Sharing and Saving Images and Videos on your Apple iPad

They say the best camera is the one you have with you, so unless you were motivated to carry a nice camera out the door, your mobile device is likely the one with which you're shooting. You can’t beat the convenience of taking snapshots and shooting videos with the gadget that you carry around at all times, but what do you do with the images and video once they’ve been captured? In this article, we’ll examine different ways that you can share it, and we’ll show you ways that you can manage the large library of files that accumulate on your Apple iPad.

Share Your Content on the TV

One of the best ways to enjoy the photos and videos on your gadget is to simply view them on the iPad’s screen. You and the person beside you can comfortably view the media and have a conversation about it, but what do you do when you want to share your mobile media with a group of people? Instead of slowly passing your precious gadget around to each person, why not show them all at once?

A great way to easily share the photos and videos on your iPad is with an Apple TV. When it’s connected to a television and the Internet (through Ethernet or a Wi-Fi network), you can transmit photos and videos to your HDTV wirelessly using the AirPlay feature. When viewing a photo or a video on your device, you simply tap the AirPlay icon (which looks like a rectangle with a solid triangle at its base). After pressing the icon, the photo or video will appear on the TV.

You can even stream music wirelessly from the iTunes library in your Apple iPad to the Apple TV with AirPlay. Take advantage of speakers that are AirPlay compatible, such as the Harman Kardon Aura Wireless Speaker. You can play music from your gadget through the speaker without having to let go of your iPad.

How to Use AirPlay

1. Connect your iPad and Apple TV to the same Wi-Fi network.

2. On your iPad, swipe up from the bottom of your screen to access Control Center.

3. Tap AirPlay.

4. Tap the name of the device to which you want to stream content. You'll see a TV icon or a speaker icon next to each device so you know which type of device will be receiving your streamed media. On the iPad, you might need to scroll to see all of the available devices in the device list.

If you don’t want to go the Apple TV route, you can purchase the Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter. With this adapter, you'll be able to connect to your HDTV or monitor via HDMI. This direct, wired connection allows you simply to plug and play your favorite videos, photos, and music through your HDTV.

AirDrop with Fellow Apple Device Owners

With AirDrop, you can share photos, videos, and more with people nearby with an Apple device. To share content with AirDrop, both people need to have Apple devices with the latest iOS firmware. Also, both parties must have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.

Turn on AirDrop

1. Swipe up from the bottom of your screen to show Control Center.

2. Tap AirDrop.

3. Choose one of these options:

            Off: Turns off AirDrop.

            Contacts Only: Only your contacts can see your device.

            Everyone: All nearby iOS devices using AirDrop can see your device.

Share Content via AirDrop

1. Tap the content you want to share.

2. Tap Share.

3. Depending on the app, you might be able to select other items you want to share.

4. Tap the name of the nearby AirDrop user. Please note that if you've sharing via Contacts Only, you will need to be signed into your iCloud account.

Upload to iCloud Photo Sharing

While having photos and videos on your iPad is convenient, it's always a good idea to back up to iCloud. You can also share your personal media files with iCloud Photo Sharing. With iCloud Photo Sharing, you can share photos and videos with just the people you choose and even let them add their own photos, videos, and comments. Friends and family can subscribe to your shared albums to view them on all of their devices, leave comments, and get notified automatically when you add new photos and videos. To use iCloud Photo Sharing, you'll need an iCloud account (Apple ID), a compatible iPad, and up-to-date software.

First, you'll need to update your iPad to the latest iOS version and set up your iCloud account. After that, it's easy to turn on iCloud Photo Sharing. Simply go to Settings > iCloud > Photos and turn on iCloud Photo Sharing. Photos and videos uploaded to iCloud Photo Sharing don't count against your iCloud storage.

iCloud Photo Sharing supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and most RAW photo formats. When shared, photos taken with standard point-and-shoot cameras, SLR cameras, or iOS devices will have up to 2,048 pixels on the long edge. Panoramic photos can be up to 5,400 pixels wide. iCloud Photo Sharing supports both MP4 and QuickTime video file types, and H.264 and MPEG-4 Video file formats. Videos can be up to five minutes in length and are delivered at up to 720p resolution. This means a shared album can hold a maximum of 5,000 photos and videos combined. When you reach your limit, you must delete some photos or videos before adding new ones. The photos and videos you share (and the comments or likes associated with those photos) remain in iCloud until you or the contributor delete them manually, or until you delete the shared album completely.

Creating a shared album is as easy as selecting the photos and videos you'd like to share from an iPad, then selecting the people with whom you'd like to share. Invitations to your shared album can be sent to a person’s email address or a phone number used for iMessage. If you enable Public Website in the settings for your shared album, your photos will be published to a website that anyone who does not have an Apple product but has access to an up-to-date web browser can see. After photos are shared, anyone who can view the shared album can download and keep them permanently. Videos can only be downloaded to a Mac or PC. On the iPad, videos are streamed from iCloud and can't be downloaded. You can also share photos and videos over both Wi-Fi and cellular data connections.

How to Import Photos to a Mac

iPhoto

1. Connect your iPad to your Mac via an Apple Lightning to USB Cable. Make sure your iPad is unlocked by entering the passcode (if applicable).

2. Open the iPhoto app.

3. Do one of the following:

            To import all the photos from your camera, click the Import All button.

            To import only some photos, press the Command key while you click each photo you want to import, and then click the Import Selected button.

When you import photos, they are automatically grouped into Events, based on when the photos were taken. You can always reorganize the photos in a way that suits you best, or create albums to group together photos around different themes.

Image Capture

1. Connect your iPad to your Mac via an Apple Lightning to USB Cable. Make sure your iPad is unlocked by entering the passcode (if applicable).

2. In Image Capture, select the iPad in the Devices list.

3. Use the buttons at the bottom of the Image Capture window to view the thumbnails as a list or as icons to change the size of the thumbnails, or to rotate or delete images.

4. From the Import To pop-up menu, choose where to save the images or which app to use to open an image.

5. To import only some of the photos, select those photos, then click Import. To import all the photos, click Import All. Choose AutoImporter from the “Connecting this iPad opens” pop-up menu to transfer images from a device to your computer whenever you connect it to your computer.

7. Select “Delete after Import” to remove the items from the device after transferring them to your computer. You can also select individual items on your device, and then press the Delete key on your keyboard.

iTunes

1. Connect your iPad to your Mac via an Apple Lightning to USB Cable. Make sure your iPad is unlocked by entering the passcode (if applicable).

2. Open iTunes.

3. Locate and click your connected iPad.

4. Click the Photos tab.

5. Click the box next to "Sync Photos from."

Please note that you should have the latest iOS and iTunes versions.

How to Import Photos to a PC

Windows 8

1. Connect your iPad to your Windows 8 PC via an Apple Lightning to USB Cable. Make sure your iPad is unlocked by entering the passcode (if applicable).

2. Open the Photos app.

3. Swipe in from the bottom edge to see the app commands. (If you're using a mouse, right-click within the app.)

4. Tap or click "Import."

5. Tap or click the iPad from which you want to import.

6. The app automatically searches for all photos and videos that it hasn’t imported before and selects them. You can also swipe down on or click each photo and video you want to import, or tap or click "Select all."

7. Tap or click "Import."

Windows 7

1. Connect your iPad to your Windows 8 PC via an Apple Lightning to USB Cable. Make sure your iPad is unlocked by entering the passcode (if applicable).

2. In the AutoPlay dialog box that appears, click "Import pictures and videos using Windows."

3. (Optional) To tag the pictures, type a tag name in the "Tag these pictures (optional)" box.

By default, the folder name includes the date the pictures and videos are imported and the tag name.

4. Click "Import."

The Apple iPad provides a variety of ways to share your photos and videos with friends and family. If you have any questions or alternative ways of sharing and saving the photos and videos from your Apple iPad, we encourage you to submit a Comment, below.