Q: iPhoto vs photos

Both apps support different things - iPhoto needs the Photos.app.

• The Photos.app manages the basic functionality
  • to store photos in the camera roll as the place for sharing photos and videos between apps,
  • import photos using the camera connection kit,
  • stream photos  between devices
  • basic editing of photos.
• The iPhoto.app is an additional front-end to the Photos app for better library organisation and sharing.
  • iPhoto does not store store photos on its own, but helps to create smart albums by tagging and flagging or adding captions, 
  • You can create journals and slideshows and publish them on your iCloud webpage, share selected albums to iTunes, create photo books.
  • You have advanced editing options, like brushes for retouching.

As a follow up to this question, I need to understand the following:

I have a few thousand photos that need organizing in events and topic albums.  I should do that in iPhoto, not Photo?   I want to finally organize into different libraries.  Which do I use- iPhoto or Photoi?

When I want to copy an album to my iPad and/or iPhone, should I do it from iPhoto or Photo?  But how do I get the album from iPhoto to Photo?

I'm really in a mess trying to figure all this out.  Photos I casually take with my iPhone I don't want to necessarily have them automatically sync to my computer so iCloud is off and I manually choose which to sync.  But now don't know whether to sync to iPhoto or Photo.

As you see, I really don't know the differences and how to sort all this out.  I'm not even talking about Aperture at this point either.

Can I have a clear way to sort all this?

Thanks, Tzipora

Events and Albums are the paradigms that iPhoto used. The Photos app now handles the Event groupings automatically, based on photo dates and geolocation info. If you want less work when committing the photos to your archive, that's great; if you want more control, not so good.

Also, location info is easy to edit in iPhoto; in Photos, not so.

You can specify your own external editor of choice in iPhoto; in Photos, you're stuck with its (granted, quite good) internal capabilities. The only way around this are Photo's Extensions that would allow makers of photo editors to provide their functionality as an add-on.

Here are some suggestions for workarounds, and this is an excellent way to manage your libraries for iPhoto or Photos.

Now here's the problem: You will have to decide which app to use and then stick with it. Once you start modifying your Library with the one app, the changes you make will not be accessible from the other. So if you're happy with iPhoto, I would recommend staying with iPhoto and make the transition when you're happy that Photos' features have caught up with iPhoto's. Or if iPhoto is getting too old (Apple aren't developing it any further).

Good luck.

Here are some suggestions for workarounds,

This link is a bit outdated, since it describes Photos 1.0 just after the release.  Apple improved Photos since  then quite a bit.

In  Photos 1.3 on El Capitan we can geocode photos, change the titles and captions of several photos at one, there are more sorting options, and the third-party developers started providing photo editing extensions.The native photo editing tools in Photos are at least as good as in iPhoto, some are even more powerful.

All other parts of your post I agree with.

Thanks for that, léonie.

The reason why I'm personally still on iPhoto is the excellent way you can specify a name for your location, as well as the location itself. So you can reference places that have meaning to you, not some place database from Apple Maps. And I haven't found an Extension that comes close to the functionality my image editor(s) provide.

The reason why I'm personally still on iPhoto is the excellent way you can specify a name for your location, as well as the location itself.

Yes, the geocoding in Photos is still sadly lacking. But at least we can now add locations to photos. In the first version the feature was completely missing.  I created a text file "My Places" with the name, the latitude, and longitude of the places I am using most. This way I can quickly copy and paste the coordinates into the location field of the Info panel in Photos.

And write the name of the place into the caption field, so I can search for it.

The map type Apple is currently using for Photos is not very suitable for geo referencing.  The maps would be perfect for a navigation system - they are showing roads and buildings, shopping centres, hotels, restaurants,  but most of the geographical features are missing, no height profile.  It is impossible to locate precisely any photo outside the cities or off the road. The current maps are for people who never bother to get out of their cars.

As a follow up to this question, I need to understand the following:

I have a few thousand photos that need organizing in events and topic albums.  I should do that in iPhoto, not Photo?   I want to finally organize into different libraries.  Which do I use- iPhoto or Photoi?

When I want to copy an album to my iPad and/or iPhone, should I do it from iPhoto or Photo?  But how do I get the album from iPhoto to Photo?

I'm really in a mess trying to figure all this out.  Photos I casually take with my iPhone I don't want to necessarily have them automatically sync to my computer so iCloud is off and I manually choose which to sync.  But now don't know whether to sync to iPhoto or Photo.

As you see, I really don't know the differences and how to sort all this out.  I'm not even talking about Aperture at this point either.

Can I have a clear way to sort all this?

Thanks, Tzipora

I really appreciate the replies to my issue and the accompanying article listing the features/differences to iPhoto and photo.  For now, I'm sticking with iPhoto based on your responses.   Here's a follow-up question.   In iPhoto i have built a number of albums.  I want to be able to have the same album setup in my iPad.    Or even to choose an album to have in my iPad.    How do I do that?

if you sync your iPhoto Library to your iPad using iTunes Photo Sync, you can select the albums you want to transfer.

Sync photos to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in iTunes - Apple Support

@léonie: Yes, that way you can sync the required photos back to your iOS device after you've done all the organising in iPhoto.

@tzipora: Your plan sounds good for now. There will come a point, of course, when iPhoto is so ancient that it won't be practical any more. By then, the Photos app will have hopefully matured to the same feature set as iPhoto and better. Using Photos will then bring many advantages, like the fact that your album structure will be the same across all devices, OSX or iOS.

This is perfect.  Thanks !

You're welcome

Treets, yes, I agree and am hopeful the improvements will come before iPhoto is 'ancient'.   What I don't understand is why they didn't happen with the launch of photo.    Oh well.

This discussion really clarified a lot for me.   Many thanks to all who participated.

Tzipora

What I don't understand is why they didn't happen with the launch of photo.    Oh well.

We are not supposed to speculate on Apple's policy, but it quite clear, that Apple had to release Photos 1 at that time and could not wait for the improvements that came half a year later with MacOS X El Capitan.  When iOS 8.1 was released and iCloud Photo Library, early 2015, we needed a corresponding application on the Mac to be able to access iCloud Photo Library from the Mac. It took Apple long enough to release events basic version, we had to wait for the third Yosemite release anyway, until Photos finally appeared.