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Anyone here familiar with photo management know what the likely implications of the new USB storage support are? My elderly mother has gotten into photography

Anyone here familiar with photo management know what the likely implications of the new USB storage support are? My elderly mother has gotten into photography in the past few years and shoots with what I assume is a prosumer camera (high-ish resolution, swappable lenses). The Windows laptop she plugs into is a disaster waiting to happen, in that I’m pretty sure nothing is properly backed up. I think she also barely understands what’s happening on her computer at any given time. If an iPad, plus camera kit, plus external storage, plus maybe some iCloud backup is a reasonable way to manage photos, I'd consider getting her one. What might an iPadOS + camera workflow / setup look like? Is this likely to be a replacement for a camera + traditional computer photo management setup? Edit: I should add that, while I’m comfortable with Linux and coding and other nerdly pursuits, I know nothing about current norms and tech for photography.

soperj 7y ago
Windows comes with a number of back up tools. >https://www.howtogeek.com/220986/how-to-use-all-of-windows-10’s-backup-and-recovery-tools/ https://www.howtogeek.com/220986/how-to-use-all-of-windows-1... There's also a multitude of cloud solutions. Instead of forcing your mom into some weird ipad work flow, work with what she already does and is familiar with.
- peatmoss 7y ago
  I think she went that route mainly because of cost rather than preference. She’ll obviously use what she wants to use, but she seems pretty unhappy / frustrated with status quo, so I don’t think helping her explore options is unreasonable.
givinguflac 7y ago
For an elderly person, just use iCloud for photos backup. It works incredibly well, and works through the native photos app, so it will totally eliminate the need to think about backing up unless it's offline all the time.
- oflannabhra 7y ago
  While I agree that iCloud is indeed great, it is more of a "sharing between devices" solution than a backup. If you delete a photo, it gets deleted on all your devices, and the only way to get it back is through iCloud.com.
  - givinguflac 7y ago
    What don't you like about that? It becomes the de facto storage for everything you can see. I don't really understand why you'd delete a photo that you want to keep?
wilg 7y ago
Definitely use either iPadOS or macOS with Apple Photos + iCloud Photo Library. Probably the most foolproof thing.
knolan 7y ago
The standard option would be to import the images into the Photos app. I’ve yet to install iPadOS but I’d imagine simply plugging in a USB would present such an option to the user. They may need to open photos and tap import. Once you’ve enabled Photo syncing in iCloud and pay the monthly fee (€3 per month for 200GB etc) then that’s all there is to it. My parent’s iPad backs up all their encrypted device content to my iCloud storage via Family Sharing, they don’t pay a thing. I’ve no access to it but it eats slightly into my quota. My mother has the USB A to lightning dongle and she’s can easily import from her Canon P&S. Normally I have to explain every step to her but I was away when the dongle shipped to her and she managed it just fine. The Photos app has a reasonable editor that get the job done. Add Afinity Photo to that and it’s ability to open from iCloud and you’ve a Photoshop killer. The nice thing about Apple Photos Library is that it keeps the original image and all edits so you don’t lose anything.
AgloeDreams 7y ago
Tried the flow out, it's really slick and FAST as all get out. Just plug and play, you can import files into the Photos app (the drive shows as an import location like in MacOS Photos app) or in the files app as if it is Finder. Really powerful, a modern iPad Pro might be faster than the old Windows hardware for run and gun processing, large scale editing is better on an actively cooled device. The screen on the iPad is likely more accurate.
- s3r3nity 7y ago
  I wish I could upvote this more, as I've been blown away by the speed as well. Also, the deep integration of Siri Shortcuts with iOS opens up so many possibilities for automation for this - maybe OP can help their mother with setting up one or the team at an Apple store could help (I've had some experience with making an appointment with them to help me with a shortcut I was building for Apple Health.) But I also agree with some of the other commenters that just leveraging iCloud / Apple Photos out-of-the-box should suffice.
fetus8 7y ago
I jumped to an iPad Pro this year because of the announcement of USB storage support. I'm not a pro photographer by any means, and my workflow is pretty simple, but here's my hardware workflow is: iPad Pro, Fujifilm X-series camera(s), USB-C Memory Card reader, and a Samsung T5 SSD. I import directly into my iCloud Drive from the memory card, then plug in the SSD, and move the unnecessary files onto the SSD. Edit the photos from iCloud Drive via Affinity or Darkroom. I'm mostly just doing exposure adjustments to RAW files, and both apps work incredibly well. Export the edited images back to either the iOS Photos app, or just back to the directory on iCloud Drive. It's incredibly quick and efficient. I've been running the iPadOS beta since July/August, and haven't encountered any reason to be concerned. I have been travelling a couple times this summer with this setup, and don't miss my Macbook at all. iPadOS with the new storage support, and a real USB-C port really feels like a computer replacement.
alistairSH 7y ago
Two questions... does she use Lightroom or another photo editing/management tool? Does she shoot raw, or just jpg? If she isn't using Lightroom or shooting raw, the siblings cover it. Just use Apple Photos with iCloud backup. If she wants most of the photos in full-size on local disk, buy the largest capacity iPad you can. If she is using Lightroom, they have their own cloud storage that is included (or discounted?) with the monthly software subscription. So, you can still use the iPad, you just have an extra step of importing into Apple Photos, then exporting into Lightroom (this may have changed, but AFAIK, iPad still doesn't allow direct import of files into non-native apps). There are a few tutorials and blog entries that describe the above process, though I expect there will be updates or new coverage in a month or two, once people have time with the latest iPadOS updates. FWIW, I use an Ipad and the camera kit on vacation, use Apple Photos, and also have a MacBook at home (it's a bit easier to do some tasks with a mouse, but an all-mobile workflow is possible). My mother use a hodgepodge of Lightroom on Windows, with some photos synced to her Apple product ecosystem, but I don't know the details.
- peatmoss 7y ago
  I think she shoots in JPG because of memory budget. A family friend talked her into buying some kind of photo management / photo touch-up application (can’t remember its name), but I think it mostly just makes her angry because it took over as the default handler for photos on her computer, and her computer is too old and slow to run the software acceptably. How seamless is the iCloud backup when the total volume of pictures is greater than the local storage? Does the photos app smartly fetch the full photo as needed?
  - alistairSH 7y ago
    The iCloud photo backup work very well, in my experience. My phone and older iPad are lower capacity and have to keep optimized (smaller) photos local. The full size images are downloaded automatically when viewed in Photos. As noted by another post, iCloud will delete a photo from the whole system if deleted on one device, so you may want periodic backups elsewhere. I just drag the entire photo library file (MacOS keeps the library, photos included, in a single “file”) from my Mac to an external drive. Can’t speak to the best way to do this from an iPad, but with the new external drive support, that might be easy?

soperj 7y ago

Windows comes with a number of back up tools. >https://www.howtogeek.com/220986/how-to-use-all-of-windows-10’s-backup-and-recovery-tools/ https://www.howtogeek.com/220986/how-to-use-all-of-windows-1... There's also a multitude of cloud solutions. Instead of forcing your mom into some weird ipad work flow, work with what she already does and is familiar with.

peatmoss 7y ago
I think she went that route mainly because of cost rather than preference. She’ll obviously use what she wants to use, but she seems pretty unhappy / frustrated with status quo, so I don’t think helping her explore options is unreasonable.

givinguflac 7y ago

For an elderly person, just use iCloud for photos backup. It works incredibly well, and works through the native photos app, so it will totally eliminate the need to think about backing up unless it's offline all the time.

oflannabhra 7y ago
While I agree that iCloud is indeed great, it is more of a "sharing between devices" solution than a backup. If you delete a photo, it gets deleted on all your devices, and the only way to get it back is through iCloud.com.
- givinguflac 7y ago
  What don't you like about that? It becomes the de facto storage for everything you can see. I don't really understand why you'd delete a photo that you want to keep?

wilg 7y ago

Definitely use either iPadOS or macOS with Apple Photos + iCloud Photo Library. Probably the most foolproof thing.

knolan 7y ago

The standard option would be to import the images into the Photos app. I’ve yet to install iPadOS but I’d imagine simply plugging in a USB would present such an option to the user. They may need to open photos and tap import. Once you’ve enabled Photo syncing in iCloud and pay the monthly fee (€3 per month for 200GB etc) then that’s all there is to it. My parent’s iPad backs up all their encrypted device content to my iCloud storage via Family Sharing, they don’t pay a thing. I’ve no access to it but it eats slightly into my quota. My mother has the USB A to lightning dongle and she’s can easily import from her Canon P&S. Normally I have to explain every step to her but I was away when the dongle shipped to her and she managed it just fine. The Photos app has a reasonable editor that get the job done. Add Afinity Photo to that and it’s ability to open from iCloud and you’ve a Photoshop killer. The nice thing about Apple Photos Library is that it keeps the original image and all edits so you don’t lose anything.

AgloeDreams 7y ago

Tried the flow out, it's really slick and FAST as all get out. Just plug and play, you can import files into the Photos app (the drive shows as an import location like in MacOS Photos app) or in the files app as if it is Finder. Really powerful, a modern iPad Pro might be faster than the old Windows hardware for run and gun processing, large scale editing is better on an actively cooled device. The screen on the iPad is likely more accurate.

s3r3nity 7y ago
I wish I could upvote this more, as I've been blown away by the speed as well. Also, the deep integration of Siri Shortcuts with iOS opens up so many possibilities for automation for this - maybe OP can help their mother with setting up one or the team at an Apple store could help (I've had some experience with making an appointment with them to help me with a shortcut I was building for Apple Health.) But I also agree with some of the other commenters that just leveraging iCloud / Apple Photos out-of-the-box should suffice.

fetus8 7y ago

I jumped to an iPad Pro this year because of the announcement of USB storage support. I'm not a pro photographer by any means, and my workflow is pretty simple, but here's my hardware workflow is: iPad Pro, Fujifilm X-series camera(s), USB-C Memory Card reader, and a Samsung T5 SSD. I import directly into my iCloud Drive from the memory card, then plug in the SSD, and move the unnecessary files onto the SSD. Edit the photos from iCloud Drive via Affinity or Darkroom. I'm mostly just doing exposure adjustments to RAW files, and both apps work incredibly well. Export the edited images back to either the iOS Photos app, or just back to the directory on iCloud Drive. It's incredibly quick and efficient. I've been running the iPadOS beta since July/August, and haven't encountered any reason to be concerned. I have been travelling a couple times this summer with this setup, and don't miss my Macbook at all. iPadOS with the new storage support, and a real USB-C port really feels like a computer replacement.

alistairSH 7y ago

Two questions... does she use Lightroom or another photo editing/management tool? Does she shoot raw, or just jpg? If she isn't using Lightroom or shooting raw, the siblings cover it. Just use Apple Photos with iCloud backup. If she wants most of the photos in full-size on local disk, buy the largest capacity iPad you can. If she is using Lightroom, they have their own cloud storage that is included (or discounted?) with the monthly software subscription. So, you can still use the iPad, you just have an extra step of importing into Apple Photos, then exporting into Lightroom (this may have changed, but AFAIK, iPad still doesn't allow direct import of files into non-native apps). There are a few tutorials and blog entries that describe the above process, though I expect there will be updates or new coverage in a month or two, once people have time with the latest iPadOS updates. FWIW, I use an Ipad and the camera kit on vacation, use Apple Photos, and also have a MacBook at home (it's a bit easier to do some tasks with a mouse, but an all-mobile workflow is possible). My mother use a hodgepodge of Lightroom on Windows, with some photos synced to her Apple product ecosystem, but I don't know the details.

peatmoss 7y ago
I think she shoots in JPG because of memory budget. A family friend talked her into buying some kind of photo management / photo touch-up application (can’t remember its name), but I think it mostly just makes her angry because it took over as the default handler for photos on her computer, and her computer is too old and slow to run the software acceptably. How seamless is the iCloud backup when the total volume of pictures is greater than the local storage? Does the photos app smartly fetch the full photo as needed?
- alistairSH 7y ago
  The iCloud photo backup work very well, in my experience. My phone and older iPad are lower capacity and have to keep optimized (smaller) photos local. The full size images are downloaded automatically when viewed in Photos. As noted by another post, iCloud will delete a photo from the whole system if deleted on one device, so you may want periodic backups elsewhere. I just drag the entire photo library file (MacOS keeps the library, photos included, in a single “file”) from my Mac to an external drive. Can’t speak to the best way to do this from an iPad, but with the new external drive support, that might be easy?