In the last few days a number of photo editing apps have gone live in the app store ready for the iPad launch.  You are not going to be editing your RAW files yet on the iPad, it doesn't seem to have the processing power for that at the moment, although we would like to see just how slow it is as processing RAW files.

But if you have JPEG files in your iPhoto library, or presumably on a camera/SD card although we haven't confirmed this yet, then you can have a go at editing them on your brand spanking new iPad.  Here are a couple of notable mentions.

Filterstorm

The best looking app and the one that got us most excited is Filterstorm.  The interface looks really nice and the app is FREE for a limited time after launch day tomorrow, so if you are getting an iPad, go and get it now and let us know what you think.  The app takes the approach of having three Image Editing modes: 1) affecting the whole image, 2) brushing on colour and effects to selected areas, or 3) applying filters to a specific colour range.

The ability to use an adjustment brush on your photos, much like you can in Aperture or Lightroom, really appeals to us and makes this app stand out from some of the others. Do check out the Filterstorm site and have a look at the screenshots.  The developer, himself an accomplished photographer, is honest about why he is giving the app away for free, basically because there are some features that he has not had time to put in, such as image rotate and cloning/healing tools, and he has not tested how fast it runs on a real iPad!  There is a work-through tutorial on the developer's site too, which helps you see in practical terms how useful this app will be. 

Photogene

Photogene is an app we have been using on the iPhone for a while, and which now has its own iPad optimised version out in the app store for £3.49.  In our opinion the iPhone version of this app is quite powerful but the interface and interaction is not as well refined as some apps.  When you get used to the interface for the app though, and discover where all the key tools are hidden, it provides a lot of useful features.  Nothing out of the ordinary really, but it is good to see Photogene on the app store and being developed for the iPad platform.

Camera Bag

Another little heart flutter came upon us when we saw that Nevercenter had announced a version of their wonderful retro-filter app Camera Bag for the iPad.  It is a firm favourite of ours on the iPhone, but it has always felt a little cramped at that screen size, so we are salivating over seeing this running at fullscreen on our iPads, and at a special launch price of £1.79, we think it is a bargain.

New for the iPad are interface optimisations and increased resolution, but also a new 'Vary' feature, which allows personalisation, maybe a little randomisation, of the filter effect that you have chosen, to give individual results for your images.

We can't wait to try it.

Over to you

If you have tried any of these apps on your iPad and can tell us how well they run, or you have used another photo editing app that you think we should be looking at, please let us know in the comments.