iPad editing with Lightroom. Drawbacks? Storage? Is it worth the price?

[Chfrat]

I am getting back into photography and very recently purchased the Alpha 7C with a 20-70 zoom. I have Lightroom on my laptop. I am considering purchasing an iPad and using it for editing my photos. I'm looking at the iPad Pro. Not sure which size yet. The unknowns for me are, what are the drawbacks to using an iPad for editing? Can you only edit a limited number of photos at one time? Then offload them to your laptop. Can the iPad handle the size of RAW files. What are the limitations of using an iPad for editing? I was ready to push the "buy" button yesterday but had a number of reservations, mainly, how much storage will I need? Is there any guideline for determining this?

 

[Gaz]

I am getting back into photography and very recently purchased the Alpha 7C with a 20-70 zoom. I have Lightroom on my laptop. I am considering purchasing an iPad and using it for editing my photos. I'm looking at the iPad Pro. Not sure which size yet. The unknowns for me are, what are the drawbacks to using an iPad for editing? Can you only edit a limited number of photos at one time? Then offload them to your laptop. Can the iPad handle the size of RAW files. What are the limitations of using an iPad for editing? I was ready to push the "buy" button yesterday but had a number of reservations, mainly, how much storage will I need? Is there any guideline for determining this?

I use my 128Gb iPad Pro 12” for editing in Lightroom. It’s easier to see the image compared to using my iPhone and highly portable with its own SIM card.

All the images I edit there are set to optimize storage in iCloud which gets rid of the storage issue.

However, I also carry around an SSD drive that connects to the iPad. So my workflow is convoluted.

When I’m home I transfer from camera to portable SSD on my mbp. If I’m traveling, I’ll hook up the SSD to iPad, transfer the raw files I want to work with into iCloud for access by lightroom, then save from there to apple photos, also synced to icloud.

My ideal workflow would be from Sony A7iv to iCloud using phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. That would save a lot of peripherals.

My iCloud storage is a commercial purchase, and the SSD is 2Gb, but I’m on my second one. Keeping everything is a hard habit to break.

 

[Chfrat]

I use my 128Gb iPad Pro 12” for editing in Lightroom. It’s easier to see the image compared to using my iPhone and highly portable with its own SIM card.

All the images I edit there are set to optimize storage in iCloud which gets rid of the storage issue.

However, I also carry around an SSD drive that connects to the iPad. So my workflow is convoluted.

When I’m home I transfer from camera to portable SSD on my mbp. If I’m traveling, I’ll hook up the SSD to iPad, transfer the raw files I want to work with into iCloud for access by lightroom, then save from there to apple photos, also synced to icloud.

My ideal workflow would be from Sony A7iv to iCloud using phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. That would save a lot of peripherals.

My iCloud storage is a commercial purchase, and the SSD is 2Gb, but I’m on my second one. Keeping everything is a hard habit to break.

Thank you for your information. Since this is all new to me, is there an approximate number of RAW images you can have available for editing on your iPad at one time with the 128 GB?

 

[GT12]

I’m a rookie but I like the iPad/LR combo. I’ve got the larger iPad Pro and find it pretty easy to use LR on it and the resolution on those screens is terrific.

The pattern I’ve settled into is:
- shoot in RAW (on A7C)
- upload from SD card direct into LR through connecting a card reader to my iPad (usb-c) or iPhone (lightening connector)
- edit on the iPad in LR, then filter for all the shots I want to keep
- upload the keepers to Apple photos, from the LR app on iPhone or iPad; super easy
- create Albums on Apple photos to organise collections of photos, which all gets stored on icloud
- easy from there to share an iCloud link with others, or otherwise share individual photos.

I have a ton of icloud storage and a modest amount in LR (I just delete images from LR once all safe in iClou). The heavy lifting on storage is in the cloud not in the iPad memory.

If I use the LR app on my MacBook, then it just downloads the shots from LR’s cloud. It is a bit easier to edit on the big screen, but the convenience of the iPad is great. Also, while traveling I’ll only have my iPad.

Only issue I have faced is when I have had dodgy broadband/4G coverage while traveling, and the large files take some time to synchronize.

Writing this, I do wonder if I should buy a big drive and backup my iCloud in case Apple ever has a big problem….hmm might look into that.

 

[Chfrat]

I’m a rookie but I like the iPad/LR combo. I’ve got the larger iPad Pro and find it pretty easy to use LR on it and the resolution on those screens is terrific.

The pattern I’ve settled into is:
- shoot in RAW (on A7C)
- upload from SD card direct into LR through connecting a card reader to my iPad (usb-c) or iPhone (lightening connector)
- edit on the iPad in LR, then filter for all the shots I want to keep
- upload the keepers to Apple photos, from the LR app on iPhone or iPad; super easy
- create Albums on Apple photos to organise collections of photos, which all gets stored on icloud
- easy from there to share an iCloud link with others, or otherwise share individual photos.

I have a ton of icloud storage and a modest amount in LR (I just delete images from LR once all safe in iClou). The heavy lifting on storage is in the cloud not in the iPad memory.

If I use the LR app on my MacBook, then it just downloads the shots from LR’s cloud. It is a bit easier to edit on the big screen, but the convenience of the iPad is great. Also, while traveling I’ll only have my iPad.

Only issue I have faced is when I have had dodgy broadband/4G coverage while traveling, and the large files take some time to synchronize.

Writing this, I do wonder if I should buy a big drive and backup my iCloud in case Apple ever has a big problem….hmm might look into that.

Thank you very much. I didn't want to spring for a Terabyte of memory on the iPad. I'm hoping 512GB will be just fine if I incorporate the iCloud.