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photographers: best way to import photos from digital camera on MBP?

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AppleMango

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 2, 2019
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Hello everyone,

I just ordered myself a digital camera from Fuji and I would like to get ahead and ask for your appreciated opinions of what the best way to import photos would be?

I have the SD card slot on the MBP, the camera has the FUJI app and a USB-C-connection.
I'm still very new to the macOS (since last year) and digital photography.

I struggle to understand where the photos are stored and if and how they would appear in the photos app?
How do I import them into Lightroom and save them so I have the best use of the programmes and apps?

I've also heard the "Image Capture" app on the MBP would be a good way to go, but maybe someone with more experience has a clear view and idea to guide me.

Many thanks!
 
I'd say just pull out the SD card and plug it into your Mac. You could plug the camera in, but IMO you're just running its battery down when it's not necessary. Also it's possible Fuji will have some weird software it wants you to run. I tend to bypass junk like that if I can. I have a hunch you can just plug that in and launch Lightroom and tell it to import the contents of the card into its database.
 
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On my desktop, I keep a designated folder for importing (Capture One, in my case; Lightroom would be the same.)

1. Remove my SD card(s) from their camera(s), insert into my Mac
2. Copy the day's files to the designated folder (I call mine "DNG"; I also import jpgs sometimes from other sources)
3. (My extra step) Open the DNG folder in HoudahGeo; open the day's GPX track in HoudahGeo, geotag the pictures
4. Import into a Capture One "Session" from the DNG folder
5. Empty the DNG folder, file the GPX track

I need the files to be local first so that I can geotag them, but starting from the DNG folder also makes it simple to import, since I'm always importing from the same folder.

When the SD cards get full-ish I reformat them (to empty them) in camera (not with the Mac.)
 
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i use a dedicated SD or CFE reader for my Zf/Z8/9. Sure apple has a sd card reader but hut holy moly its slow

only benefit i can think is put a cheap 1TB ssd in lol to the SD slot perma to xtend storage for a cheap 😂 as archiving purpose but will need to check prices
 
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Many thanks for your replies! I've ordered a nice SD card and looking forward to try my luck and find my workflow.

@TechRunner: I've got an x100vi to be picked up soon. Really looking forward to it!
 
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I shoot RAW and have (for now) plenty of space on the internal to reference, instead of importing into the CaptureOne library. I kind of got stung cleaning up the mess after Aperture's departure and remnants all over in iPhoto with many a duplicates. I'd still prefer to do this if time comes to use an external drive. I pop out the SD card out of the camera and into the MBP, then import into created folders of year/month/day, that are then referenced in CP1. After this the edited jpeg is exported into Photos.
 
I have a NAS, so I copy the files from camera to the NAS, and then I use darktable to add the images from the NAS mounted drive, which means I can edit them directly on the NAS and not filling up my MacBook drive. I can however sync the files locally to darktable on my Mac, meaning I can edit them whilst out and about, and then when I get home I can sync the sidecar files (with the edits) back to the NAS via darktable, which then removes the local copies.
 
AppleMango said:
Many thanks for your replies! I've ordered a nice SD card and looking forward to try my luck and find my workflow.

@TechRunner: I've got an x100vi to be picked up soon. Really looking forward to it!
Click to expand...
You have a couple of types of files you can create - Fuji's raw files (max resolution and ability to edit) and then jpeg/jpg. The latter for most is good enough and most photo editors do well enough. However, Fuji raw files do better with some photo apps than others. As someone mentioned - Capture One is an ideal choice for Fuji raw files. I would suggest you take a look at a few Youtube videos about your camera and how to get the best mileage out of it. It is likely they will cover software as well.

As I will be also returning to the Fuji fold in a couple of months, consider my suggestion something not only would I say but I will do as well.
 
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UnifiedMelody said:
i use a dedicated SD or CFE reader for my Zf/Z8/9. Sure apple has a sd card reader but hut holy moly its slow
Click to expand...

The SD card reader on MBPs used to be UHS-I speeds, but all of the more recent models have the faster UHS-II readers. I haven't felt the need to use an external SD card reader ever since my M1 Pro MBP.

Of course, UHS-II will always be slow in comparison to CFE, but that's not because of the built in SD Card reader.
 
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Hi guys,

I came across another problem I couldn't solve yet.

I import RAW and JPEG files into a folder called "FUJI import" under Pictures on my MacBook's internal storage. I then edit selected photos in Lightroom and export them to another local folder called "FUJI edit", also under Pictures. These edited files are synced to Lightroom's cloud, where I can share them.

I use Time Machine weekly for backup, so I believe these aforementioned local folders are covered. However, I’d like to also back up the "FUJI import" folder (and the full Pictures folder) to iCloud for added safety and accessibility.

My questions:

  1. Is there an automated way to do this with iCloud?
  2. Or do I have to manually move/copy the folders into an iCloud Drive folder?
  3. If I do use iCloud, will it still take up space on my MacBook, or can I offload it while keeping it in iCloud?
  4. Considering my Mac has 1TB storage and is already at 900GB, what's the best approach to avoid running out of space?
Thanks in advance for any tips!
 
I think it depends on how you are using the camera and the Mac. I've worked in studios, where the cameras are tethered and the images load straight into Lightroom, CaptureOne etc. but I generally do outdoor photography and simply swap out the SD cards as I fill them and then stick the cards in my computer when I get home, with my Mac mini I had a Satechi dock with SD-card reader, with the MacBook Pro, it is built in.

I did have a few time, where the SD reader didn't work - on my HP Spectre, one of the rubber buffers to protect the screen from hitting the keyboard was inside the reader and somehow got pushed out of its holder and fell into the reader and got jammed there, so I had to attach the camera. Older cameras are also often much slower than card readers, but that might have changed, with modern USB-C cameras (I'm still on a Sony Alpha 6000, the reader on my Mac is faster than connecting it via USB.).

At the end of the day, it is personal preference and situation. Leaving the SD card in the camera means less wear and tear on the card and the reader, but that works out over years of use and the card would probably fail before the connectors wear that badly. the card reader is often quicker and there are fewer cables to get in the way.
 
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My camera has built in FPT client, so I FTP the photos direct from my camera to my NAS, then use darktable to grab the ones I want to edit locally, and then when done export photos for uploads and then sync the changes back to the NAS with darktable so I'm not storing all of my photos on my MacBook Pro.
 
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In case of SD, camera is the best card reader. I would just connect camera via usbc and download picture with image capture build in osx app
 
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AppleMango said:
Hi guys,

I came across another problem I couldn't solve yet.

I import RAW and JPEG files into a folder called "FUJI import" under Pictures on my MacBook's internal storage. I then edit selected photos in Lightroom and export them to another local folder called "FUJI edit", also under Pictures. These edited files are synced to Lightroom's cloud, where I can share them.

I use Time Machine weekly for backup, so I believe these aforementioned local folders are covered. However, I’d like to also back up the "FUJI import" folder (and the full Pictures folder) to iCloud for added safety and accessibility.

My questions:

  1. Is there an automated way to do this with iCloud?
  2. Or do I have to manually move/copy the folders into an iCloud Drive folder?
  3. If I do use iCloud, will it still take up space on my MacBook, or can I offload it while keeping it in iCloud?
  4. Considering my Mac has 1TB storage and is already at 900GB, what's the best approach to avoid running out of space?
Thanks in advance for any tips!
Click to expand...
The local Pictures folder isn’t backed up to iCloud Drive and for good reason— the Apple Photos App Library stored in Pictures is a package file and the way it’s structured on Mac is highly incompatible with iCloud Drive syncing. Maybe someday this will change.

If you wanted to sync to iCloud Drive you would therefore need to move your imported files to a folder in iCloud Drive, but yes you absolutely could offload them once they’re synced to free up local storage.

If you wanted to stay organized by having everything in one place, you could always create aliases for everything in the Pictures folder.
 
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Many thanks for all your responses! I think I managed to take a lot of your solutions into consideration and made it mine.

I have the following workflow now:

SD-card into Macbook, offload them into folders. Edit them, upload them into iCloud as backup 1, then offload them to two external HDDs for backup 2 and 3, one stored off site. After that I delete the folders from my Macbook and have enough local storage now.

There is however, another interesting question I came across which I couldn't solve yet, so maybe you guys know more about it, especially once I read your answer @Makisupa Policeman : the Photos app on Apple.

So, I have about 30.000 Photos and 1500 Videos in there. And under SETTINGS-ICLOUD in the Photos app I have activated: Download Originals to this Mac.
So from what I understand, these photos are stored in iCloud for the other devices but available offline.

But basically, if it weren't for this setting, there is no local, offline backup from these photos?

How do I get them offloaded onto an external HDD as well? Is that even possible? And is there like an automated way to do it or a workflow you use or any tips you have...

I'm very interested to hear about this, as I feel stupid to not figure it out. But to my defence, I've only entered the Mac-cosmos a year ago 🫣

Many thanks and all the best!
 
Whether it's a few pics or a few hundred, it's easiest to just take the card out of the camera, and put it into a card reader on the Mac. Either the built-in reader (if the Mac has one), or a USB card reader.

My understanding is that many of the 3rd-party USB card readers are faster than using the built-in reader...
 
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