Copy and paste from photo to photoshop

You don't need to copy and paste to Photoshop as you can use PS directly from within the Photos library.

We can now edit from within Photos with a 3rd party editor like we did with iPhoto with the app, External Editors For Photos, that installs an extension which lets us chose any 3rd party editor of our choice to use within Photos for editing.

After running the app for the first time this is how you select the external editor(s). Select External Editors in the Edit window's Extensions menu:

and your editor of choice at the right:

You can choose any image editor that is in the Applications folder.

Here's what you need to know about editing with Photoshop or any 3rd party editor from within Photos:

Note: when I refer to the Photoshop file extension, .psd, it can be the file extension that your particular editor of choice uses.

1 - if you create a .psd file from a jpeg original you must save it to the desktop and import as a new file just like with iPhoto.

2 - if a jpeg is edited by PS resulting in a .psd file and it's saved without selecting the Desktop the default location will be here in a folder like this

AND the resulting folder and .psd file will be deleted automatically.

3 - if you flatten the file in PS and save it as a jpeg it will be saved correctly and recognized by Photos.

4 - if the original file is a .psd file and is edited by PS and just saved the resulting edited version will be converted to a jpeg file and recognized by Photos. Also if edited with PS a second time you'll lose the layers and just be editing a jpeg file.

5 - to keep the .psd file so you can do another edit first duplicate it and edit the duplicate file with PS. That will preserve the original .psd file and it's layers for additional edits even though the first edit will be lost to the second edit.

The export function is the recommended solution, but is unnecessarily convoluted (it does help to use the keyboard shortcut shift-command-e, but sadly there is no shortcut for exporting unmodified originals).

There is an alternative: drag and drop WHILE HOLDING THE ALT KEY. This gives you the originals.

In my opinion, Apple is shooting itself in the foot by trying to keep photos in its own sandbox. The iphone camera is a good and useful piece of equipment but Apple makes it hard to manage the files. The photo files on an attached iPhone should appear in Finder, and the otherwise system-wide use of copy/paste is deliberately crippled in the Photo App (why???).

You simply do not understand the concept of a modern database oriented photo management system with nondestructive editing vs file management which is totally outdated - if you want to manage files use a file manager like the finder rather than a photo manager like Photos - it is your choice - if you choose to use Photos then you only work with the photos not the underlying files

LN

Uh, I do actually understand the concept, which is why I think Apple is very shortsighted to make using the original files difficult to access. If you are only using the Photos App (which is fine for many people), the approach makes sense. But to deliberately go against their own guidelines for developers on using the Copy/Paste functions, without even a warning that the photos are going to be resized, seems curious. I would never use the Photos App at all if it were not the only way to easily import pictures from my devices.

Obviously you do not understand

1 - with Photos there may ore may not even be an original image on your Mac - it may be on iCLoud.com adn need to be downloaded - one reason that you do not understand to have Photos only manage access

2 - if any cahnge no matter how small is made to the original by any program except Photos then the Photos library is corrupted and you lose data - another very good reason to have Phtoos control access to its Photos

3 - Photos provides the ability to properly access and edit photos in any editor which is yet another reason you do not understand why Photos works like it does

4 - Importing is just as easy with Image Capture as it is with Photos so once again Apple gives you total choice and you use what you prefer

5 - and of course using Photos is totally optional - if you do not like the way it works then the trivial answer is to not use it and use software that does work like you like

Or more concisely

You simply do not understand the concept of a modern database oriented photo management system with nondestructive editing vs file management which is totally outdated - if you want to manage files use a file manager like the finder rather than a photo manager like Photos - it is your choice - if you choose to use Photos then you only work with the photos not the underlying files

LN

Sorry if I didn't make my concerns clear to you, my English is a bit rusty. Because Photos as an editing tool is so limited, I try to bypass it as much as possible. Unfortunately, Apple in its infinite wisdom makes photo file management for IOS photos very convoluted. Image Capture is a partial answer but sadly also "crippled"... you can import from an iPhone but you cannot delete the pictures once downloaded (this is an incomplete answer but time is money). This in turn is coupled to a rusty implementation of iCloud, which starts choking and asking for more money because the incremental (!!) backup has filled your pathetic allocation of memory.

Until recently, my workflow with pictures on the iPhone was to download them using ACDSee on Windows, but the newest IOS iterations now prevent this, which is why I am frustrated. (Even then, I was obliged to return to the Photos App to delete the originals, which I needed to do because my iphone memory is always nearly full).

So to answer your message point by point:

1) I am aware that some original images are not on the physical iPhone; but I am referring solely to pictures whose original files are most definitely on the machine in question.

2) Photos has some very good reasons for protecting the original files, but for my workflow I need to be able to copy those onto another storage medium

3) The Photos app does of course allow external editing, but my photo edition equipment is on a separate Windows machine and my edited files have no contact with the app. I realize full well that trying to put the edited files back in the labyrithine Photos file system would have dire side effects.

4) Importing with Image Capture, as I pointed out, does not allow deletion on the iphone.

5) And boy do I wish using Photos were optional. Apple makes it almost impossible to circumvent it.

Each of us has his own habits and areas of knowledge, and I appreciate your taking time to try to educate me, however as I often do commercial work as a photographer, and have something like 700,000 pictures on my Windows machine alone, reflecting the 60 years I have been taking pictures, plus the work I do in developing apps for IOS and Mac, I think I do not need to be accused of complete ignorance.

I often do commercial work as a photographer,

In my opinion under those circumstances Photos is not the application to be using. There are a number professional DAM (digital asset manager) applications that would be more suited that the Photos consumer level app. Two that come to mind is Lightroom and Media Pro SE (which I use although not as a professional).

Visit the The DAM Forum to learn about the various apps that are available and see what other professional photographers think about them.

Thanks for the input. Lightroom USED to have a delete function for photos, but does not any more (this is one of the things I want to do which seems only to be available in the PHotos app).

You are correct in saying that I am referring to asset mangement, I followed your suggestion and looked at the DAM forum but it seems to be not very active, the newest discussions being three or four years old.

If there is a DAM program out there for Mac that can properly access iPhone photos, I haven't found it; if you hear of a good one, let me know!

DAM forum but it seems to be not very active, the newest discussions being three or four years old.

Opps! I hadn't been there is a long time so didn't notice that. It used to be very active, when there were new apps coming on the scene and iView Media Pro was morphing into Media Pro thru a couple of interim owners. There is no DAM app that I know of that can directly access the image files in Photos.

We have to pick a horse and ride it. Can't use both. I use Media Pro SE for my asset management and Photos for special projects like books, cards, calendars, etc.

Select the photo and export to a desktop folder (file menu ==> export) - use in PS from there - any other way gives you zero control over what you get - export gives you total control

LN