Photos App

Mac-lover3 said:

Hello everyone I am in the Public Beta group and was trying the new Photos app which looks quite good (but still some work needed). But there is a problem with a number of photos the dates are not right is there a way to change it. I know that there was such a feature in iPhoto but I haven't found it (yet) can somebody tell me if this already possible?

I know this is beta software and that there are still missing some things (certainly pro features like in Aperture). Overall I think Photos is a mayor improvement over iPhoto!
Now Apple just has to make 10/20 GB the free standard for iCloud Storage, 5 is really little space (don't tell its a free app they have to make money somehow) There must be another way.. like for 'Pro Features' and which features do you REALLY need? pay 49,99 £/€/$ also excited about third party extensions that could the image editing and (video editing is this possible?) more functional.

And hey let's make a poll about the Photos App.... YOUR VOTE WILL BE PUBLIC

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Does Image > Adjust Date and Time not do what you want?

While an iPhoto user may think Photos is OK, I would be totally shocked if any Aperture user will have the same conclusion. Much depends on if/how plugins/extensions from other companies can be used at some point in the future. I am looking far more for LR 6 than Photos 1.

For light usage, its ok, but those of us who used Aperture, the photos app is lacking in editing controls, and DAM capabilities.

I played with it, but I found it failing to really meet my needs. I've since moved on to Lightroom (I did so after apple mentioned the demise of aperture).

I really need some help with the new Photos app.

I can't sync photos over to my iPad & iPhone from my Mac. In iTunes you can't select the Photos library to sync Photos with. I don't want to use iCloud.

This wasn't a problem when we had iPhoto or Aperture, you could just select the albums that you wanted to sync and there you go.

Any ideas?

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Ninja Dom said:

I really need some help with the new Photos app.

I can't sync photos over to my iPad & iPhone from my Mac. In iTunes you can't select the Photos library to sync Photos with. I don't want to use iCloud.

This wasn't a problem when we had iPhoto or Aperture, you could just select the albums that you wanted to sync and there you go.

Any ideas?

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I'm not using the program yet so am just speculating but I would imagine that functionality is now gone as I think Apple want to push the cloud sync functionality. I know that when you activate iCloud photo library on an iOS device you no longer have the option to sync photos via iTunes.

I've made my thoughts clear in another thread. I didn't use iPhoto, and I looked at Photos, but it's not what I want either. I'm sticking to managing my own files and using Lightroom for heavy editing.

jdechko said:

I've made my thoughts clear in another thread. I didn't use iPhoto, and I looked at Photos, but it's not what I want either. I'm sticking to managing my own files and using Lightroom for heavy editing.

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Mac-lover3 said:

And which program do you use to manage your photos?

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He states Lightroom, which is what I think many Aperture users are doing. There's also Capture One which is another alternative to Aperture.

Mac-lover3 said:

And which program do you use to manage your photos?

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Most of my pictures and videos are taken on my iPhone, which are automatically uploaded to Dropbox via the Carousel App (which, like iCloud Photos can show a timeline every photo in Dropbox). Any other photos are manually copied to Dropbox's Camera Uploads folder.

I use Hazel to sort everything out. Images are renamed by date using YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss. Any geolocation is added as a comment. The pictures are sorted into subfolders first by year and then by month (ie /2015/02 Feb/). Videos are renamed by date and dropped into a single folder. Screenshots are moved into a separate folder.

For larger events, like vacations and weddings, I will let Hazel rename the files, but manually place them into their own folder. I subscribe to Dropbox Pro, so all photos (about 30k photos/ 70+GB) reside there (and locally on my home server) and I currently only have 2014 & 2015 photos on my Air (128GB)

From my perspective, it's all automatic. I use the Carousel app on the iPhone to view the photos, and the Carousel web interface on the Mac. Light editing is done in Pixelmator, Preview or Photoshop and heavy editing for larger projects is done with Lightroom, saving the lrcat in Dropbox.

Hey,

I'm considering an approach like this. Photos is just not there yet (obviously, as it's beta). But even Aperture has it's annoyances.

One question, using these methods, how do you go about preserving your original files? I was thinking of using Hazel to create a copy and move the original to my Time Capsule. That way, I can edit the duplicate and store the original away (just in case I royally mess up the duplicate).

jdechko said:

Most of my pictures and videos are taken on my iPhone, which are automatically uploaded to Dropbox via the Carousel App (which, like iCloud Photos can show a timeline every photo in Dropbox). Any other photos are manually copied to Dropbox's Camera Uploads folder.

I use Hazel to sort everything out. Images are renamed by date using YYYY-MM-DD-hhmmss. Any geolocation is added as a comment. The pictures are sorted into subfolders first by year and then by month (ie /2015/02 Feb/). Videos are renamed by date and dropped into a single folder. Screenshots are moved into a separate folder.

For larger events, like vacations and weddings, I will let Hazel rename the files, but manually place them into their own folder. I subscribe to Dropbox Pro, so all photos (about 30k photos/ 70+GB) reside there (and locally on my home server) and I currently only have 2014 & 2015 photos on my Air (128GB)

From my perspective, it's all automatic. I use the Carousel app on the iPhone to view the photos, and the Carousel web interface on the Mac. Light editing is done in Pixelmator, Preview or Photoshop and heavy editing for larger projects is done with Lightroom, saving the lrcat in Dropbox.

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KettyKrueger said:

Hey,

I'm considering an approach like this. Photos is just not there yet (obviously, as it's beta). But even Aperture has it's annoyances.

One question, using these methods, how do you go about preserving your original files? I was thinking of using Hazel to create a copy and move the original to my Time Capsule. That way, I can edit the duplicate and store the original away (just in case I royally mess up the duplicate).

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The quick answer is that I don't worry about it. I don't feel like I edit enough pictures to warrant worrying about the originals.

The somewhat longer answer is as follows:

Blurry or out of focus images are trashed and red-eye reduction isn't something I'd want to undo. If the white balance or lighting isnt quite right of my kids doing something funny, it doesn't bother me. It's the memory that counts. That's most of my daily editing right there - trash or keep.

For bigger projects (like helping my wife with portrait sessions), we use Lightroom, which does non-destructive edits anyway. Each project is put in its own LR Catalog and it makes for easy backup.

Also, behind the scenes, CrashPlan and Dropbox both have versioning features.

Of course, you could always use Hazel to create a copy of the originals as you suggested.

KettyKrueger said:

Hey,

I'm considering an approach like this. Photos is just not there yet (obviously, as it's beta). But even Aperture has it's annoyances.

One question, using these methods, how do you go about preserving your original files? I was thinking of using Hazel to create a copy and move the original to my Time Capsule. That way, I can edit the duplicate and store the original away (just in case I royally mess up the duplicate).

Click to expand...

All these programs (from Aperture to Photos to Lightroom to Photoshop) use non-destructive editing - the originals are never modified. Any edits you make are stored as data, separate from the original image. That data is applied to the output version of the image (whether that output is the computer screen, a JPG file, or a print). No matter how royally you mess up your edit, the original is sitting pretty. Clicking "Revert to Original" simply trashes the edit data - nothing had ever been done to the original, so nothing has to be undone.

To my mind, "storing the original away" means using a camera's SD card just once, and putting it into a bank vault, as if you were shooting film. Otherwise, since digital copies are exact duplicates, just what is "original" and what is "duplicate" anyway? Is it the copy you imported from your camera onto the computer, or the copy you made of that when you "moved" it to external storage? (And if I wanted to be really picky, I'd note that the "original" image was constructed in your camera before being copied to the SD card.)

That's not to say you don't need to backup. Mucking up an edit isn't the only risk you have to protect against. A fairly reliable backup method is to have an on-premises backup (Time Machine or other) plus off-premises backup/storage. If your hard drive fails, you have Time Machine. If your house burns down, you still have your off-premises storage.

There are pros and cons to every backup method. However, it helps to understand exactly how the Photos/iPhoto/Aperture library works before deciding what to do. The Photos/iPhoto/Aperture library is what's called a package - a special kind of file system folder that appears in Finder as if it was a single file. Inside the package is a complex structure containing hundreds or thousands of individual file system folders, and thousands of files. Some folders contain the Master images (organized into separate folders by date), others contain edit data for those images, others hold info about the contents of albums, others are Preview and Thumbnail images, which are used to speed-up display of images when you browse. The nice thing is, if you backup the Library, then you're backing up everything within it.

Now, it's not necessary to keep your masters inside the library. You can also "reference" files kept elsewhere (let's say, you create a new folder in the Pictures folder whenever you import new images from your camera). In that case, you'd probably want to turn off the preference to copy all imported images into the library.

If you adopt iCloud Photo Library, the off-premises storage is taken care of by iCloud. What a lot of people don't appreciate about how iCloud (and Dropbox, among others) is setup is that, in addition to the copy in the cloud, the contents of your iCloud or Dropbox storage is cached (stored) on your computer as well. This is done in part for data protection, but on a day-to-day basis it means you don't have to be connected to the internet to access your files. Therefore, the easiest backup method is also highly reliable - iCloud Photo Library + Time Machine backup of the computer. If you're worried that something will be accidentally deleted from iCloud, you can still go back in time via Time Machine to retrieve it.

I totally agree that they need to expand icloud default storage. I can barely back up the photos on my iPhone, let alone anything else.

JuryDuty said:

I totally agree that they need to expand icloud default storage. I can barely back up the photos on my iPhone, let alone anything else.

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This is why they're moving to all this iCloud integration - so you as the consumer have to buy storage from them. I don't see apple increasing the default amount when its their goal to turn this into a revenue stream.

Photos/Aperture alternative?

maflynn said:

He states Lightroom, which is what I think many Aperture users are doing. There's also Capture One which is another alternative to Aperture.

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I know you'd said elsewhere you'd already made the switch to Lightroom but had you considered Affinty's Photo also currently in beta?
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/beta-download/
…possibly a bit ahead of Photos as regards plug-in support. Also, unlike Apple there seems to be some dialogue with the developers in the forum.

Personally, I'd be happy if I could combine Neatimage for noise reduction, DxO for geometry/lens correction and Aperture's exp control/GUI all in one package.
Well, one that didn't make my 2010 iMac 4gb RAM grind to a halt.

JackRoch said:

I know you'd said elsewhere you'd already made the switch to Lightroom but had you considered Affinty's Photo also currently in beta?
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/beta-download/

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I saw that, but I haven't investigated that, only because it looks like its just an image editing application. I want DAM capabilities. Perhaps Im doing it a disservice and take a closer look.

I'm probably going to get DXO and incorporate that into my workflow,. I love how it processes my RAW images. So I'll use DXO to process my RAWs, convert them into DNG, feed them into LR, so they can be key worded, and categorized.

maflynn said:

…I love how it processes my RAW images…

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With you on DxO for that. Regarding cataloguing, I've never got beyond the 'just a bunch of folders' arrangement. Since Aperture seems highly regarded in that respect I assumed someday I'd use it.

When DxO resleased Viewpoint I thought maybe they had plans to release other elements of their software.

I'd suggest taking a look at the Affinity Photo beta.

It has a develop module for RAW. It's not a DAM, that's true, but it is a sort of unique raw processor and image editor. It has some bezier based skew tools that are very cool. And a sort of directional exposure tool.

It's definitely way beyond Apple's Photos...it's in the PS alternatives league.

Another app I've been experimenting with is Corel Aftershot Pro.

I particularly like the way it lets you browse through existing folders, without "importing" images...

maflynn said:

I saw that, but I haven't investigated that, only because it looks like its just an image editing application. I want DAM capabilities. Perhaps Im doing it a disservice and take a closer look.

I'm probably going to get DXO and incorporate that into my workflow,. I love how it processes my RAW images. So I'll use DXO to process my RAWs, convert them into DNG, feed them into LR, so they can be key worded, and categorized.

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What kind of DSLR do you use? Cannon with RAW files or Nikon with their proprietary RAW files?

Traverse said:

What kind of DSLR do you use? Cannon with RAW files or Nikon with their proprietary RAW files?

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I don't use a DSLR any longer, I used to use a Nikon DSLR but wanted something smaller and sold my gear and went with a Olympus OMD EM5. Smaller more compact body, great IQ.