Photos in Finder vs Photos Library and choosing where to save photos

[Omnivore]

I've got a new Mac and have to temporary offload my pictures on to my Mac before I put them on a NAS or external hard drive. I don't want it on my Mac for longterm storage. I will also backup my NAS or external hard drive to a cloud service (Backblaze?) so everything is safe.

My question is where I should put them while I wait for my external storage solution? I have all my pictures organized in folders so I think Photos in Finder is the right place?

What is Photos Library even for? I know it can sync my iPhone photos but can I choose to sync my iPhone photos to a folder in Finder instead?

When I scan photos (going to digitalize all my physical photos) I wonder if I can choose where to save them so they don't go into Photos Library? Same question for a camera, can I choose to offload to a folder in Finder instead of Photos Library?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Fishrrman]

I've never permitted any app (Apple apps or others) to be the "sole repository" of my photos.

Instead, I maintain a separate "media partition" on my Mac, and within that partition, I've created my own "folder-file" hierarchy to store my photo files.

Each folder is named, thusly:
Date taken + general description of pics inside

Example:
2019.7.17 boxcars & freight house

I can now import selected pics into various photo editing apps.
I do permit those apps to create their own libraries/catalogs.
BUT... the "masters" remain in my self-created master library (as described above).

(btw, I don't use any music apps to "organize" my music, either. I handle things similarly with my own organizational hierarchy...)

 

[TorbenIbsen]

"What is Photos Library even for?"

You seem to be assuming that your local situation and preferences is the only one (or the right one) for everybody. But it is not like that at all.

Example. Me and the wife both have iMac/iPad/iPhone. We take all photos with the iPhones and they go directly into the Apple Photos library on all devices thanks to iCloud. So we have our photos on several devices plus the main copy which is in iCloud, thus being outside our premises so we can't lose everything because of some local incident (storm, flodding, fire, burglary and (if you live in a place like Ukraine) bombs and rockets.

Sometimes one of sees something in a shop we might buy. Then the shopper takes a photo of it and after a (very) few seconds this photo will appear on any of the devices the other one is close to at that moment back home. This is useful and easily done in my country as we have 4G/5G no matter where we are.

Then there is the editing. It is useful for us that apps like Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo have direct access to the photo library and can save edits back into the photo library.

Then there is the organizing. On the Macs you can use "smart folders" and "keywords" as means for selecting, grouping and organizing photos. So you can make a presentation from selected photos and perhaps show your vacation photos on your big TV screen via Apple TV 4K directly from a folder in Apple Photos.

There are also the many search features within the app which are quite useful. You can look for motives within each photo. Example. I have several photos where there is some kind of fence in the background. From a visit to a Zoo I also have some pictures of elephants. If I search for all photos where there is both a fence and an elephant I get exactly one photo. How would you do that with old-fashioned photo storage?

And with current MacOS/iPadOS you can now remove backgrounds so only the basic motive is left and can be copied/dragged directly into other apps.

When you organize photos in Apple Photos you are not organizing the actual photo. You are organizing a link to the actual (and only) photo in the All Photos database. So any photo can be in more than one folder without having duplicates. And any edit will also show up in all instances of this photo. this is also useful for some people.

These are the tings the Photo Library is for.

 

[Clix Pix]

I don't use the Photos app at all, and I actually don't shoot that many images with my iPhone, since I use actual dedicated cameras and lenses. After a shooting session I stick the memory card into the memory card reader on my computer workstation and transfer all the image files to the computer, in Finder. This creates a folder on the desktop of my RAW files. I then use a program to review and cull all the images, setting aside the ones I actually will edit into a separate folder on the desktop. Then when I'm ready, I take the image files into DXO PhotoLab 6 and occasionally another app or two for finishing touches. I then put the freshly edited files into a folder in my Pictures folder, which is arranged by month and within the month by date, and sometimes if it is a particular event, the name of the event is also included. I've just wrapped up a year's worth of images since we've now left 2022 behind and are embracing 2023.

This makes it quite easy to back up my photo files on to several external drives. It also made it quite easy to include my current image files in the Pictures folder on the new M1 MBP I recently purchased. No fuss, no muss, no worrying about how the Photos app could potentially do weird things with my images.

 

[Omnivore]

I've never permitted any app (Apple apps or others) to be the "sole repository" of my photos.

Instead, I maintain a separate "media partition" on my Mac, and within that partition, I've created my own "folder-file" hierarchy to store my photo files.

Each folder is named, thusly:
Date taken + general description of pics inside

Example:
2019.7.17 boxcars & freight house

I can now import selected pics into various photo editing apps.
I do permit those apps to create their own libraries/catalogs.
BUT... the "masters" remain in my self-created master library (as described above).

(btw, I don't use any music apps to "organize" my music, either. I handle things similarly with my own organizational hierarchy...)

When you write "maintain a separate media partition on my Mac" do you mean on your Mac's internal drive? I suppose you have chosen a big internal drive then.

I organize my pictures by folders (pictures > year > date > date.file) but I will begin giving my files names and not only dates. However I will store them on an external drive (USB drive or NAS server) which I then will backup to a cloud service so they are safe.

I don't use the Photos app at all, and I actually don't shoot that many images with my iPhone, since I use actual dedicated cameras and lenses. After a shooting session I stick the memory card into the memory card reader on my computer workstation and transfer all the image files to the computer, in Finder. This creates a folder on the desktop of my RAW files. I then use a program to review and cull all the images, setting aside the ones I actually will edit into a separate folder on the desktop. Then when I'm ready, I take the image files into DXO PhotoLab 6 and occasionally another app or two for finishing touches. I then put the freshly edited files into a folder in my Pictures folder, which is arranged by month and within the month by date, and sometimes if it is a particular event, the name of the event is also included. I've just wrapped up a year's worth of images since we've now left 2022 behind and are embracing 2023.

This makes it quite easy to back up my photo files on to several external drives. It also made it quite easy to include my current image files in the Pictures folder on the new M1 MBP I recently purchased. No fuss, no muss, no worrying about how the Photos app could potentially do weird things with my images.

May I ask if this is default that memory cards (or scanners) transfer to folders in Finder/desktop or do I have to set this up? I don't want them to be transfered to Photos Library.

I take photos with my phone right now but not that many. I will get a camera later on since I like using them more. However I will start scanning old photos very soon.

You guys helped me figure out what to do. I will transfer my pictures to the Photos folder in Finder (not the Photo Library) until I've gotten my external drive. I will then transfer everything to my externa drive and keep my Mac free of storage to programs and editing.

 

[Omnivore]

"What is Photos Library even for?"

You seem to be assuming that your local situation and preferences is the only one (or the right one) for everybody. But it is not like that at all.

Example. Me and the wife both have iMac/iPad/iPhone. We take all photos with the iPhones and they go directly into the Apple Photos library on all devices thanks to iCloud. So we have our photos on several devices plus the main copy which is in iCloud, thus being outside our premises so we can't lose everything because of some local incident (storm, flodding, fire, burglary and (if you live in a place like Ukraine) bombs and rockets.

Sometimes one of sees something in a shop we might buy. Then the shopper takes a photo of it and after a (very) few seconds this photo will appear on any of the devices the other one is close to at that moment back home. This is useful and easily done in my country as we have 4G/5G no matter where we are.

Then there is the editing. It is useful for us that apps like Pixelmator Pro and Affinity Photo have direct access to the photo library and can save edits back into the photo library.

Then there is the organizing. On the Macs you can use "smart folders" and "keywords" as means for selecting, grouping and organizing photos. So you can make a presentation from selected photos and perhaps show your vacation photos on your big TV screen via Apple TV 4K directly from a folder in Apple Photos.

There are also the many search features within the app which are quite useful. You can look for motives within each photo. Example. I have several photos where there is some kind of fence in the background. From a visit to a Zoo I also have some pictures of elephants. If I search for all photos where there is both a fence and an elephant I get exactly one photo. How would you do that with old-fashioned photo storage?

And with current MacOS/iPadOS you can now remove backgrounds so only the basic motive is left and can be copied/dragged directly into other apps.

When you organize photos in Apple Photos you are not organizing the actual photo. You are organizing a link to the actual (and only) photo in the All Photos database. So any photo can be in more than one folder without having duplicates. And any edit will also show up in all instances of this photo. this is also useful for some people.

These are the tings the Photo Library is for.

Thank you for explaining how you use it. This is not for me however. I will use an external storage solution and backup to a cloud service. I don't share with anyone or if I share I do so on Apple TV with my phone.

 

[Clix Pix]

When you write "maintain a separate media partition on my Mac" do you mean on your Mac's internal drive? I suppose you have chosen a big internal drive then.

I organize my pictures by folders (pictures > year > date > date.file) but I will begin giving my files names and not only dates. However I will store them on an external drive (USB drive or NAS server) which I then will backup to a cloud service so they are safe.


May I ask if this is default that memory cards (or scanners) transfer to folders in Finder/desktop or do I have to set this up? I don't want them to be transfered to Photos Library.

I take photos with my phone right now but not that many. I will get a camera later on since I like using them more. However I will start scanning old photos very soon.

You guys helped me figure out what to do. I will transfer my pictures to the Photos folder in Finder (not the Photo Library) until I've gotten my external drive. I will then transfer everything to my externa drive and keep my Mac free of storage to programs and editing.

Some editing software programs set things up so that they automatically ingest the images from a memory card reader, but if I recall correctly, yes, the actual default is that the folder opens in Finder. For instance, I put a memory card into the reader, the reader pops up as an external device, I double-click on it and it then opens to DCIM. I double-click again and that opens to MSD-100, which is the actual folder I want, and I click on that and drag it to my desktop, where the images all transfer (are copied) into that folder, still named MSD-100 or whatever it is. I then eject the external card reader and the card from the reader. The images are still on the card, which I format later when I put the card back into the camera. In the meantime, I also rename the folder on the desktop to something meaningful such as "01/03/2023 Tulips". I then take the folder of RAW images into DXO PhotoLab 6 for reviewing, culling and editing.

Occasionally I clean off the images that are on my iPhone and I use Image Capture (bundled with every Mac computer) to do that. If I've taken a really interesting shot with the iPhone and just want to do something with that one image, I simply Air-Drop it from the iPhone to the computer.