Image Capture not showing Photos or Videos on connected Phone

I've run into this a few times. The solution turns out, while simple, is completely non-intuitive.

The problem:

You've connected a client's phone to pull off all the "tons of absolutely great" videos and photos they've taken to "help" with the project. And you, being the editor kinda-sorta have to use them because heck, the client themselves took them just for you for their project.

You connect their phone (or iPad or whatever) to your Mac via the cable and launch Image Capture and nothing shows up. Both the Mac and the phone just sit there. Wonderful.

The solution:

Launch iTunes.

Yep. It'll ask if you want to access the connected device. Hit "Trust" on the phone and they'll show up after a few seconds in Image Capture and you can just highlight them all and drag them off and "forget" to use them later on because they're useless and blurry and shaky.

ProTip:

If you want to "untrust" the phone on your computer or they insist they do (Security! they say, "It's the business phone and our IT guys need it to be secure.") what I think you do, is this mess:

Reset the Lockdown Folder.

Yes. Hard as it is to believe that's how it's done.

If you just want to Untrust the phone you just trusted just now, open the Lockdown Folder and then sort by date created and delete the most recent one.

Using .EPS files in Final Cut Pro

A client sent me a slew of images the other day and some were CMYK while others were RGB, yet most were .eps files despite me requesting that they send them as RGB .jpg or .tiff to save time (ermagerd duh deadlinez!) [This is the same client who thought we'd edit the video over the course of a normal workday...day...as in single 8 hour day even though we'd shot for over two full days weeks earlier and I still had no script so no VO]

 FCP prefers images to be RGB so I had to convert the CMYK ones in Photoshop (or Pixelmator) but since these were .eps files I had to save them as .Jpgs or .tiffs or something. For some reason some clients really really insist on .tiffs in video projects "They're uncompressed!" they'll tell me. Depending on my mood I'll correct them or just plod along mindless nodding.

Anywho, when you open a .eps file in PS you'll see something like this:

I changed it to something like this:

Since it's a .eps file you can bump up it's resolution while you're here and have something nice a big and hi-res to work with in FCP. Just save it out as a .jpg or if the client is particularly persnickety a .tiff, dump it into FCP and be on your way.

Deleting Photos from (the) iPad (aka the Over-Syncing™ Nightmare)

Still on the road here. Yay. Is a difference between Waffle House, Waffle King and Huddle House? I can't tell anymore.

One of the producers here who is using the Camera Connection Kit (to manage stills for this documentary that I'm to incorporate into the documentary and which are EASY to delete) and an iPad asked me how to delete photos from an iPad that were originally synced via iTunes.

I told them I dunno, because I don't understand Syncing since it seem to always copy and re-copy everything back and forth every time you make the slightest change to the iDevice which I call Over-sync™.

So I looked it up on The Google…

Hey look, I didn't even get that far before The Google helpfully helped me out with some help. Apparently this is one weakness in Apple's highly touted streamlined syncing methods.

Deleting photos from an iPad is far more complex than it ever should be. And I'm not alone in this.

There are two ways. (and you cannot delete individual photos from (the) iPad if you originally put them there via iTunes unless you connect (the) iPad to the original computer that placed it there which defeats the whole point of a "mobile" device)

Deleting photos that you acquired on the iPad WITHOUT iTunes:

1. Go to Saved Photos
2. Tap the Arrow button on the top right.
3. Tap on the photos you want to delete. It can be more than one simultaneously. You should see little checkmarks on the ones you've tapped on.
4. Hit the Delete button.

Deleting photos that you synced to the iPad WITH iTunes:

(Note this may not work for you, like, at all)

In iTunes, with the iPad connected:

0. Goto the "Photos" section/button at the top of iTunes after you click on your iPad in the left-hand list.
1. Toggle (meaning UNCHECK) the "Sync Photos from" check box. You'll see a window asking you to remove photos.
2. Hit Remove Photos.
3. Hit the Sync button.
4. Wait a long time while iTunes does all manners of things that have no relevance to just deleting a few photos you synced prior to this.
5. Double check to see that the photos are actually removed.

See what Apple is making you do here to delete photos? They're making you delete them by NOT SYNCING them to the iPad. Not syncing = Remove Photos in this case. Make sense?

Essentially they're saying "Don't sync the photos that you already have synced between your computer (iTunes) and the iPad and that will remove them because you don't want them synced." Not Synced is Not on Both. Not synced is not the same on both. Why is this so complicated?

THE ACTUAL SCREWED-UP WAY (I had) TO DO IT:

1. Launch iTunes
2. Connect (the) iPad
3. Click on the iPad listing in the left-hand list
4. Click on Photos at the top-right of iTunes
5. Leave "Sync Photos from" checked.
6. Select "Selected Folders"
7. Make sure NONE of them are check-marked.
8. Hit Apply in the lower right-hand corner.
9. Wait a while for iTunes to waste your time while doing some kind of time-consuming whatever-it-is-that-it-takes I-didn't-say-backup needless over-syncing™ to just delete a few photos.

(Hint: It syncs at this point which means copying everything all over the place again [from (the) iPad to your computer, mainly] in a long at-least-three-step-process which will include copying over all your Apps AGAIN).

How silly and confusing and un-Apple-like is that? Btw, syncing (the Big Sync button you need to hit) will copy over any and all apps you've installed on your iPad so make sure your computer has the space for all this stuff being copied (ie..synced) to it. The laptop here ran out of room for the iPad's 8+Gigs of Apps during a sync leaving no recourse to fix it outside of outright deleting stuff from the iPad itself, then starting again at step 1.

I'm thinking that (the) iPad needs something like 10Gigs scratch room on a hard drive just to perform a sync or something.

Btw, fun fact: Apple Mail won't stay launched if the hard drive is full.

Here's the iPad's user guide. Page 48 is all about photos and page 132 are photo settings.

From page 48:

"Delete a photo: You can delete photos from the Saved Photos album, which contains photos you save from email or the web. For photos synced from your computer, you need to delete the photo from the album on your computer, then sync iPad again."

Page 132 has nothing related to deleting photos.

See what Apple did there? Delete the photo from the computer to delete it from (the) iPad. WHAT THE?

Apple has a Knowledge Base article on this here.

"To delete photos from your device

1. In iTunes, select the device icon in the Devices list on the left. Click the Photos tab in the resulting window.
2. Choose "Sync photos from."
   • On a Mac, choose iPhoto or Aperture from the pop-up menu.
   • On a Windows PC, choose Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements from the pop-up menu.
3. Choose "Selected albums" and deselect the albums or collections you want to delete.
4. Click Apply."

There seems to be no way to manually manage everything between (the) iPad and iTunes. The screwed up thing is that since you have to sync things to manipulate them, if you only want to NOT SYNC your photos (to remove them from (the) iPad) you could un-check other sync options like Apps, but then you run the risk of removing apps from your iPad during the sync! It's absolutely crazy.

I'm not even going to attempt it because the Producer would likely throw me out of this moving car (which I've started calling Serenity and they don't get the joke) through a closed window and keep my Slurpee suicide which they made me pay for myself. I saw you looking at it!

If you know what un-checking the sync app box does when you sync, meaning if it removes apps from (the) iPad let me know. I'm very curious.

Like for me, myself here, now, if you toggle sync books, iTunes will warn me about removing videos. WHAT? HUH?

Would it be so hard to just have (the) iPad mount on the desktop, you open it up, open the photo folder, select all and then trash in the Finder? Or hey, here's an idea...ALSO LET IMAGE CAPTURE MANAGE PHOTOS THAT WERE SYNCED VIA ITUNES? Can't we all just get along? Would that be so hard?

Now I remember why I hated my original iPod-has-to-be-synced-to-one-folder-and-if-you-change-or-remove-that-folder-the-iPod-ends-up-empty-I-hate-sync Shuffle.

This is so tricky and un-Apple-like that people who don't get it (and I am still one of them) end up making their own convoluted and detrimental workarounds like this:

"The way I get around this is to sync photos then go through them one by one on ipad maybe resize for better composition then take a snap shot by pressing home button and button on top of ipad for 1 sec this puts the ones you want to keep into the saved folder. then i sync my next batch of photos from a different folder this deletes the old ones and replaces with new photos and I repeate the process. "


p.s. once you over-sync™ to delete your photos, you'll find some .ipa files in your trash that can take up significant hard drive space.

iPad and Image Capture

Using an iPad for photos is great, handy and fun but deleting them is a nightmare. I'll post on that in a bit.

However, a handy tip; for photos that you acquired on your iPad via the Camera Connection Kit, saving in Safari, Email etc… basically any way OTHER THAN SYNCING VIA ITUNES, you can use Image Capture.

Launch it while your iPad is connected and copy and delete images to your heart's content.

Fast & Cheap Ken Burns Effect in Final Cut Pro

So you want or need a Ken Burns effect quickly and you don't have $50 for a plug-in and don't want or feel like messing with Keyframes. What's another option?

iPhoto. It's free and you already have it installed. The Golden Triangle applies here: Good, Fast, Cheap…Choose Two.

With iPhoto you'll get Fast and Cheap since the export will be limited to 640 x 480.

So how do you do it?

1. Load your photos for the Ken Burns Effect into iPhoto.
2. Select them all in iPhoto so they're all highlighted.
3. Click on the little "+" plus sign at the bottom left of the iPhoto interface.
4. Fourth from the left, or Fourth from the right, click on "Slideshow".
5. Name it, Make sure "Use selected items in new slideshow" is ticked, and hit Create.
6. From here tick ""Ken Burns Effect".
7. Hit the "Music" button with the iTunes icon and at the top of this sheet UNTICK "Play music during slideshow". Hit OK.
(OPTIONAL) Leave Effect and Transition alone if you want the Ken Burns look, but feel free to experiment with them though.
8. Tap Preview for a quick preview of the slideshow or Play to actually watch it. (Tap Escape to cancel the slideshow if you hit Play and have seen enough) (iPhoto will start the Play from the image that's highlighted.
9. Click Settings with the gear icon if you want to adjust the duration of the slides (images). The default duration is 3 seconds. You should leave "Automatic Ken Burns Effect" ticked. Repeat Slideshow doesn't really matter since we're going to export this slideshow as a movie file.
10. Optional - If you want to adjust the duration of a particular slide, click it in the timeline at the time (or use the arrow key buttons on the bottom left) to highlight it, then click "Adjust". If you want to fine tune a photo's "Ken Burnsiness" then Tick "Ken Burns Effect" and adjust Start or End, the Zoom and by dragging it around the starting position of the image. (Keep in mind the speed of the Ken Burns zooms is a function of the initial zoom position of the image and the duration it's on screen)
11. Hit Shift + Command + E to Export it. From the export dialog choose Large (640 x 480) [I'm not sure if iPhoto supports larger exports than that, more experimenting is needed] then select where you want it saved, give it a name and hit the Export button.

You'll end up with a .mov (MPEG4) 640 x 480 movie of your slide show you can then dump into FCP. Is this the best way to do this? Absolutely not; but it's fast. If you want a Cheap, Good -but not Fast- way to do this you'll need to bring all your photos into FCP then Keyframe moves on them (I suggest doing 10 moves then repeating them over and over with Option + V but that's for another post).