Photos" Confusion and Best of all worlds

[savingsomemoney]

Background:

1) I was a fan of Picasa. Quick photo viewer, great for a 'folder only slideshow.

2) I'm still in the folders and files world, so would prefer that my photos remain in this format. I can simply go to "2012-> FIFA World Cup -> Finals photos" and see photos. If Apple Photos open, the edits should reflect in the folder structure as well.

3) At times, we'll share photos with people who don't own a Mac or an iPhone. So directly copying a folder to a thumb drive is an added benefit.

4) All my photos are on a Samsung T7 1TB that also contains my files and is always connected to the Mac mini.

5) Photos from iPhone are also automatically uploaded to OneDrive (Camera Upload). That acts as a decent backup. The T7 is also backed up using Carbon Copy Cloner.

6) Not big into editing photos.

7) We're an iPhone family and have a 200GB iCloud storage plan.

8) Photos + Videos size is around 600GB

Questions:
(i) What would the best photo management workflow be? I'd love a folder->file structure and the benefit of a Photos search ability but also with a quick preview/slideshow (like Picasa).

(ii) How are you handling sharing pictures with family and friends?

(iii) Realistically, can we have a workflow that's good for cross-platform and easy?

(iv) Can a single photo library be used on multiple Macs?

Thanks!



Tech: M1 Mac Mini 256GB/8GB, MacBook Pro 8GB, 512GB, iPhone SE 2020, iPhone X

 

[mikzn]

Questions:
(i) What would the best photo management workflow be? I'd love a folder->file structure and the benefit of a Photos search ability but also with a quick preview/slideshow (like Picasa).

You can still keep the Folder / File structure using Photos if you disable the "Copy items to the Photos library" (Photos Preferences)

That Said - I personally prefer to keep all pictures (and Videos) inside of the Photos app and use it to remove pictures from my phones and iPads and Cameras - easier for back up and storage on external drives etc. ( I don't use iCLoud for photos or videos)

I also split my Photos and Videos into separate libraries 1) work, 2) personal and Family 3) Hiking 4) videos - I use PowerPhotos in addition to Photos for library management and copying or moving pictures between libraries.

(ii) How are you handling sharing pictures with family and friends?

You can share albums and single photos from the Photos App - especially if you use iCloud ( I don't) - in my case I just email or text the photos or sometimes export an albulm and put them in a dedicated folder in iCloud Drive or Drop Box

(iii) Realistically, can we have a workflow that's good for cross-platform and easy?

If you mean windows and Mac sharing the same libraries- I am not sure / I don't use windows much - perhaps keeping the folder strucure on a shared drive would work - but you would loose the convienience of the Photos Libraries and perhaps the edits (cropped and enhanced versions of the Photos and Videos?

(iv) Can a single photo library be used on multiple Macs?

Yes - if you keep it on a separate drive and move that drive back and forth from mac to mac - I think it would be good to designate one mac as a Master version - perhaps there is a way with PowerPhotos - I have not checked

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I was a fan of Picasa. Quick photo viewer, great for a 'folder only slideshow."

So was I.
Regrettably, it's only 32-bit, and can't be run with the 64-bit OS's.

Picasa is perhaps the primary reason I decided to buy a 2018 Mini and run Mojave forever on it, so I will have a 32-bit capable Mac platform going forward into the future for the next 5-7 years or so.

Too bad google doesn't see fit to issue an updated version. Or perhaps the guy who created "Retroactive" could tweak Picasa to get it to run, as well.

I'd like to find a comparable 64-bit app, that offers an easy browse function along with basic editing (as does Picasa), but have yet to find one...

 

[savingsomemoney]

OP wrote:
"I was a fan of Picasa. Quick photo viewer, great for a 'folder only slideshow."

So was I.
Regrettably, it's only 32-bit, and can't be run with the 64-bit OS's.

Picasa is perhaps the primary reason I decided to buy a 2018 Mini and run Mojave forever on it, so I will have a 32-bit capable Mac platform going forward into the future for the next 5-7 years or so.

Too bad google doesn't see fit to issue an updated version. Or perhaps the guy who created "Retroactive" could tweak Picasa to get it to run, as well.

I'd like to find a comparable 64-bit app, that offers an easy browse function along with basic editing (as does Picasa), but have yet to find one...

The closest I found was Unbound. Great Dev, Mac only.
@coolajami has suggested Mylio as well.

Kinda crazy I have to pay for viewing photos and pay extra for storage(SSD + backup) and another extra for cloud storage.

 

[coolajami]

(i) What would the best photo management workflow be? I'd love a folder->file structure and the benefit of a Photos search ability but also with a quick preview/slideshow (like Picasa).

Mylio does that; So even if you stop using Mylio, you can keep the folder structure.
Also Adobe Bridge is free and does that.

(ii) How are you handling sharing pictures with family and friends?

I'm sharing the uploaded folder on the OneDrive by adding the relevant users.

(iii) Realistically, can we have a workflow that's good for cross-platform and easy?

Mylio and Adobe Bridge is both cross-platform software.

(iv) Can a single photo library be used on multiple Macs?

Mylio also does that, you can log in the same account from various machines and see the same database. Unfortunately does not support multiple accounts for the same database (it would be cool though).

Adobe Bridge is not working that well with non-Adobe Cloud storage systems, however, I believe you can access the same database from different machines, but I don't think is as simple as Mylio.
On the other hand, Adobe Bridge is free.

Alternatively, Apple Photos app, can do most of this, apart from the folder/file structure thing, as it would transfer the photos in its database. You can backup the database with the TM fairly easy as well. On the other hand you have to use iCloud for sharing and using the database with other accounts, and it is not particularly flexible to manage a big databases. a 600GB database may be a struggle for the Apple Photos, and you'll need to pay for the 1TB iCloud Storage in order to fully utilise its options.

*sigh*.
I don't particulary enjoy Adobe software, but I have to be honest and tell you that also the Adobe Bridge can do most of the stuff you ask for:
it is free (for now); it can manage large databases; it can manage very well structured folders, they way you're describing it, as it works mostly as a file manager; it does image previews; it is cross platform.
It is a bit basic in the share and collaboration options, but I don't think you mind.

While Adobe Bridge is free, Adobe is notorious for trying to make the users pay for almost anything. I believe there would be a number of "restrictions" in the Adobe Bridge, that have to do with the integration with the Adobe Creative Cloud (that you have to pay for), but I haven't use it for a while so I cannot be sure.
That said, I think will cover most of your needs, so look at Adobe Bridge first.

 

[NoBoMac]

2) I'm still in the folders and files world, so would prefer that my photos remain in this format. I can simply go to "2012-> FIFA World Cup -> Finals photos" and see photos. If Apple Photos open, the edits should reflect in the folder structure as well.

If understanding correctly, can do this by building a folder structure in Photos, add albums to the folders, add pictures to the albums.

What I do, I have a Year folder, then an album for an event, pictures that I want to be "official" for that event are in the album. So:

• 2021
  • Trip to XYZ
  • Hike at ABC
  • Mom's Birthday
• 2020
  • At home
  • Still at home
  • Still still at home

"Official" photos: Once I've culled down an import, maybe post process the images, I might keep a couple just to keep, but will not show to others. Those stay in Photos but are not added to the event album.

Downside, with Photos, to what @mikzn said, if you don't turn off the "Copy items to library" option, you get a unreadable by humans structure. Example, a photo I imported in June has a physical disk path of:

<pathtolibrary>/Photos Library.photoslibrary/originals/7/727087BC-44C1-4A51-85E9-69C90DFB3FD7.heic

For sharing, I go to the album, select all, File > Export. Can export to a thumb drive, or, I upload to Google Photos in an album there, and share the link. Not a big deal for me as a lot of my pictures are in RAW format, so need to convert anyway.