DSLR + Raw + Apple Photos + Mac + iCloud... what is the workflow?

[gwerhart0800]

I have been working on the same conversion. I have been a heavy LR user for years and used PS for only a few things. I attempted to sync my photo collection to the Adobe Creative Cloud, but it would often run the CPU up and would try to download to my laptop. What I like about iCloud is that it only stores the preview on devices until you edit, then it downloads the current version.

Apple Photos is no replacement for LR and PS, but it does allow 3rd party apps to extend functionality. (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205245) The issue I would like Apple to solve is to allow multiple 3rd party apps to edit a photo and manage those edits in a stack. Right now, it has issues where it will only keep the last 3rd party edits. As long as you stick to one external editing app, it works fine. It would also be nice to have batch edits from Photos with a 3rd party app. My workflow with LR was import, then lens correction, then browse and edit.

https://tidbits.com/2019/06/14/the-...estructive-editing-in-photos-for-mac-and-ios/

I am also liking the ability to have everything viewable/editable on an iPad.

I have not dropped my Creative Cloud subscription yet, but I will probably do that soon.

 

[Ray2]

The problem with Adobe is the same as with Office365. For a heavy user, the subscription is a great deal. For the casual user, it may not be worth it. I can go months without needing LR, which makes a one-time purchase more appealing (I have LR6).

I also can go for months without opening Lightroom. If there were effective alternatives to what Adobe offers I might agree with you. But if one wants seamless flow between devices, I haven’t found it. And believe me, since I moved from Aperture 4 years ago, I have looked hard. For me, a frequent traveler with an iPad, Lightroom is so much better than anything Apple has cobbled together there is zero comparison.

 

[Ray2]

Just my view ...

Obviously there are many, many users of Apple’s Photos app. I get at least a weekly question from a friend or associate how it works. Frankly, I’ve been fielding questions about iPhoto, Photos, Mac Photos vs iOS Photos, changes in Photos and all the photo centric apps Apple has materially changed, abandoned or left undocumented for years. Do yourself a favor and forget about Photos. The odds you will regret that choice are quite high.

The app is designed for those who indiscriminately take iPhone pics every 30 seconds. The pics will be in their Camera Roll, never move from there and consume too much local space. Thus iCloud. Beyond that it’s a severely limited image manager with a good, though very tedious to use, editor. If/When the library gets messed up, do not wonder where tools are to get it right. There aren’t any. Oh, don’t worry, iCloud has you covered. And my apologies to those who have heard this before, iCloud did manage to lose 4.7 gig of my files a few years ago. Apple worked for 3 weeks to try to restore them — to no avail.

The fact there are still no material extensions for the DAM side of Photos should be a clear indication Developers are unwilling to invest time in it.

I use Photos. It’s limited to album creation and syncing with my 5 Apple devices. There are zero unique files in Photos. Lightroom has its own copy. When Photos gets messed up I drag the library to the trash and start over. I’d like to use it for Shared Albums. But too many people never receive invites and it can only sort by add date first. Not much use for holiday or any album where a chronological flow is desirable.

 

[am2am]

Well I'm using photos for quite a few years now. Not questioning Lightroom is better photographic tool, but photos is not that bad as you describe it, have also few benefits over adobe products (ecosystem integration being in the first place).
I run my entire library on it - 60k+ mostly RAWs. before I was heavy Aperture user - decided to stay with ecosystem despite it's limitations. I have 2T iCloud storage but keep local copies of entire library on two separate machines. Never lost a picture. Didn't have library problems.
Biggest limitation from my perspective - lack of local editing (resolved through extensions) and the lack of batch edit/processing. The later is not resolved and I miss it, but I've learned to work without it.


If photography would be my primary revenue source I would probably invest into something else (adobe most probably) - as I am just serious enthusiast - it is working for me for now.

 

[robgendreau]

Well I'm using photos for quite a few years now. Not questioning Lightroom is better photographic tool, but photos is not that bad as you describe it, have also few benefits over adobe products (ecosystem integration being in the first place).
I run my entire library on it - 60k+ mostly RAWs. before I was heavy Aperture user - decided to stay with ecosystem despite it's limitations. I have 2T iCloud storage but keep local copies of entire library on two separate machines. Never lost a picture. Didn't have library problems.
Biggest limitation from my perspective - lack of local editing (resolved through extensions) and the lack of batch edit/processing. The later is not resolved and I miss it, but I've learned to work without it.


If photography would be my primary revenue source I would probably invest into something else (adobe most probably) - as I am just serious enthusiast - it is working for me for now.

Actually, one reason I do NOT use Photos much is the lack of integration. Which kind of surprised me.

For example, I often need to have a variety of document types at hand, think of something kind of like a newsletter. So photos, sometimes other media, Word docs, illustrations, emails, contacts and such. I use Spotlight seaches on keywords and tags to gather that all up. But with Photos, since it doesn't write those changes into images, I can't make use of that. I have to find it first then export. So I ended up using Lr for that instead, since it's easier to find by keyword from Spotlight.

And Lr has a better camera app than Apple's, with raw support, so that workflow is better integrated as well (and in one app, not two). Lr even has a decent slide show app for AppleTV.

I just wish Photos were improving as much as Adobe has improved their products, or some other app developers. But one silver lining to Aperture's demise might be that without getting Sherlocked the non-Apple applications can more confidently improve and spread in the marketplace.

 

[DeppJones]

Since I imported all of my RAW and JPEG pictures into Photos a few days ago, and found out that the "search feature" is very basic, I'm looking for a way to automatically write the file name of pictures into the IPTC-Description of the picture.

Lot's of the pictures are trains and the file names are like: "Train number, location, date.XXX". Unfortunately, Photos does not look at the file name but only for keywords and comments in the IPTC for example. That's why I have to write the train number into the keywords of each of thousands of pictures to get good search results.

Any suggestions how to do it the easiest and fastest way?

 

[am2am]

strange, I can search by filename

 

[DeppJones]

I checked it on my mac at work with only a few .CR2 files and you are right. The search for filenames works. Does the indexing of the photos library on my Mac at home takes soooo long?

Photos on my Xs with iOS 13.3 does also not search the filenames. Only Keywords and other meta data.

 

[am2am]

Photos processing&indexing takes loooong - way too long in my opinion. They did it on purpose probably so it will not impact other processes, but it would be nice to trigger it with high priority manually..

 

[DeppJones]

It‘s strange, that the search function in iOS photos finds everything inside the meta data of each image instant and the file names are „ignored“.