iPad All-in-One For Dummies, 7th Edition (2015)

Book II. Just for Fun

Chapter 6. Playing with the Photos App

In This Chapter

Importing photos from iPhone or a digital camera

Viewing an album or individual photos

Editing photos

Organizing photos

Sharing and deleting photos

Running a slideshow

Working in iCloud Photo Library

With its gorgeous screen, iPad is a natural for taking and viewing photos. It supports most common photo formats, such as JPEG, TIFF, and PNG. With an iPad, you can shoot your own photos using the built-in cameras (see Chapter 4 in this minibook for more about using them) with preprogrammed square or panorama modes, and edit your images using smart adjustment filters. You can also sync your photos from iCloud or your computer, iPhone, or digital camera using the iCloud Photo Library. You can save images that you find online to your iPad or receive them by Mail or Messages to your iPad.

After you have photos to play with, the Photos app lets you organize photos from the Camera Roll, viewing them in albums, one by one, or in a slideshow, and you can view photos by the year they were taken, with images divided into collections by the location or time you took them. You can also AirDrop, email, message, post to Facebook, or tweet a photo; print it; or use your expensive gadget as an electronic picture frame. Finally, this chapter discusses the Photo Stream feature, which you can use to share groups of photos with people using iCloud on a Mac or iOS device.

Getting Photos into iPad

Before you can play around with photos, you have to take some with the iPad camera, covered in Chapter 4 in this minibook, or get them onto your iPad from another source. You have a few different ways to get photos from elsewhere. You can buy an accessory to import them from your camera or iPhone; save a photo that you find on the web or receive as an email, message, or tweet attachment; have somebody send you a photo via AirDrop from another nearby device; or sync to iCloud or your computer to download photos you’ve saved there. The whole syncing process is discussed in Book I, Chapter 5. The two other methods are explained here.

Screenshots you take of your iPad screen are also saved to the Camera Roll album. To take a screenshot, display what you want to shoot, press and hold the Home button, tap the Sleep/Wake button, and then release. You’ll find your screenshot in the Photos Camera Roll album.

Importing photos from a digital camera

Your iPad camera and a computer aren’t the only sources of photos. You can import photos from a digital camera and photos or videos from your iPhone/iPod touch if you buy the Lightening to USB Camera Adapter from Apple, which will set you back about $29, and the SD Card Reader to import image files from an SD card, also available at $29. You can also take advantage of the iOS 8 iCloud Photo Library, which stores images taken on any of your iOS devices.

You can find information in Book I, Chapter 5 about syncing iCloud content or your computer with your iPad to port over photos. You can also find out how to take and use photos from the iPad’s built-in camera in Chapter 4 of this minibook.

Follow these steps to import photos, after you have the adapters described earlier in this section in hand:

1. Start the import process by putting your iPad to sleep using the switch on the top right.

2. Insert the Lightening to USB Camera Connector into the Dock Connector slot of your iPad.

3. Connect the USB end of the cord that came with your digital camera or iPhone into the Camera Connector.

4. Connect the other end of the cord that came with your camera into that device.

5. Wake your iPad.

The Photos app opens and displays the photos on the digital camera.

6. Tap Import All on your iPad.

If you want to import only selected photos, tap individual photos and then tap Import. Finally, tap Import rather than Import All.

The photos are saved to the Last Import album.

7. Disconnect the cord and the adapter.

You’re done!

You can also import photos stored on an SD (secure digital) memory card often used by digital cameras as a storage medium. Simply put the iPad to sleep, connect the SD Card Reader to the iPad, insert the SD card containing the photos, and then follow Steps 5 through 7 in the preceding list.

Remember that with AirDrop you can quickly send photos directly from your iPhone 5 or later to your iPad (fourth-generation or later, or mini), as long as the devices are within about 12 feet of each other, as well as to mid-2012 or newer Macs running OS X Yosemite.

Saving photos from the web

The web offers a wealth of images that you can download to your Photo Library on the iPad. The built-in Safari browser makes it simple to save any image you come across to your iPad. (Of course, you should be careful not to violate copyrights when using pictures you’ve grabbed online.)

Several search engines have advanced search features that allow you to search for only nonlicensed images, meaning, at least theoretically, that you don’t have to pay for the images. But it’s always a good idea to get written permission to use an image, especially if you intend to use it to make money (as with a company brochure or online course).

Follow these steps to save images from the web:

1. Open Safari and navigate to the web page containing the image you want.

2. Press and hold the image.

A popover appears, as shown in Figure 6-1.

3. Tap Save Image.

The image is saved to your Camera Roll album in the Photos app.

Figure 6-1: Use this menu to save an image to your iPad.

For more about how to use Safari to navigate to or search for web content, see Book I, Chapter 6.

A number of sites protect their photos from being copied by applying an invisible overlay. This blank overlay image ensures that you don’t actually get the image you’re tapping. Even if a site doesn’t take these precautions, be sure that you don’t save images from the web and use them in ways that violate the rights of the person or entity that owns them.

Looking at Photos

Pictures were made to be looked at, so knowing how to view the albums and individual photos that you manage to get into your iPad is a way to tap into the key strength of the Photos app. In this section, you get some tips for taking your viewing experience to the max.

If you want to do more than look at photos, check out a few of these photo-editing apps that were designed to work with iPad: Adobe Photoshop Touch, Photogene for iPad from Mobile Pond, PhotoForge for iPad from GhostBird Software, and the free PhotoPad by ZAGG. All are available through the App Store.

Viewing an album

The Photos app organizes your pictures into albums using such criteria as the folder on your computer from which you synced the photos or photos captured using the iPad camera (which are stored in the Recently Added album). You may also have albums for images that you synced from devices such as your iPhone or digital camera, and collections of your photos by year or location.

To view your albums, start by tapping the Photos app on the Home screen. Tap the Albums tab shown in Figure 6-2. Now you can tap an album, and the photos in it display.

Figure 6-2: Switch between individual photos, photos stored on iCloud, and albums using these tabs.

If you’re on a Windows PC, check out two products for managing and syncing photos to iPad: Lightroom from Adobe (www.adobe.com) or Adobe’s Photoshop Elements (version 8 or later). You can also create picture subfolders in Windows Explorer or the Photo folder hierarchy on a Mac, and when you sync, each subfolder becomes an album on your iPad.

Viewing individual photos

After you figure out what album your images are in, you have several fun ways to interact with individual photos. The iPad touchscreen is the key to this very tactile experience.

Tap the Photos app on the Home screen and then tap the Photos tab at the bottom of the screen (shown in Figure 6-3). Your photos are displayed by criteria, such as the time taken or location.

Figure 6-3: Viewing thumbnails of individual photos.

Now try these techniques:

· Full-screen view: To view a photo, tap the photo’s thumbnail. You can also pinch your fingers together on the photo and then spread your fingers apart. The picture enlarges.

· Browsing an album: Tap to display an album and then flick your finger to the left or right to scroll through the individual photos in that album.

· Multiple photos: To reduce the display size of an individual photo and return to the multipicture view, place two fingers on the photo and then pinch them together. You can also tap the Back button (the < icon) in the top-left corner (which may display different words depending on where you are in a collection of photos) to view the next highest level of photo collection.

· Twirling: Place two fingers on a photo and spin them to the left or right. This maneuver, known as grab and spin, twirls the photo on the screen and returns you to the folder view (and it’s lots of fun to do).

Do you like to associate a face with a name? Doing so can help you keep your clients or other contacts straight. You can place a photo on a person’s information page in the Contacts app on your iPad. For more about how to do this, see Book V, Chapter 5.

Editing Photos

The Photos app also lets you do some simple editing of your photos, and with iOS 8, you have several new editing tools to work with, including smart adjustment filters and smart composition tools. Editing features allow you to rotate images, enhance image quality, get rid of that pesky red-eye effect, or crop to exactly the area of the image that you want to display. You can also work with the newly available filters to apply effects to your images.

Follow these steps to edit photos:

1. Tap the Photos app on the Home screen to open it.

2. Using methods previously described in this chapter, locate a photo that you want to edit.

3. Tap Edit.

The Edit Photo screen, shown in Figure 6-4 with Filters displayed, appears.

Figure 6-4: Photos provides some simple but useful tools to edit photos.

4. At this point, you can take a few possible actions:

· Enhance: Tap Enchance to turn it on or off. Enhance improves the overall “crispness” of the figure with one tap.

· Crop: To crop the photo to a portion of its original area, tap the Crop button. You can then tap any corner of the image and drag inward or outward to remove areas of the photo. Tap Crop and then Save to apply your changes.

· Filters: Apply any of nine filters such as Fade, Mono, or Noir to change the feel of your image. These effects adjust the brightness of your image or apply a black-and-white tone to your color photos. Tap the Filters button in the middle of the tools at the bottom of the screen and scroll to view available filters. Tap one and then tap Apply to apply the effect to your image.

· Smart Adjustments: Tap Light, Color, or B&W to access a slew of tools that you can use to tweak contrast, color intensity, shadows, and more.

· Red Eye: Adjusts those dreaded red-eye effects that are caused by reflections of flash in eyes in some photos that include faces.

In each of the editing features, you see Cancel, Undo, and Revert to Original buttons. If you don’t like the changes you made, use these to stop making changes or undo the changes you’ve already made. Choosing Cancel will end the editing session, and Revert to Original leaves you in Editing mode.

Organizing Photos

You can organize photos in albums so that you can locate them more easily in the future. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Display an album such as Recently Added.

2. Tap the Select button in the top-right corner and then tap individual photos to select them.

Small check marks appear on the selected photos (see Figure 6-5).

3. Tap the Add To button and then tap Add to Album (which appears only if you’ve previously created albums) or New Album.

4. Tap an existing album or enter a name for a new album (depending on your previous selection) and tap Save.

If you created a new album, it appears in the Album screen with the other albums.

Figure 6-5: Select the photos you want to work with here.

You can also tap the Share or Delete button when you’ve selected photos in Step 2 of this task. This allows you to share or delete multiple photos at a time.

Accessing Photos by Years and Location

You can view your photos in logical categories such as Years and Moments. These so-called smart groupings let you, for example, view all photos taken this year or all the photos from your summer vacation. Follow these steps to view your photos by date or by a location where they were taken:

1. Tap Photos on the Home screen to open it.

2. Tap Photos at the bottom of the screen.

The display of photos by date appears. (See Figure 6-6.)

3. Tap the Collections button in the top-left corner and you see collections of photos by date range or location (see Figure 6-7).

4. Tap Years in the top-left corner and you see all your photos grouped by year taken.

5. Tap Collections in the top-right corner to display photos by location.

Figure 6-6: Peruse you entire year of photos from this view.

Figure 6-7: Drill down to find photos by date taken.

To go back to larger groupings, such as from a moment in a collection to the larger collection to the entire last year, just keep tapping the Back button at the top-left of the screen (which will be named after the next collection up in the grouping hierarchy, such as Collections or Years).

Sharing Photos

Part of the fun of taking photos is sharing those images with others. It’s easy to share photos stored on your iPad by posting them to Facebook, tweeting, sending via iMessage, posting to a Flickr account, sharing via iCloud Photo Sharing, or sending them as email attachments. You have to go to Facebook or Twitter using a browser and set up an account before you can use this feature. Follow these steps to share photos:

1. Tap the Photos app icon on the Home screen.

2. Tap the Photos or Album tab and locate the photo you want to share.

3. Tap the photo to select it and then tap the Share button (which looks like a box with an arrow jumping out of it).

The menu shown in Figure 6-8 appears.

Figure 6-8: The Sharing menu offers different options.

4. Tap additional photos across the top to share if you wish; then tap the Message, Mail, iCloud Photo Sharing, Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr option.

5. In the message form that appears, make any modifications that apply in the To, Cc/Bcc, or Subject fields for email, or enter your Facebook posting or tweet text.

6. Tap the Send or Post button, depending on which sharing method you chose.

The message and photo are sent to any recipients or are posted.

You can also tap AirDrop in Step 4 above and then tap a nearby AirDrop–enabled device to share the photo with that device instantly. See the next task for more about this feature.

You can also copy and paste a photo into documents, such as those created in the Pages word-processor app. To do this, press and hold a photo in Photos until the Copy command appears. Tap Copy and then, in the destination app, press and hold the screen and tap Paste.

Sharing a Photo Using AirDrop

AirDrop provides a way for those with fourth-generation iPad, iPad mini, and later iPads to share content such as photos with others who are nearby who have an AirDrop–enabled device:

1. Follow the steps in the previous task to locate a photo you want to share and then tap the Share button.

If an AirDrop–enabled device is in your immediate vicinity (within 10 feet), you see the device listed at the top of the Share popover.

2. Tap the device name and your photo is sent to it.

Note that the other device has to have AirDrop enabled and be a compatible Mac or iOS device. To enable an iOS device, you open the Control Center (swipe up from the bottom of any screen) and tap the AirDrop button in the bottom center of the Control Center. On a Mac, open a Finder window or tab and then click AirDrop in the Sidebar. Whichever method you use, choose Contacts Only or Everyone to specify who you can interact with via AirDrop.

Sharing Photos Using Photo Stream

Photo Stream allows you to automatically send copies of any new photos to any of your iCloud devices and to share photo streams with others when you’re connect to a Wi-Fi network. You can also subscribe to another person’s photo stream if he or she shares it with you. First you should set up Photo Stream. Follow these steps to share your photos using Photo Stream:

1. Tap Settings⇒Photos & Camera. Tap the On switch for My Photo Stream to share among your devices; tap Photo Sharing to share with others.

2. To share a photo stream with somebody else, return to the Home screen, tap Photos, and then tap Shared at the bottom of the screen. If you don’t see tiles for the shared streams, tap Sharing at the upper left to get them.

3. Tap the Add button (the + symbol in the top-left corner) or the New Shared Album tile to create a new shared Photo Stream album.

4. In the form that appears (see Figure 6-9), enter a name for the shared album and tap Next.

Figure 6-9: Fill out this form to post your photo.

5. Enter the recipients’ names (if they’re in Contacts) or email addresses and then tap Create.

Your contacts receive an email message with a link that allows them to join your Photo Stream.

6. Tap the new Photo Sharing folder that you just created and then tap the Add tile (with a plus sign on it). Tap individual photos to include and then tap Done.

7. Enter a message, if you like, and then tap Post.

To add people to a shared Photo Stream that you created, tap the shared album to open it and then tap People in the upper right of the screen. Tap Invite people in the popover that appears, to share the Photo Stream with more people. To uninvite someone from the Photo Stream, tap that person’s name and scroll down to the bottom of the popover; tap Remove Subscriber.

Running a Slideshow

You can run a slideshow of your images in Photos and even play music and choose transition effects for the show. This is a great way to give a presentation to a client on your easy-to-carry iPad or show your friends a slideshow of your latest travel adventure.

To use the slideshow feature, follow these steps:

1. Tap the Photos app on the Home screen.

2. Tap the Photos tab and then tap Select.

3. Tap a series of photos in a collection.

4. Tap the Share button and then tap Slideshow to see the Slideshow Options dialog, shown in Figure 6-10.

Figure 6-10: Use this dialog to add transition effects and start the slideshow.

5. If you want to play music along with the slideshow, tap the On/Off switch in the Play Music field.

6. To choose music to play along with the slideshow, tap Music and, in the list that appears, tap any selection from your Music library.

7. In the Slideshow Options dialog, tap the transition effect that you want to use for your slideshow (refer to Figure 6-10).

8. Tap Back and then tap the Start Slideshow button.

The slideshow begins.

To run a slideshow that includes only the photos contained in a particular album, tap the Album tab in Step 2, tap an album to open it, and then tap the Slideshow button in the top-right corner to make settings and run a slideshow.

Deleting Photos

You might find that it’s time to get rid of some of those old photos of the family reunion or the last project you worked on. If a photo wasn’t transferred from your computer but instead was downloaded or captured as a screenshot on the iPad, you can delete it using this procedure:

1. Tap the Photos app on the Home screen.

2. Tap the Albums or Photos tab; if you tap the Album tab, then tap an album to open it.

3. Tap Select and then tap either an individual photo or multiple photos.

4. Tap the Trash button, as shown in Figure 6-11.

5. Tap the Delete Photo button that appears to finish the deletion.

Figure 6-11: If you don’t need it anymore, delete it!

Working in iCloud Photo Library

iCloud Photo Library automatically backs up all your photos and videos to the cloud from all your devices that use the same iCloud account.

To turn on the iCloud Photo Library feature and view shared photos, follow these steps:

1. In Settings, tap Photos & Camera, and then tap the On switch for iCloud Photo Library to post all your photos to this library in the cloud.

2. Tap Home and then tap the Photos app to open it.

3. Tap Shared at the bottom to view all photos and videos stored in the iCloud Library.

With all these photos available to you, you’ll need to be able to search your library for the one you want. From the Photos tab, tap the Search button at the top of the screen. A list of so-called “smart” suggestions appears. Tap one of these suggestions or enter the date or time of the photo, a location, or an album name such as “Vacation” in the Search field to locate the photo.