A couple of months ago I posted the latest update about my long-term quest to be able to do quick edits and add full captions to my Canon images using Apple iOS devices. At the time I was using my iPhone because the apps that I wanted to use weren’t compatible with my old 2017 iPad Mini. Then Apple released a significantly updated version of the smaller iPad and I dived in and bought one (256 Gb wifi + Cellular model).

Bingo.

I am delighted to announce that not only do I have a shiny new iPad but that I have pretty much nailed down my iOS workflow whilst using it. I went for the Mini simply because I like the size. It is easily hand-holdable, is significantly bigger than the largest iPhone and it fits in my Think Tank Press Pass 10 bag which has become a very regular part of my day-to-day shooting kit. It’s clearly not as powerful as the larger and more expensive iPad Pro models but it fulfils my requirements rather well – even when working with the larger files from the EOS R5 MkII.

That the kit sorted, so what about the workflow? I haven’t added anything new to the set up I mentioned with my iPhone but I have altered the order in which I do things.

• Use Canon Content Transfer Professional to set a base caption and synch the clocks on each of my cameras before I start to shoot a job.
• Use the same application to import images via wifi, cable or card reader into the iPad making sure that I use the Files option rather than the Camera Roll. This is because the Apple Camera Roll application changes the filenames and I don’t want that to happen. Files keeps the camera filenames. At this point I am still preferring working with JPEGs rather than CR3s but that will probably change as I get the hang of it even better and once CTP works with CR3s properly. If you really want to work with RAW files then you should use the other Canon app Camera Connect to import them.
• In Files the Content Transfer Professional app (also know as CTP) puts the imported images into a sub-folder in the CTP application folder for each camera.
• I use Lightroom to adjust the images. The controls and options are remarkably similar to my favoured Adobe Camera RAW inside Photoshop that I use on my Macs. The images are exported using preset sizes, levels of compression and destination back into a different folder in Files.
• Back to Content Transfer Professional I adjust the IPTC captions for each images before using CTP to upload using FTP to the chosen server.

Sounds a bit convoluted but in reality it is pretty slick and the iPad Mini handles it all with ease. I probably only use this option for small sets of images (fewer than ten) or single frames where I need to upload captioned and toned pictures rather than transmitting direct from the camera, which is still a lot quicker and easier.

At a recent Canon UK event I was sitting and helping a wide range of professional photographers who had been invited for the day and I demonstrated how much CTP could help to several of them. Each had their different requirements and I realised during the day that this is a pretty versatile and very useful application. One of the bigger take-aways for me was that it allowed me to transmit images over wifi networks that have a landing page that the cameras cannot see. On a job the other day I set CTP to receive every frame that I shot from a single camera which then allowed me to dive in and upload those that I liked using to fast wifi at the venue. It also allowed a member of the client’s team to use my iPad to grab the images that they needed as we went along.

That’s a lot of options with a simple iOS device and very low-cost pieces of software. I can mirror the entire workflow on my iPhone but the screen is too small for what I want to be able to do with ease – but I have it if I need it.

As I mentioned above, I now use CTP to preload captions on my cameras wherever I can before a job and at the same time it is set up to synch the camera clocks to the iOS device making sure that the camera clocks are as accurate as they can be – an added bonus.

So there we have it; workflow is something that you should never regard as finished because there’s always something new to try and bring improvements and flexibility to how you work. For now I am 95% happy with what I have and that’s a massive improvement on where I was just a few months ago.

What we need next is for Canon to develop a version of Content Transfer Professional specifically for the iPad so that it uses the whole screen and not just an enlarged iPhone display because this is becoming a very likeable application. I’d still prefer an iOS version of Photo Mechanic for a couple of reasons. The first is familiarity with it having been a fan since it first came out. Secondly I’d love to be able to use variables, code replacements and autocomplete sets on the iPad. Finally it would be great to have the various uploaders and email transfer options available. A photographer can but dream…