Guide

Quick Start

From card to delivered photos in five steps. This is the whole workflow — most people are through it in one session.

What you need

Importing is free. Steps 03–05 (Meta, Edit, and Upload) are part of Pro — see Support for what each plan includes.

01

Create an Event

Everything in PhotoFieldKit is organized by event — the game, the assignment, the shoot. Create one before your first import:

  1. Open the Library module and tap New Event.
  2. Name it (e.g., "UConn vs Yale") — that's it. The event is the folder.

Your new event becomes the active event. Every import lands inside it automatically, in numbered batches (Import_01, Import_02…) — you can browse it all later in the Files app.

Multiple assignments? Create an event for each. Only one is active at a time — switch the active event in Library before you import.
02

Import from your card

  1. Connect your card reader and insert the card.
  2. Open Import and tap Scan SD Card, then select your card in the picker. (The app remembers cards — next time it's one tap.)
  3. Thumbnails load with badges: file type on each photo, and a lock badge on any photo you protected in-camera.
  4. Filter to what you need — All / JPEG / RAW, or Locked Only to see just your in-camera selects.
  5. Select photos (or Select All) and choose where they go — see "Where your photos live" below.
  6. Tap Import. Keep the card connected until the success message appears.
Pro habit: lock your selects in-camera during the game. Then "Locked Only + Select All + Import" gets your best frames off the card in seconds.
No reader? Pro includes Live Import: connect the camera over USB and PhotoFieldKit pulls frames off the card directly. You can filter to locked frames, apply a template as files land, and the session closes itself when the scan finishes.
 

Where your photos live

Import gives you three destinations. Pick based on how you want to work:

  1. FieldKit — photos stay inside the app, organized by event. This is the round-trip workflow PhotoFieldKit is built for: import, caption in Meta, adjust in Edit, and deliver with Upload or export — no moving files between apps. Start here for the beta.
  2. Files App — photos are copied to a folder you can open anywhere: other apps, iCloud Drive, a laptop later. Choose this when PhotoFieldKit is one stop in a bigger pipeline.
  3. Photos Library — photos go into your Photos app — you'll name the album when you tap Import. Choose this when the destination is your camera roll: sharing, socials, Apple ecosystem.
The short version: FieldKit keeps everything in one place for the full workflow. Files and Photos hand your images off to the rest of iOS.
03

Caption with Meta

Open Meta, pick your imported photos, and apply a template — byline, credit, copyright, captions, keywords, all in one tap.

Smart fields fill themselves in: [[year4]] becomes 2026, [[city]] pulls from your template's location, and so on. Both [[double-bracket]] and {curly} syntax work.

Typing the same names all night? Shortcodes expand short codes into full text in any metadata field. Type =12= and it becomes the entry you loaded for number 12. Load a sheet of codes for your roster or venue once and reuse it every event.

Build templates in your browser: the free Template Studio creates .pfktemplate files — and converts templates from other tools. Open the downloaded file on your device and it imports straight into the app.
04

Adjust in Edit

Open a photo in Edit for crop, exposure, curves, white balance, and subject masks — enough to make a frame transmit-ready without leaving your device. Edits preserve your embedded metadata.

05

Deliver with Upload

  1. Open Upload and add your server: host, port, username, and password or key (SFTP or FTP). HTTP endpoints are supported too.
  2. Your server profile is saved on-device for next time — credentials never leave your phone.
  3. Select your captioned photos and send. Watch the per-file progress; you'll get a summary when the batch lands.

If you imported to FieldKit, this is the last leg of the round trip — card to delivered, without your photos ever leaving the app.

If something's not working

My card doesn't show up

Unplug the reader, plug it back in, and give iOS a few seconds. If a previously saved card shows "Not Connected," tap it once connected — if iOS has forgotten the permission, the app will ask you to select the card's folder again. That's an iOS security rule, not a bug (but tell us how often it happens).

"No photos found"

Make sure you selected the card itself (or its DCIM folder) in the picker, not an empty subfolder.

Import button is grayed out

Importing to FieldKit or Files needs an active event — create or select one (Step 01). Photos imports don't; you'll be asked to name an album when you tap Import.

Import seems stuck

Large RAW batches take time — watch the progress counter. If the number is still climbing, it's working; grab a coffee. If it hasn't moved in a couple of minutes, that's a genuine stall — force-quit, rescan, and tell us the file count and device so we can chase it.

My template's fields didn't apply

Check the template imported successfully in Meta, and that it's selected before applying. If a specific field didn't stick, that's exactly the bug report we want — tell us which one.

Upload fails

Double-check host, port (22 for SFTP, 21 for FTP), and credentials. If your server works elsewhere but not here, send us the server type — FTP passive-mode quirks are a known battleground.

Something not working, or an idea for what we should build next? We read every message.

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