How to best manage your digital photos with the Photos app on Mac ?

[FrenchPB]

Dear all,

I'd like to get your advices on how to best use the Photos app on Mac.
This is my (terrible) workflow up to this day :

• Shoot hundreds of photos with my DSLR
• Import everything into the Photos app
• Browse all photos and click on the "Favorite" icon to identify the ones I like (around 20%)
• View "Favorites only" and add them into folders in the Photos app, based on events

The problem with this is that I keep thousands of bad unecessary pictures in the app.
I'm sure there are much better ways to use the Photos app and your advices will be greatly appreciated.

I also wanted to know whether you used several Photos libraries, for archives or different works ?
Hope you guys can help me out.

 

[Ray2]

1) Be more discriminating and take fewer pictures.
2) Of the fewer pictures, cull (trash all non-favorites)

You will have more fun “photographing”. When you allocate “film”, you become a better photographer. You may have more pride in what makes the grade. You’re not futzing with what to do with terabytes of useless garbage you heirs don’t want.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I agree, culling your bad photos is always good to not only eliminate clutter, but it will encourage you when you only see your keepers and not the blurry or boring content. Some shots you may wish to keep anyway if they offer nostalgic value. Also, don’t be afraid to make albums (I could stand to do this more myself).

 

[FrenchPB]

Well, thanks but my favorite "subject" is my 17-month old son and trust me, it takes a lot of pictures to get a good one ! This is the main reason why I have thousands of bad pictures and it takes a lot of time to delete all the bad ones.

Is there an option to see "non favorites only" for example ?

Still interested in your personal workflows, from your camera to your albums on Photos.

 

[Micky Do]

Dear all,

I'd like to get your advices on how to best use the Photos app on Mac.
This is my (terrible) workflow up to this day :

• Shoot hundreds of photos with my DSLR
• Import everything into the Photos app
• Browse all photos and click on the "Favorite" icon to identify the ones I like (around 20%)
• View "Favorites only" and add them into folders in the Photos app, based on events

The problem with this is that I keep thousands of bad unecessary pictures in the app.
I'm sure there are much better ways to use the Photos app and your advices will be greatly appreciated.

I also wanted to know whether you used several Photos libraries, for archives or different works ?
Hope you guys can help me out.

Likewise, I shoot a lot of photos, especially when documenting sports events, or other action.

Likewise, I import everything into Photos

Then I browse all, deleting obvious duds, and quite a few that are obviously of no significance. I may start to edit a few of the more interesting ones also.

After that I make a folder on an external HDD (named "Archives), naming it with the event and the date, and transfer the photos to that. I have the Archives HDD quite well organised, and put the event folder in the appropriate category folder. If it fits in two or more categories I may duplicate the event folder. Thus, everything is archived, and I can be more ruthless in culling what I keep on board the computer in my Photos library.

Next I go through the event or day in Photos again, more critically, editing the more worthy ones (that may be used on a website, in the local newspaper, or that I just like for one reason or another) and deleting those that have no merit. Having already archived them, I can be quite ruthless in culling at this stage.

Finally I make albums to put in appropriate folders in Photos. Some I put in various categories of albums. For cricket for instance I'll have the game (named with teams and date) in the cricket folder, and some photos also put into other specialties categories (catches, bowled, run out, etc)....

A photo in the library can be put in several folders or albums. Deleting the photo from an album or folder will not delete it from Photos library (a change from iPhoto of old).

I keep the photos on board the computer in Photos for a while, but every now and again will go through and make folders of the various events to store on externally on the Archives HDD, then delete most from the Photos library. I only keep my most significant pictures on board.

Of the many photos I have taken since starting in digital photography about 7 years ago, and a few taken with other peoples' cameras before that. At any only time I have only about 3 - 5000 in the Photos Library, depending on where I am at in the organising process. At the end of a league for sport, for instance, I'll cull most of those photos I have in the Photos library, but I am still able to access anything from Archives. Surprisingly, people do occasionally ask for a picture from a year or two back. It is usually not too difficult to oblige.

 

[Ray2]

Well, thanks but my favorite "subject" is my 17-month old son and trust me, it takes a lot of pictures to get a good one ! This is the main reason why I have thousands of bad pictures and it takes a lot of time to delete all the bad ones.

Is there an option to see "non favorites only" for example ?

Still interested in your personal workflows, from your camera to your albums on Photos.

Export originals of all favorites. Start a new library with them. Hold your breath. Trash your current library.

At 17 months you’ll be taking a lot of pics of him for a long time. Young kids and bad images are part of parenthood. Get used to ruthless culling.

 

[mtbdudex]

Well, thanks but my favorite "subject" is my 17-month old son and trust me, it takes a lot of pictures to get a good one ! This is the main reason why I have thousands of bad pictures and it takes a lot of time to delete all the bad ones.

Is there an option to see "non favorites only" for example ?

Still interested in your personal workflows, from your camera to your albums on Photos.

Export originals of all favorites. Start a new library with them. Hold your breath. Trash your current library.

At 17 months you’ll be taking a lot of pics of him for a long time. Young kids and bad images are part of parenthood. Get used to ruthless culling.

I'll add to this...
I have 3 kids, 18, 16, and 14 now.
As you can imagine I have 1,000's and 1,000's of photo's of them, for EACH Calendar year (CY) Jan thru Dec.
Stored in Aperture libraries, yea, still use it.
Since January 2020 I have been culling them 1 year at a time, the oldest one (2001 CY) to current.
I'm on 2007 CY.
Gosh, so many "near same" photos I culled/threw away in each.
Take the hard pill to swallow now, cull them, find those 2-3 keepers per event.
Trust me, you will still have 100's per CY.

 

[IsItJeremy]

Hi,
not sure I have an answer for you as I’m currently a Lightroom user with the current (fairly standard?) workflow
Reject the bad phots , flag rest.then adjust /rate.
1 star = Probably stacked a variant of a better
2 star no rest but part of a story
3+ star = good

I then export all the 2+ to icloud and google photos as I like the memories/on this day feature.
But I end up keeping live/video/portraits mastered in icloud , and most of the day to day shots are iPhone and are light touch edits any how.

i do wonder what would happen if I kept iCloud as the master and just hid the 1 stars (use keywords for ratings) and using an external editor for advanced edits. Would it be simpler and more fun?

 

[Micky Do]

Hi,
not sure I have an answer for you as I’m currently a Lightroom user with the current (fairly standard?) workflow
Reject the bad phots , flag rest.then adjust /rate.
1 star = Probably stacked a variant of a better
2 star no rest but part of a story
3+ star = good

I then export all the 2+ to icloud and google photos as I like the memories/on this day feature.
But I end up keeping live/video/portraits mastered in icloud , and most of the day to day shots are iPhone and are light touch edits any how.

i do wonder what would happen if I kept iCloud as the master and just hid the 1 stars (use keywords for ratings) and using an external editor for advanced edits. Would it be simpler and more fun?

Is Lightroom a subscription app, as so many have become?

Even Microsoft Office is now a subscription app, which must make the company a fortune.

I do have an older, non subscription version of "Office for Mac" on my computer that suffices on the rare occasion that I need to use Word. However, for the most part I stick with Mac apps.

Pages, for instance opens most Word documents OK, and can save documents as a Word file. Word has become a standard, of sorts, and does have more features than Pages..... more than I will ever use! Pages has what I need, and is easier to use. The same may be true when comparing Lightroom with Photos.

One big advantage with MacOS bundled apps, such as Photos, is that there is no ongoing cost, and they are updated from time to time. People go on about the "Apple tax", but this is one of the seldom mentioned benefits it brings.

Time was that OS X updates and apps were sold by Apple. You had to buy them on a CD, and they were far from cheap. When Apple started doing the updates on-line the cost fell significantly, and since about 2014 they have been free..... effectively paid for in advance by the higher upfront cost of the hardware.

 

[FrenchPB]

I've decided to start a new library and call the old one 'Archives'.
In the new one, I won't import files from my DSLR. I'll just import the files into a folder, pick the best ones and copy/ paste the ones I like into an other temporary folder, then import that temporary folder into the Photos app.

The ones I'll "star" in Photos will thus become the best of the best, and I won't keep bad shots in my Photos app.

 

[Somepix]

Well, thanks but my favorite "subject" is my 17-month old son and trust me, it takes a lot of pictures to get a good one ! This is the main reason why I have thousands of bad pictures and it takes a lot of time to delete all the bad ones.

Is there an option to see "non favorites only" for example ?

Yes. Make a smart (intelligent ?) album.

Still interested in your personal workflows, from your camera to your albums on Photos.