable. Indeed I am typing this on it whilst sat in front of a film on TV (I am not much of a film fan!).
When I first spoke to Michael about a post it was a review of two bits of software to show files. My iPad use expanded so fast that a “how I use it” seemed better and we agreed that I would do just that. This article has become two posts as I’ve written too much and Michael has edited me!
Before I get into the review of the two editing tool, then, here are some of the apps that I now use on a pretty much daily basis.
My mail is all set up with IMAP so in the morning I check my mail, Facebook, and a variety of forums and news feeds. First thing in the morning this is my newspaper. Often I do this before I’ve even got out of bed, whilst having a cuppa.
You might spot two apps for blogs on here. All of my RSS reading is now done exclusively on Feddler which beats using Google Reader in a browser: which is what I used to use.
WordPress? Not really my newspaper but, yes, I can write blog posts off-line and synch them later. (If Michael does not use this already I am sure he will soon.)
Back in the 1980s when Filofax were de-rigeur there was a word “Filophobia” – fear of losing your Filofax. Well “iPaphobia” must be the modern equivalent – loss of an iDevice. If you use yours anything like as much as I use mine make sure you add a security lock to prevent unauthorised access and that you join iCloud so you can locate it or remotely wipe it if it goes missing! (Settings>General>Passcode Lock and Settings>iCloud>Find My iPad>ON).
On to my daily routines.
I have a whiteboard behind me in my office and, as an ex project-manager, I used to fill it with lists. ToDo has pretty much replaced that and is a great tool for preventing procrastination. It tells me what to do next and lets me manage my lists very easily. If I had a Mac I could even synch it with my desktop machine but as a PC user I just work on the iPad with the app and back up to the PC. I check out my day ahead (and the week ahead too) and add new tasks as I think of them. A new client is added as a new mini-project from a link in an email stored on my mail file and then adjusted to show each step of the typical client shoot/process/review/print/deliver. Very easy to use and from a quick play with the new built-in ToDo on iOS this still beats it.
To avoid procrastination one of the first things that I do is get on with cold calling (Honest. No, really. Ok. So sometimes I leave it a while – you’ve got to try different times of the day!)
DocsToGo
This is my choice for synching my files from the desktop to laptop so I can edit Word and Excel files on the move. Very handy for cold calling between mobile shoots. I tried iFiles but it would not let me edit the Excel files. I have access to price lists and information sheets as PDFs or Word documents. All of my contracts are copied over and so on. In short all of the information I need is right here.
My calendar is synced to my mobile phone and Google calendar. It is also synced with my wife’s calendar. I now have all the business and family info at my fingertips and reminders going to my phone for appointments. Booking a meeting for a photo session or a review is simple using the calendar (especially since the iOS update which has improved function).
FormConnect
I won’t show you my FormConnect form. Make your own! Suffice to say I use it to log enquiries and love it. Try it and you’ll find out why. Hey, I didn’t say I would tell you everything!
The Jumbo calculator is a simple one but as a full screen device looks great when working out discounts and showing clients!
OK one last one before I tell you about the two viewing tools. Wacom have a free app called Bamboo Paper. They want to sell you their stylus and the full app. I am sure that both are great but the free one works well with other styli. I use a Kensington one which I picked up in Staples for just under a tenner. Just a few weeks ago I had a pile of scrap paper to take notes whilst cold calling or taking a call about a wedding. No longer. Now I scrawl on Bamboo Paper. (Of course I also enter the detail into my FormConnect form later.)
For those of you that use Ctrl+Esc in a PC to cycle through open applications double click the home key on the iPad and you will have a task bar appear so that you can choose an app. This helps speed up things. Now I can switch between my cold calling file, my Bamboo Paper, my FormConnect, my Calendar and my Todo. Fabulous.
My single biggest frustration with iPads is that the apps do not share data with one another. So if I have two tools to look at photos then I have two copies of those photos on the device. What a waste! It is the same for documents. I would like to use iFiles for some things and DocsToGo for others but I now just use the latter for ease.
Part 2 of Mark’s article will be published next Tuesday.
Mark Cornwell
smile collector
www.morethanaphotograph.com
www.basingstokephotographer.com
