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.
-------------------------Written by Jeff Singer - Visit my portfolio website here and buy custom prints here.
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20 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?
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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/