Trixology
General Category => General Computing/Macintosh => Topic started by: elagache on April 11, 2015, 10:49:52 PM
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Dear WeatherCat shutterbugs . . . . (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/camera_small.gif)
Apple has sprung their new app Photos and the reviews are . . . good for teenie boppers, bad for serious photographers. So the time is coming where those of us with more serious photographic ambitions to make our change. Have any of you already done this? Any leading contenders? Any advice about the alternatives that we might not be aware of?
Curious minds want to know! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/thinking.gif)
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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If you're currently using iPhoto, I think Photos will be a step up in editing capability, but you will have to get used to a different way of storing and sorting photos. The new way is more intuitive, but the old way has been around for years and is what everyone knows how to use. If you are an Aperture user, it looks to me like it might be time to migrate to Adobe Lightroom. But Aperture will be fine for a while. It still works well, but will will no longer be updated.
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OK, I just tried Photos, after reading your post, Edouard. ? I must say, I like it!
You don't have to use iCloud storage. It defaults to off. I could see where that might be desirable if you were just getting started. But, with well over 4,000 images already, I'm not going to go that route.
I see it, as well as iPhoto and Aperture, as more of a photo manager than a photo editor. But, the editing capabilities it has are very well designed. Well? at least the ones I used so far.
I did find a bug in it. When deleting photos from full screen mode, it occasionally will hang on the image after verifying the delete. Waiting doesn't produce anything. Trying to change image doesn't work, but exiting full screen does. There you find that the image has been moved to the dead image pile and all is back to normal.
I'll probably switch to it after further evaluation.
[rock]
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If you currently using iPhoto, I think Photos will be a step up in editing capability, but you will have to get used to a different way of storing and sorting photos. The new way is more intuitive, but the old way has been around for years and is what everyone knows how to use. If you are an Aperture user, it looks to me like it might be time to migrate to Adobe Lightroom. But Aperture will be fine for a while. It still works well, but will will no longer be updated.
I think you nailed it Blick!
I've used Adobe's software since the original Pagemaker and Photoshop but photo cataloging and image manipulation isn't nearly as intuitive as Apple's Aperture appeared to be for new users. But Adobe's software has always provided more capabilities for advanced users and they supported new cameras/formats quicker. Still, I bet Apple's Photos will be entirely adequate for a huge segment of their user base. I guess it just wasn't economically justifiable to continue developing to compete with Adobe's high-end photo software since that's a very narrow market slice.
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Edouard, I expect you'll eventually decide on Adobe's offerings but if you really just need a robust photo manipulation package, take a look at DxO Labs (www.dxo.com/us). I have several friends who really like OpticsPro and the price. But you still need to consider the cataloging part of the equation.
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Dear Blick, Herb, Felix, and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
Thanks for your thoughts. Actually my main interest (and concern) isn't for image editing. I'm still very old school I try to take the picture I want instead of getting close and post-processing it. I just don't have the time these days to fine-tune images. On the other hand the reviews I saw with Photos is that they removed a number of features to find images and that I find distressing. I have a little over 6700 images in my iPhoto archive so that's enough that I need as many ways as possible to locate a particular image. Photos doesn't seem to be intended for someone doing the sort of things I do with photos.
Indeed, I seem to have little choice but Adobe Lightroom. Still, I thought I would ask just in case you guys had spotted anything more interesting.
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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I think you should give it a try. Just don't let it migrate your main iPhoto library until you're sure you want to change to the new program. In iPhoto, create a small new library of photos and save it to be your test library during the trial run. So far, everything I've tried to do was easy to figure out. I've only experienced a few annoyances, and they were minor and likely to be handled in subsequent updates. Like, when you delete a photo, you have to [every time] answer an "Are you sure? ? dialogue, before it actually doesn't even delete the photo but moves it to death row with an execution date. There's no preference to turn it off.
It keeps all of your existing albums. I haven't dug in on this to be able to explain it in detail, but I saw that the albums were there. Existing slideshows become projects. The Faces recognition algorithm works better than before. Photos in the main list are displayed chronologically, which in my opinion is a better organizational foundation than the Events in iPhoto.
This is the first iteration of Photos. I see it as a cleaner organizational framework to be built upon further in the future.
On startup, it will migrate the photo library of your choosing. Don't let it have the big set of photos until you've decided.
[computer]
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Never really liked iPhoto, back in its early days it was very clunky. At the time I used iView MediaPro 3, no longer around but does still work on Intel Macs.
For the last few years have used Abode Lightroom. I like to be able to control were my images are stored, have a separate HD on the MacPro just for images, now over 60,000. Plus like Felix I?ve been an Adobe user for many years so the interface wasn?t too much of a challenge. I use Lightroom 5.7.1. (the standalone version not the cloud thing) as a library tool and basic image editing, sharpening & noise reduction, exposure, size changes, spot removal and red-eye reduction, then Photoshop CS5 for the more serious stuff.
Like any new software there will always be a steep learning curve, each individual needs to figure out what works best for them. The forums on dpreview.com have some very good information if that helps.
You can download a 30 trial of Lightroom here https://creative.adobe.com/products/download/lightroom
Noel
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Dear Herb, Noel, and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
Photos in the main list are displayed chronologically, which in my opinion is a better organizational foundation than the Events in iPhoto.
Unfortunately losing events is a deal-breaker for me. I'm an old film guy and I think in terms of rolls of film. The first digital photos I ever had were the CDs that came when you developed your pictures. So I definitely want that extra layer or organization.
For the last few years have used Abode Lightroom. I like to be able to control were my images are stored, have a separate HD on the MacPro just for images, now over 60,000. Plus like Felix I?ve been an Adobe user for many years so the interface wasn?t too much of a challenge. I use Lightroom 5.7.1. (the standalone version not the cloud thing) as a library tool and basic image editing, sharpening & noise reduction, exposure, size changes, spot removal and red-eye reduction, then Photoshop CS5 for the more serious stuff.
Like any new software there will always be a steep learning curve, each individual needs to figure out what works best for them. The forums on dpreview.com have some very good information if that helps.
You can download a 30 trial of Lightroom here https://creative.adobe.com/products/download/lightroom
Sounds like indeed a reasonable safe choice. When I have time I'll indeed download the free trial. Thanks for the tip! [tup]
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Never used iPhoto for much, scarred me away with its early loss of Libraries and absolutely no control over where I wanted them to be, anyway! Never thought of it as an editor and the early versions were not photo managers, they just did everything behind your back! ::)
Bought Aperture a few years ago when Apple had a sale on it. Didn't know how much better Lightroom was! Fortunately, LR is still available without their stupid subscription model, at least for now! [cheer] Who knows how long that will last?! [banghead] LR even has an "Organizer" app along with the editor. The nice thing about LR is that you can store your images any way and anywhere you want, but it saves your edits in (basically XML) files and applies them when you view, export, or print. This way, you don't end up with multiple copies/versions of huge files; the original is never actually touched. I think even iPhoto switched to this method.
Even though I have a great camera now, much of my editing is for manipulating/adding layers, so I still use Photoshop Elements (could never justify the full version of PS). I now have v.11, but 13 is the latest one. Adobe used Elements (6 or 7?) to create the new GUI for that app, so much of the code is actually in PSE! However, the only way to access many functions is through PS Actions. Since those usually cost real money, I just stick with the basics. Lightroom gives me more control if I'm just dealing with self-composed images.
For free pixel editing, there is still <GraphicConverter (http://www.lemkesoft.de/en/products/graphicconverter/)>, but the learning curve grows steeper with each new, more powerful release.
Good luck, Edouard
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Yep! I've used Photoshop Elements as well as GraphicConverter. PSE is (or was. It's been a long time. I balked at their $59 upgrade costs early in their game) a close second to Photoshop and a very capable editor. With GraphicConverter, the updates couldn't keep up with the OS, so I burned that one. iPhoto was a bit cumbersome. At first, having all photos in one library didn't fit my plan. Then, I found myself having to pull together multiple shoots into Events, in order to conform to the Event model. Clunky. I prefer the way Photos does it with chronological order. Makes more sense to me. YMMV.
I'm happy with Photos.
[rockon]
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Here's a good review from Walt Mossberg. He covered it better than I could. - Herb
Review: Photos, Apple?s Replacement for iPhoto (http://recode.net/2015/04/14/review-photos-apples-replacement-for-iphoto/)
By Walt Mossberg (http://recode.net/author/walt-mossberg/)
April 14, 2015, 3:00 AM PDT
When Apple introduced iPhoto in 2002, it was a tremendous boon to casual photographers. Rather than focusing on tweaking individual photos to perfection, it was centered on easy organizing of the many images people were beginning to accumulate via digital cameras.
But as a tidal wave of photos arrived from smartphones in recent years, the iPhoto software became overwhelmed. It was often slow to scroll through thousands of pictures, and its minimal editing tools seemed increasingly inadequate.
Now, at last, Apple has replaced iPhoto with a new, free Mac app called simply Photos. It?s much faster, less cluttered and has more editing options, yet still makes them simple to use. It?s essentially a Mac app that catches up to the superior look and feel of the Photos apps on the iPhone and iPad, but with greater power.
More? (http://recode.net/2015/04/14/review-photos-apples-replacement-for-iphoto/)
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Howdy Herb and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
With GraphicConverter, the updates couldn't keep up with the OS, so I burned that one.
I'm surprised that you had any problems with GraphicConverter. I've been using it since at least OS 8 and it has always worked well for me.
iPhoto was a bit cumbersome. At first, having all photos in one library didn't fit my plan. Then, I found myself having to pull together multiple shoots into Events, in order to conform to the Event model. Clunky. I prefer the way Photos does it with chronological order. Makes more sense to me. YMMV.
One man's meat is another man's poison I suppose. I definitely like pulling photos together into events that make sense. For example when I do some project on my trusty wagon, I start by taking pictures and giving them somewhat arbitrary event names. When the project is complete that becomes the event and group the photos by project name. That way I can easily look up exactly the steps I took to modify the stereo or what not.
Here's a good review from Walt Mossberg. He covered it better than I could. - Herb
Review: Photos, Apple?s Replacement for iPhoto (http://recode.net/2015/04/14/review-photos-apples-replacement-for-iphoto/)
I definitely think Apple has put some thought into Photos and their goal with it was causal photographers, not folks with fancy DSLRs and interests to match. I wouldn't be surprised if Photos is actually designed to make it harder for people with other cameras to integrate them into their everyday life. Even subtle obstacles would be very much in Apple's interest. These days everyone carries their phone everywhere - why have any other camera?
So Photos is the program that Apple wants going with OS X. It is their vision of social media and how people interact with each other. Those sorts of people don't spend months trying to get the most eloquent photo of a sunrise or try to document how to restore a classic car. It is very much a tool for photos "in the now." Looks like I'll be looking elsewhere for a photo solution.
Edouard
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Hi All iPhoto users
So can someone tell me what is the latest version of iPhoto?
I have version 9.6 and it won't work on Yosemite 10.10.3
So does this mean iphoto won't work at all on Yosemite.
cheers
[cheers1]
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Hi Randall and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
So can someone tell me what is the latest version of iPhoto?
It appears that the latest is 9.6.1. It does work fine with OS 10.10.3
I have version 9.6 and it won't work on Yosemite 10.10.3
So does this mean iphoto won't work at all on Yosemite.
See if you can update to 9.6.1. You should be able to do that with the App Store application. You might have some other problem which is preventing iPhoto from running. It is always a good idea to run Disk Utility just in case you have some data corruptions issues.
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Hi Edouard
Tried updating at the App Store no longer available at the App Store in the USA
Will try to find an update some where online
Thanks for th info
cheers
[cheers1]
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A PM is awaiting your perusal, Randall.
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Hi xbus
Thanks for that most appreciated
cheers
[cheers1]
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It's the least I could do, and I always do the least I can! [goofy]
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[tup]
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Here's an article on Photo/iCloud Photo Library at <TidBITS.com (http://tidbits.com/article/15584)>. May have some helpful info for those that use either one.
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Howdy Randall, xairbusdriver, Herb, and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
Well, I got as far as to download the the Lightroom demo installer, . . . . . Now if I could just find the time to actually install it and try it out! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/D'oh.gif)
Oh well, . . . . Edouard
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I actually really like the new Photos app. It has fairly robust editing capabilities, at least sufficient for me. I migrated all of my photos to iCloud--took several days but went smoothly. I think if you're really doing a lot all the time with photography what I've heard about, over and over from serious photographers, is how good Adobe Lightroom is. But I'm not that heavily into it and didn't want to bother with switching away from a simple, all-in-one Apple solution for now.
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It's actually working quite well for me too. The editing tools are better than what was in iPhoto.
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It is my goto app for photos management now.
(http://media.giphy.com/media/oRkqzWGrbAJeU/giphy.gif)
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Dear Duncan, Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
Well, I got as far as to download the the Lightroom demo installer, . . . . . Now if I could just find the time to actually install it and try it out! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/D'oh.gif)
ditto . . . . (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/D'oh.gif) . (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/D'oh.gif) . (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/D'oh.gif)
I still have a lot of photography going on. I'm mostly documenting the projects underway for my trusty wagon. I sure wish Apple hadn't given up on the idea of events. I know it is old fashioned but hey, when I grew up, if you wanted a picture you had to put film in your camera!
Oh well, . . . . Edouard
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... when I grew up, if you wanted a picture you had to put film in your camera!
Wow! You must be older than that Buick you are restoring.
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... when I grew up, if you wanted a picture you had to put film in your camera!
And, if you didn't have your own tanks, pans, light-proof room, and chemicals, you had to wait days/weeks to see the pictures!! OTOH, a good photographer knew how to frame, compose from skill, experience and practice rather than pressing the button hundreds of times and then deleting the 98 that were not worth keeping... [tup]
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Dear Blick, X-Air, and WeatherCat shutterbugs, . . .
Wow! You must be older than that Buick you are restoring.
Well, . . . without giving too many details - I am! ;D
... when I grew up, if you wanted a picture you had to put film in your camera!
And, if you didn't have your own tanks, pans, light-proof room, and chemicals, you had to wait days/weeks to see the pictures!! OTOH, a good photographer knew how to frame, compose from skill, experience and practice rather than pressing the button hundreds of times and then deleting the 98 that were not worth keeping... [tup]
100% correct! If you cared at all about the photo you were trying to take, you got very good at "seeing the picture in your mind's eye" before pressing the shutter. It was that much more imperative when it was a one time shot. That can be especially challenging when combined with two of my other hobbies: scuba diving and amateur astronomy. Still even if you were chasing that fish, you had to do your best to frame that photo!
It is unfortunate that these sorts of skills are seriously endangered. I don't think people realize how much time they end up wasting when they use their camera like a machine gun and nonetheless potentially missing the shot they wanted in all that overkill. Then they are forced to spend a lot of time trying to touch up the pictures that could have been captured effectively at the time the shutter was pressed. Finally, without that aesthetic about what is a good photograph, friends are bombarded with more photos than they can easily handle - hardly the way to keep your social network healthy.
So I keep doin' it da' ol' fashioned way! Too bad few employees at Apple do the same . . .
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Well, I agree with what you're saying about learning to compose a shot before taking it, however there is always room for kismet as well. I have learned through the years of shooting 35 mm, that no matter how practiced you are or skilled in going after the right composition, sometimes it just comes down to luck. Many times the shot I was going for turned out not to be the one I kept, because the opportunistic impromptu shot was much better.
Also, given that we all shoot digital, the cost of experimentation is almost nothing.
Below are two experiments taken over the weekend that I thought turned out well. My idea was to position the camera (in this case, my iPhone) in the rocks to get the shot. I had already taken a picture of the rocks, and it made a good desktop image.
The first image, I called "Bones of Mountains Past."
The second image inspired me to write this little poem:
The perfect feng shui of a cloudless day,
nature's way,
when daffodils
and May
have gone away,
and summers breath is here to stay.
[lol]
Leveled and cropped in Photos? Edouard.
(http://bullwinkus.smugmug.com/Nature/Wildlife-from-iPhone/i-sTP6vkV/0/X3/IMG_0753-X3.jpg)
(http://bullwinkus.smugmug.com/Nature/Wildlife-from-iPhone/i-kS2VDSS/0/X3/IMG_0758-X3.jpg)
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Beauty Full! Amazing what that little camera can in the hand of a poet! I do have a couple of questions, however...
I thought you guys were having a drought, so how many people had to drain their pools all together to fill that crick?!
Second question is how long did it it take you to place all them rocks?!!!
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Edouard's the one with the drought. We've had almost 32" of rain here since the first of the year. Ground's so wet, puddles come up in your footprints! At one time it was raining so hard, some raindrops couldn't get out of the way fast enough, so it was raining sideways before it hit the ground! Why it was raining so hard, a farmer lost half his turkeys when a thunder clap caused 'em to look up. Issa-fact?
[cheers1]
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Why it was raining so hard, a farmer lost half his turkeys when a thunder clap caused 'em to look up.
Now I know how you got your screen name... [lol]
Was that stream anywhere near the Buffalo or Spring River? Maybe just a tributary?
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That was the Buffalo National River at Maumee. Maumee is downriver from the Hwy 65 bridge, about 2/3 of the way to the Hwy 14 bridge. That little shrub was growing on an island. There was much more water flow behind it.
Not so hot today as it is humid. Need to mow before it rains again.
[rainyluck]
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Dear Herb and WeatherCat shutterbugs, . . .
Well, I agree with what you're saying about learning to compose a shot before taking it, however there is always room for kismet as well.
. . .
Also, given that we all shoot digital, the cost of experimentation is almost nothing.
Point well taken. Also, we can learn from the experiments of others. I don't know when I discovered the value of trying to bring the camera as low as possible to take a shot, but it is an angle I often consider - to the mount getting down on my belly in the dirt. Not the best thing for the camera either!!
Below are two experiments taken over the weekend that I thought turned out well. My idea was to position the camera (in this case, my iPhone) in the rocks to get the shot. I had already taken a picture of the rocks, and it made a good desktop image.
Thanks for the photos and the cute poem. I do like the effects you can get along a river or stream.
Just one thing . . . . I'm envious . . . . all that water!! [sweat2]
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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If I could share it with you, you'd be more than welcome to take all you want.
[rockon]
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Dear WeatherCat Shutterbugs,
Believe it or not, I finally got around to trying to migrate from iPhoto to Lightroom yesterday. Sadly what I discovered was deeply disappointing. The Lightroom import feature did successfully bring in all the photos but two. Alas, it failed to preserve a key bit of text data: the title of the photos from iPhoto. Since I've always been careful to provide useful titles, that's a lot of text that could be searched to locate a photo. There is no reason why Lightroom could not have imported this text. There is a comment field and the title could have been added there. Clearly the programmers who wrote the import scheme weren't as detailed-oriented as they should have been.
Lightroom has another irritating feature that rubs me the wrong way. You cannot sort collections of photos (which is how the events were imported) in any way but alphabetically. Of course events make much more sense chronologically, but Lightroom has no data-structure to actually capture events in time. This problem can be solved by prepending to the event names the date in a year-month-day format. That will "trick" the alphanumeric sort to instead sort chronologically. Alas, while that will preserve the order, it does require me to rename every collection and there are many such events over the decades.
Of course I could go back and look at Apple's Photos as an alternative. However, at some point in upgrading my iPhoto library a good number of photo titles got deleted and I didn't notice it. Without the event names, there are literally years of photos that would have absolutely no text identification. So given the choice of losing the photo titles or the event names, I'm better off to stick with Lightroom.
For me it is another bitter lesson about how end-users are really at the mercy of developers who are just another one of those business types putting profit ahead of their relationship with me. I trusted Apple to take care of my decades of photos - I shouldn't have. It is very much a lesson that everyone should consider in the rush to the cloud. No matter how carefully you try to protect your digital assets, unless you actually control the software you are using, you are still vulnerable.
I don't think the software industry truly understands how their business decisions effect the lives of their users. While an auto maker discontinues a car model, you don't lose all the memories you had with that car. Apple has made it much harder for me to access my memories. In a fair world, they should be punished for that.
Edouard
P.S. There is still one more injury to report. Lightroom is supposed to be able to import photos from iOS devices. However, since iOS 10 the security features have made it impossible to import photos into the now discontinued iPhoto. I have the latest version of Lightroom, but it has not been updated either to access an iOS device running these updated security systems. It reports there are no photos on my iPhone when there were some. You can work around this as well by uploading your photos to Dropbox and then importing the images into Lightroom, but obviously that is a significantly greater hassle.
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Sorry for your troubles. You can use iPhoto for as long as you like, but you cannot add anything new to it.
I switched to Photos and I like it for what I need. It's got better photo editing options the iPhoto did, but is a step down from Aperture.
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I made the switch to Photos sometime last year. Then over the winter, I bought Fat Cat Software's Power Photos. I used this to import my Aperture library into Photos. http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos
I also bought MacPhun's Luminar, which is every bit as good as Aperture. Luminar has a powerful Photos plugin. https://macphun.com/luminar
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Sorry your transfer did not go as you wished.
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Dear Blick, Steve, X-Air, and WeatherCat Shutterbugs,
I spent some more time researching this and something is rather odd here. The Lightroom Import is supposed to import photo titles correctly for Aperture, but Adobe doesn't make the same claim for iPhoto. In my haste I missed the title field in Lightroom, its right there in the metadata. Also, the import successfully moved all the text in descriptions. It really seems hard to believe that Adobe would screw up on something so fundamental, so it seems more likely that my import failed for some mysterious reason. I'll do some more research and if I don't turn something up, I'll post a question on the Adobe Lightroom support forum.
Just what I needed - another forum to deal with! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/D'oh.gif)
Thanks for your support guys! ThU5:-)
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Had some free time and did a bit of 'testing' in Photos. I'll send you a bill later this month.
First, despite the info that says iPhoto runs in Sierra, I ended up using Photos instead. While iPhoto opens and displays my images, I could not get the standard Nav dialog to accept my (Cancel/Create/Save/etc.) button selections where I tried to create a folder for the images I had selected to Export. Not sure why. I even had to use "Force Quit" to get out of iPhoto! Simply opening Photos will automatically import your iPhoto library/images without affecting their state.
It appears that you might be able to maintain your 'event' system, at least with the 'date' structure in Photos. It will not be an "all-in-one-process" however.
The process is to simply Export a selection of images from Photos/iPhoto into a specifically name directory. In other words, select an 'event' in Photos/iPhoto and Export it. I'd suggest using the event's name for the new directory. Obviously, since you have thousands of images, this could take quite a while.
The default location that LR uses for Importing is the Pictures directory (a normally created directory in every users directory).
Note: You should probably look in the Pictures directory for a directory called "Lightroom". That should have been created when you did your previous importing. Inside, you should find a "Catalog.lrcat" file. That is the database that contains links to all your images and any meta data that may have been imported from iPhoto. I'd suggest simply archiving everything in that "Lightroom" directory so the new imports will be in the new directory rather than ending up with duplicate entries in that old database.
If you are looking for a "LR forum" I'd recommend Lightroom Forums (https://www.lightroomforums.net). I've not been there long, but they seem very helpful and friendly, even to noobies! Once you sign up, you can also download a LR Quickstart Guide. Here's an excerpt of a section on organizing images:Importing photos into Lightroom doesn?t force you to rearrange them. If you already have a well thought outling system, you can keep your existing folder structure. As far as Lightroom?s concerned, your choice of folder structure doesn?t make a lot of difference. Folders are just a place to store the photos, and you can use metadata/keywords to organize them.
That said, you do need some level of organization to make it easy to back up your photos, and it?s best to avoid duplicating photos in multiple locations (other than as backups, of course). Many people choose a date-based folder structure, with folders for days (or shoots) within folders for months, which in turn are in folders for years.
And a warning about 'messing' with your images outside LR:You can rename the files at any time, as long as you do it within Lightroom, but doing it at the time of import means that any backups you make while importing will have the same names as the working files.
(emphasis added)
Importing from Photos can be done, even if you have 14,000+ images! Thread: Importing from iPhot[sic] and Photo (https://www.lightroomforums.net/threads/importing-from-iphot-and-photo.26191/#post-1172932)
Good luck, young Will Robinson! ThU32:-)
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Dear X-Air and WeatherCat "mature" shutterbugs,
First, despite the info that says iPhoto runs in Sierra, I ended up using Photos instead. While iPhoto opens and displays my images, I could not get the standard Nav dialog to accept my (Cancel/Create/Save/etc.) button selections where I tried to create a folder for the images I had selected to Export. Not sure why. I even had to use "Force Quit" to get out of iPhoto!
Not sure what to say about that. I did find reports that iPhoto works just fine on Sierra. I would prefer to migrate to Lightroom before upgrading to Sierra, but to do that I need to understand why Lightroom wasn't able to successfully read the iPhoto photo data. Steve pointed us to the outfit that makes iPhoto Library Manager:
https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ (https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/)
One of the things it can do is repair a corrupted iPhoto library. Now that I think about it, this could explain some problems I'm having including why Lightroom wasn't able to import two photos that were otherwise perfect. That might be the root cause of my problems.
It appears that you might be able to maintain your 'event' system, at least with the 'date' structure in Photos. It will not be an "all-in-one-process" however.
Unfortunately, that doesn't sound particularly practical. I have almost 8862 photos in 1467 events! Some are as old as 1968 as I digitized photos from when we first moved back to California after an overseas assignment.
Note: You should probably look in the Pictures directory for a directory called "Lightroom". That should have been created when you did your previous importing. Inside, you should find a "Catalog.lrcat" file. That is the database that contains links to all your images and any meta data that may have been imported from iPhoto. I'd suggest simply archiving everything in that "Lightroom" directory so the new imports will be in the new directory rather than ending up with duplicate entries in that old database.
If I have reason to believe the previous import was potentially corrupted, I think my best recourse is to wipe the Lightroom data completely clean and effectively start over as if nothing had been imported into Lightroom. I don't know how to do that, but I hope this isn't too difficult to do.
If you are looking for a "LR forum" I'd recommend Lightroom Forums (https://www.lightroomforums.net). I've not been there long, but they seem very helpful and friendly, even to noobies!
Okay, thanks for the tip! ThU32:-) Just one small problem with it - do I really have to deal with another forum? . . . [banghead]
Once you sign up, you can also download a LR Quickstart Guide. Here's an excerpt of a section on organizing images:Importing photos into Lightroom doesn?t force you to rearrange them. If you already have a well thought outling system, you can keep your existing folder structure.
Unfortunately, Lightroom doesn't have the freedom to really organize my photos the way I would like them to be - exactly as they are now in iPhoto. The key problem is that Lightroom converts iPhoto events into collections. Lightroom has exactly one way to sort collections - alphabetically. This was confirmed on a Lightroom forum (I don't remember which one.) However, there is a way to trick Lightroom into sorting collections chronologically. I'll live with that.
Unfortunately, it was a busy day and I never made it back to this project. Perhaps tomorrow.
Thanks for the suggestions! :)
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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I'm not a big user of LR. One probably needs good, if not great, images to begin with! [banghead] [blush] When I finally tracked down the fact that there was an update for the Perpetual licensed version, I soon discovered that I had also done the big "nono" of rearranging images outside of LR! With your posts and my lack of expertise, I'm biting the bullet and getting things organized while setting up the links in LR. It's also giving me an incentive to pare down some useless, meaningless images.
I discovered one thing about file names that I should have known. For some time the OS has allowed using "/" in file names and I have done that to my detriment. The problem comes when listing those names in apps or places that enforce the restriction on characters that are used in other systems ("\", "/", ":", etc.). Files/folders where I had used "/" appeared in LR lists with a ":" instead. Had me confused for awhile seeing a file like "12:08" instead of "12/08". [banghead] [rolleyes2] Laziness always gets me into trouble...
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I also bought MacPhun's Luminar, which is every bit as good as Aperture. Luminar has a powerful Photos plugin. https://macphun.com/luminar
Thanks for the tip Steve. I just bought Luminar.
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Dear X-Air, Blick, and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager and I am rebuilding my iPhoto library while writing this reply. Hopefully I'll soon have some idea of if there was significant data corruption or not.
I'm not a big user of LR.
I doubt I'll ever use more than 5-10% of Lightroom's capabilities. Still given the choices I had, it still appears to be lessor of the available evils.
For some time the OS has allowed using "/" in file names and I have done that to my detriment.
Unfortunately, this is an old UNIX convention and OS X macOS gives the impression that you can use filenames with just about any character. This is definitely misleading when it comes to the slash.
I also bought MacPhun's Luminar, which is every bit as good as Aperture. Luminar has a powerful Photos plugin. https://macphun.com/luminar
That is another good tip, but I'm effectively forced to really be old-schooled and try to take the picture the way I want it with the camera. I hardly have time for anything and photo retouching isn't going to happen given my life situation.
Cheers, Edouard
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Dear WeatherCat Shutterbugs,
A quick update on this topic. I had added some missing titles before rebuilding the iPhoto library using iPhoto Library Manager. When I open up the rebuilt library, the titles I had added are once more missing. So there can be no doubt my iPhoto library was corrupted. So I have to back and put all the missing titles back in. Once I do that perhaps I will be able to successfully export my photos to Lightroom.
Cheers, Edouard
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I discovered the reason for the 'failure' to use the "/" character. It has nothing to do with the OS. There is a setting/pref in LR that allows one to create a list or use a default one, of characters that should not be allowed. I had not changed the default choice which includes several characters that are not allowed in various OS'. The ones I remember are: "\", "|", "/", ".", "<", ">" and ":" but there may be more.
A second option lets the user select a character to replace the 'forbidden' ones. The default is "_".
The replacements are done automagically on Import, of course.
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Dear X-Air and WeatherCat detail-oriented types,
I discovered the reason for the 'failure' to use the "/" character. It has nothing to do with the OS.
Sorry, I misunderstood you.
I'm racing in between trying to fill in all the missing photo titles and having to start preparing dinner. I only had 250+ titles to fill in but I've been at it for 2 hours and still aren't done. Oh well, there is always tomorrow!
Cheers, Edouard
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An alternative piece of software worth considering is Photoscape X. Low cost and does a decent job.
http://x.photoscape.org/ (http://x.photoscape.org/)
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Dear JosBaz and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
An alternative piece of software worth considering is Photoscape X. Low cost and does a decent job.
Thanks for the suggestion, but this doesn't do what I'm looking for. I need a tool maintain my digital photo collection, permit me to do searches, and share photos. Sadly, I don't see anything really designed for this task. iPhoto was the best but hardly ideal. Lightroom doesn't seem to be particularly well suited to managing a photo archive.
I'm not sure where I'm headed. After a very careful effort to remove all data corruption in my iPhoto library I once more attempted to export to Lightroom. This time even the description text wasn't successfully imported into Lightroom. So for the moment I'm back to square-one.
Cheers, Edouard
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I assume that LR only uses the actual file name and any EXIF data. If iPhoto is not adding info to the EXIF, it simply won't be seen. I am also assuming that the LR importer is not actually designed to 'read' the database possibly created by iPhoto/Photos. Two "assumptions" is probably twice as many allowed! lol(1)
I have an app that obviously came with PS Elements that may do what you need. It's called Elements Organizer and has several methods of sorting images including "Events". Unfortunately, Elements is not free, although not expensive (in the Adobe sense, anyway), and older versions can probably be found on the web for much lower prices. I'm not sure you can install Elements in a trial mode, either. Even though there is an "Import" function, it could require lots of manual data entry, also.
I've never actually used this app, so I have no real knowledge of its operation or capabilities. [banghead]
BTW, Elements is mainly a pixel editor rather than like LR or even iPhoto/Photos. It was originally created to develop the interface for Photoshop* and can use many 'actions' created for PS because the code is there, but not all the interface dialogs.
* Probably an urban legend, no source that I know of. :)
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Dear X-Air and WeatherCat shutterbugs,
I assume that LR only uses the actual file name and any EXIF data.
That isn't what Adobe claims:
http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2014/10/aperture-import-plugin-now-available.html (http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2014/10/aperture-import-plugin-now-available.html)
Specifically listed as imported is:
"Metadata that can be entered in the ?Info? panel in Aperture." The iPhoto plugin is supposed to have exactly the same importing capability.
There must be some truth to this. My first attempt successfully imported the photo descriptions. Only the titles where missing. I made one attempt to rebuild my iPhoto library and that clearly made things worse. I made a second attempt this afternoon and the Lightroom import is happening as I type. If that doesn't work I have still one more possible way to rebuild my iPhoto library.
I'll keep trying until I run out of options!
Cheers, Edouard
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So much for "assumptions"! [blush] lol(1)
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Dear WeatherCat shutterbugs,
This is definitely becoming another one of those "mellardramas." I have tried to rebuild my iPhoto library two different ways. First I tried using iPhoto Library Manager. Later I discovered that iPhoto has a built-in tool to rebuild the library:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201769 (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201769)
I did find some corruption that was repaired. In particular, I had one roll of film (back in the days of CD-ROMs being provided with the processed film) that was mysteriously duplicated and could not be edited. However, something still has to be messed up. The Lightroom import unfolds in exactly the same way. It claims that exactly the same two photos cannot be imported correctly and only the descriptions ever get imported. Here is what that looks like:
(http://www.canebas.org/misc/Capto_images/Lightroom%20iPhoto%20import%20captions%20but%20not%20titles%202017-06-03.png)
Since the descriptions are being imported, I assume that the Lightroom iPhoto importer is attempting to import as Adobe advertises. I think I'll start with a post on the Apple Support Forums. Perhaps there is another way to get iPhoto libraries to completely rebuilt.
Why can't anything be simple when it comes to stuff like this? . . . . [banghead]
Heavy Sigh, . . . . . Edouard (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/sigh_bubble.gif)
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[coffee] How about picking the problem image and export it from iPhoto to another app. Even just to the Desktop. Then just use Quick Look to 'open' it. If that works, put in a folder LR is already using for source images and see if it can now import it.
Of course, if you have several dozen, that may be rather time consuming. Wait... didn't we already remember that iPhoto can export a group of images? The point being, perhaps exporting the images without the edits that might have been done will result in images that LR doesn't think are corrupted. As long as you are doing all the work I've got lots of suggestions! lol(1)
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Dear X-Air and WeatherCat Mac tinkerers,
[coffee] How about picking the problem image and export it from iPhoto to another app. Even just to the Desktop. Then just use Quick Look to 'open' it. If that works, put in a folder LR is already using for source images and see if it can now import it.
Unfortunately every title is missing from the 8800+ images. It is a systemic problem. I have threads up on the Apple support forum and the Lightroomforums, but thus far, nobody seems to have any idea. Of greater concern is that another person on the Lightroomforums reported having exactly the same problem in 2015. So while the problem may be rare - I'm not alone.
I'm starting to look into other ways to get my data out. iPhoto has decent AppleScript support and I found an AppleScript exporter. I haven't had time to look into this, but that may have to be the way to get my data out.
Cheers, Edouard