iCloud Photo Library / Photos help

[mattdanielc]

Hi guys

I'm new to the mac world - and recently I asked some questions about documents storage..

But now I have some new questions I hope someone can help with - I'm really struggling to understand how to manage my photos on my mac...

iCloud Photo Library

I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade to iCloud photo library. I'd have to pay for the 200GB storage as I have thousands of photos stored on iPhoto.

So...

1. I know on your phone it stores a lower resolution image - would it do the same on iPhoto / Photos on your mac? I've bought a SSD so I could have quick access to my photos stored on my mac - I don't want a lower resolution on my mac...
2. I have around 50GB of photos on my iMac - surely even if it 'optimises' that view on my 16GB iphone - it will take up LOADS of space that my phone just doesn't have?
3. Finally, surely it's better to just stay on photo stream - it's free???

I guess I just need to know - I have 50GB of pictures on my iMac - I don't want them showing on my iphone and ipad - but I DO want any iphone or ipad pictures to appear on my iMac - what is the best solution for me??

iPhoto / Photos app

I see iPhoto is being replaced by photos soon. It's a shame (for me) as I love iPhoto.

1. Will the new app have 'events' functionality (is that 'albums' now?)
   
2. Will the new app have 'faces' functionality? I love that
   
3. Finally, will iPhoto still work if I want it to - or will it disappear when we're updated?

I guess I'm asking - I love the organisation of photos that iPhoto provides with events and also faces - will that continue?

Thanks for any help....I'll get there

 

[maflynn]

Why not just sync you iPhone photos to your Mac via iTunes? That way you can forgo the whole iCloud photo library.

I'm not a fan of storing my images on the cloud. I'd rather take ownership of managing and backing up my images. That's just me, and if you don't have any desire of using the service to have your images on your mac show up on your phone, then there's less reason to use it.

 

[mattdanielc]

I've never used iTunes before (except when I first bought my iPad2) so didn't know I could do that - thanks!

Thanks for your help

 

[newagemac]

iCloud Photo Library will be much easier than trying to use iTunes to sync photos across. Also, the optimize photos option works really well. Based on my use, your 50GB of photos should take less than 1GB on your 16GB phone with the optimize setting turned on.