The Apple iPad – Your New Portfolio?
Great, someone else talking about the iPad this week… how original.
I haven’t decided if I want one or not just yet but I began to wonder if the freshly announced Apple iPad could be an acceptable portfolio to bring to a portfolio showing. I’ll go ahead and say I don’t think it can beat a great custom designed and printed portfolio with current work… but those are limited to whatever prints you have in your portfolio at any given moment. And as anyone who has a printed portfolio knows, keeping your book current isn’t as easy as one might think… especially if it’s a bound book.
My portfolio isn’t bound (I don’t use plastic sleeves though) and even though changing my portfolio only means unscrewing a few binding posts, the fact that I print on the front and back of each page, if I want to replace just one photo in my portfolio it can mean a lot of re-printing if I want to keep a certain flow to the book. This leads to infrequent updating.
I would never even remotely think of a laptop as a viable alternative to a real portfolio because it’s so cumbersome and awkward. But an iPad is anything but cumbersome (from the looks of it). Just hand it over and the Art Buyer, Photo Editor, or whoever you’re showing your portfolio to can grab it and swipe from photo to photo with their fingers. They can throw it into a grid view to see all the photos and go to the ones they like the best. Very easy. No keyboard, no mouse, no muss, no fuss. Want to show them some work that’s a bit different than what you normally keep in your portfolio, open up a different gallery and there are even more images. Want to show off some cool new feature on your blog or website, open up Safari and you’re there (assuming you have wifi or good 3G reception… which if you’re on AT&T in San Francisco, then, you won’t!)
An image on a 1024×768 display, while not as big as an 11×14 print, still looks pretty good. And, if the viewer wants, they can zoom in with the flick of their fingers and get to a level of detail a print won’t show. A lot of people like the tactile feeling of holding an actual portfolio and flipping through prints, but the iPad provides the next best thing (although I don’t know if I’d be quite as giddy as the guys in this video).
Of course, I doubt you’re going to toss the iPad in a FedEx box the next time you have to ship your portfolio out… although, the lowest priced iPad is cheaper than my real 11×14 portfolio, so 4 iPads would actually save money and be easier to maintain than 4 traditional portfolios. I’m sure there will be places making custom skins for the iPad soon enough so you can even custom brand your iPad.
Now, I’m not going to get into some nerdy tech debate about the features that are missing from the iPad… those have been well documented and are quite disappointing (and shouldn’t be too much of a surprise for anyone who knows how Apple does things). I’m just focusing on the portfolio aspect of the iPad and I think it could be kinda cool.
Hmm, maybe I just justified the purchase.
UPDATE:
I did buy one, and you can see my thoughts here.
Visit my portfolio website here, buy custom prints here, and follow even more of my blathering on Twitter here.
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41 Responses to “The Apple iPad – Your New Portfolio?”
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I was thinking exactly the same thing. Will need to have one on hand to see if it’s really a viable solution. But looks really promising.
I think so too. I’m in the same spot you are. Still trying to deside wether it’s worth it or not. Glad to see someone else in the same boat.
Cool! That is very neat and its a good idea!
.-= Ming Wu´s last blog ..F–ked Up – Couple Tracks (Review) =-.
I think this is an excellent idea for the iPad. I am just starting out in photography and slowly getting my portfolio together. I keep changing my mind about which images to print because I am still improving my skills. This would make things easier and quicker to add or remove images.
.-= Sharon´s last blog ..announcing slf photography =-.
Funny, I had just decided to purchase the iPad for the same thing.
I recently purchased an AppleTV for a similar purpose – instead of a bunch of books on the coffee table in a reception area, have the AppleTV scrolling my images (customized to the clients coming) showing a custom portfolio on a large LCD screen. It also allows me to show video work I’ve done (can’t do that with a coffee table portfolio book)
.-= Frank T´s last blog ..Blues for a Cure =-.
It’s still a computer. Software crashes. Hardware fails. Batteries die. Are you willing to risk losing a job when a buyer can not view your portfolio because of hardware problems or a battery you forgot to charge.
Personally, that’s not a big risk as I see it. If it’s anything like an iPhone (and hey, isn’t that what everyone is complaining about), then I’ve had an iPhone for 2.5 years now and I can only think of it crashing/stalling on less than 10 occasions. Not bad for nearly 900 consecutive days of extensive use.
And, I really don’t think the person you’re showing your portfolio would look down on you too much if you had to reboot your portfolio.
Now, if you forgot to charge your battery and it died completely… well, then you look like an idiot. But then again, you are an idiot for not charging your battery!
I think the bigger risk and the real way to loose a job is for your actual computer/laptop to crash while on a shoot and loose all the shots you took. But we all do constant automated backups so we don’t have to worry about that, don’t we? Don’t we?
[...] going to be the best photographic portfolio ever. Seems I’m not alone, photographer Jeff Singer brought up some great points about using an iPad for portfolio work and how it might even save [...]
[...] » The Future of Flash and Photography! Not That Flash the Other Flash 2 Likes The Apple iPad – Your New Portfolio? | jeff singer photography BLOG – San Francisco Editorial… Great, someone else talking about the iPad this week… how original. I haven't decided if I [...]
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[...] Written by Jeff Singer – See Jeff’s blog and the original iPad post here. Visit his portfolio website here and buy custom prints [...]
i think or i know i want one to show clients my work. its is so much more more to print out printed books
.-= john hildebrand´s last blog ..Sarah Foster =-.
You hit the nail on the head: there is a lot more to be gained from exploring how to use the iPad to do more and better business than from whining about all the things it doesn’t do.
At its price point, it’s an incredibly attractive portable portfolio – and that’s just the obvious. Photographers who sit down with it and discover new and captivating ways to share their work with this intriguing, sexy, advanced, stylish, intuitive piece of kit will reap the greatest rewards.
Add in the apps that will be developed just for photographers, the Internet connectivity, the ability to display video/slideshows/presentations… It’s going to provide so many progressive ways to impress clients.
.-= James @ PartTimePhoto.com´s last blog ..Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7 =-.
yup, that was the first thing i said when i saw the thing.
looking forward to getting the SD card adapter as well to take to shoots to show off digital previews to clients.
j.
Weren’t digital backs supposed to have WiFi on board. I remember Phase claiming that with the P25/45+. Here we are years later and no WiFi. But, when it does get here, Wifi to the iPad would be pretty cool.
I have a similar post.
http://fractionmag.blogspot.com/2010/02/is-your-website-iphone-ipad-friendly.html
I already do this with the blackberry storm. I consider it a smaller (mini) portfolio that I can carry with me all the time. It’s perfect for those moments when you run into an art director at a bar or a supermodel on the subway (both of which have happened to me).
I’m not likely to have a book on me at all times, but the cell phone goes where I go. It’s definitely paid off. And even if it is small, they can always request you send along a book later to see larger versions.
I’m seriously considering this now. One thing about a printed portfolio though is that you can really customize it to make it your own. It’s very important to have a brand. This reminds me of when I was crossing over from an assistant to full time pro and I needed to decide on investing money into digital camera system (the new way to go back then) or a reliable film camera. I went the digital route… glad I did.
Being able to show client “behind the scenes” videos, slideshows, etc. would be really cool. Thanks for posting Jeff.
Might want to make sure your portfolio web designers purchase this program come the fall: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/
One thing that I have been trying to get the word out about is that the iPad will use iTunes to transport and organize everything.
That being said, all photos which would normally be shown in glorious high-resolution will be subject to the same crappy image-optimization that images go through when being uploaded to your device through iTunes. That means the color and sharpness will be decimated — and those that want to show off detail will be subject to this.
I called and verified with Apple that the image optimization will be used with no way to disable….the same as it is presently with iPhone and iTouch.
Presently, the only way around this is to email yourself the image and save it to the device. Even then, you are subject to quality loss.
good point. in addition, itunes makes for a crappy image transfer mechanism. very crappy. try moving images from multiple machines onto the iphone. ugh.
all being said, i’d only get an ipad after a jailbreak has been devised.
in the meantime, the ipad has at least got me thinking of using *some* kind of larger-than-phone device for a portfolio. i’m banking on something like the Dell Mini 5 or similar. Either an android or normal windows/linux based tablet device, that’ll make it far more easy to manage my images, instead of waiting for apple to come through with something. i made the same mistake buying an apple TV. it got no usefulness until i was able to “jailbreak” it and throw boxee on the thing.
j.
[...] the iPad was announced I wrote about the potential for using an iPad as a portfolio… Well now the iPad is here (yes, i was one of the loser dorks standing in line at 6:30am) and [...]
The Ipad constantly drops my WiFi connection, both at home at at work, that works just fine with three Windows 7 laptops and one Macbook. It happens every 5-10 minutes. It keeps asking for the password, often 3-4 times in a rom. My Iphone has the problem sometimes (once a week or so). Its basically unusable at this point. An internet search revealed that many users have the same issue.
I have just myself an Ipad and think the above post is a great idea. Can anyone reccomend an app.
Thanks
It’s cool, but I’m not in a hurry to get one.
.-= Custom Dog Tags´s last blog ..Military Dog Tags =-.
I’ve been doing this awhile, (30 yrs),
and have come up with a two-pronged approach.
I carry 15 or 20 8×10″ transparencies
mounted on 11×14″ black illustration board
and use my Ipad to back light them as if
it was a light table. If the client wants
to see more, I can simply crank up the Ipad
and show more pictures on it.
This old-school,new school approach works
pretty well, except that 8×10″ trans from
files is eighty bucks a pop.
Bill Heinsohn
Heinsohn Images Inc.
Austin
Great Post! One of these days I may break the piggy bank and get the iPad. Thanks for your help.
I would use it more for my Photography- Portfolio if there would be a good way of displaying Pictures in a defined order. Has someone any ideas or apps that can manage Photos in a professional way on the iPad?
greets from Munich germany
Johannes
I’m still thinking about buying an iPad. They will need to drop down in price a little to grab my attention however.
I don’t know if Apple will dominate video gaming, but it should take quite a bit of market share. There are an awful lot of gamers that complain that no Apple mobile device is good for gaming because of strictly touch input. They say that they need to have physical buttons and that touch control is not precise enough. I suppose those gamers won’t ever try to adjust and that’s all there is to it. It’s too bad that no third-party developer has tried to sell a button-based controller for any Apple mobile device. It seems strange it hasn’t happened. Apple will never add buttons to their devices so Apple won’t be able to attract those diehards.
hmmmm interesting
[...] of printing and the pain of re-organizing images (read this brief post by photographer Jess Singer here) I still prefer to see a book. I am hiring creatives to work in print and I want to see what your [...]
[...] of printing and the pain of re-organizing images (read this brief post by photographer Jeff Singer here) I still prefer to see a book. I am hiring creatives to work in print and I want to see what your [...]
This is a gadget that technology savvy people should really have. With the use of social networking sites for many purposes, having an Ipad will make communicating and updating easier, fun and classy.
Personally, I can’t wait to get an iPad. I’m not a photographer or artist, but I do web design. Being able to show potential clients some of the work I have done with the simplicity of the iPad is going to be a benefit. Not needing to carry around a cumbersome laptop that needs to be plugged in for more than half an hour worth of battery life is a godsend.
I have tried many apps for the as portfolio for the iPad. I have basically wasted a lot of money, but now I have found xtrafolio app, which is exactly what I want and need.
Ok, they don’t have all the upload functionality other apps have, but this is by far the best way to show my customers what I have in store….. and that’s what it’s all about.
I can customize everything and give my feel to the app….. Check it out and don’t waste all the money on bad apps that don’t work well!
ww.xtrafolio.com
I use the iPad for this exact reason. and everything stated above in your article is exactly why I choose the iPad as a 21st century portfolio. Thanks for solidifying it for me.
This coupled with AppleTV has made my life so much simplier.
Yeah, I haven’t bought the iPad yet even though I am learning all I can about it as I develop a website that is related to how to use it (http://howtousetheipad.net). It is pretty amazing how many different uses the ipad is getting.
I bougt my iPad because of your idea of using it as a portfolio.
Great! Thanks