PhotoSmith, the companion iPad application for Adobe Lightroom is now available.
As soon as it became available this morning I downloaded and installed it.
When I am away from home and don’t have my laptop with me, it will be come an essential part of my work flow.
Import is simple. I just plugged my Compact Flash card reader into the USB connector of the Apple connection kit and I had soon imported the hundred odd photographs I had taken at Whisby Nature Reserve yesterday.
The app itself is relatively simple. With the ability to select all, or by a two fingered tap, just the ones you are interested in, you can create Collections. With a Grid view, Loupe view and a full screen view, interacting with your photographs is simple and direct. Zoom in and check you focus, flag them with Ratings, Keywords and Metadata.
Once your back home, either wirelessly sync or if you have a lot of images, sync with your iPad cable back to lightroom. iTunes is not necessary, just download the free Lightroom plugin from http://blog.photosmithapp.com/index.php/plugin/
A simple but killer app which will make my work flow easier and faster, when away from home.
I can think of a number additional features I would like to see, such as presets to quickly add common details to lots of photos at once, and two way sync, so I can take a batch of photographs out of lightroom and onto the iPad for updating metadata when I have some free time.
So far its worked as advertised, does it have any bugs, well not really, I have been a little unfair to it, such as cancelling mid sync over wireless then trying to continue over a wired connection. I had to quit both Lightroom and PhotoSmith and restart them before they would carry on where they left, but to complain about such things is a little unfair. Sometime the refresh can fail but just click to another section and all is updated.
Can I recommend it, Yes definitely, and I look forward to putting it into some real action next time I take a trip as I will be leaving the laptop at home.
Rating 4 stars out of 5. If it gets the ability to apply presets and two way sync, i’ll make that 5 stars. For the amount of effect the develops have put in and for the amount of time this will save it is well worth the £10.99.
If your an iPad user and you have Lightroom, buy now.
With the rise of high quality camera’s in phones, now able to replace your typical compact. The rapid adoption of Micro Four Thirds, many are asking where the future of camera’s is heading.
If your anything like me then you make your camera’s last. Back in the film days, I bought high end secondhand SLR’s, saving my money towards good glass. I expected them to last at least ten years.
Today was my studio fashion style shoot with the lovely Charlotte who I have not worked with for ages. She was as professional and as pretty as I remember.
