iPad for Wedding Photo Albums

ForeverYoungPhotos · Jan 16, 2011

Hey everyone,

This is my first post on here but I have been following the forum for a while. I feel like I know most of you... but with that being said I know how some of you react to certain posts so let me be clear: Yes I searched for a related topic and could not find a clear answer. Yes I understand the cost effectiveness of offering an iPad wedding package. No I do not want this to be a debate about the iPad or apple or anything else.. I just need some help.

With that out of the way, like a lot of other wedding photographers I have been starting to show clients my work on an iPad and that helped make the jump to them wanting their albums and photos on an iPad. The idea is to have their photos (considering they purchase the copyright release) and wedding album loaded onto the iPad and give it to them to keep. The problem I foresee is what are you guys doing about when they take it home to sync it to their computer will they lose all the photos? back up dics? are you doing something to allow multi-syncing? and considering you make the album using some sort of app they would lose that as well? I know I am not the first person to be offering this so hopefully there is a solution out there somewhere...

Thanks in advance!

table1349 · Jan 16, 2011

Personally I think that this is a solution looking for a problem. Using an iPad as a portfolio to display your works to potential clients, but if you are providing the photos on a CD then the client could put them on as they please.

The only other thing that might be viable is if you put together a digital wedding album in a format that could also be played on an iPad, but not iPad specific. My wife and I both own and use I pads but I would not pay for some photos just for my iPad.

RauschPhotography · Jan 16, 2011

A disc is going to be more reliable than say an iPad for wedding photography distribution. Take into consideration how easy it could be to lose the information on the iPad, as well as theft, problematic hardware issues, etc. Are you planning on marking down your price of your services by using the iPad for the wedding photographs? If so, it sounds like a sinking ship waiting to happen. My personal opinion, it doesn't seem like it's the best way of going about distribution. If they want to put their pictures on an iPad, they can buy their own eventually. No need to put yourself through the headache.

Robin Usagani · Jun 13, 2011

Nothing is better than seeing the actual prints.

Big Mike · Jun 13, 2011

Welcome to the forum.

I'm not sure I understand your issue. Are you worried that the clients may accidentally loose their photos when they sync the iPad with their computer? Or are you saying that there is no way for them to save the photos if they do sync it with their computer?

I'm not really up to speed on how all these devices and iTunes work....but I'd think that if you load the photos onto the iPad, then they should still be there, unless the clients delete them. And if they are clumsy enough to delete them, then they may be just as likely to loose a disk if you give it to them that way.

You could always give them both, or tell them that you can reload/replace the files (for $).

ImKosher · Jun 13, 2011

I have to applaud you for that idea of giving an iPad to a client. You are right though, because Apple is so protective of sharing apps, music, and whatever else between computers and apple devices (iPods and iPads) it will "reset" the device clearing all data to sync with the existing iTunes on the host computer. It will happen to everyone of your clients unless, they never "sync" it. When they plug that bad boy in, bye bye pictures. So in turn it will be a waste of time, resources, and effort to give an iPad as a photo album. You will be better off just doing it the old fashion way.

Big Mike · Jun 13, 2011

What about one of the other tablet devices? They may not have the name recognition and wow factor of an iPad, they aren't under the foot of Apple.

gsgary · Jun 14, 2011

I know a wedding tog that puts low res shots on to an Ipad for them to take on their honeymoon but not to keep

Jason_Moore · Jun 20, 2011

i see this thing gaining popularity. i heard some album companies might get into it.

CourtneyRPhotography · Jun 30, 2011

I have an Ipad.. to me it sucks just saying but anyways.. if you use your laptop to put the photos on the pad and then they take it to their laptop they can dowload Share pod and get them off.. but if they dont and add new stuff to their pad they will be erase Share pod is program that can load and unload things without loosing anything. so you dont have to worry about loosing stuff

aonavy · Apr 8, 2013

How about another solution like dropbox. I do IT for a living and very knowledgeable on the subject. If you use drop box, just create them an account and drag there pictures to it. That way, they can install dropbox on any device and have there pictures when they want them. Plus its safe for the client to have a copy in the "cloud" just in case there house burns down or there pc is corrupted.

Just a thought.

Light Guru · Apr 8, 2013

I'm betting you will find that the maggoty of those who want the images on an iPad or other tablet already own such a device.

If you want them to be able to view the images in the photo app then you would have to give them the individual image files for the sync reasons mentioned.

Now if you give them the files then they have no reason to pay you for prints.

Another thing you could do is make them a iBook using iBooks Author. This gives them a book file but not the image files. You can make the book interactive, include video clips, web links and other things.

ronlane · Apr 8, 2013

Light Guru said:
I'm betting you will find that the maggoty of those who want the images on an iPad or other tablet already own such a device.

If you want them to be able to view the images in the photo app then you would have to give them the individual image files for the sync reasons mentioned.

Now if you give them the files then they have no reason to pay you for prints.

Another thing you could do is make them a iBook using iBooks Author. This gives them a book file but not the image files. You can make the book interactive, include video clips, web links and other things.

Great idea of the iBook. You could do that and send it to them as a preview of the pictures that they can order. I really like that idea. By doing this, they could see the pictures in high quality but could not get prints made.

Light Guru · Apr 8, 2013

ronlane said:
Great idea of the iBook. You could do that and send it to them as a preview of the pictures that they can order. I really like that idea. By doing this, they could see the pictures in high quality but could not get prints made.

I dont know that it would work to send to them as a way for them to make print orders. Not everyone has an ipad so you will still have to have another way for people to preview and order. In addition to that the file size of the iBook could be rather big because embedded into the file would be the higher res files, and it would be even bigger if you embed video into it.

I would consider it a alternative to a print album.