# RAW processing on an iPad?



## ahsanford (Apr 27, 2017)

Hey gang, I never process RAW files on the road, instead opting to wait until I get home from whatever trip I'm on. But I might revisit that for an upcoming trip.

Was just wondering what my options were to process RAW files from my 5D3's sd card on my iPad (Mini, retina 2nd gen, from Dec 2013). I presume I need the SD / Lightning dongle from Apple, but what do I process files with?

I'm used to the following:


5D3 shots --> Mac --> ACR (most of my 'editing' is here, I do very little in PS) --> PS CS6 (principally just to save to JPG)


iPhone shots --> process in iOS on the decidedly basic Adobe PS Express

I'm not sure I want to step up from CS6 to CC just for mobile processing, so I'd like to avoid a big ticket pickup. What are my options to get traditional ACR-like control of the RAW file and pipe the output to JPG?

And seeing how little masking/brushwork/retouching I do, I don't really need a stylus for occasional iPad work, do I?

Thanks,
A


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## Eagle Eye (Apr 27, 2017)

The SD card reader from Apple will get the RAWs onto the iPad. Be prepared for slow loading of thumbnails. After that, Google's Snapseed app, available through the App Store, will read the RAW files and is an amazingly capable little editor.


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## tomscott (Apr 27, 2017)

I travelled with my iPad mini ret 2 for 5 months in 2015. 2 months South America 3 months North America.

It was great because they are so versatile, less likely to break, small and can be used for other things like leisure on long distance traveling. At the time it was also quite quick.

The ipad didn't support raw files at the time but you could process small raw with snapseed but it was so slow!!! So I shot small JPG to the SD and kept the raw to the CF then bought a UDMA Hyderdrive and put a 2TB HDD in it to transfer my files. Came home with around 30,000 images. I used the SD card to Lightening to transfer my images and edited with photoshop express because lightroom mobile wasn't available at the time.







Problems you will have:

A. its too slow
B. Colour is poor at best 
C. Space
D. No file system
E. Screen is a great size for travel but too small to edit on.

Raw files are compressed and when you open them they get much larger so even if you have a 128gb version you might get 4000 images on it compressed without any other data. Which wasn't good for me as I had over 15000 just from the first 2 months.

Colour is really poor on the older displays here is a shot that looked perfect on screen but as you can see its so saturated it looks really awful. Posted this on the forum and got plenty of comments about how poor my editing is although looked great on the iPad.



Mesa Arch, Canyonlands, Utah by Tom Scott, on Flickr



Grand Canyon west, Hualapai Nation, Arizona by Tom Scott, on Flickr

Worth considering too is backup. With no file system and no availability of attaching a drive the hyperdrive is the only option, but what if you loose the hyperdrive? I ended up buying a 2tb HDD in Lima Peru and using the hostels machines to copy my data over which took pretty much all night. But meant I had 2 copies and kept them in separate bags.

My second 6 month trip I took an 11" MacBook air. Great thing about it is that its a similar size to a standard iPad weighs less than 1kg and was a powerhouse for mobile it was an i7 with 8gb and 512gb benched at 3200 single and 6500 multi. For an 11" machine it was impressive. All the above solved.

This is the version
https://browser.primatelabs.com/v4/cpu/search?q=model:"MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2013)" platform:"Mac" processor:"Intel Core i7-4650U" frequency:1700 bits:64

Only issue with it is they are much more venerable, I carried a bag with a 5DMKIII 7DMKII 24-105 16-35 and 100-400mm so it was around 10-12kg as a daily bag with the laptop and supplies. The screen ended up being pressed as it was between the gear and my back in my F stop Loka lightweight, so I ended up getting keyboard key imprint marks on the screen, thankfully apple replaced under warranty.

Here are a couple I editied on the road with this while traveling Africa and South east asia



























The fantastic thing is you have a full lightroom library and you don't have to re-edit the images like the jpegs I was previously. My first trip I went ultra light and found it limiting the second took a lot more and covered all bases but it was much heavier as I had another bag for my clothes etc which probably weighed 15-18kg so nearly 30 in total to backpack. But I was traveling to a lot more diverse places so needed more gear.

Whereas my first trip I was so weight conscious I only took around 20kgs total as I took the 5DMKIII 70-300mm L 24-105mm 16-35mm and the ipad with connectors. But found the workflow to be pretty bad and more work later.

I recently had my house burgled unfortunately and had the 11" stolen so I have replaced it with a cheap 12" MacBook Gen 1 because of lack of funds trying to replace everything. I have to say although a huge downgrade in speed the display is beautiful and its so dam small so much thiner and lighter its fantastic and tbh the speed doesn't seem to make a huge difference for casual travel edits rather than say using my mac pro with huge librarys of images.

https://browser.primatelabs.com/v4/cpu/search?q=model:"MacBook (Early 2016)" platform:"Mac" processor:"Intel Core m3-6Y30" frequency:1100 bits:64

tbh the newer iPad pro with lightroom and sync seems a great option with the pencil as colour is fantastic and you can actually edit images and the pro is nearly as fast as my air!! Crazy fast. But problems I faced regularly even in the states is that the wifi is nowhere near fast enough for this workflow. If your picking and editing 1-5 a day maybe its ok but not for a decent workflow. In South America and Africa I barely ever had wifi fast enough to post images let alone sync the mobile library. 

So its not really the best process but apple are rumoured to be creating a file system to make the ipad more useful and I'm sure the new pro will come with 512gb but at what cost? More than a laptop probably.

Especially if you are in a big hotel or traveling with a group as this tends to happen...






Bandwidth disappears!

Hope this helps!


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## LDS (Apr 27, 2017)

ahsanford said:


> I'm not sure I want to step up from CS6 to CC just for mobile processing, so I'd like to avoid a big ticket pickup. What are my options to get traditional ACR-like control of the RAW file and pipe the output to JPG?



If you get CC the work you do on the iPad will be compatible with what you do on your PC. Using a different application may mean all work done is lost, and you may have to start from scratch with ACR/PS later.



ahsanford said:


> And seeing how little masking/brushwork/retouching I do, I don't really need a stylus for occasional iPad work, do I?



But AFAIK the iPad Pro, the others don't really support a stylus. Those just replacing the finger don't have the required tracking sensitivity for effective retouching work. There are some Bluetooth add-ons, but lacking real device support results may be disappointing. A friend of mine tried to use one of them, but ended up returning it.

Also, AFAIK, iPads cannot be color calibrated. There are some photo viewers apps that support calibration, but not the device itself. This may be an issue or not, depending if your workflow is calibrated or not. In this case, a small laptop could be a better choice, and you would use the same tools you're used to.


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## Random Orbits (Apr 27, 2017)

I know that my scenario is different than yours (using LR instead of PS ACR), but it might prove to be helpful in the long run. We replaced an old laptop with iPads about 4 years ago, and it worked well for most things except for a photography workflow. I used Photosmith for a while to review/downselect when traveling, but it is cumbersome syncing/transferring to the computer plus you couldn't do edits.

I finally succumbed and got the family a laptop in December for about $450. It's slower than my much older desktop, but its more powerful than the iPad and has much more storage. Installed LR/PS CC and calibrated the screen. Tested it out while travelling during Christmas/New Years and it worked wonderfully. Same workflow and loaded post-processed files into SmugMug where family could view/download the pictures. And when I get home, I just move the files over to the desktop and "import" them into LR so that everything is in the same database.

Our family will be visiting the national parks in the west this summer for two weeks, and I intend on using the laptop to backup the cards/and edit on the go. The amount of time it saves (similar workflow and already knowing if you got the shot) and it's ability to act as a backup to the cards is worth the cost of the laptop. And in the case that the cameras/laptop are stolen, at least I'll have the processed jpegs in SmugMug. The fact that other family members use it for other purposes is gravy.


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## ahsanford (Apr 27, 2017)

tomscott said:


> I travelled with my iPad mini ret 2 for 5 months in 2015. 2 months South America 3 months North America.
> 
> [truncated]
> 
> Hope this helps!



What a *fantastic* and thoughtful post. Wow! Great shots as well, thanks for posting.

This reinforces that I should be using a laptop if I'm processing out in the field, or that any iPad transfer/editing I do in the field be limited to just share a few keepers on social media and re-process them in earnest at home.

THANK YOU!

- A


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## ahsanford (Apr 27, 2017)

Thanks for everyone's posts. Sounds like without CC, without an IOS file system, without good color calibration, etc. pursuing RAW processing in the field is slow, iffy, a waste of time and fraught with limitations.

I may just be better off getting the SD reader and using it on my _phone_. I'll swap a few keeper JPGs over and edit them in PS express. I'll lose the RAW latitude and more powerful editing options, but I also won't waste much time, lose a file, blast it's color and have to repeat it.

Thanks all.

- A


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## privatebydesign (Apr 27, 2017)

I use CC with RAW files on my 12" iPad Pro.

Depending on what you are trying to achieve I find it works absolutely fine, the nicest thing is when I eventually get back to the office all the edits, ratings, keywords etc, basically all the work I can do on flights and down time, is automatically synced. This means however slow it might be, and my iPad Pro isn't that slow on 21MP RAW files, it is productive time. It also means I don't have a mixed RAW jpeg workflow.

I travelled with laptops for years, now I just take the iPad and am fine with it, I also travel with a printer, a little Canon CP910. I am a relatively low volume shooter and haven't had an issue with storage as I can fit everything on the iPad and my CF cards, that gives me backup, not that I care too much about that and I think this 'backup' mentality is vastly over stated.

For the record, iPad screen profiles are very good, some particular and fussy people are more than happy to incorporate iPads into their photography workflow.


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## tomscott (Apr 27, 2017)

privatebydesign said:


> I use CC with RAW files on my 12" iPad Pro.
> 
> Depending on what you are trying to achieve I find it works absolutely fine, the nicest thing is when I eventually get back to the office all the edits, ratings, keywords etc, basically all the work I can do on flights and down time, is automatically synced. This means however slow it might be, and my iPad Pro isn't that slow on 21MP RAW files, it is productive time. It also means I don't have a mixed RAW jpeg workflow.
> 
> ...



It works as long as you have first world connectivity. 

It also depends how long you are away for if its a vacation then you can probably take enough cards with you but if your away for months at a time not backing up is such a stupid idea, if you keep everything in one place and loose or have the bag stolen that's all your memories and effort wasted. That is the reality of traveling. The gear doesn't really matter to me it can be replaced, the pictures cant.

The new ipads like the Pro are very good the older screens like the Mini 2 are not as I have shown in the images above. If you are willing to spend the money on the 12" I'm not sure why you wouldn't buy a proper machine its still a glorified media consumption device with no file system. By the time you spec a pen and adapters your right in the middle of a good laptop with better specs and a similar size.


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## tomscott (Apr 27, 2017)

ahsanford said:


> tomscott said:
> 
> 
> > I travelled with my iPad mini ret 2 for 5 months in 2015. 2 months South America 3 months North America.
> ...



No problem at all. I thought long and hard at the time and went through many scenarios. I made a few threads in the travel section. 

The problem for me was limited connectivity and time out in the field. If your in the 1st world and have great hotels or connectivity then its fantastic but the most incredible places generally have limited connectivity and are miles from civilisation. 

Things have moved on now and I'm sure you can use the newer technology but for me having a library on a SSD and just transferring it or merging later is easier than waiting for uploads or downloads and you can make a backup of it on another drive, with the ipad you cant and have to rely on the internet.

While traveling the US I was amazed how poor the internet speeds were even in big chain hotels like the Hilton and you had to pay $10 for the privileged of fast speeds.


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## ahsanford (Apr 27, 2017)

I'm just headed off on vacation and it's fun to post stuff while you're out there, that's all. It's admittedly a very petty need compared to working professionals on location who have bandwidth bottlenecks, deadlines, storage limitations, need for backup solutions, etc.

I'll just share JPGs with the adapter over my phone. I have zero desire to fight through the problems and issues you raised, and there's a 0% I'm lugging a laptop on this trip.

No worries. I'm good.

- A


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## privatebydesign (Apr 27, 2017)

tomscott said:


> privatebydesign said:
> 
> 
> > I use CC with RAW files on my 12" iPad Pro.
> ...



I have done several around the world trips lasting up to six months, my reality has been that obsessing about multiple backups is a waste of time energy money and effort. We never 'backed up, our film images. But an effective digital backup strategy is easy cheap compact and does not require connectivity at all, first world or not.

As for a file system, there are many apps that give you an effective file system and several self contained wireless HDD's that work well and are set up for movies music and photos. If you demand HDD backup it is very easy and does not require first world connections as it is all done on Ad Hoc networks and the accompanying apps make file structure easy.

But to be clear. Using Lightroom Mobile does not require a connection, let alone a first world one. I connect my camera to my iPad via a $29 dongle and load the RAW images onto it, I can then do whatever I like in LR Mobile all without a connection. When I get a connection I can do whatever I want, or not. I can postpone syncing until I get home if that is what I want to do. I can manipulate images, apply ratings and keywords etc all without a connection.

See this video here between five minutes and ten minutes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLnYxbiz-10 no connection needed, full RAW editing functionality. Upload whatever you want to wherever you want when you get a connection, but everything works without one.

Ashford, the video is shot in Stockholm too 

iPad's come in 256GB, self contained battery powered 1TB wireless HDD's can be had for $129, heck some even have built in card readers for that money, 64GB CF and SD cards can be bought for chump change especially on B&H deal of the day deals, how much space do you want?

We have the reliable tech now to get this stuff done as we have dreamed of it for years.


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## ahsanford (May 12, 2017)

Wow. Just got the SD Card Lightning reader, and the questions... oh so many questions:

1) I downloaded Snapseed and though it _processes_ RAW files (more on that later), it does not let me import them. So (at least right now) I am stuck bringing photos in through the Photo Import and then bringing them up in Snapseed. Cumbersome.

2) Must I go through the wretchedly slow and uninformative Import process in iOS Photos to pull content from the card? Even a 32 GB card crushed my phone and iPad to just bring up thumbnails. Is the Photos app the only software that handshakes with the SD card reader? Is it slow because it is auto-processing my RAW files into JPG? 

3) I always shoot JPG + RAW (JPG for screening/storytelling, but a small % of keepers are RAW processed). The import process only seems to be showing me one of each photo when there should be two files, but the files do not seem to be marked JPG or RAW. So am I looking at the JPG or RAW file in that case?

4) As a test, I switched to _only_ RAW and took a shot and tried to bring it in with the import. It actually showed up, and when I imported it in the Photos process, Snapseed did indeed recognize it as a RAW file, but the sliders / options were a fraction of what I'm used to with ACR. Also, the quality of the file was pretty poor, noisy, colors seemed off a bit -- did the import process 'cook' the RAW somewhat and throw out some file quality, prematurely dump it into 8 bit, etc.?

In short, the SD card reader works but it's horrifically, horrifically slow and the import process stripped down to the bone for options/conveniences. If there is a faster/better/more convenient way to use it in iOS, do let me know, thx.

(And as I said earlier in the thread, RAW processing is not a must. I just want to post 2-3 keepers a day while traveling, and I can work with JPGs until I get home to process things in earnest.)

- A


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