iPad for a photography business?

FrankS said:
Image presentation to clients, either before, in order to secure a contract, or afterwards for image presentation/selection. Client email. But I am not running a photo business currently. At this point an iPad cannot completely replace a laptop, IMO.
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Presentation by the iPad screen or hooking up to a projector? It might be okay for the average person by screen (or a portfolio) or projecting to a larger audience. Has anyone actually done this in lieu of another form of presentation such as a nice portfolio? If so, was it worth the cost? I hate being a penny-pincher but that is life these days.

(Speaking of cost, an iPad with wifi+3g with 64m is what, $800+?)

Looking to be creative, folks, and I do appreciate your input more than you can possibly know.🙂
 
If you might be spending $800, a Mac book pro is just a few hundred more, and that will give you everything including photoshop capability and storage/memory.
 
If you use high quality professional portfolios, like those custom ones from House of Portfolios, Brewer & Cantemello, even Lost Luggage... you can spend $3-400 on a nice 11x14 book and pages, plus the additional cost of printing 20-40 images. That approaches the cost of an iPad, which arguably does the same thing, maybe even better.

I don't think an iPad replaces a print book, but if you are out showing your work, you may want more than a single book. Showing a nice 11x14 print book and then supplementing it with hundreds of images on your iPad is a pretty nice presentation. I've carried five 11x14 books into meetings, it isn't pretty!

Also, since clients may be looking at your site (or app, which seems silly but off point) it is useful to be able to preview what your stuff looks like on a variety of devices, an iPad being a crucial one to check.

On further consideration, I am thinking the next computer cycle that I will go back to using a desktop (a 27-inch iMac, loaded up) and ditch the laptop in favor of an iPad. That's assuming I can avoid having to use digital for work, which is one of my goals. For what I need a portable for - email, surfing, portfolio, notes and memos - an iPad does fine and is lighter and cheaper.
 
Frank Version Two said:
If you use high quality professional portfolios, like those custom ones from House of Portfolios, Brewer & Cantemello, even Lost Luggage... you can spend $3-400 on a nice 11x14 book and pages, plus the additional cost of printing 20-40 images. That approaches the cost of an iPad, which arguably does the same thing, maybe even better.

I don't think an iPad replaces a print book, but if you are out showing your work, you may want more than a single book. Showing a nice 11x14 print book and then supplementing it with hundreds of images on your iPad is a pretty nice presentation. I've carried five 11x14 books into meetings, it isn't pretty!

Also, since clients may be looking at your site (or app, which seems silly but off point) it is useful to be able to preview what your stuff looks like on a variety of devices, an iPad being a crucial one to check.

On further consideration, I am thinking the next computer cycle that I will go back to using a desktop (a 27-inch iMac, loaded up) and ditch the laptop in favor of an iPad. That's assuming I can avoid having to use digital for work, which is one of my goals. For what I need a portable for - email, surfing, portfolio, notes and memos - an iPad does fine and is lighter and cheaper.
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I agree...a desktop for all the heavy duty work and a HUGE screen is crucial for me. A laptop sucks for me because every laptop I ever used had a crappy battery and most of them died early deaths. But that has been awhile.

So, a desktop home base with an iPad might work...or not. That is what I am trying to decide. I like FrankS's comment about elegance. Presenting my film photos in digital form is easy because they are already scanned at 26mb.

I envision both a portfolio and a small device to show images to show both the print form and electronic images.

How hard is it to hook up an iPad to a projector at, say, a City Council meeting and what size will handle a lot of photographs for presentation?🙂
 
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Frank Version Two said:
If you use high quality professional portfolios, like those custom ones from House of Portfolios, Brewer & Cantemello, even Lost Luggage... you can spend $3-400 on a nice 11x14 book and pages, plus the additional cost of printing 20-40 images. That approaches the cost of an iPad, which arguably does the same thing, maybe even better.

I don't think an iPad replaces a print book, but if you are out showing your work, you may want more than a single book. Showing a nice 11x14 print book and then supplementing it with hundreds of images on your iPad is a pretty nice presentation. I've carried five 11x14 books into meetings, it isn't pretty!

Also, since clients may be looking at your site (or app, which seems silly but off point) it is useful to be able to preview what your stuff looks like on a variety of devices, an iPad being a crucial one to check.

On further consideration, I am thinking the next computer cycle that I will go back to using a desktop (a 27-inch iMac, loaded up) and ditch the laptop in favor of an iPad. That's assuming I can avoid having to use digital for work, which is one of my goals. For what I need a portable for - email, surfing, portfolio, notes and memos - an iPad does fine and is lighter and cheaper.
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Frank, in regard to the 11 x 14 portfolio...what size prints fit that?

I went to your links but couldn't find the Brewer and Cantemello site. Sam Flax has Prat portfolios at reasonable prices... while the House of Portfolios look very nice!

http://www.samflaxny.com/browse.cfm/4,2257.html
 
http://www.brewer-cantelmo.com/

Can't spell Italian names ;-p

Sure Prats are fine, anything that keeps your work neat is professional enough I think. But amongst a certain old-school class of commercial togs, the nice custom leather books command a lot of respect. I remember looking at Dennis Manarchy's book (http://www.manarchy.com/) when I was on the agency side and it was all worn and distressed but still really classy and beautiful. Hiro, lots of the big names all had them like that.
 
dave lackey said:
I have heard that you cannot print from an iPad...is this true? The lack of ability to handle pictures as mentioned above is a major problem for a business that deals in pictures.😡

Any way around that? PDF?
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Not true, I print photos from an Ipad. But why would you want to do that? I usually wait until I am home and do it there.
 
Frank Version Two said:
http://www.brewer-cantelmo.com/

Can't spell Italian names ;-p

Sure Prats are fine, anything that keeps your work neat is professional enough I think. But amongst a certain old-school class of commercial togs, the nice custom leather books command a lot of respect. I remember looking at Dennis Manarchy's book (http://www.manarchy.com/) when I was on the agency side and it was all worn and distressed but still really classy and beautiful. Hiro, lots of the big names all had them like that.
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Wow! Thse Brewer-Cantelmo portfolios are very nice!!!🙂

Time to check on Manarchy's book...
 
The one single word that annoys me in the debate is 'tactile'. As if we hadn't experienced 'tactile' before. Me myself believe that the Ipad is just one of these thingies you don't need. The only advantage I see...kids stuff....with children accessing whatever they want without having to sit behind a desk...
 
Peter Wijninga said:
The one single word that annoys me in the debate is 'tactile'. As if we hadn't experienced 'tactile' before. Me myself believe that the Ipad is just one of these thingies you don't need. The only advantage I see...kids stuff....with children accessing whatever they want without having to sit behind a desk...
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Having a tablet or a decent phone puts more knowledge at your fingertips than any one person could process in a lifetime.
 
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If you need to carry a laptop for specific reason, and are shopping, look at the Mac laptops. Especially the Macbook Air, which comes close to being as light as the iPad. If you are close to an Apple store, go and play around. All their products are laid out and ready.

iPads have no internal drive, and, of course, no physical keyboard. The iPad keyboard might annoy a skilled touch typist until they get used to it.

If your need is to show off a small collection of pix, an iPac can do that handily. But, lacking a drive, its storage is limited. That said, if you are sure of wifi or 3G access, you can always put the pix online.
 
iPads can print from some apps to "Airprint" wireless printers. If printing is critical, research it well.

My iPad is on my wifi network with my printer and can't see it at all.
 
i'm not a photo business...

but i don't see an ipad making money for someone who is.
i love my ipad for the myriad things it can do for me, i have access to the net and therefore to a ton of info plus all my contacts but my iphone does that as well.
it is a killer exhibit peice for my images, people love looking at the screen and flipping to the next page with their finger tip or just sitting back to view a 'slide show'.

i hope i always have an ipad...but if i had to choose only one the macbook would be it.
 
back alley said:
i'm not a photo business...

but i don't see an ipad making money for someone who is.
i love my ipad for the myriad things it can do for me, i have access to the net and therefore to a ton of info plus all my contacts but my iphone does that as well.
it is a killer exhibit peice for my images, people love looking at the screen and flipping to the next page with their finger tip or just sitting back to view a 'slide show'.

i hope i always have an ipad...but if i had to choose only one the macbook would be it.
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Yeah, Joe, that may be the best answer so far... no internal drive so even presentations would be limited. Easy enough to put the presentations on a memory stick and take it to a group meeting just like I have always done and a portfolio for one-on-one.:angel:
 
Frank Version Two said:
I can't wait to see a 32gb Powerpoint, that would be so much fun!
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Ok, so back to the basics for me, how much can the iPad handle? Seems to be some conflicts in the posts above.:angel: Also, what kind of presentation is your portfolio in? Powerpoint? Built-in software? Sorry to be so basic, but I have no friggin idea what an iPad can do and I am trying to find out as much as possible before spending $40+ to go to the nearest Apple store for a look around....
 
I believe that when you save a photo on an iPad, it really resizes the images to the minimum that is required for the iPad screen presentation, so you can load a ton of pictures in a small amount of flash memory space.
 
FrankS said:
I believe that when you save a photo on an iPad, it really resizes the images to the minimum that is required for the iPad screen presentation, so you can load a ton of pictures in a small amount of flash memory space.
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That sounds good...but is there a slideshow built into the device? Or does it take Powerpoint or PDF or what?🙂
 
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