Workflow on a Mac using Photos

[Jean Luc Oregon]

I am stumped on the best way to manage photos on my Mac. I am shooting RAW. I import into Photos (the Apple resident photography app which stores and categorizes the photos and has some editing tools). I am also using several post-processing tools including Lightroom, Luminaire, and Topaz AI. The problem is the image files are hidden inside Photos and I have to drag them out to work on them with the post-processing software. Then, they are lost outside of Photos unless I import them back in. What a hassle. I find using the PS and Luminaire plug-ins to be sketchy at best. I can stop using Photos all together and instead use Lightroom or Luminaire for both storage and categorization and for editing. But, then I look the functionality of Photos across platforms. Any advice??????

 

[Drewid]

My workflow starts with an upload of all the RAW files into Lightroom and I run the first cull of the set, the missed focus shots usually. I do all my editing in Lightroom and only rarely jump out into PS if I get excited by a particular shot. PS for me comes later if I get a yearning to get creative. Once culled, edited and exported as 'Full Res' and 'Internet Res' I connect my external drives (x1 working x1 backup) and still in Lightroom I categorise them. My last stage is to upload my Lightroom catalogue to the Cloud.

So for me Lightroom edits (which could include PS) and catalogues with no real interference from any other software.

 

[jmt.93]

I hope to read more photographers workflow process too!

Currently, as a personal and amateur photographer, all my photos are imported JPEG+RAW into the Apple Photos catalogue. I also use Google Backup & Sync and have it backup into Google Photos on the cloud.
From there, I have selected photos to play with in Lightroom.

I would really like to move the photo collection (Apple Photos) off the main hard drive, but I am afraid of what effect this will have when the drive isn’t plugged in.

2021 and I miss Picasa

 

[Jean Luc Oregon]

I hope to read more photographers workflow process too!

Currently, as a personal and amateur photographer, all my photos are imported JPEG+RAW into the Apple Photos catalogue. I also use Google Backup & Sync and have it backup into Google Photos on the cloud.
From there, I have selected photos to play with in Lightroom.

I would really like to move the photo collection (Apple Photos) off the main hard drive, but I am afraid of what effect this will have when the drive isn’t plugged in.

2021 and I miss Picasa

I agree. Part of my problem is I have a Sony A7R IV and my photos are usually 61MB in size. Apple Photos has a hard time handling them. What I have taken to doing is store them on an external drive (after automatic backups to Dropbox and Google Photos), import them into Luminar Catalog, cull them from there, edit which I wish, and exporting edited files as JPGs so they can be imported into Photos. Should be an easier way.

 

[simcox]

We currently use Adobe Lightroom, and use Luminar 4 as a plug in.
Which operating version are you using for your Mac? What type of Mac are you using?

 

[Jean Luc Oregon]

MacBook Pro, 15" 2018, 2.9 GHz I9, 32 GB Ram. 1 TB SSD

 

[simcox]

MacBook Pro, 15" 2018, 2.9 GHz I9, 32 GB Ram. 1 TB SSD

Jean, You could also look into using Sony's Imaging Edge Desktop Software. It supports high quality Raw files. If you look to get Lightroom I would also suggest you get an external hard drive to use for storage of your photo catalog.

 

[simcox]

Here is the link for Sony:

Imaging Edge Desktop | Application that develops photos and enables remote shooting. | Imaging Edge

Remote shooting (tethered shooting) using live view and RAW development can be performed. Production possible with Sony cameras using functions such as time-lapse video creation using interval shooting of still images (RAW/JPEG) and pixel shift multi-shooting.

imagingedge.sony.net

 

[Magnus129]

I am stumped on the best way to manage photos on my Mac. I am shooting RAW. I import into Photos (the Apple resident photography app which stores and categorizes the photos and has some editing tools). I am also using several post-processing tools including Lightroom, Luminaire, and Topaz AI. The problem is the image files are hidden inside Photos and I have to drag them out to work on them with the post-processing software. Then, they are lost outside of Photos unless I import them back in. What a hassle. I find using the PS and Luminaire plug-ins to be sketchy at best. I can stop using Photos all together and instead use Lightroom or Luminaire for both storage and categorization and for editing. But, then I look the functionality of Photos across platforms. Any advice??????

Jean-Luc - I know this is a little old, but I have been a Lightroom user for years. I have a 2015 Retina iMac and it is only now starting to show signs of slowing. WIth that said, I stay away from the Photos app because of the hassle of extracting files. I think the most important thing (and I am embarrassed to say I was forced into this last week) is back up externally to **MULTIPLE** drives as my Lacie drive would not mount all of a sudden. Luckily, the drive had not failed but the connector is wonky. I immediately got an SSD drive and copied the drive. Keep at least two at all times.

My workflow starts with an upload of all the RAW files into Lightroom and I run the first cull of the set, the missed focus shots usually. I do all my editing in Lightroom and only rarely jump out into PS if I get excited by a particular shot. PS for me comes later if I get a yearning to get creative. Once culled, edited and exported as 'Full Res' and 'Internet Res' I connect my external drives (x1 working x1 backup) and still in Lightroom I categorise them. My last stage is to upload my Lightroom catalogue to the Cloud.

So for me Lightroom edits (which could include PS) and catalogues with no real interference from any other software.

Drewid, my goal is to branch out into PS eventually but I am wondering what your Cloud workflow is. What online solution do you use? I have a Smugmug account as it make it easy to share, print and organize photos. It also has easy security settings for galleries so that they are password protected.

 

[dschuffert]

I am using an iMac Pro (2017) with a 3.2 GHz 8-Core Intel Xeon W and 32GB RAM. I have a Synology DS1618+ for NAS data storage. This iMac Pro is still going strong and doesn't slow down at all. I am using Capture One 21 for my workflow and editing. I insert my card into the card reader, Capture One brings up the import dialog, then I select where on my NAS I want the files moved to (I have a system of folders with the highest order being year all the way down to an event folder. If an event is multiple days I then subfolder the event by date. Capture one then moves the files where I want them, build a catalog and preview, then I go in and tag, edit, delete files, etc.