Smart Phone Editing and Printing Photos
Materials and Additional Resources
Warning:
Do Not turn iCloud Photos on without first backing up your iPhone.
We will talk more about using iCloud Photos in a later session. Apple goes to great lengths to keep your photos safe, but because of the changes made during the iCloud Photos setup, a backup is a good idea. If you have questions, wait until the next session and we will address them then.
If you would like to read more, scroll down to the “iCloud Photos” section below.
Presentation:
Editing and Printing PhotographsGeneral:
Smartphone Photography 101 – Ad supported Smart Phone photography course
iPhone Photography School – Paid Online Course with free samples. Pretty comprehensive including both iPhone camera operation and more general photography skills.
Photo Formats:
What is the HEIF (or HEIC) Image Format? – a description of Apple’s new High Efficiency Image Format with a comparison to the older JPEG format.
What is Apple’s ProRAW Photo Format on iPhone? – For owners of either the iPhone 12 Pro or Pro Max. A description of the new format and how to use it.
About Apple ProRAW – a discussion of the RAW format and how to use it.
HDR and SmartHDR on iPhone: What’s the difference and how to you use it? – a discussion of Apple’s implementation of High Dynamic Range (HDR) and SmartHDR modes.
Use Night Mode on Your iPhone – For owners of either series 11 or series 12 iPhones. Apple’s description and use of Night Mode.
Editing Apps:
Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop – The image editing platform that started it all.
Cross platform. Subscription-based, $9.99/month. Includes Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom on both Desktop and iPad. Part of Adobe’s “Creative Cloud” with cloud-based storage (in varying amounts based on subscription package) included. The choice of many professional photographers. There is also a free version of Lightroom (with in-app purchases) available for iPhone and iPad.
Darkroom – Photo editor for iOS
Darkroom add feature to iOS and iPad OS that make it a compelling companion or even replacement for the regular Photos editor.
- Adjustment Curves
- Perspective correction – works well with the Ultra-wide lens on the iPhone 11 Pro
- RAW editing
- Portrait mode depth adjustments
- Presets
- Batch editing
- Siri Shortcuts support
- Hooks directly into the regular photo library on iPad OS
- Multiple edit windows for pre and post edit comparison
Subscription based for iPhone, iPad, and now, for Mac OS. Requires Mac OS 11 (Big Sur) or later. $3.99/month, $19.99/year, $49.99 one-time purchase. It also integrates with some camera apps like Halide.
Getting Started with Darkroom: Apple App Store Story
Darkroom Help Center – Web, Video Tutorials and FAQ
Pixelmator for iOS, Pixelmator Photo for iOS, Pixelmator Pro for Mac OS – Photoshop competitor
Available for Mac OS and iOS, Pixelmator is a suite of full-featured tools with everything needed to create, edit and enhance graphics. The iOS version is a great value at $4.99. Pixelmator Photo is $7.99 and optimized for photo editing. Pixelmator Pro for Mac OS is $39.99. Very extensive feature list that rivals Photoshop.
- Layers – blending, shapes, text, precise editing
- Advanced Color Adjustments
- Repair tools – clone, distort
- Drawing and Painting Tools – brushes, colors, watercolors
- Support for Apple Pencil
- Photoshop File Support
The iOS version is a great value at $4.99
Pixelmator Support – Video Tutorials, User Guide, iBooks User Guide
Google Photos – Simple Photo Editor with Cloud Storage
Comprehensive set of Web-based digital services from simple photo and video editing to print services and cloud storage with backup. Free for editing and cloud storage as long as photos can be compressed to less than 16 megapixels. For larger files, storage is free up to 15 GB. Monthly and yearly storage charges apply. Print books start at $9.99 for 20 pages.
Google One Plans – Storage, support, family plans and other member benefits.
Google Photos Help – Extensive Web-based help with search
SKWRT – Photo Extension for Perspective Correction
How to Use SKWRT to Fix Perspective Problems on iPhone Photos – iPhone Photography School Web-Based Tutorial
Affinity Photo – Photoshop Competitor
The most comprehensive Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) competitor I’ve found. Photo, Design and Publishing tools for iOS, Mac OS and Windows. Serif (the publisher) provides excellent tutorial and technical support, including reasonably priced hard cover (!) tutorial books for learning the software. Affinity Photo has a significant learning curve, but well worth it. Affinity Photo for iPad is an especially good deal at $19.99 and has nearly all the features of the desktop version ($49.99).
Affinity Photo Tutorials for all products including Mac OS and iPad
Sample Video from Affinity Revolution, an online course
RAW Power – Photo editor optimized for RAW files
RAW Power ($9.99 for iOS, $39.99 for Mac OS) is a relative newcomer, and fills a significant void in the iOS photo editing universe. It is optimized specifically for editing RAW files ( supported since iOS 12) and even has the ability to manipulate iOS and iCloud photo libraries directly — something that no other software can. Produced by a former developer of Apple Aperture, it looks very promising. Be sure and check out the article “The Ins and Outs of non-destructive editing” written by RAW Power’s developer.
RAW Power FAQ – Frequently Asked questions
RAW Power Manual – PDF-based manual
Photo Editors for Windows
The Best Photo Editing Software for 2021 – PC Mag – Feature and price comparison of 12 different photo editors for Windows.
Editing
How to Edit Photos on iPhone Using the Built-in Photos App – iPhone Photography School Web-Based Tutorial
The Ins and Outs of Non-destructive Editing in Photos for Mac and iOS – An article that describes the advantages and challenges with Apples photo file formats by Nik Bhatt (RAW Power Developer)
10 Reasons Why You Should Be Shooting RAW – Article comparing RAW photo files with JPEG
ICloud Photos
How to Back Up your iPhone or iPad
iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate Guide
How to Set Up iCloud Photos on your iPhone or iPad
How to Set Up iCloud Photos on you Mac
Apple storage and services cost: iCloud storage, Apple One bundles (includes storage)
Printing
Photo Printer (suggested) – EcoTank 3760SE All-in-One
Photo App Plugin
Web-based Photo Printing Services
Best Online Photo Printing Service by Wirecutter.com