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If you’ve got an iPad and you use Lightroom you’re going to love this. Sorry Aperture and Android users. Maybe next time.
For the last month I’ve been one of only 50 people,worldwide, beta testing the new Photosmith app for the iPad. This may actually be the first review of this program, in the world. Photosmith is in for review by Apple and should be available any day.
Photosmith is a companion app for the library module in Lightroom. It allows you to use many of the library modules organisational and metadata functions on your ipad and then sync that data, collections and images to Lightroom on your PC or Mac.
The idea behind Photosmith, is to let you keyword, rate and sort images in the field, using your ipad and then sync those files and metadata with Lightroom at your desk. This could save some people hours, by being able to get this work done in the field. I know I’ve used Photosmith extensively since the beta was released and it’s now one of the most important apps on my ipad. The basic workflow is to use the ipad camera connection kit to copy the files to your ipad, use the ipad photo app to cull out images you really don’t want. Then you import the rest into Photosmith and sort, keyword, rate and rename those images. The concept is simple, but the code to actually get it to work is complex. The guys at Photosmith have worked with Adobe to develop the plug-in that you need to make the app work with Lightroom. And the end result is pretty seamless and it even works wirelessly, with a couple of important points to note.
Firstly, a couple of things that Photosmith isn’t.
It’s not a photo editing program.
It doesn’t convert RAW files.
It doesn’t replace Lightroom.
It doesn’t do slide shows, galleries or web templates.
Photosmith is a companion to the Library module of Lightroom and you can directly sync metadata between Photosmith and your iPad. This is possible because Photosmith also requires a plug-in to be installed on your PC or Mac. Then the iPad app and Lightroom can communicate directly with each other.
I'm testing Photosmith on a first generation iPad. I have a brand new 2011 17" MacBook Pro 2.3ghz with 8 GB of ram as well as a 3 year old Sony Vaio that also has 8GB of ram.
Workflow:
The first thing to do is get the files on to your iPad. As many of you will already know, you can copy raw and jpeg files from your camera or memory cards to the iPad using Apple's camera connection kit. So that’s what you do. Import the raw or jpeg files as you normally would. Unfortunately the iPad import isn’t the fastest in the world. It’s around 4 mins per GB which will frustrate some who have huge volumes of files to import. I couldn’t use the iPad at a wedding, where I often shoot up to 40Gb in a single day. But for many commercial jobs and all my personal work, it’s been plenty fast enough. I’ve actually copied cards to the iPad while driving back from a shoot and culled, keyworded and rated files having a coffee at a local cafe or over lunch. It’s a pretty nice way to get some work done. The iPad also allows incremental backups of cards, so only new files are copied. So you can copy regularly and still leave the files on your memory card as a second copy.
Once the photos are on the iPad, then open the photos app and delete the real trash. Photosmith can’t delete files so this is done using the Apple app. And at this stage it can’t flag files as rejected, which is more of a pain. For now I’m using a colour tag for rejected images, but i hope that the photosmith team gets picks and rejects into a future version. While you can tag the files with a colour tag in Photosmith and delete those later in Lightroom, but it’s more efficient to delete files using the Apple Photos app. It speed the whole process up in Photosmith if you have less images to import.
grid view
Then you boot up Photosmith. Now it gets interesting. Photosmith will import all the files on your ipad, or all the new ones in subsequent imports. This takes about a second an image. You’ll see the thumbnails loading in the grid view. You can start working straight away, but the iPad does get slow trying to do so much at once. I’m sure the iPad2 would be better here.
On the left side of the preview pane is the catalogue settings. If you’ve synched with Lightroom previously then the catalogues in LR will display as well. You create a new catalogue for the images you want to work on and then select them and drag them to the catalogue of choice. Images not in a catalogue are not synched, so you can transfer only the images you want to.
A nice touch for m4/3 cameras like the EPL1 and EPL2 is that Photosmith will rotate images for you, even though your (and my) cameras wont.
Once the files are imported you switch to the Loupe view. On this screen you can see the file and a metadata pane. Here you can keyword, rate, rename and assign colour codes to files. Exif data is displayed as long as it is in the current Apple codec, which my EP-1 is but EP-2 is not. You can add keywords, copyright information, as well as rate and keyword files.The app can work as fast as you can tapping the desired colour or rating and flicking through files. You can double tap or use pinch controls to zoom to 100% views. It takes a second or so to redraw at full resolution. However it’s very cool being able to check critical sharpness from a 100% view.
loupe view
keyword screen
There’s also a full screen view that (believe it or not) shows the image in full screen mode. You still have buttons for rating and colour tags, but you’ll need to go back to the Loupe view to do renaming and keywords. Pinch and zoom work here as well.
full screen view
Once you’ve finished rating your files you then need to transfer them to Lightroom on your PC or Mac. The Photosmith team have done a sweet job of making this easy. Once the Photosmith plug-in is installed in Lightroom you activate it and run Photosmith on your iPad. The plug-in will find the app and ask you what you want to sync. The whole thing works wirelessly. Hit sync and it’s all done automatically. Images are copied with all their ratings, keywords etc, already done. However if you copy the image files wirelessly it’s ridiculously slow. Again this is the iPad at work, not the app. The faster way is to hook up your ipad and copy the files via the sync cable and then wirelessly sync the metadata. It’s actually easier to do this on Windows as the iPad shows up as a connected camera. Just drag and drop the files and import to Lightroom and sync with Photosmith. On a Mac Lightroom will see the iPad as a device and you can import there. but if you like to drag and drop your images you’ll need to open the Disk Utility to be able to “see” the iPad.
Photosmith is going to have a somewhat limited user base. You’ll need a Lightroom loving iPad owner who doesn’t copy vast quantities of images in a session. Having said that, if you fit into that category then Photosmith is a compelling solution to metadata management on the road. It seems nearly perfect for traveling photographers. I’m sure some commercial clients are going to love being able to rate images on an iPad and wedding photographers could use Photosmith to have clients pick and rate images for their albums.
I’m absolutely loving Photosmith. I may actually get an iPad2 to take advantage of any speed that importing and synching may be able to utilise. I’ve found that more and more I’m preferring to do my sorting and ratings on the iPad, rather than being stuck at a desk. It’s just a nicer way to work, sometimes. It’s certainly very cool being able to do these tasks at places like coffee shops and when waiting to pick up the kids. It’s going to be absolutely brilliant on my upcoming holiday to Europe. I’ll have five weeks of images, rated, sorted and keyworded before I get home. It’s going to save me hours. Days maybe.
If you utilise the full power of the Lightroom library module then Photosmith s going to be a great app to have. If you have Lightroom but don’t use its DAM functions, then you probably should and Photosmith may be a more enjoyable way to do so.
Photosmith will be US$17.99 (AUD21.99) from the app store and should be available any day now. The LR plug-in is free. For more details go to Photosmith
Pros:
Works as advertised. Does what it does really really well.
Simple touch to rate and colour tag.
Works with Raw and Jpeg files.
True integration with Lightroom. No dodgy workarounds.
Create collections within the app or use one from Lightroom.
Fast, once the images are on the ipad and imported.
100% view of raw files.
Perfect for m 4/3 users because the smaller files load and sync quicker than larger files.
Cons:
Slow file transfer to and from iPad, although this is Apples fault, not the programs.
Can’t set picks or rejects.
Can’t read metadata unless camera is supported by Apple. Again an Apple issue.
More expensive in Oz even with our better than parity exchange rate.
If you’ve got any questions, let me know.
Gordon
(disclaimer: as a beta tester I will be getting a free copy of Photosmith. This has not influenced my enthusiasm for this program or the review written above. I’ve been waiting for a program like this as long as I’ve had my iPad.)
For the last month I’ve been one of only 50 people,worldwide, beta testing the new Photosmith app for the iPad. This may actually be the first review of this program, in the world. Photosmith is in for review by Apple and should be available any day.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Photosmith is a companion app for the library module in Lightroom. It allows you to use many of the library modules organisational and metadata functions on your ipad and then sync that data, collections and images to Lightroom on your PC or Mac.
The idea behind Photosmith, is to let you keyword, rate and sort images in the field, using your ipad and then sync those files and metadata with Lightroom at your desk. This could save some people hours, by being able to get this work done in the field. I know I’ve used Photosmith extensively since the beta was released and it’s now one of the most important apps on my ipad. The basic workflow is to use the ipad camera connection kit to copy the files to your ipad, use the ipad photo app to cull out images you really don’t want. Then you import the rest into Photosmith and sort, keyword, rate and rename those images. The concept is simple, but the code to actually get it to work is complex. The guys at Photosmith have worked with Adobe to develop the plug-in that you need to make the app work with Lightroom. And the end result is pretty seamless and it even works wirelessly, with a couple of important points to note.
Firstly, a couple of things that Photosmith isn’t.
It’s not a photo editing program.
It doesn’t convert RAW files.
It doesn’t replace Lightroom.
It doesn’t do slide shows, galleries or web templates.
Photosmith is a companion to the Library module of Lightroom and you can directly sync metadata between Photosmith and your iPad. This is possible because Photosmith also requires a plug-in to be installed on your PC or Mac. Then the iPad app and Lightroom can communicate directly with each other.
I'm testing Photosmith on a first generation iPad. I have a brand new 2011 17" MacBook Pro 2.3ghz with 8 GB of ram as well as a 3 year old Sony Vaio that also has 8GB of ram.
Workflow:
The first thing to do is get the files on to your iPad. As many of you will already know, you can copy raw and jpeg files from your camera or memory cards to the iPad using Apple's camera connection kit. So that’s what you do. Import the raw or jpeg files as you normally would. Unfortunately the iPad import isn’t the fastest in the world. It’s around 4 mins per GB which will frustrate some who have huge volumes of files to import. I couldn’t use the iPad at a wedding, where I often shoot up to 40Gb in a single day. But for many commercial jobs and all my personal work, it’s been plenty fast enough. I’ve actually copied cards to the iPad while driving back from a shoot and culled, keyworded and rated files having a coffee at a local cafe or over lunch. It’s a pretty nice way to get some work done. The iPad also allows incremental backups of cards, so only new files are copied. So you can copy regularly and still leave the files on your memory card as a second copy.
Once the photos are on the iPad, then open the photos app and delete the real trash. Photosmith can’t delete files so this is done using the Apple app. And at this stage it can’t flag files as rejected, which is more of a pain. For now I’m using a colour tag for rejected images, but i hope that the photosmith team gets picks and rejects into a future version. While you can tag the files with a colour tag in Photosmith and delete those later in Lightroom, but it’s more efficient to delete files using the Apple Photos app. It speed the whole process up in Photosmith if you have less images to import.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
grid view
Then you boot up Photosmith. Now it gets interesting. Photosmith will import all the files on your ipad, or all the new ones in subsequent imports. This takes about a second an image. You’ll see the thumbnails loading in the grid view. You can start working straight away, but the iPad does get slow trying to do so much at once. I’m sure the iPad2 would be better here.
On the left side of the preview pane is the catalogue settings. If you’ve synched with Lightroom previously then the catalogues in LR will display as well. You create a new catalogue for the images you want to work on and then select them and drag them to the catalogue of choice. Images not in a catalogue are not synched, so you can transfer only the images you want to.
A nice touch for m4/3 cameras like the EPL1 and EPL2 is that Photosmith will rotate images for you, even though your (and my) cameras wont.
Once the files are imported you switch to the Loupe view. On this screen you can see the file and a metadata pane. Here you can keyword, rate, rename and assign colour codes to files. Exif data is displayed as long as it is in the current Apple codec, which my EP-1 is but EP-2 is not. You can add keywords, copyright information, as well as rate and keyword files.The app can work as fast as you can tapping the desired colour or rating and flicking through files. You can double tap or use pinch controls to zoom to 100% views. It takes a second or so to redraw at full resolution. However it’s very cool being able to check critical sharpness from a 100% view.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
loupe view
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
keyword screen
There’s also a full screen view that (believe it or not) shows the image in full screen mode. You still have buttons for rating and colour tags, but you’ll need to go back to the Loupe view to do renaming and keywords. Pinch and zoom work here as well.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
full screen view
Once you’ve finished rating your files you then need to transfer them to Lightroom on your PC or Mac. The Photosmith team have done a sweet job of making this easy. Once the Photosmith plug-in is installed in Lightroom you activate it and run Photosmith on your iPad. The plug-in will find the app and ask you what you want to sync. The whole thing works wirelessly. Hit sync and it’s all done automatically. Images are copied with all their ratings, keywords etc, already done. However if you copy the image files wirelessly it’s ridiculously slow. Again this is the iPad at work, not the app. The faster way is to hook up your ipad and copy the files via the sync cable and then wirelessly sync the metadata. It’s actually easier to do this on Windows as the iPad shows up as a connected camera. Just drag and drop the files and import to Lightroom and sync with Photosmith. On a Mac Lightroom will see the iPad as a device and you can import there. but if you like to drag and drop your images you’ll need to open the Disk Utility to be able to “see” the iPad.
Photosmith is going to have a somewhat limited user base. You’ll need a Lightroom loving iPad owner who doesn’t copy vast quantities of images in a session. Having said that, if you fit into that category then Photosmith is a compelling solution to metadata management on the road. It seems nearly perfect for traveling photographers. I’m sure some commercial clients are going to love being able to rate images on an iPad and wedding photographers could use Photosmith to have clients pick and rate images for their albums.
I’m absolutely loving Photosmith. I may actually get an iPad2 to take advantage of any speed that importing and synching may be able to utilise. I’ve found that more and more I’m preferring to do my sorting and ratings on the iPad, rather than being stuck at a desk. It’s just a nicer way to work, sometimes. It’s certainly very cool being able to do these tasks at places like coffee shops and when waiting to pick up the kids. It’s going to be absolutely brilliant on my upcoming holiday to Europe. I’ll have five weeks of images, rated, sorted and keyworded before I get home. It’s going to save me hours. Days maybe.
If you utilise the full power of the Lightroom library module then Photosmith s going to be a great app to have. If you have Lightroom but don’t use its DAM functions, then you probably should and Photosmith may be a more enjoyable way to do so.
Photosmith will be US$17.99 (AUD21.99) from the app store and should be available any day now. The LR plug-in is free. For more details go to Photosmith
Pros:
Works as advertised. Does what it does really really well.
Simple touch to rate and colour tag.
Works with Raw and Jpeg files.
True integration with Lightroom. No dodgy workarounds.
Create collections within the app or use one from Lightroom.
Fast, once the images are on the ipad and imported.
100% view of raw files.
Perfect for m 4/3 users because the smaller files load and sync quicker than larger files.
Cons:
Slow file transfer to and from iPad, although this is Apples fault, not the programs.
Can’t set picks or rejects.
Can’t read metadata unless camera is supported by Apple. Again an Apple issue.
More expensive in Oz even with our better than parity exchange rate.
If you’ve got any questions, let me know.
Gordon
(disclaimer: as a beta tester I will be getting a free copy of Photosmith. This has not influenced my enthusiasm for this program or the review written above. I’ve been waiting for a program like this as long as I’ve had my iPad.)
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