{"id":4530,"date":"2015-03-24T21:44:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T21:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=4530"},"modified":"2015-03-23T22:37:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T22:37:53","slug":"thoughts-on-photos-for-mac-and-icloud-photo-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/03\/24\/thoughts-on-photos-for-mac-and-icloud-photo-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Photos for Mac and iCloud Photo Library"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:7065,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/sixcolors.com\\\/post\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/the-hard-link-between-photos-and-iphoto&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20251009104124\\\/https:\\\/\\\/sixcolors.com\\\/post\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/the-hard-link-between-photos-and-iphoto\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-04 21:48:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-11 22:51:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-06 09:25:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-13 11:42:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 07:28:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 07:28:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I believe this product is only available as a Public Beta for which I am a tester. Despite my very limited use of beta-products, the OS X betas after the retail release have been very stable. I have only had 2-3 issues for which I filed RADARs on and those issues were fixed in a subsequent update.<\/p>\n<p>I thought it would be interesting to post a few thoughts on Photos but first, what\u2019s my current workflow for photography?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I shoot on an Olympus EM-1 M43 camera<\/li>\n<li>Editing is done in the latest version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom but I fully delete the Lightroom data store once a month on my iMac &amp; MacBook Pro.<\/li>\n<li>Edited photos are exported once to JPEG with a Watermark and uploaded to Flickr.<\/li>\n<li>Then those same photos are exported again as a JPEG without a watermark at highest resolution and quality setting and sent to DropBox until I\u2019m ready to import them into iPhoto which lives on my 27\u201d iMac @ home.<\/li>\n<li>iPhoto storage is in my User\/Photos folder which is the default and gets backed up to TimeMachine regularly.<\/li>\n<li>iPhoto is also configured to cache any Photo Stream images from iPhone \/ iPad and, iPhoto users know about the once a month Event in iPhoto called \u201cMarch 2015 Photo Stream\u201d or whatever month just ended. It\u2019s actually a nice way to store all Photo Stream moments in an organized way so as long as you don\u2019t take more than 1K photos on your iOS device in a month, you\u2019ll have a permanent disk backup on your computer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enter Photos for Mac and iCloud Photo Library. These are really two components.<\/p>\n<p>Photos for Mac is running on my MacBook and iMac. Because<a href=\"http:\/\/sixcolors.com\/post\/2015\/02\/the-hard-link-between-photos-and-iphoto\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Six Colors did such a great job with the overview of how Photos handles iPhoto migrations,<\/a> I\u2019m not going to waste any space here. Read that guide instead if you\u2019re curious. Since I don\u2019t do any editing, publishing or much at all in Photos, I can\u2019t speak of how the tool will work for those of you who intend to do everything in the application. I can say that Photos is very reliable, very fast at navigation and kicks the pants out of iPhoto in every way. There\u2019s not a lot of power today compared to iPhoto but if you\u2019re like me and have 100K photos, Photos is really amazing for just enjoying pictures again. They load fast, scroll fast and you can zoom in and out like butter. I\u2019d have to count the seconds between tabbing through pictures in iPhoto and that was after many iPhoto rebuilds and moving my library directly onto my built in Fusion Drive on the Core i7 iMac.<\/p>\n<p>iCloud Photo Library is something iOS 8 users have had in their Photos settings for some time. It\u2019s an evolution of Photo Stream and it makes managing pictures really easy if you take a lot of photos and if you have multiple devices. The ability to snap a photo on any Apple Device and have populated everywhere instantly feels like magic. Making edits on your Mac and then posting that photo to Instagram on your iPhone instantly is really special. It also works with my Olympus if I choose to bring photos shot on a camera into Photos for Mac, it\u2019ll appear on all devices instantly (as fast as the Internet speed will allow it).<\/p>\n<p>This sort of synchronization is incredible and it feels like living in the future. You\u2019re no longer penalized for owning 5 different Apple devices :)<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the syncing, iCloud Photo Library is also intelligent in how it uses storage on your devices. On the Mac, it\u2019s a no-brainer to tell Photos to \u201cDownload Originals to this Mac\u201d. On the iOS Device, you may want to \u201coptimize\u201d the storage and this setting will keep your iOS device from being clogged up by many thousands of photos that are stored on your Mac.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s one caveat to this system. iCloud Photo Library utilizes the storage you have in iCloud which you have 5 gigabytes of it for free by being an iCloud user. When I opened Photos on my iMac (the host system with iPhoto Installed). I received a message that with my library being 480 gigabytes, I would need to upgrade my storage to a $20 a month 500GB tier to use my iMac (and iOS\/Macbook devices) with all of these photos. I was tempted to upgrade but then I thought\u2026$240 a year is steep considering I\u2019m paying $99 a year for DropBox, another $100 or so for BackBlaze and that I have about 10 terabytes of storage in my NAS located in the basement.I don\u2019t need to have my library available everywhere. It would be nice but not a necessary item. Sure I have to login to my NAS through a web-browser &amp; VPN to see a photo of my sister taken in 2007 but a lot of my favorites already live on Flickr where I\u2019m using about 85 gigabytes of my unlimited storage as a $25 a year Pro Member. There\u2019s actually no shortage of fail-safe backups of my photos on-site, off-site and on-line. What iCloud Photo Library provides is the convenience of accessing your entire library wherever you are and on any Apple device.It\u2019s very similar to iTunes Match in that regard.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the workaround to having iCloud Photo Library without paying $20 a month?<\/p>\n<p>I would need to move my iPhoto Library today to my NAS and sort of freeze it in time and then start fresh with Photos for Mac but eventually, I\u2019d hit a cap and it would ask me to pay again (albeit for a cheaper\/lower tier of storage).<\/p>\n<p>I think for now, I\u2019m going to stick with Photo Stream and iPhoto with iCloud Photo Library disabled until the pricing goes down. I think that\u2019s really the route I have to go. If any of my readers have alternate suggestions, I\u2019m all ears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I believe this product is only available as a Public Beta for which I am a tester. Despite&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-08-31T00:05:39Z","apple_news_api_id":"21581b04-df87-4c8d-b815-4f27f6193a6b","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-08-31T00:05:39Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AIVgbBN-HTI24FU8n9hk6aw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-photography","7":"category-technology","8":"cs-entry","9":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-1b4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5241,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/11\/06\/site-news-adam-chandler-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":4530,"position":0},"title":"Site News: Adam Chandler Photos","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Along with the recent re-design of my blog, I\u2019ve been trying to find a solution to own where my photos are stored and shared. I\u2019ll use Flickr indefinitely and while I enjoyed using 500px, I don\u2019t really want to manage two online properties that are commercial entities that both cost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Announcements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Announcements","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/announcements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4169,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/07\/30\/photography-kind-of-messing-around-with-more-lightroom-tricks\/","url_meta":{"origin":4530,"position":1},"title":"Photography: Kind of messing around with more Lightroom Tricks","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I don\u2019t really do much with my photos behind a bit of sharpening and sometimes, some noise reduction but that\u2019s it. I tried some Lightroom features out on this photo taken of my Golf last night. I like how it came out but maybe it\u2019s too over done?","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Volkswagen Golf R 2013 @ Night - Hanover, NH","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2939\/14603358297_13b0017fb9.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7186,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2017\/11\/01\/linked-flume-2-8-for-mac\/","url_meta":{"origin":4530,"position":2},"title":"Linked: &#8220;Flume 2.8 for Mac&#8221;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"via Flume Blog: Finally, Flume 2.8 is here! There\u2019s so much packed into this update that we\u2019ll skip the introductory text and get straight into all the details. Huge update. Nothing for me personally as my workflow is highly limited but this application, a non-official application that is completely developed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4228,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/08\/22\/photo-post-san-francisco-august-14\/","url_meta":{"origin":4530,"position":3},"title":"Photo Post: San Francisco &#8211; August &#8217;14","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"August 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I really love doing these photo posts. This trip more than many SF trips in the past, I actually took a lot of photos (somewhere around 1200) and narrowed it down to just 100 uploaded. I\u2019m happy with these and the OM-D EM-1 from Olympus has turned into the greatest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"United BOS-->SFO","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5551\/14951782716_a39453991b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5551\/14951782716_a39453991b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5551\/14951782716_a39453991b_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4834,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/07\/21\/photography-initial-thoughts-on-the-canon-5d-mark-iii-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":4530,"position":4},"title":"Photography: Initial Thoughts on the Canon 5D Mark III (2015)","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last 5 days, I snapped 450 photos Typical of my editing process, I kept about 95 of these (1:5 ratio). I have used SLRs over the years off and on with Nikon and Canon being the primary formats. I\u2019ve used the 5D Mark 1-3 and the Nikon D80,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12318,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2024\/09\/30\/technology-iphone-camera-is-too-complicated\/","url_meta":{"origin":4530,"position":5},"title":"Technology: iPhone Camera is Too Complicated","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been thinking about this topic since the iPhone 16 Introduction and and it became more solidified as I started using the iPhone 16 Pro a week later. When I listened to NIlay Patel and John Gruber talk about photographer on episode 409 of The Talk Show, it became\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_0240-jpeg.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_0240-jpeg.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_0240-jpeg.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}