Photos in El Capitan will include third party editing tools!

[HarryPot]

I've been using Photos lately, and I've come to like it.

Obviously, the one shortcoming of Photos is the editing tools compared to Aperture/Lightroom.

But in El Capitan, Photos will now be able to handle their party editing tools:

New editing extensions let you go further with your photos.
OS X El Capitan supports third-party tools that will be available from the Mac App Store and accessible right in the Photos app. Use multiple editing extensions from your favorite developers on a single photo, or use a mix of extensions and the editing tools built into Photos. From adding subtle filters to using beautiful texture effects, you can take your photo editing to a whole new level.

Hopefully we will see soon the upcoming third party tools from some developers.

 

[MCAsan]

It will be interesting is how Metal can improve the graphics side of photo processing apps like LR, PS, and the existing plugins. Apple made some reference to Adobe getting better performance with some of their apps. LR and PS where not mentioned. Just maybe we will get CC updates in the fall to maximize the use of Metal graphics engine. We will see if Adobe, Topaz, Nik, OnOne and others do Photos plugins this year.

Pushing pixels to the Metal.
Metal is a new graphics core technology that gives games and apps near-direct access to the graphics processor on your Mac, delivering enhanced performance and a richer graphical experience. Metal speeds system-level graphics rendering by up to 50 percent,4 as well as making it up to 40 percent more efficient.5 Metal allows the main processor and graphics processor to work more effectively together, boosting high-performance apps. And Metal is designed to be great for games, improving draw call performance by up to 10x and paving the way for new levels of realism and detail.6

 

[frazzm737]

I think the new Photos app is off to a good start. It will never replace the sophisticated, expensive photo programs, but for the average user, it should fill the bill. I expect we will see many improvements to the app as time goes on.

 

[xStep]

It will be interesting is how Metal can improve the graphics side of photo processing apps like LR, PS, and the existing plugins. Apple made some reference to Adobe getting better performance with some of their apps. LR and PS where not mentioned. Just maybe we will get CC updates in the fall to maximize the use of Metal graphics engine. We will see if Adobe, Topaz, Nik, OnOne and others do Photos plugins this year.

The Adobe guy mentioned supporting CC apps with Metal and did mention Photoshop. They did a demo that was showed the impressive performance gain. Can't remember which keynote that was in.

 

[Zaqfalcon]

How about an 'all the stuff I used to be able to do with Aperture but can't in Photos' plugin?

 

[BJMRamage]

How about an 'all the stuff I used to be able to do with Aperture but can't in Photos' plugin?

I've said that from the beginning when Photos was announced and found out to be short of Aperture.
I'd pay for an in-app purchase of "Aperture-Tools" for Photos. Until that point I am still using Aperture.

 

[robgendreau]

How about an 'all the stuff I used to be able to do with Aperture but can't in Photos' plugin?

Photos isn't Aperture and won't ever be, but you might get some of the tools you used in Aperture. Someday. Maybe. Just depends what was useful to you. If not, keep using Aperture and transition to any of the many alternatives that aren't Photos.

 

[anewman143]

I've been using Photos lately, and I've come to like it.

Obviously, the one shortcoming of Photos is the editing tools compared to Aperture/Lightroom.

But in El Capitan, Photos will now be able to handle their party editing tools:



Hopefully we will see soon the upcoming third party tools from some developers.

My reading of this suggest that the extensions have to come via the app store - so what about those of us who, for example, have paid for the Nik/Google suite? We gonna have to pay again through the app store to get this functionality? Google has been pretty tight-lipped about it to date...

 

[OreoCookie]

It will be interesting is how Metal can improve the graphics side of photo processing apps like LR, PS, and the existing plugins. Apple made some reference to Adobe getting better performance with some of their apps. LR and PS where not mentioned. Just maybe we will get CC updates in the fall to maximize the use of Metal graphics engine. We will see if Adobe, Topaz, Nik, OnOne and others do Photos plugins this year.

Adobe demoed two of their apps (Illustrator and After Effects, I believe), and nebulously mentioned that they'll adopt Metal in all of their CC apps. To what extent and when is another question, though.

It'd be curious to see whether Photos Extensions can actually be used as universal plugins of sorts in other apps. That'd really be great and open the door for a lot of interesting things. Just imagine if you can run Photos Extensions also in Photoshop or Affinity Photo …

 

[MCAsan]

I can see Photos and iPhoto before it for handling snapshots from IOS devices. But if someone was a serious photographer and used Aperture in the past, they need to more on. Photos is no Aperture, even with extensions. Move on to Lightroom, Capture 1 Pro, or other post processing toolset.

 

[maflynn]

I think the new Photos app is off to a good start.

I can't answer first hand about Photos since I don't use it, but I do see a lot of threads in the app forum bemoaning all sorts of issues. Perhaps my perspective is skewed but I'm not all that sure Photos is off to a good start.

Adding plugin/extensions will be a good move on their part but it will never be a product for the more serious photographer imo.

 

[OreoCookie]

I can see Photos and iPhoto before it for handling snapshots from IOS devices. But if someone was a serious photographer and used Aperture in the past, they need to more on.

I don't think this is necessarily true: in a two years or so if Apple keeps on iterating with Photos it could very well cover the needs of quite a few enthusiasts (assuming that sufficiently many Photos Extensions become available and Apple keeps on iterating on the functionality). I don't think it'll ever cover the needs of many professionals, but I definitely think it'll extend well beyond the realm of people taking photos with their iPhone, I know quite a few people whose focus lies with editing rather than organization. (That's not me, by the way.)

 

[OreoCookie]

I can't answer first hand about Photos since I don't use it, but I do see a lot of threads in the app forum bemoaning all sorts of issues. Perhaps my perspective is skewed but I'm not all that sure Photos is off to a good start.

From what I can tell most of the moaning came from (former) Aperture users such as myself. I think former iPhoto users are served well with Photos.

 

[maflynn]

From what I can tell most of the moaning came from (former) Aperture users such as myself. I think former iPhoto users are served well with Photos.

It could be, I've read some of the threads but since I am not using Photos, I cannot provide any aide.

 

[MCAsan]

I don't think this is necessarily true: in a two years or so if Apple keeps on iterating with Photos it could very well cover the needs of quite a few enthusiasts (assuming that sufficiently many Photos Extensions become available and Apple keeps on iterating on the functionality). I don't think it'll ever cover the needs of many professionals, but I definitely think it'll extend well beyond the realm of people taking photos with their iPhone, I know quite a few people whose focus lies with editing rather than organization. (That's not me, by the way.)

So for the two years of so needed for Photos to get somewhere, are photographers just supposed to wait patiently and not take photos? Will the competitors, just sit and wait for Apple to catch up? On both counts, I don't think so. Apple might have serious competition from Google over the snapshot marketplace.

 

[OreoCookie]

So for the two years of so needed for Photos to get somewhere, are photographers just supposed to wait patiently and not take photos? Will the competitors, just sit and wait for Apple to catch up? On both counts, I don't think so. Apple might have serious competition from Google over the snapshot marketplace.

I don't think the competition on the iOS and Mac platform is very serious, and that for the vast majority of users Photos is a bad app. It doesn't need another 2 years to be useful, I wrote that it needs some more time until it's enticing to users who want simple organizational tools but advanced editing tools. To me this seems like a combination that's attractive to quite a few people who are more serious about photography.

I have the impression that you're just viewing this from the perspective of someone for whom Photos (or, in fact, any Photos-class app) does not meet his or her needs. (It surely doesn't satisfy mine. I'll probably use it occasionally to make greeting cards, calendars and manage the photos on my iPhone.)

Google has a big hurdle to overcome, namely that it isn't installed by default and doesn't integrate as well into Apple's ecosystem. Even Google Maps hasn't surpassed Apple Maps as the most popular navigation app on iOS — despite the fact that Google Maps is superior in most circumstances. The biggest appeal of Google Photos is that it is cross-platform in my opinion, this is the hook that gets most installations I think. Average people don't have a clue what Google Photos offers them.