Photography & art

3 min read

iPad tips and tricks

Photography & art

Because the iPad isn’t only for office apps…

The iPad is ideal for creating digital art, especially if you have an Apple Pencil, and is also good for photo editing. In fact, the Photos app – bundled with iPadOS – includes a powerful photo editor that helps you really get the most from your snaps.

The iPad’s touchscreen and the Apple Pencil’s precision drawing, low latency, tilt sensitivity and pressure sensitivity (unless you have a USB-C Pencil) make it an ideal environment for creating digital masterpieces with apps such as Procreate, ArtRage, Adobe Fresco and Affinity Designer. A word of warning, though. These apps give you all the tools you need, but don’t expect them to produce your artwork for you. They help you make the most of your skills, but they won’t paper over a lack of skill.

Its a similar story with photo-editing apps. Apple Photos is as much as most people need, but if you want to take things further, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom gives you an impressively professional suite of tools. There’s also Pixelmator, Snapseed, Photofox, Prisma and more. Indeed, there’s dozens of photo editors available for the Apple tablet, ranging from very straightforward apps for simple retouching jobs to high-end suites that keep even professional photographers happy, but might confuse the enthusiastic amateur. Once again, the simpler apps with automatic photo tuners are easy to use, but don’t expect a more comprehensive editor to do everything for you.

You can produce some truly excellent artwork with an iPad and an Apple Pencil.

Top 5 creativity apps

›Free tinkercad.com ›If you’ve always wanted to try computer-aided design (CAD) but don’t know where to start, give Tinkercad ago. It’s free, and it’s great for 3D modelling. It’s Apple Pencil compatible, and is great for beginners.

› £17.99 affinity.serif.com › It’s amazing just how powerful this desktop-quality photo editor is. Its interface has been built around the touchscreen, and its tools rival anything its competitors can come up with, even the mighty Photoshop. ›