Photography

Photos for Mac, screenshot from Apple.com

With the system update to Mac OS X 10.10.3 you also got the Apple application Photos installed, automatically. One thing it also did at installation was to remove the icon in the Dock for iPhotos. Thankfully it did NOT remove the iPhoto application, just the icon in the Dock. Which is bad enough. I, as a user, should control what I have in my Dock or what I don’t have.

The first time you start Pictures, it wants you to convert your iPhoto Library to Photos. It also wants you to place your images in the Cloud for access from all your different devices. Converting the Library takes for ever and a lot of harddisk space if you have a large iPhoto Library. If you don’t have enough space on your harddisk, Photos will tell you so.

Opening Photos is a disappointment. Both the way the images are organized there, and in particular how it manages imports from a camera. It has several controls to edit your photos and to upload them to various places (except to Instagram). It also has several controls for how ro create various outputs like calendars, photobooks etc. More information here.

First time I tried to import photos from my camera I got a big chock. I shoot in jpg and raw. What did it import? Only the jpgs! No raw files at all. Which is really odd as it imported all the raws from the iPhoto Library on conversion and correctly states that they are raw files. But not when it imports directly from the camera. No raw files.

When using iPhoto, I had no such problems. When using iPhoto I also could remove photos from camera from within iPhoto after done with the import. There is a control for this in Photos too, but it has problems and doesn’t do it as seamlessly and effortlessly as iPhoto does/did. It gets stuck and locks the entire machine (at least in my case).

My conclusion was: do not use Photos. It is only good for amateurs who shoot with their iPhones and do not have any particular demands on how to manage their photos. It might be a good companion to the iPhone, but not so good that I will use it. And it doesn’t do RAW.

So, today I deleted the image library created by Photos when converting from iPhoto. I opened iPhoto again and repaired its iPhoto Library. Then imported my latest photos (all taken after April 28th in my case and saved separately to another folder on the harddisk).

I then wanted to delete the Photos application… but no, Apple won’t let me do that! (It is just like they won’t let me remove certain application son my iPhone). Why??

Screenshot. Removal of Photos? No, not allowed.

Many have had complaints on iPhoto over the years – particularly in the way it stores photos in various folders inside the application and library. But, compared to Photos, iPhoto was/is a wonder of a competent application in so many ways. I will miss it. Or does Apple allow me to keep it? Will forthcoming OS-updates allow it to exist and open? That we don’t know presently.

Adobe Bridge. Image from Adobe.com

I am aware that iPhoto probably will disappear one of these days as it is discontinued. So it is high time to change my workflow when it comes to managing my photos.

I’ve used several applications for managing photos over the years. My workflow, since Adobe Bridge appeared (2003), has been to upload jpgs and raws from camera via Adobe Photodownloader into Bridge and a dedicated folder on my harddisk. I then import (directly from camera) to Adobe Lightroom. I then import to iPhoto and empty the card in the camera when done and remove the camera from the iMac.

Why so many applications? To be sure to have an unedited version of my images somewhere. They also get backed up to an external harddisk every night. All of them. When I need more space on my main harddisk in the iMac I move the oldest photos to another external harddisk from the folder where they originally got uploaded to Bridge and delete them from the iMac. That also deletes them from the backupdisk the coming night. I also burn them to CDs/DVDs to get yet another backup copy.

When photos are imported to harddisk I then use Adobe Bridge in connection with Adobe Camera Raw for eventual editing of the photos and saving out a web-version (settings in Bridge) to a folder where I keep the photos I use in my two blogs.

Screendump, saving out from ACR.

The images in iPhoto I hardly ever edit. And IF I did, it has an option to export original which does just that, exports the original photo without edits, to a folder of your choice.

I realize I will have to stop using iPhoto. Whatever is still in there will be exported to one of my external harddrives. I will then get rid of iPhoto (if Apple lets me…). I guess using Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom will be enough.

I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I don’t like the way you have to have a separate datafile with the images for the storage. Takes up unnecessary space on the harddrive. It is also an odd application with features I really do not like and much too amateuristic for my taste. I’ll stick to Bridge, ACR, Photoshop and Lightroom as soon as I’ve emptied my iPhoto Library.

Photos I will not use. Even Googles Picasa is better than Photos. Wonder why Apple won’t let me delete it and what in the OS uses it? If you have Photoshop, you have Bridge. If you haven’t used Bridge since it was introduced, give it a new chance. It is really good.