Photos is now available.

[halfmonkey]

So are you updating and planning on switching over to Photos or will you still keep using iPhotos or Aperture? It seems that most will upgrade from iPhotos to Photos as it's appears to the direct upgrade path in terms of software for iPhoto but apparently, it doesn't have many of the editing tools that Aperture has.

I have Aperture mainly because I wanted an easy interface with the Apple software and I'm more of a prosumer photographer rather than a pro so I wasn't too worried about missing some of the edits that LR offered. It seems with this change though to Photos, I might just make the leap and begin using LR.

 

[LuminousFX]

Does Photos supports extensions? Eg. Nik Software

 

[Release]

Yup. I'm jumping ship to Lightroom after playing with Photos for 5 minutes. I can't imagine that the engineers at Apple are proud of Photos, especialy after what they accomplished with Aperture (before they gave up on it).

I realize that 90% of the users will find it quite useful but anybody remotely interested in photography (rather than just taking snapshots) will probably be forced to move on as well.

I'm REALLY disappointed in Apple abandoning is pro and prosumer users.

 

[Razeus]

I'll give it a couple of updates before I actually use it regularly.

 

[halfmonkey]

From everything that I've read, it seems that Photos was always going to be the natural progression of iPhoto as Photos is tying the iOS system together. It seems that the main feature of Photos is its ability to use iCloud to share and store photos. None of the article that I've read about Photos discusses any positive about editing and managing your photos so it seems that it's geared much more towards the iPhone user rather than the digital camera user whether occasional, amateur, prosumer, or pro.

I like Aperture but if Apple is no longer supporting it, it's only a matter of time of when I'll need to jump ship and not if I need to jump ship.

When Photos was first announced, one of the questions that people were asking was what would happen to the Aperture users. Well it seems that we're going the way of Firewire and Thunderbolt.

 

[MCAsan]

Apple said months ago that Aperture was in maintenance only. They will keep it running on Yosemite. It is long since time to be moving to LR, Capture One Pro, or other DAM and editing apps. LR is the only Aperture replacement DAM I know that does a full round trip to plugins like DxO, Nik, Topaz, or Perfect Photo Suite.

 

[Razeus]

I'll be sticking with Dropbox/Carousel.

I love their service. The app is simple to use, has a flashback feature to resurface old photos, and is continuously updated.

Plus Carousel now has the ability to select certain folders, so now I can put all my various photos in Dropbox, and Carousel will only show what I have in my "Family Photos" folder, and not my "Wallpaper" folder or my "Professional Photography" folder.

 

[Dc2006ster]

Tried Photos and am not impressed. Fortunately, Aperture supports my camera and I will continue to use it while I check out Capture One. Will wait for Lightroom 6 before looking at LR.

 

[AlexH]

I just edited a RAW file and was pleasantly surprised. It certainly feels more like iOS than something like Aperture or Lightroom, but the results were pretty good. I think it's a good editor for straight forward, simple edits. Since I own Lightroom, I have little need for it, but if someone were just getting serious about photography and wanted to start making simple edits, I'd suggest Photos no problem.

 

[MCAsan]

Does Photos supports extensions? Eg. Nik Software

Ask Nik, Topaz Labs, DxO Labs, OnOne and other plugin makers if and when they will do any inter work with Photos. Last time I asked a vendor the answer was....no present plans.

The old Aperture site had a page about the plugin partners and their products. Try to find anything on the Apple site that talks about plugins.

 

[OreoCookie]

I have to say, I really like the interface. The reliance on the back button takes some getting used to, but all in all, it's nicely designed and much cleaner than iPhoto. They've even included some pretty obvious things such as various background colors for books (I no longer need to hack xml files to do the same!).

 

[storminnorman]

PHotos

I am updating my iPhoto Library now to Photos. I plan to keep my wife's family snaps here while I keep Lightroom for all my professional work. Keeps it all honest.

 

[LERsince1991]

Would be good to see a full comprehensive article listing all the pros and cons between Aperture, Photos and Lightroom.

Does anyone know of such a list?

I have never used lightroom but have used aperture for a long time, heres my initial findings of Photos (compared to Aperture);

Photos vs Aperture

Photos - Pros
Performance: More responsive
Feature: Links to iCloud & devices
Feature: Supports exporting (and editing) of transparency
DOES support multiple libraries
DOES support reference libraries
DOES support adjustments stamping
Will support third party plug-ins - Mentioned by Pixelmator I believe so should be in the works?

Photos - Cons
RAW editing doesn’t perform as expected
Highlights adjustment doesn’t perform as expected
Missing: local adjustments (burn/ dodge brush)
Missing: ability to manage which albums sync to devices (on or off, have to use separate libraries)
Missing: ability to edit with external app (photoshop)
Missing: ability to export album/photos as new library
Missing: ability to set default adjustments
Missing: Cannot Rate Images
Missing: Cannot Flag Images
Missing: Cannot *Search* unedited, rated above or flagged images
Have to go into edit for each photo rather than adjustments being available all the time
Have to go into edit to copy or paste adjustments

_______
I was pleasantly surprised to see that my transparent tiffs were edited fine in photos and exported with the transparency. Aperture does not export transparency.

 

[MCAsan]

Aperture is maintenance now. No future development. So not much point in comparing it to LR or anything else. You might keep using Aperture through Yosemite and maybe another OS release. But at some point it will no longer work on the latest OS. It is past time to move on.

As for Photos..
Referenced library?
Third party plugins?

If iPhoto was good enough for some folks, Photos will likely be just fine for them. If someone used the more advanced capabilities of Aperture and the available plugins.....two main migration candidates: LR and Capture One Pro. LR does round trips with plugins very well and can likely reuse all the plugins you had for Aperture.

 

[Forkjulle]

I've installed it and love it. It's cleaner than iPhoto, and works well for my needs.

I have a question or two.

1. I have no further use for iPhoto. Does anyone know how to completely remove iPhoto? Other than putting the app in my trash, and deleting the library file, what else is there?

2. In Photos, under the Albums view, there is an empty folder called "My Photo Stream". It's obviously a rollover from iPhoto, but I don't use it. And there doesn't seem to be a way to delete it. Does anyone know how to remove it?

 

[LERsince1991]

I've installed it and love it. It's cleaner than iPhoto, and works well for my needs.

I have a question or two.

1. I have no further use for iPhoto. Does anyone know how to completely remove iPhoto? Other than putting the app in my trash, and deleting the library file, what else is there?

2. In Photos, under the Albums view, there is an empty folder called "My Photo Stream". It's obviously a rollover from iPhoto, but I don't use it. And there doesn't seem to be a way to delete it. Does anyone know how to remove it?

A2. It's not there for me, make sure it is disabled on all your devices (settings->iCloud->photos->photo stream). You should then be able to delete it (cmd+backspace on MacBooks I believe) if it doesn't disappear automatically.

 

[Forkjulle]

A2. It's not there for me, make sure it is disabled on all your devices (settings->iCloud->photos->photo stream). You should then be able to delete it (cmd+backspace on MacBooks I believe) if it doesn't disappear automatically.

Thanks. I had a look. On my iPhone, those settings are turned off (and were already turned off). On my Mac, under iCloud settings, those options are also turned off.

But the Photo Stream is still there. Hmm...

EDIT: I rebooted my Mac and the folder has vanished.

 

[danfrumkin]

Partial Photos

Anyone else having issues with importing into Photos with portions of photos blacked out?

 

[LERsince1991]

Biggest issue for me at the moment is that it has no option to import or combine multiple libraries into one........

 

[VideoFreek]

Biggest issue for me at the moment is that it has no option to import or combine multiple libraries into one........

I haven't looked at this, but can't you do it manually, i.e., extract the photos from an iPhoto library into a folder and then import into your main library from there?

 

[LERsince1991]

I haven't looked at this, but can't you do it manually, i.e., extract the photos from an iPhoto library into a folder and then import into your main library from there?

In short no.

Yes you can export the versions and import them into photos, but what you don't get is any adjustments or the original files (say raw), you either have the option of flattening everything, or to export the originals and re-edit everything.

 

[iPhisch]

I imported iPhoto to Photos last night. 98 gigs worth of library. I'm really nervous to delete my old library so I think I'll just stash it on an external drive for a while. I didn't realize I had 12,000+ photos...

Quick editing is pretty quick. I'm no pro, I like it so far. Going to take a while to get used to the filing system, can you set it up to just show one photo for a batch of import events like iPhoto? Or will it always look like iOS?

 

[VideoFreek]

In short no.

Yes you can export the versions and import them into photos, but what you don't get is any adjustments or the original files (say raw), you either have the option of flattening everything, or to export the originals and re-edit everything.

Oh, right. That sucks. I'm aware of some third-party software that handles merging of iPhoto libraries...I'm wondering if you could combine the libraries in iPhoto and then import it into Photos? I haven't used it personally, however, so I can't attest to its quality.

Alternatively, the vendor of that software claims to be working on a new program that will handle multiple Photos libraries directly, though it won't handle merging them initially. If you can wait, that might be the answer for you.

 

[Basic75]

Photos vs Aperture

Photos - Pros
DOES support multiple libraries

How?

 

[LERsince1991]

How?

Alt+click when you open the app and it asks you to select a library or create a new one.

But note moving photos between libraries is impossible whilst preserving the editing adjustment data (of course you can export the final versions but that defeats the purpose of non destructive edits)