Where to start, utterly confused!

[Midgiemo]

In the good 'ol days when I had a PC, I took pics with my digital camera, uploaded, deleted from camera, edited and stored temporarily on the PC before storing on an external drive or stick.
When I retired I upgraded to a mac and an iphone(5c) thinking it would all be so much simpler. How wrong was I. You seem to require an extra degree to be able to find your way around all the new (seemingly conflicting ) applications. It's giving me a headache and making me feel very stupid, even though I know I'm not.
Can anyone suggest a really simple way for me to be able to uplift, edit and store my pics and videos. I can't get to grips with icloud and don't need it for music or documents, so I'm wondering if I should just get rid of it?
Any help would be appreciated:

 

[AngerDanger]

I'd recommend importing photos from your iPhone using the system application Image Capture. You can choose where you'd like to save your photos easily.

 

[thedeske]

Agree - image capture or Preview or, if your Mac's new enough - Air Drop.
Simple and fast

 

[acearchie]

I'm going to go against the grain and suggest using 'photos' the new application from Apple.

Plug in your iphone and select the import tag.

You can easily perform basic edits and it's easy to quickly go through photos and find what you're looking for.

It's very visual and much easier than a folder based manual system IMO.

 

[kenoh]

I'm going to go against the grain and suggest using 'photos' the new application from Apple.

Plug in your iphone and select the import tag.

You can easily perform basic edits and it's easy to quickly go through photos and find what you're looking for.

It's very visual and much easier than a folder based manual system IMO.

+1 here. It will make it easier to transition later if you start widening into LR etc.

 

[Cheese&Apple]

For ease of use I would say Apple's Photos as well. As mentioned, the interface is straight forward and very visual...something that, for some reason, seems to work well for anyone having an interest in photography.

Forget about dragging, dropping and copying files into folders and let Photos do the work for you. Just remember that you work within the application itself: To get images in you Import and to get them out to another location such an external drive, you Export. To get rid of images completely you Delete...again, all from within Photos and forget Finder.

 

[VideoFreek]

I'm inclined to go with the last 3 posters--it seems like the new Photos app and the iCloud Photo Library were tailor-made for someone like you looking for a simple and reliable solution. We could probably provide more specific help, however, if you'd give a few more details about what you want to do, and in what way(s) you've struggled so far. For example, you mention editing photos--what kind of editing do you usually do? Is your iPhone your sole camera now, or do you also shoot with a standalone digital camera? What is it about iCloud that you find confusing or difficult?

 

[LV426]

Once it's enabled, iCloud is unobtrusive and works automatically behind the scenes for you. It's the easiest way to get your Apple devices working together and, I suspect, would be perfect for you, in conjunction with the Photos app.

It hardly requires any setting up, and can synchronise a ton of things between your devices, including photos, address book, calendar, notes, website passwords... There's no way I could do without it. And if you lose or replace your phone, the automatic backup to iCloud can be a life saver. Stick with it!

 

[Midgiemo]

First of all I'd like to thank you all for your suggestions.
I think the main issue may be that I'm finding it quite difficult to become friends with my iMac - if only every device were as easy to use as the ipad...

Airdrop? That would be another adventure!
LR - don't know this term

Yes, Husband and self are now just using iphones (5) for pics. The editing function on Photo is the easiest thing about it, and have just about worked out the import/export thing (Cheese&Apple, you are right on my wavelength). How do I export his pics (we are separate users on the same Mac) into my photo site. Objective is to make a combined album of a recent trip.

 

[Cheese&Apple]

Don't give up on OS X and the iMac Midgiemo. The general rule of thumb when comparing OS X to Windows is not to over think things. OS X is very intuitive.

Exporting images from Photos to websites and social media can be automated by Sharing…but work on that later. For now, keep it simple:

From within Photos, select (click on) the image you want on your website then click on File > Export, follow the prompts to save the image on your desktop in a jpeg format. Go to your website and upload the image from your desktop to your website. Once done, drag the uploaded image from your desktop to the trash and you're done.

Images exported from Photos will not be removed from Photos.

This is a good place to start for information: Photos Help

And here you'll find specific information for exporting images from Photos: Export photos

If you're a visual learner check YouTube for tutorials. Keep at it and you'll get there Midgiemo.

~ Peter

 

[acearchie]

I think the main issue may be that I'm finding it quite difficult to become friends with my iMac - if only every device were as easy to use as the ipad...

LR - don't know this term

Check out this post on how to keep it synced between all devices.

P.s. LR just stands for Lightroom. A digital asset management software aimed at advanced photographers. Don't think you need to worry about it yet.

 

[Midgiemo]

Thanks all for all the useful info and links. I'll keep plugging away - you say the
OS X is intuitive but I do not find it so. Guess that makes me a computer devient

 

[ChrisA]

...
Airdrop? That would be another adventure!
LR - don't know this term...

It takes just a few minutes to learn to use Airdrop. Just click the icon and follow the instructions But you will not need this because the new Photos app moves the files around for you. If the photo is inside Photos in the iPhone then it is already on the iMac, or will be after you open Photos and sign on to the iCloud service.