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Apple Photos as DAM?
- Thread starter hulk2012
- Start date
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It'll depend on what you expect of a DAM. It doesn't have the library split/merge capabilities of Aperture, and also lacks some of its metadata tools. However, it's roughly on a par with iPhoto as a DAM. I feel the new Keyword tool more than compensates for the loss of star ratings, and there are improvements in the pipeline for Faces and "Places" (which has been folded into the Years/Collections/Moments views).
Finally, there's the added advantage of iCloud Photo Library (presuming you're interested, which I am).
Finally, there's the added advantage of iCloud Photo Library (presuming you're interested, which I am).
I've got tons of iCloud albums sync across devices. Star rating or favorite is a miss as particular favorites goes to global favorite unless you can perhaps implement it somehow in smart album sitting inside each album with all the favorites there
I'm not clear which method you're using for iCloud - Shared Albums? Photo Stream?
You can still do Star Ratings - existing stars are converted to Keywords (1 Star, 2 Star, 3 Star...) and you can continue to use those keywords for new images. The downside is that it's a bit more bothersome to keyword than it was to assign stars.
Yes, you can do what you want with Smart Albums and Favorites - Create a Smart Album with the following criteria:
Match All of the following conditions:
Album is (album name)
Photo is favorite
When you can send a raw file from Photos to DxO Optics to use their raw converter and basic editor and get back a DNG in an integrated trip, let us know. You can do that today in LR. You can also do round trips to PS, Nik, Topaz, OnOne, and a lot of other plugins that integrate with LR library. I understand that much of that can also be done now with Capture One Pro. CP1 has excellent raw converters that very likely far better than the Mac OS ones Photos would use.
Much depends on what you want to do with an image and what tools you want to use to the work. To me Photos is only for those needing to do quick editing of snapshots make with IOS devices. We should not be surprises at that. After it is IOS devices, not 35mm DSLRs or any of the mirrorless systems, that is generating huge revenues for Apple. Remember Apple has already announced the end for Aperture. That was their high photography application.
Much depends on what you want to do with an image and what tools you want to use to the work. To me Photos is only for those needing to do quick editing of snapshots make with IOS devices. We should not be surprises at that. After it is IOS devices, not 35mm DSLRs or any of the mirrorless systems, that is generating huge revenues for Apple. Remember Apple has already announced the end for Aperture. That was their high photography application.
Yeah that's what I did. To put smart albums and favorite album under all the images - do you need to build a folder for perticular shoot as in aperture toy could do projects and then tons of album inside it.
There are no Aperture-style Projects in Photos (or Events) - just Albums/Smart Albums and Folders. "Projects" are for slideshows and printing services (books, cards, calendars, prints).
Yeah I know so tell me - is folder inside another folder the only option? What I do is I create a folder with current year and inside it another folder naming with the year it a shoot date & name and then create album with all images + few smart albums like favorites, 4 stars, 3 stars etc
Folders are the only way to nest several levels deep, Albums are the only objects that hold images. If date is the way you like to organize things then it's likely you'll be nesting folders several levels deep at all times. I'm topic-oriented, rather than date-oriented. I do have a few folders inside folders, but for the most part I don't like to go more than one folder deep.
For my purposes, the main Years/Collections/Moments view is enough if I simply want to locate things by date/shoot. For the most part, I save folders for organizing by topic. If I was shooting for multiple clients (my company is my only "client"), then I'd likely create a folder for each client, and nest folders/albums as needed for that client.
I think your issue is trying to duplicate Aperture's Projects. I can appreciate why, I just never took much advantage of their ability to hold a combination of images, folders and albums. I migrated a fairly large iPhoto library to Aperture, and since iPhoto doesn't have the equivalent of Projects, I had the choice of reorganizing the old library to take advantage of Projects, or leaving that part of the library as-is. If a topic was started in iPhoto then, for consistency, I did not add Projects to the mix.
You seem committed to your Apple iCloud storage, so at this point you'have little choice besides Photos; think of it as a front end to iCloud Photo Library. As you've seen it is a rather minimal tool both for organizing and editing. You can't even reference images from Photos and use them in iCloud Photo Library, unless something's changed in El Cap. It's all-Apple I'm afraid. You could still edit outside Photos (although even in El Cap it doesn't have an "edit in..." command) and then import manually. But that doesn't help with organization.
If you don't wanna be so boxed in you could consider all the many alternatives besides the ones you have rejected; there are many threads here on that. They probably won't help you with using iCloud storage, but some are more open and would allow you to use other cloud storage options. And you could always export/import into Photos for some that you want to share there. Mylio, for example, does a better job of synching across devices than Photos.
If you don't wanna be so boxed in you could consider all the many alternatives besides the ones you have rejected; there are many threads here on that. They probably won't help you with using iCloud storage, but some are more open and would allow you to use other cloud storage options. And you could always export/import into Photos for some that you want to share there. Mylio, for example, does a better job of synching across devices than Photos.
No more 3rd party DAM apps for me. Same regarding retouching. It's either Apple or build on metal with close synergy with Apple. Can't afford hiccups and stagnation of development in terms of 3rd party apps. When photography is profession - the time and quality needs to be intact. So far photos intelligent core image processing and icc color space seems to be the most advanced tech to date plus Affinity package for heavy duty.
I guess I misunderstood the OP; I thought the issue was Aperture was kaput and whether Photos with its limitations could suffice. EOL for Aperture is the definition of stagnation of development.
I like Affinity too but it is third party (BTW although recent to Mac they've been doing PC stuff for a while), and has it own storage format. I hope it does last, but I'd still prefer PSD. And who knows what is gonna become of iCloud Photo Library. Apple has been anything but consistent with their cloud services, I hope you sort your troubles with it and that it works out. I stopped using their cloud stuff for these very reasons—hiccups and stagnation of development—quite a while ago. I do hope they return to more emphasis on pro-type support and development, but the demise of Aperture hasn't given me much hope of that. They don't need to rely on a photo editing product in the same way Affinity, Pixelmator, or even Adobe does, hence my lack of trust in some of their products, especially the freebies.
I think every operating system provides some sort of freebie photo program. Photos is maybe better than most, but then again you pay more for it by buying Apple. Windows 10 has a similar Photos program with clould storage/sharing, for example.
I have not seen the DAM facility in Affinity?
Would you post a link to the description please.
Thank you
Affinity is not a DAM, nor a PIE. The storage I was referring to is file storage; they have their own file format. Sorry; should have been clearer.
Sorry I don't see Apple as having any professional grade photography apps, nor the inclination to maintain or develop any. YMMV obviously.
