Cassandra - Rethinking Photo Workflows (3): Photos on iOS

By Graham K. Rogers

Users who take photographs want to edit images, whether it be on a smartphone, tablet or computer. Workflow differs depending on the device being used and the original input. The iPhone has limitations but there may be help at hand.

I wrote earlier about photo workflows on the Mac, focusing on Apple Photos. By way of detour, I also looked at the import of photos from a DSLR camera direct to an iOS device and its practicalities: possible but not recommended for day to day work. As it is claimed that the iPhone is the most popular camera Noah Stahl (9to5 Mac), it makes sense that many users would want to edit their images on the device, although I am not sure that many take full advantage of the images they have.

With the Mac, much editing work can be done using Photos, especially with the access to third party apps using extensions. On the iPhone, the Photos interface is deceptively simple and has limited access to equivalent extensions, but the wide range of photo and editing apps available also provide some sophisticated editing tools for those who wish to make use of them, although looking at input on social networking sites there is a strong case for some users to make some basic adjustments.

The interfaces of the respective devices determine the display of the library and editing tools. The Mac is always in landscape mode. The iPhone and iPad can be used in either landscape or portrait mode and these change how tools are displayed. For ease of explanation, I will work on the iPhone in portrait mode. Apart from games, this seems to be how most people use these devices.

In my case, I also work with RAW images, either created in specific apps on the iPhone, or taken with a DSLR camera. It is possible to work with such images in Photos, but I favour other apps for editing. There are also specific apps that I might want to use for editing an image: these need different workflows which I will address later.

In Photos the library contains all images. Organisation is in the date-organised library or in user-created or default albums (People, Places). When a single photo is selected, the Edit button is top left of the screen. The edit screen has a black background with 4 icons at the bottom of the screen, with the words Cancel and Done (initially greyed out). At top right is an Enhance icon, which will instantly make some basic improvements to the image. For some that may be enough. For additional editing the four icons at the bottom are used. From left to right: Crop (with rotate, straighten and other tools); Filters; Edit (Light, Color, B&W); and More (certain 3rd party extensions).

Crop

The lines (and corners) round the image can be adjusted using the fingers to crop the image. Reset is also available when this is used. Below right is a white icon that reveals specific image aspect ratios (Original, Square, 3:2 and more) if needed. When a specific aspect ratio is used, the icon turns blue. Reset is available.

Crop and Filters (right)

Filters

Edit

Light:

• Brilliance
• Exposure
• Highlights
• Shadows
• Brightness
• Contrast
• Black Point

If any changes were made using the original scrolling tool, these are shown (numerically) beside the option. Tapping on any option shows the image and a scroll wheel. As the indicator is moved left or right the image is adjusted. A grey dot above the scale shows the original setting. If the scale is returned to this point, there is slight tactile feedback. The same applies for other adjustments.

Color

• Saturation
• Contrast
• Cast

B&W

• Intensity
• Neutrals
• Tone
• Grain

When the B&W editing scroller is used, the image changes depending on red, green and blue filtering applied by the software. I find that particular care needs to be applied with faces which may either be too pale or too dark depending on how the effect is applied. Trees, buildings and the sky are also affected by the use of the scroller.

Editing and More (right)

More

I have found that some of the effects applied when using these extensions can be used by other apps on the iPhone (Instagram, Twitter), but may not synchronise with the Mac via iCloud. If I particularly want an image edited in this way to be available on the Mac, I may transfer by email or AirDrop. There are other inconsistencies with the way some of these 3rd party apps may work within Photos, so if I want a specific effect, I may resort to working with the standalone app

A lot can be done just working in the basic Photos app on iOS devices, although there are clear limits. Apple designed this app for basic adjustments and it does quite well for that purpose. There are two specific tools that are available on the Mac, but not on the iOS version of Photos: Sharpen and White Balance. They would improve output considerably for some users. If either of those tools are needed, users need to resort to third-party apps, which I might access anyway for certain specific editing needs: another type of workflow.

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