Photos App - Who still uses it?

[javisan]

I stopped using Photos as I found that it was just eating GBs on my SSD. If my actual photos took ~60gb just sitting in a folder in an external HD, i found that if I used Photos, it would eat up at least an additional 15GBs on who knows what.

Have any of you had the same experience? What Mac OS software do you use, if any, to manage your photos?

 

[Dave Braine]

Still use it but haven't done a comparison as you have.

 

[kohlson]

Still use it.

 

[400]

I left Photos when they changed the way external editors worked, now there are a good few that work with it, I am back using it. The main reason being Photos available across my devices and I like the management.

iMac with a 1tb fusion but that is not enough and the library sits on an external 4tb. Robust backup in place including off site hard drive. Library is around 730gb though I only pack up the masters. I am not fused if the thumbnails are lost, hence only masters backed up.

Around 620gb for the masters, all the database files and thumbnails are the bits that big up the folder to 730gb. That storage does include videos and my Canon RAW files. However I really need to clean out a lot of rubbish.

I use Affinity photo and ON1 as external editors accessed through Photos edit function though if I want to use Canon DP4 I need to export the RAW as original to edit. DP4 is quite handy, pity it does not work well with Photos. Photos is OK for a quick edit but I prefer the extra you get from the external editors. I never tend to save the edits backing Photos.

 

[javisan]

I left Photos when they changed the way external editors worked, now there are a good few that work with it, I am back using it. The main reason being Photos available across my devices and I like the management.

iMac with a 1tb fusion but that is not enough and the library sits on an external 4tb. Robust backup in place including off site hard drive. Library is around 730gb though I only pack up the masters. I am not fused if the thumbnails are lost, hence only masters backed up.

Around 620gb for the masters, all the database files and thumbnails are the bits that big up the folder to 730gb. That storage does include videos and my Canon RAW files. However I really need to clean out a lot of rubbish.

I use Affinity photo and ON1 as external editors accessed through Photos edit function though if I want to use Canon DP4 I need to export the RAW as original to edit. DP4 is quite handy, pity it does not work well with Photos. Photos is OK for a quick edit but I prefer the extra you get from the external editors. I never tend to save the edits backing Photos.

Thanks for the feedback!

Wow, it's crazy that you're loosing 110gb on thumbnails and other minor background files. Good to know that it appears to be normal though. I guess I will have to just suck it up and live with loosing this space on my SSD as I have not found any other software that provides a decent photo management tools. For editing, yes, there are many, but I'm looking for a simple interface to just be able to locate and see my photos (not editing).

 

[unobtainium]

I stopped using Photos as I found that it was just eating GBs on my SSD. If my actual photos took ~60gb just sitting in a folder in an external HD, i found that if I used Photos, it would eat up at least an additional 15GBs on who knows what.

Have any of you had the same experience? What Mac OS software do you use, if any, to manage your photos?

I use it with iCloud Photo Library because it was taking up too much SSD space. Minor annoyances: you have to pay for extra iCloud storage and you sometimes have to wait a few seconds while full-sized photos download. Plus sides: my photos are on all my devices and always synced and updated. I can still back up to an external drive for extra backup.

 

[400]

Thanks for the feedback!

Wow, it's crazy that you're loosing 110gb on thumbnails and other minor background files. Good to know that it appears to be normal though. I guess I will have to just suck it up and live with loosing this space on my SSD as I have not found any other software that provides a decent photo management tools. For editing, yes, there are many, but I'm looking for a simple interface to just be able to locate and see my photos (not editing).

No expert in photos and how it stores stuff but my online backup was taking ages dealing with fiddly files and datable files so had a quick look into the issue and discovered the Masters. If I am wrong then someone point it out.

I used to use Photoshop Elements standalone but got fed up of the constant upgrades (full price thank you very much) and them trying to push me to Lightroom and the new annual pricing etc. Purely personal choice on my part, maybe someone with Lightroom can chip in? I did like the PSE organiser though. At the time I was not shooting RAW so no idea what the library size comparison would be to Photos. But now Photos works across my devices I am happy with that. At the time PSE would not do that. No idea where they are now with regards working across devices so cannot comment.

I should add that I have the iCloud 2tb storage. However I realise that the iCloud is not a back up as such. Changes and deletions happen across the system. It is a risk.

My real online backup does versioning and will not delete changes unless I tell them. e.g. I edit a picture or delete a picture off Photos, my on line backup will version it or put it in the trash but leave it there. No 30 days and its gone etc. However I lose the password and account is deleted accidentally or something hence off site hard drive.

Using Carbon Copy Cloner, it allows you to create a safety net and save any changes until you want to delete them.

I use CCC to create the off site backup as well. Several external hard drives to manage but many of these pictures are very precious therefore I take backup very seriously. iCloud on its own is a risk.

Risk for iCloud as a backup is up to the users. Even a risk with one hard drive.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

The quick answer to the thread title is, "The masses" (including me). The reasons are simple. Mac Photos integrates with the "world's most popular" photo platform, iPhone and iPad. While its editing tools do not have the sophistication of others, they are more than adequate for many purposes, and far more extensive than the masses ever use - do you have any idea how many people don't even crop? They're also more sophisticated than many photo enthusiasts are aware, but what does that matter if Photos can't match Photoshop?

Yes, the Photos database takes up extra space compared to simply saving masters to folders, although in my experience it is nothing near the 50% overhead the OP measured. I have a 483 GB Library, 409 GB of which is the Masters folder. That means overhead is 74 GB (15%). 64 GB of that are thumbnails and preview JPGs, which greatly speed display when I'm browsing through the library. Most of what remains is edit metadata, which Photos stores separately from the image. But whether the edit data is saved in separate files/folders or bundled into a PSD, it has to be stored.

In the end, any photo management software requires additional overhead. If you want a management tool rather than a manually-managed collection of folders, it's going to take additional overhead. In theory, the benefits derived from the expenditure of additional storage space will pay dividends in productivity.

 

[400]

Editing tools are quite good and I did not mean to say don't use it, I might have confused the issue here. I do use it almost every day. Don't rely on it as a backup (in doing so I found masters and perhaps should not have mentioned it).

One thought, I did run a paid for duplicate finder and cleared out a load. But then I have more than the OP so not sure that would account for it.

Also, after a big import, I weed out the focus issues, poor framing etc. But searching for a an elusive pic is very good in Photos, say seaside scene, I search for "sea" and a load of possibles are presented, search on "water" and even more. All the Photo Agent time is parking that info somewhere. I wonder how many search options Photos uses.