confused about workflow, is 'photos' and icloud the best setup for me

[madeirabhoy]

ive always been confused by what works best, and my photos are always a mess, ive always got duplicates and ive always got photos not in iphoto or whatever im using.

basically i take pictures using a sony cheap camera mainly, but also sometimes with my ipad, and wife takes with ipad and iphone. also i download some pictures for work things.

the personal pics i dont do anything with apart from use as a screen saver, or to look through. i like iphoto being able to put locations and stuff on them.

however, i also do some work with indesign both for my own job and for my wifes, with some pictures of madeira and whatnot, so i dont like my pics all being tied up without some easy way of getting them into indesign.


i have enough space in dropbox (free) to back them all up, about 18 gigs of pics, but very soon i wouldnt have enough space. i also have tons of space on copy.com on a free account too. at the moment i drag them into my dropbox, as a backup, then import them into iphoto, but i often forget whether ive imported or not, so theres tons not in iphoto, and also i get annoyed when i go to tidy up a folder, deleting rubbish and duplicates, and sometimes renaming folders and separating or merging folders, and then i think its correct in my dropbox but not in my iphoto.

i did upload most of my pics, well all of my pics, to flickr, marked private, but again i forget which ones ive not uploaded and there are duplicates.



in an ideal world, id like a setup like iphoto, with any changes propagating through my backup online, but with easy access to pics from indesign..


any advice appreciated.

 

[aerok]

Sounds like the new Photos app will work out for you. You would have to do backups to Flickr/Dropbox regularly.

Another alternative is using Google photos, it's unlimited photos depending on the size and their online editor is not bad at all.

 

[robgendreau]

Sounds like the new Photos app will work out for you. You would have to do backups to Flickr/Dropbox regularly.

Another alternative is using Google photos, it's unlimited photos depending on the size and their online editor is not bad at all.

I disagree.

If you use Photos, and make changes, you have to export a finished product outside of Photos, then import that into In Design. It's somewhat better if you reference photos in Photos (instead of the default, which is copying them upon import into Photos library), but you still don't have changes made in Photos automatically propogating to an image that in turn you'd import into InDesign.

I'd suggest first that you organize them into folders, and then try Adobe Bridge. It works with InDesign, and allows you keyword, develop RAW, move photos, export, etc. It should make your work with InDesign easier.

 

[madeirabhoy]

I disagree.

If you use Photos, and make changes, you have to export a finished product outside of Photos, then import that into In Design. It's somewhat better if you reference photos in Photos (instead of the default, which is copying them upon import into Photos library), but you still don't have changes made in Photos automatically propogating to an image that in turn you'd import into InDesign.

I'd suggest first that you organize them into folders, and then try Adobe Bridge. It works with InDesign, and allows you keyword, develop RAW, move photos, export, etc. It should make your work with InDesign easier.

see thats what i used to do, iphoto but i dont import them. but then, when i mess around with them, say i decide to combine 2 folders called porto santo 2013 and porto santo summer 2013 into one, how do i do it? if the pics are in the separate folders both on the finder and separate events in iphoto. if i move them in iphoto will it move the files (guess not) and if i move them manually how do i update iphoto / photos.

 

[robgendreau]

see thats what i used to do, iphoto but i dont import them. but then, when i mess around with them, say i decide to combine 2 folders called porto santo 2013 and porto santo summer 2013 into one, how do i do it? if the pics are in the separate folders both on the finder and separate events in iphoto. if i move them in iphoto will it move the files (guess not) and if i move them manually how do i update iphoto / photos.

iPhoto (and Aperture and Photos) can EITHER manage your photos or reference them. By default it manages them, by copying them into the iPhoto (or Aperture or Photos) library. You can't see them there in the Finder without some special work.

If you don't manage them, and turn OFF the "copy" function in preferences, then iPhoto merely points at the photos. So you could have photos in the Finder in Pictures/porto santo 213 and it would know they were there. And you could use them just the same IN iPhoto by making albums, events, etc.

But if in the Finder you move the photos, iPhoto may lose them, since the reference has been changed. You might have to to relocate them in iPhoto. A common scenario for this is that you moved some photos to an external drive that perhaps you disconnected. iPhotos would still show the previews and you might even be able to do some things with them, but you'd have to reconnect the originals to do most important chores.

The upshot is that it's best to use either the Finder or your photo management software to organize your images. Doing both at the same time can lead to messy results.

With Bridge, which is a file browser, you CAN move the photos either in the Finder or in Bridge and the result is the same. It doesn't behave like iPhoto. That's why I recommended it.

 

[Designer Dale]

When I worked with InDesign, I did all my photo editing with PhotoShop without regards to where the photo was stored (iPhoto, Aperture, my HD...). I opened it with PS and did all my editing and saved it to a Work folder dedicated for the project I was into. That way, when I place the photo into InDesign and need to change it, I just hit Edit Original and it went back to that image in PhotoShop for changes. When you Package a project for publication InDesign will copy all of the images used no mater where they were originally from.

They are dated now, but all of the tutorials in my sig were done like this.

Dale