Whether you have an iPad 1, 2, or the newly released “new” iPad, odds are you will eventually need to transfer photos from your iPad to your computer. Follow these simple steps below to accomplish this.

Step 1) Apple has a service called iCloud that includes a feature called Photo Stream which will store and sync your 1,000 most recent photos. On your iPad, simply go to Settings > iCloud > Photo Stream and turn on Photo Stream. This will automatically sync your photos with iPhoto and Aperture on your computer as long as you are signed into iCloud.

Step 2) If you opt out of iCloud, you can always just plug in your iPad to sync photos.

Step 2a) If you own a Mac, and you are also an iPhoto/Aperture user, simply open iPhoto/Aperture, connect your iPad, and it will appear under Devices and a popup should open asking you to sync photos.

If you are not an iPhoto user, you can just simply connect your iPad to your computer through USB, and open Image Capture. Your iPad should show up under Devices and you can select the images and import them to a folder or into an application.

Step 2b) On a PC (Windows) simply plug in your iPad, click on the Start Menu and select Computer. Scroll down to your devices and find your iPad. Open it up and find a folder called DCIM, this is your pictures folder. Drag and drop the contents of this folder to your photo application and now your photos are transferred!

And that’s it! You should now have your photos copied from your device to your computer. If you have any questions about these methods listed above or any other techniques that you can use, please post in the comments below, I am more than happy to help.