Walt_Atwood

Q: Photos questions for an iPhoto user

I currently have iPhoto 2013, running on a Macintosh on top of MacOS 10.9 Mavericks. I am considering a future upgrade to MacOS 10.10 Yosemite (or maybe waiting for 10.11 El Capitan) and then transitioning over from iPhoto to Photos. I have some questions:

 

1: Does Photos allow external access to external photo editors such as Photoshop CC or Photoshop Elements, etc.? iPhoto has long allowed the option of editing of images in another non-Apple program. I wanted to make sure this was available in Photos.

 

2: David Cox of PC Classes Online published a video tutorial on Photos shortly after its release, earlier this year. He pointed out one bug: in Apple's Mail, any image attachments could be saved to iPhoto but not to Photos. Has this bug been corrected?

 

3: Mr. Cox also pointed out that if you print out hardcopy photos directly from your computer to a home- or office-printer, you can print out the images only. No file nomenclature or other text. Is this still true in Photos? Is there any work-around?

 

4: I have no immediate plans to move my photo library to iCloud, even if I upgrade to Photos. My current iPhoto library (over 54,000 photos) weighs in at over 100 GB. I can't justify the cost of iCloud storage right now, and even if I like the idea of sharing the photo library with an iPad, I occasionally make presentations in hilly rural locations that offer no internet connection or useful cellular signal. If I wanted to make a Keynote or Powerpoint or video presentation from an iPad, how hard is it to create the needed show on a Mac and transfer it to an iPad? Do I have to worry about syncing which version of software I create the show on with the version used on the iOS device?

 

5: Does Photos work with the media browser in Microsoft Office 2011: Mac and Apple's iWeb 2009? I use both of these.

 

6: Does Photos allow images in its library to be exported (like using iPhoto's Export command to save JPEG images to a thumb drive, changing the size and using a different sequential file nomenclature)? Does it allow images to be exported in varying sizes and compression levels as iPhoto did? What options are available?

 

7: If I do not deem Photos to be "ready" to take over for iPhoto '13, will iPhoto '13 still run on newer MacOS's? Any word yet on El Capitan?

 

8: How well does Photos work with Keynote, Pages, and Office 2011? Is it easy to bring images into a document?

 

Thanks in advance.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), late-2012 Core i5, 8GB RAM, 1 TB HD

Posted on Jun 9, 2015 9:20 PM

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Q: Photos questions for an iPhoto user

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  • by R C-R,Helpful

    R C-R R C-R Jun 10, 2015 2:58 AM in response to Walt_Atwood
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    Jun 10, 2015 2:58 AM in response to Walt_Atwood

    Apple dropped the year designator from iPhotos when it unbundled the iLife apps, so there really is no "iPhoto 2013." What you probably have is iPhoto version 9.5, introduced October 22, 2013. That version is not compatible with Yosemite 10.10.3 or later. For that you need version 9.6.1, but getting it will be difficult unless you upgrade to Yosemite (which will install the 10.10.3 or a later version if one is released before El Capitan is). Even if you upgrade to Yosemite, you will probably need to use the method mentioned in the user tip, Get iPhoto 9.6.1 if you didn't update before OS X 10.10.3 to get it.

     

    I can't answer all of your other questions but I hope the following will help:

     

    1. No, there is no external editor support in Photos. Apple has announced that it will add support for third party editing extensions that can be used within Photos, but that isn't the same thing & it is unclear if Yosemite will support this or if El Capitan will be required.

     

    2. You can save image attachments in Apple's Mail app to Photos, but only by selecting one or more of them & right or control clicking on them & selecting the export to Photos option. The save button (looks like a paperclip) in the small, normally hidden toolbar at the top of the email curiously lacks this option.

     

    3. For printouts, no text options are available except for contact sheets.

     

    6. Mostly. Four preset sizes are available, plus a custom option that lets you set the maximum width or height in pixels. There are four preset compression settings identified as low, medium, high, & maximum, but no slider or other custom settings for that. Sequential labeling is supported but limited to whatever prefix text you want plus either no sub-folder format or one based on the name of "Moments," which are sort of like iPhoto's Events except that you cannot name them.

     

    You may find Apple's online Get started with Photos for OS X overview informative, as well as the online version of Photos Help.

  • by Walt_Atwood,

    Walt_Atwood Walt_Atwood Jun 8, 2016 4:50 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 8, 2016 4:50 PM in response to R C-R

    I just wanted to revive this thread to see if there have been any more changes to Apple's newer Photos app.

     

    I am going to gain access to Adobe Creative Cloud through a subscription sponsored by a local business office, so I'll have CC apps on my iMac. I still want to look into replacing iPhoto with Photos, as I am also looking into migrating from MacOS 10.10 to 10.11 El Capitan down the road. I don't know if this will necessitate migrating from iPhoto to Photos, but I want to be ready if it does.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 8, 2016 5:24 PM in response to Walt_Atwood
    Level 10 (84,210 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 8, 2016 5:24 PM in response to Walt_Atwood

    iPHoto is dead but not buried yet - iPhoto 9.6.1 works with El Captain except you can not order print products - but with some future upgrade it will totally quit

     

    Photos is generally far superior in every way to iPhoto - it is new and different and has different work flows (and a few obscure things you can not do)

     

    AS to using external editors one of the giant improvements in Photos is the introduction of extensions so you can use many ways of enhancing the program - one of the best is External Editors for Photos ($0.99 in eh App Store) that allows you to use any external editor on your computer with Photos

     

    here is a list of the ones found so far - Photo Editing Extensions for Photos for Mac

     

    Photos is a new program and there is a learning curve so do not expect everything to be the same as iPhoto

     

    LN

  • by Walt_Atwood,

    Walt_Atwood Walt_Atwood Jun 8, 2016 6:00 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 8, 2016 6:00 PM in response to LarryHN

    Wow. Too bad it doesn't allow Photoshop CC yet.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jun 8, 2016 6:52 PM in response to Walt_Atwood
    Level 10 (84,210 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jun 8, 2016 6:52 PM in response to Walt_Atwood

    Walt_Atwood wrote:

     

    Wow. Too bad it doesn't allow Photoshop CC yet.

    Your post makes no sense - what part of this says no PSCC?

     

    one of the best is External Editors for Photos ($0.99 in the App Store) that allows you to use any external editor on your computer with Photos

    Any external editor certainly includes PSCC

     

    LN

  • by Walt_Atwood,

    Walt_Atwood Walt_Atwood Jul 5, 2016 6:07 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 5, 2016 6:07 PM in response to LarryHN

    I thought I should follow up my previous inquiry by showing how I use iPhoto now, to see if I can do these same things in Photos...

     

    Some things I do with iPhoto now that I will need to find a way to do with Photos, when I migrate:

     

    USING NAMING OF EVENTS AS KEYWORD SEARCH -- In iPhoto, I typically label every Event after it is imported. This makes it easier to find events later, often through using Search in iPhoto using key words. I make names of Events into pseudo-hashtag-like nomenclature to make events easier to find. I also tend to re-use these nomenclatures so I can maintain threads of related events.

     

    CREATING AND MERGING EVENTS -- Another longtime iPhoto feature I use: if I take a variety of photos of different activities on a given day, all of these photos tend to be imported from my camera card as a single event. If the activities are distinct and I want to organize them that way, I will break up a large event into smaller events so it will be easier to organize them with Event name nomenclatures as described above. I will also reorganize separate events from more than one camera into a single Event by merging Events.

     

    EXPORTING AND E-MAILING LIMITED NUMBERS OF IMAGES -- Sometimes, in order to share or re-organize a set of select images outside of iPhoto, I will either export the photos to a folder in the Finder or I will e-mail the photos to someone. My iPhoto allows me to select a size for the photos based on a selection of resolutions and compression rates, as well as offering me file-naming schemes.

     

    COMMENTS ON INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS -- iPhoto has long been useful in allowing me to save written captions as metadata comments attached to each individual image. This is helpful for searching for specific photos, as well as in being able to retrieve detailed information saved with a given image. I've used these captions for detailed correspondence with e-mail, printed newsletter, and organizational position papers.

     

    VIEWING EVENTS AS EVENTS IS VERY HELPFUL  -- The "Events" metaphor in iPhoto is extremely helpful in chronologically viewing groups of specific photos. This viewing can be a general browsing of all photos from a specific time, or as filtered Events based on search criteria.

     

    These are very important features to me, and I just want to check and see if these kind of things work in the new Photos.