# RIP iPhoto and Aperture -- Apple's 'Photos' is now live



## ahsanford (Apr 10, 2015)

The time has come:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/2760503421/apple-releases-os-x-yosemite-10-10-3-update-with-photos-app

As an amateur, iPhoto remains my primary repository of photos some 10 years after buying my first mac. 

Was iPhoto a professional system? Goodness no. 

Did iPhoto lack critical efficiencies that would save me time? You betcha.

Did iPhoto have a somewhat painful workflow when editing RAW keepers and piping them back into iPhoto? Goodness, yes. 

But it organized my work and freed me of the shackles of my prior 'PC folder addiction'. You simply trusted iPhoto and it took care of things. Further, it was integrated/embedded into so many parts of the iDevice world that slinging my content around was a trivial endeavor.

How we organize our stuff is a sacred sort of preference for a lot of people, so I don't expect many to share my praise of iPhoto. But it did the job well. 

So this 'Photos' had better not suck. How much of a waiting period (for major bugs) should I give it before inevitably taking the update?

- A


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## dolina (Apr 10, 2015)

Not letting go of Aperture unless it cannot support new cameras I own or isnt supported by the new OS of my future Macs.


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## neuroanatomist (Apr 10, 2015)

I think Photos will do just fine as a replacement for iPhoto, but it's clearly not even close as a piss-poor substitute for Aperture. 

Did that sound bitter?? 8)

Actually, I'll probably end up not minding too much. Photos won't support multiple libraries like Aperture, but in fact my RAW library is stored as referenced files, and Spotlight means I don't really need the RAWs in a library anyway. I also use Aperture for image triage, and I read that Photos lacks a loupe tool which is a PITA, not sure about things like one-key zoom to 100% but that's likely included. 




dolina said:


> Not letting go of Aperture unless it cannot support new cameras I own or isnt supported by the new OS of my future Macs.



Since Apple has said that Aperture won't be supported beyond Yosemite, I'd say that day is coming pretty soon.


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## ahsanford (Apr 10, 2015)

neuroanatomist said:


> I think Photos will do just fine as a replacement for iPhoto, but it's clearly not even close as a piss-poor substitute for Aperture.
> 
> Did that sound bitter?? 8)
> 
> ...



You just press "1" in iPhoto for a 100% view, centered on the cursor. Staple shortcut for me.

I have to imagine that they'd keep that in Photos, but now that I think about merging functionality with Aperture...

:-\ [starts to get worried]

- A


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## awinphoto (Apr 10, 2015)

oh crap... i hope this doesn't screw up apples integration with the computer and apple TV... in my business, we work on our photos in photoshop, import the finals into iphoto, and our apple tv reads the files from iphoto so we can show our clients their photos in our consultation/sales room, on our big screen tv's.... Hope that doesn't break.


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## ahsanford (Apr 10, 2015)

awinphoto said:


> oh crap... i hope this doesn't screw up apples integration with the computer and apple TV... in my business, we work on our photos in photoshop, import the finals into iphoto, and our apple tv reads the files from iphoto so we can show our clients their photos in our consultation/sales room, on our big screen tv's.... Hope that doesn't break.



I'm 100% speculating here as I've not looked at the new program, but provided your content _ends up in iPhoto_, you should be fine. Apple would not shoot themselves in the foot on a content linking/proliferation aspect of the program. Everything they do is built around content getting pushed everywhere well.

- A


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## neuroanatomist (Apr 10, 2015)

ahsanford said:


> You just press "1" in iPhoto for a 100% view, centered on the cursor. Staple shortcut for me.
> I have to imagine that they'd keep that in Photos, but now that I think about merging functionality with Aperture...
> :-\ [starts to get worried]



It's 'z' in Aperture, I can learn a new keystroke. 

There are other little things, like smart albums built on EXIF data (e.g., all images with the 1D X and 135/2L) that I hope are in Photos. Maybe I'll try it out in a sandbox, or on my work Mac (where I only have ~100 photos for the screensaver).


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## ahsanford (Apr 10, 2015)

neuroanatomist said:


> ahsanford said:
> 
> 
> > You just press "1" in iPhoto for a 100% view, centered on the cursor. Staple shortcut for me.
> ...



Z works in iPhoto as well. Have to assume that if both iPhoto and Aperture have the same feature, Photos will as well.

Smart Albums are also in iPhoto but they lack lens specificity I believe. You can craft albums with *focal length* criteria, but you'll get allshots at that FL -- from a prime, a zoom that happened to be at that FL, etc.

- A


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## neuroanatomist (Apr 10, 2015)

So I updated my work Mac to 10.10.3, which includes Photos. One-key zoom is only 'z' so I guess I won't be the one learning a new keystroke. 

Smart albums can be set up with lens name, camera model, etc. 

I infer support for multiple libraries - the help outline has a topic on it, but Apple's help is offline or more likely not accessible from behind my corporate firewall. 

No loupe, no obvious way to view multiple photos side-by-side. 

Overall, my first impression is that someone mistook the comma in KISS for an ampersand...Keep it Simple & Stupid. The MacBook Pro is becoming a giant iPad.


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## ahsanford (Apr 10, 2015)

neuroanatomist said:


> So I updated my work Mac to 10.10.3, which includes Photos. One-key zoom is only 'z' so I guess I won't be the one learning a new keystroke.
> 
> Smart albums can be set up with lens name, camera model, etc.
> 
> ...



No side by side? Memory serves, in iPhoto it was:

1) Select multiple pictures (could be 2 or more)
2) Then hit enter or space bar?

Maybe they went with that?

- A


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## neuroanatomist (Apr 10, 2015)

ahsanford said:


> No side by side? Memory serves, in iPhoto it was:
> 
> 1) Select multiple pictures (could be 2 or more)
> 2) Then hit enter or space bar?
> ...



Nope, enter toggles edit mode and space swaps from album to single image, operation performed on the first image I the album (without regard to order of selection or number of images selected).


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## dolina (Apr 11, 2015)

I normally apply the updates 30 days after it gets released. This allows for trendsetters/early adopters to do bug testing for me. 

Unless of course it is a feature or bug fix I'm dying to use


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## TexPhoto (Apr 12, 2015)

[size=18pt]*iPhoto lives!*[/size] After you update the iPhoto icon is removed from your tool bar. But iPhoto is still there, still works fine. Opening your iPhoto library will open it in iPhoto. 

*Photos Sucks! * Don't update your library(s). Or at least make a copy, and apply the update to one copy to try it out.

A year or 3 from Now Apple will issue an update that actually kills iPhoto. By that time *maybe* Photos will be better. *Maybe* it's time to start moving to Lightroom.


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## wopbv4 (Apr 14, 2015)

I have been a Beta tester for Mac OS X for well over five years and I am pleased that the Mac guys have listened to my feedback!
However, I am very disappointed in the current functionality of Photos!!!!
Final Cut Pro was launched by Mac as the best thing since sliced bread, but the video editing community was not impressed at release time ( I am careful with my wording on this....)
In the mean time time FCP has developed into a product that I and many others use on regular basis and I am pleased with the current product
Let's just assume that Photos in the long run will please the "average" customer and the Pro


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## dcm (Apr 14, 2015)

Initial impressions are so-so. 

I do like it for access to my icloud photo library and streams (shared with iphone and ipad) from my Macs. The minimal editing capabilities are okay for this level of photography. 

Not so great as an Aperture replacement - I had already moved to LR assuming it would be more iPhoto than Aperture. Seems more iOS Photos than iPhoto at this point.

Here's a few concerns that will keep me using LR for the foreseeable future. 


My first significant test was to load about 8,000 photos (raw+jpg) - much, much slower than LR. And evertime I restart Photos it takes forever. Handling a large catalog is not its forte. 
The send test was to go into Edit more and open up all the items in the tool panel. Big mistake! Moving the mouse up and down the tools creates a huge lag in mouse tracking as it refreshes each tool it crosses. Can take a minute or two to catch up. Moving from tool to image and image to another tool happens very quickly. Behavior like this should have been caught testing a long time ago. Best not to open any tools until you actually use them, but that makes editing a bit quite a bit slower. 
Third test was editing raw images. You first have to open the image for editing, then go to the menu to use the raw as original. And you have to do it for each and every image, even thought you are already in edit mode. I didn't find a shortcut to do this or a setting to make this the default, but I haven't fully explored it. 

At that point I punted.


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## Brand B (Apr 15, 2015)

neuroanatomist said:


> Since Apple has said that Aperture won't be supported beyond Yosemite, I'd say that day is coming pretty soon.



I took that to mean there is no guarantee it will run under 10.11, not that it will specifically NOT run.


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## ahsanford (Apr 17, 2015)

Finally the photo writers are giving it a go as well:

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/5074008951/opinion-can-an-aperture-user-be-happy-with-apples-new-photos-software

- A


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## neuroanatomist (Apr 17, 2015)

ahsanford said:


> Finally the photo writers are giving it a go as well:
> 
> http://www.dpreview.com/articles/5074008951/opinion-can-an-aperture-user-be-happy-with-apples-new-photos-software



This comment rings very true:

_By D610 User 1867 (1 hour ago)
At first it felt like the iOS designers weren't talking to the OS X engineers (AirDrop anyone?), now it feels like the iOS designers are taking over Apple._

Right down to the boot-up progress bar now matching the iPhone software update progress bar.


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## aj1575 (May 4, 2015)

I see some of you have tried out Photos. I have a few questions regarding the program (I could search and read it somewhere else, but I like first hand impressions on a few specific topics). I'm using aperture, and there are a few features I like. I store my photos outside the aperture library in a folder structure; this is because I don't like to depend on an application. I like to keep it that way, is this possible in photos, and are there any problems with that.
I also use smart folders a lot and search a lot, which is quite amazing within aperture. How does Photos compare to that? For example, I like to see all pictures with John in them (they are tagged) and where taken between June 2012 and August 2012. This is no problem to do in aperture, how handles photos such things?


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## jeffa4444 (May 5, 2015)

aj1575 said:


> I see some of you have tried out Photos. I have a few questions regarding the program (I could search and read it somewhere else, but I like first hand impressions on a few specific topics). I'm using aperture, and there are a few features I like. I store my photos outside the aperture library in a folder structure; this is because I don't like to depend on an application. I like to keep it that way, is this possible in photos, and are there any problems with that.
> I also use smart folders a lot and search a lot, which is quite amazing within aperture. How does Photos compare to that? For example, I like to see all pictures with John in them (they are tagged) and where taken between June 2012 and August 2012. This is no problem to do in aperture, how handles photos such things?


Avoid it like the plague and if you do use it DONT let the iCloud manage your library.


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## dcm (May 5, 2015)

I've decided to use it, but only to manage photos from/to my iPhone/iPad via iCloud since that was already in place. It's a nice way to get images from my phone to my iPad and Mac - I don't have to do anything, they just appear. The similar user interface doesn't hurt either for the little bit I do with photos from a phone. And the volume is low enough there is no performance problem.

My other 50K+ images from the past 35 years are managed separately in LightRoom 6.


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## dolina (May 5, 2015)

Supported by Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 6.04

Canon EOS 5DS*

Canon EOS 5DS R*

Canon EOS Rebel T6i / 750D / Kiss X8i

Canon EOS Rebel T6s / 760D / Kiss 8000D

Fujifilm X-A2

Hasselblad CFV-50c

Hasselblad H5D-50c

Leica C (Typ 112)

Nikon 1 S2

Nikon D7200

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II**

Panasonic LUMIX CM1

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF7

Pentax MX-1

Notes

**Canon RAW format only*

**16MP RAW format only

***Nikon RAW L format only


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## ahsanford (May 5, 2015)

dcm said:


> I've decided to use it, but only to manage photos from/to my iPhone/iPad via iCloud since that was already in place. It's a nice way to get images from my phone to my iPad and Mac - I don't have to do anything, they just appear.  The similar user interface doesn't hurt either for the little bit I do with photos from a phone. And the volume is low enough there is no performance problem.
> 
> My other 50K+ images from the past 35 years are managed separately in LightRoom 6.



Sure, but iPhoto does that for me now. Works fine. I still think I'm holding on to iPhoto until the wheels come off.

- A


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## neuroanatomist (May 5, 2015)

ahsanford said:


> Sure, but iPhoto does that for me now. Works fine. I still think I'm holding on to iPhoto until the wheels come off.



You should just switch to Photos. It's trendy, sporty, classy...and it has wheels, too.


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## awinphoto (May 5, 2015)

has anyone had any experience with the new photos and apple tv integration? Haven't updated it yet because i dont want to lose my apple tv photo sharing feature


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## TexPhoto (May 10, 2016)

May 10th 2016. Photos is on Version 1.0.1 and still sucks hard.


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## aj1575 (May 10, 2016)

TexPhoto said:


> May 10th 2016. Photos is on Version 1.0.1 and still sucks hard.



I'm still using Aperture to catalogue my pictures. But I'm looking around for alternatives. Camerabits.com has something in the works, ACDsee is available for OSX again, but I think it lacks some functionality. Phase one media pro would definitely be up to the job, but is expensive. Adobe Bridge is also a possibility, but I don't like Adobe and its new subscription model. Onone Browse seems also to be limited. DigiKam looks okay, but I miss search capabilities like in Aperture.

It is definitely hard, to live without Aperture. The smart album function, with the endless search capabilities are so great in Aperture, I haven't worked with something similar so far.


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## Corydoras (May 10, 2016)

TexPhoto said:


> May 10th 2016. Photos is on Version 1.0.1 and still sucks hard.


 Actually Photos is in version 1.5 but nonetheless it has´t evolved. I use Photos as a library to showcase my photos and it works good enough for that.


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## zim (May 10, 2016)

aj1575 said:


> TexPhoto said:
> 
> 
> > May 10th 2016. Photos is on Version 1.0.1 and still sucks hard.
> ...



Have you looked at Affinity Photo ?

OT but I'm a bit excited about this announcement, quite a turn-a-round, thankfully

https://affinity.serif.com/blog/affinity-is-coming-to-windows/


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## Joshua88 (May 12, 2016)

, That's right, very helpful.


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## Dverb (May 12, 2016)

aj1575 said:


> I'm still using Aperture to catalogue my pictures. But I'm looking around for alternatives. Camerabits.com has something in the works, ACDsee is available for OSX again, but I think it lacks some functionality. Phase one media pro would definitely be up to the job, but is expensive. Adobe Bridge is also a possibility, but *I don't like Adobe and its new subscription model.* Onone Browse seems also to be limited. DigiKam looks okay, but I miss search capabilities like in Aperture.
> 
> It is definitely hard, to live without Aperture. The smart album function, with the endless search capabilities are so great in Aperture, I haven't worked with something similar so far.



I made the transition to LR - Adobe does have a non-subscription version of Lightroom you just need to hunt for it as they try to push everyone to the subscription model. Once I made the change to LR I was kicking myself for sticking with aperture for so long.


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