Aperture for iPad: my wish list for a mobile iPad version of Aperture

A lot has been said about the iPad as a tool for photographers. Being foremost a gadget guy and only then a photog guy, I tend to be particularly interested in the subject itself.

There exist a number of photo editing tools for the iPad, even a RAW editor. There is also this great app for syncing your pics to the cloud (Dropbox actually). You can also get this other gadget to sync in real-time each pic you take with you laptop or your iPad.

However, there does not exist an all encompassing tool for a true mobile workflow from the iPad. OK, maybe real photogs do bring their MacBook Air in the field, but I don’t own one as I am quite happy my existing duo: iPad and iMac.

I do think that there exist a market for a product I would code name “iPerture”. Catchy enough?

By the way, if anybody is reading this post, I am giving away the product name for free to whoever wants to use it. All that I ask in exchange is a free lifetime licence with upgrade and mention of my name somewhere in the credits. My 15 seconds of fame :-).

Instead of going through a list of features, I would like to present one or two use cases of iPerture. After all, in “real life” I am a product manager for a software company…

So, here goes.

At home or indoors with proper preparation, I would use a Eye-Fi Pro X2 wi-fi card to sync pics in real-time to my iPad. Maybe I would need to use ShutterSnitch or iPerture would have the function built in.

There, iPerture would automatically import each shot into a project bearing today’s date as a default value. Of course I could change the project’s name iPerture would then add, if I wish, the GPS location of the shot. As it receives the pics, it should also make an online backup to either Dropbox or MobileMe (or other such online services).

Alternatively, I would use the iPad camera connection kit (CCK) to transfer my pics to iPerture. This would probably be more appropriate when shooting outside in less controlled environments. When importing through the CCK, the geo tagging should be turned off.

When importing new projects, these should become available to the standard (basic) iPad photo app. This would enable all others that are not “iPerture aware” to import and use pictures for their own use.

Once all shots are taken, I would then start scoring each ones using my rating system. Keyword tagging too. Do I need to specify that keywords sync between the iMac and the iPad? Of course, I would delete any bad shots I do not want to keep. Some post processing tools should be available too: saturation, white balance, sharpness, etc.

I am not asking iPerture to perform facial recognition. Too CPU intensive. Not suited for the iPad.

I am however looking at some basic album function. I use albums in my workflow to make best-ofs or for specific themes of a project.

I also expect iPerture to enable me to email JPG versions of my pics and to post them Facebook and Flickr.

Back at home, I would sync my iPad to my main Aperture library. All seamlessly. An option to delete the iPad copy of the project should be present.

This pretty much covers the use cases I would see for iPerture.

I previously mentioned that I would see a need for this. It definitely adds “stickiness” to Aperture. And stickiness is like the new Holly Grail of marketers like me.

Some photo apps mentioned in this post are around $15. This could price iPerture at about the same price. Pretty much the same price as other “high end” Apple apps like Pages and Numbers.

Considering Aperture’s recent price drop following the Apple App store opening, this moves Aperture somewhat downwards mid market. A perfect position to add features to differentiate Aperture from iPhoto.

Hopefully my dream will come through 🙂