Image capture vs Photos app

[etaleb]

Folks - what does everybody use to import photos from your iPhone? I have one single computer in the house that I also have 2 HDD's back-ups for stored outside the house. I use this computer to back up everybody's photos in the family whenever I get time. I used to be a Windows user but recently converted to the Mac. Are there pros/cons to using photos app or image capture? In the Windows world, I used to simply name my folders 20230919 Family Member 1 and be done with it

1) For best organization and future proof, which app would you suggest using? I do plan on using photosync in the future but for now, I have to copy a ton of photos from old iPhones no longer being used and then wipe them clean. 2) 2) Do both these apps support grabbing a set of photos as files and expose their database clearly in a folder/file structure? Let's say I want to copy all my photos from just 2013 to a USB drive, can I do that in the future?
3) Do these apps save metadata that already exists with non-IOS devices after import since most pictures were taken with a Sony Camera and Android phones)


Thanks

 

[HDFan]

1. Are you going to be editing your photos? How are you going to access them once you have them where you want them?

2. If you are going to use Photos then you can keep them in the library or keep them in folders by reference.

3. Adobe Lightroom is a more powerful program which has extensive editing options. Files are referenced, editing metadata is kept in the Lightroom database. $. There are numerous posts about other photo management/editing programs.

4. In my case I use Photos with iCloud, Lightroom, and multiple backups. Photos with iCloud is very convenient in that your photos are automatically uploaded to iCloud. However since iCloud is not a backup service you need to make sure that you have implemented a 3-2-1 backup strategy.

I also then take the files and put them in folders on my external disk, modifying the names as I import them into Lightroom. eg Folder name "travel Vietnam 2025.06.01" and pre-pended file names "travel Vietnam 2025.06.01 img01.arw". My Photos library is duplicated inside Lightroom. Have to do it this way because of my Lightroom library size (>4 TB).