Other Semi-professional photo management for ios/Mac

[A_Flying_Panda]

Hey guys, just wondering what are you guys using for photo management.

i’m currently using icloud Photo Library + google photos, but just had a baby and taking A LOT OF photos and videos (probably 20Gb/day). That means icloud Photo Library is no longer a sustainable solution. I’ll soon be filling up 2Tb even 4TB space.
google photo had a major flaw, it does not allow photos larger than ~60mb. My Leica Q2 raw is 80m so google photos doesnt work.

so here’s what i’m looking for
1. Long-term photo management tool, which I can use for 10+ years. And no space restriction (it can be either google drive, or my local drive, or NAS)
2. Good cross-platform capability. I need to be able to view remotely on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
3. keeps photos and video ‘sync’ and organized across iPhone/iPad/Mac.
4. simply and reliable workflow for injection from either iPad or Mac.


is there anything that might work?

thanks in advance

 

[alFR]

Video's going to be what's eating your space, esp. if you're using 4K/HDR: why not move the raw video footage offline (with proper backups of course) and leave just the photos in iCloud? If you create any edited videos you can add them back into Photos / iCloud photo library for viewing on all your devices. I don't know of an out-of-the-box commercial product that has unlimited cloud storage (Lightroom has a max of 1Tb, for example), sorry. That's not to say there isn't one I don't know about, of course!

 

[sparksd]

You're running into one of the issues I have regarding iOS - the absence of good Digital Asset Management (DAM) tools. I have a photo library on my NAS consisting of many tens of thousands of images, both RAW & JPEG, and I've been unable to find a good tool for managing those from the iPad (my desktop system is Win10, which has a large selection of 3rd party solutions available).

 

[HDFan]

Good cross-platform capability. I need to be able to view remotely on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

The question here is where are the photos going to be so that you can access them from anywhere. If you are going to use Cloud storage once you move into the TB range you start running significant costs. Adobe charges $50 a month for a 5 TB plan.

If you are going to access them on a local NAS, that means opening up your local network which could be a security risk.

How do you want to access them - as files in folders, as albums, as slide shows?

1. Long-term photo management tool, which I can use for 10+ years. And no space restriction (it can be either google drive, or my local drive, or NAS)

Lightroom, among others, fits this requirement.

2. Good cross-platform capability. I need to be able to view remotely on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Lightrooms' cloud storage would allow this. Lots of possible solutions for this

keeps photos and video ‘sync’ and organized across iPhone/iPad/Mac.

This is more difficult. If you are ingesting on all devices then iCloud may be the best solution. Once you get to your Mac you could then import them to, say, Lightroom. If you also want to preserve ratings, albums, slide shows, etc. don't know of a better solution than iCloud.



Since these photos are likely important to you a solution that allows a 3-2-1 backup strategy should be a part of your design.

1. You can have your photos managed by placing them in a library, or having them accessed externally. My ~4TB library is external, which makes it very easy to backup to disk for the bank vault.

2. If you use an external library then you need to decide on your folder naming conventions. In my case I have folders for, say, travel, and individual folders for each trip.

3. When adding photos to the library it is generally a good idea to give them a name that helps you find them. I keep the orginal file name with its sequence number, and pre-pend the project name. The pictures I took yesterday were renamed "(City) Duck Pond 1B1A0122.CR3

In short iCloud is the only solution I know that would allow complete transparency between all Apple devices. Any thing else is likely to require workarounds.

I have a photo library on my NAS consisting of many tens of thousands of images, both RAW & JPEG, and I've been unable to find a good tool for managing those from the iPad (

Your NAS doesn't have any photo management software (and the associated IOS apps) to allow for management?

 

[sparksd]

The question here is where are the photos going to be so that you can access them from anywhere. If you are going to use Cloud storage once you move into the TB range you start running significant costs. Adobe charges $50 a month for a 5 TB plan.

If you are going to access them on a local NAS, that means opening up your local network which could be a security risk.

How do you want to access them - as files in folders, as albums, as slide shows?




Lightroom, among others, fits this requirement.



Lightrooms' cloud storage would allow this. Lots of possible solutions for this



This is more difficult. If you are ingesting on all devices then iCloud may be the best solution. Once you get to your Mac you could then import them to, say, Lightroom. If you also want to preserve ratings, albums, slide shows, etc. don't know of a better solution than iCloud.



Since these photos are likely important to you a solution that allows a 3-2-1 backup strategy should be a part of your design.

1. You can have your photos managed by placing them in a library, or having them accessed externally. My ~4TB library is external, which makes it very easy to backup to disk for the bank vault.

2. If you use an external library then you need to decide on your folder naming conventions. In my case I have folders for, say, travel, and individual folders for each trip.

3. When adding photos to the library it is generally a good idea to give them a name that helps you find them. I keep the orginal file name with its sequence number, and pre-pend the project name. The pictures I took yesterday were renamed "(City) Duck Pond 1B1A0122.CR3

In short iCloud is the only solution I know that would allow complete transparency between all Apple devices. Any thing else is likely to require workarounds.



Your NAS doesn't have any photo management software (and the associated IOS apps) to allow for management?

Native to the NAS supporting display and full management of almost 100k of images - both RAW & JPEG - based on customizable tagging and/or EXIF data? No.

 

[now i see it]

Best plan: Be more stringent with your edits. Only keep the best stuff. Don't keep everything. Just because shooting digital costs nothing compared to the days when we had to buy film and pay for processing, doesn't mean that you can or shoot endlessly.

It's currently impossible to sync the number of images & photos you've got with any device. There's too many.
Learn To Edit

 

[macintoshmac]

Hey guys, just wondering what are you guys using for photo management.

i’m currently using icloud Photo Library + google photos, but just had a baby and taking A LOT OF photos and videos (probably 20Gb/day). That means icloud Photo Library is no longer a sustainable solution. I’ll soon be filling up 2Tb even 4TB space.
google photo had a major flaw, it does not allow photos larger than ~60mb. My Leica Q2 raw is 80m so google photos doesnt work.

so here’s what i’m looking for
1. Long-term photo management tool, which I can use for 10+ years. And no space restriction (it can be either google drive, or my local drive, or NAS)
2. Good cross-platform capability. I need to be able to view remotely on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
3. keeps photos and video ‘sync’ and organized across iPhone/iPad/Mac.
4. simply and reliable workflow for injection from either iPad or Mac.


is there anything that might work?

thanks in advance

At that rate, I suppose your best bet is to build yourself a NAS with a few of 8TB or 12TB Wolf drives depending on your redundancy plans and budget. That way, you can have a dedicated media storage solution for yourself that can be available to you in the cloud if you so desire.

 

[A_Flying_Panda]

Best plan: Be more stringent with your edits. Only keep the best stuff. Don't keep everything. Just because shooting digital costs nothing compared to the days when we had to buy film and pay for processing, doesn't mean that you can or shoot endlessly.

It's currently impossible to sync the number of images & photos you've got with any device. There's too many.
Learn To Edit

i’m not a professional photographer, i mostly just take kids photos and travle photos. So i dont have time everyday to go through hundreds of photos everyday and select, edit them.

It’s more of a ‘recording life as much as possible’ rather than ‘build a beautiful gallery’ thing.

 

[A_Flying_Panda]

At that rate, I suppose your best bet is to build yourself a NAS with a few of 8TB or 12TB Wolf drives depending on your redundancy plans and budget. That way, you can have a dedicated media storage solution for yourself that can be available to you in the cloud if you so desire.

i’m indeed thinking NAS might be the best way to go. i have a synology (actually multiple synology in different homes for backing up each other), but the problem is duplication.

When I import a photo to my iPad when traveling, and i come back home insert the SD cards to my Mac, the Photos app will automatically recognize the photos imported on my ipad and skip them. synology does not do that.

 

[tcphoto1]

It sounds like you need to edit your shooting volume down to the essentials. Yes, a child can motivate you to shoot a lot but you have to draw the line and it's much less than 20GB a day. Perhaps Adobe Elements will work to start with and two external drives for redundancy, if one dies then the other is still functional. I always have two matching drives as insurance. As a freelance photographer, I use Capture One to import, cull, make adjustments, process and archive. Then I use Photoshop to edit and save to the external drives which contain my body of work. I leave small JPEG's on the working computer and no RAW files because they have been edited, delivered and have been archived.

 

[Pilot Jones]

Best plan: Be more stringent with your edits. Only keep the best stuff. Don't keep everything. Just because shooting digital costs nothing compared to the days when we had to buy film and pay for processing, doesn't mean that you can or shoot endlessly.

It's currently impossible to sync the number of images & photos you've got with any device. There's too many.
Learn To Edit

This is fantastic advice for the digital age.

I appreciate how our phones enable us to capture spontaneous moments without thought, but most people have forgotten the value of that one good shot, instead getting 20 mediocre shots because they’re constantly clicking away in the hopes of getting a few good ones.

Just frame & shoot with purpose when it’s not spontaneous. You’ll have much better photos and no data management problems ?

 

[A_Flying_Panda]

It sounds like you need to edit your shooting volume down to the essentials. Yes, a child can motivate you to shoot a lot but you have to draw the line and it's much less than 20GB a day. Perhaps Adobe Elements will work to start with and two external drives for redundancy, if one dies then the other is still functional. I always have two matching drives as insurance. As a freelance photographer, I use Capture One to import, cull, make adjustments, process and archive. Then I use Photoshop to edit and save to the external drives which contain my body of work. I leave small JPEG's on the working computer and no RAW files because they have been edited, delivered and have been archived.

Thanks for your input, but my question was ‘how do I manage too many photos’, and your answer is pretty much ‘don’t shoot too many photos’. Well this is definitely one way to solve the problem, but surely not what I’m looking for.

also, if we are going deep into it, your multiple USB HDDs are neither backup nor redundancy. If there is some sort of malware/random ware on your computer, the second you plug-in your ‘backup’, it’s gone. If you ‘sync’ across different HDDs, and you mistakenly delete something, it’s gone.

like I mentioned above, I have 3 synologys, in 3 different homes, across 2 different continents. and they dont sync, they have incremental, versioned backups. so I’m NOT looking for a backup solution, but for a management solution.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Thanks for your input, but my question was ‘how do I manage too many photos’, and your answer is pretty much ‘don’t shoot too many photos’. Well this is definitely one way to solve the problem, but surely not what I’m looking for.

also, if we are going deep into it, your multiple USB HDDs are neither backup nor redundancy. If there is some sort of malware/random ware on your computer, the second you plug-in your ‘backup’, it’s gone. If you ‘sync’ across different HDDs, and you mistakenly delete something, it’s gone.

like I mentioned above, I have 3 synologys, in 3 different homes, across 2 different continents. and they dont sync, they have incremental, versioned backups. so I’m NOT looking for a backup solution, but for a management solution.

I know this is not an answer. But... I have two kids, the oldest now 13. I have in total 200Gb of photos and videos. Perhaps you're overdoing it with the baby? Honestly, even with only 200Gb (30,000 photos, 3000 videos) most of the stuff is boring, especially the videos. I have tons of videos from when the youngest was a baby, and I don't really care to watch it. Well, I'm sorry if I sound moralizing. It's of course your choice.

Actually, even with only 30,000 photos, the problem is not storage, but what to do with the stuff. Sitting just and looking through it is enervating. Fortunately, iCloud has become quite good at popping up old photos as memories. I think the main problem with so many photos/videos might not be storage, but having an intelligent system to logically organize/finding/viewing relevant stuff. Again, iCloud is fair at doing that, but once you move out of iCloud, that could be an issue.

 

[ian87w]

Hey guys, just wondering what are you guys using for photo management.

i’m currently using icloud Photo Library + google photos, but just had a baby and taking A LOT OF photos and videos (probably 20Gb/day). That means icloud Photo Library is no longer a sustainable solution. I’ll soon be filling up 2Tb even 4TB space.
google photo had a major flaw, it does not allow photos larger than ~60mb. My Leica Q2 raw is 80m so google photos doesnt work.

so here’s what i’m looking for
1. Long-term photo management tool, which I can use for 10+ years. And no space restriction (it can be either google drive, or my local drive, or NAS)
2. Good cross-platform capability. I need to be able to view remotely on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
3. keeps photos and video ‘sync’ and organized across iPhone/iPad/Mac.
4. simply and reliable workflow for injection from either iPad or Mac.


is there anything that might work?

thanks in advance

Syncing across devices is the key, and that's where the money is. It's convenient, but expensive.

Best experience is iCloud for Apple devices. With Apple One, you can max it out to 4TB (2TB Apple One with additional 2TB iCloud).

Another option is Google Drive. They max out at 2TB for consumers, but thanks to the ease of switching different accounts in Google Apps, it's easy to access multiple accounts in one device.

Another idea is Mega. They can go up to 16TB. I never use them though, so can't comment on the experience.

I personally use OneDrive as part of Microsoft 365 plan. It's only 1TB, and the photo viewing experience could be better, but it's syncing with my mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android devices.

 

[camilasaunder89]

Hey, I myself use only iCloud. It is the best way to manage all your photos and videos and keep them in a single place.

 

[0ID0]

I find that Photos app is an excelent tool except the fact that doesn't allow to MOVE pictures to albums and consequently to remove them from CameraRoll, now called Library or Recents....! There is the function ADD pictures to album, but having some thousands of pictures in Library, results in a total mess. Additionally the pictures added to albums have no marking (as those marked as favorites).
Many albums apps in AppStore are with mandatory subscription - for a pix album to request subscription...!!!
So no real solution in sight and Apple seems to be reluctant to implement the MOVE along to ADD.

 

[now i see it]

If all they did was make it so that we could tell if a picture has already been put in an album - it would go a looooong way towards improving the photos app hell hole