iPhoto-v-Photos: I have a 5yr old Mac desktop, my wife has a 3yr old one. Both run version 10.9.5. We are constantly being pestered by Apple to upgrade to El Capitan, but last time we...

Scouser Loc: British Columbia

I have a 5yr old Mac desktop, my wife has a 3yr old one. Both run version 10.9.5. We are constantly being pestered by Apple to upgrade to El Capitan, but last time we caved in and upgraded, we lost some features in iPhoto. If we go to El Capitan we will lose iPhoto completely, in favour of Photos. Does anybody out there have an opinion on this upgrade, both with regard to Photos, and with any other features of El Capitan? General pros and cons of the two OS X versions would help, since I understand there's no going back. In particular I am interested in comparing the PP capabilities of the two choices. I am a computer dinosaur, so please don't get too technical!

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Scouser wrote:

I have a 5yr old Mac desktop, my wife has a 3yr ol... (show quote)

I am pretty sure you will NOT lose iPhoto. I was an Aperture 3 user and Aperture is still there to use, so I would expect iPhoto to remain as well.
Photos is a step down from Aperture, but I have read that it is an improvement over iPhoto.
If you use the "Search" function at the top of the page you will find a number of threads on this subject.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I upgraded about six months ago, and I'm happy. Everything seems to run a little better, and I'm happy with the switch to Photos. I hated it--for about three days. Then I realized that there were many advantages, including a logical grouping of photos by date and download, making things much easier to find, and a much-improved editing function which is easy to use and very logical. Do the upgrade and give it a week. You will not be disappointed.

Re. the pp: Everything is easier and it allows you to do more with your photos than iPhoto. Photos is a winner compared to iPhoto.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Mac wrote:

I am pretty sure you will NOT lose iPhoto. I was an Aperture 3 user and Aperture is still there to use, so I would expect iPhoto to remain as well.
Photos is a step down from Aperture, but I have read that it is an improvement over iPhoto.
If you use the "Search" function at the top of the page you will find a number of threads on this subject.

Mac is right; iPhoto is still lurking in there somewhere, but once you use Photos for a very few days, you won't care about iPhoto any more. Another nice thing about photos is that you can edit a photo to your heart's content. Then, you can save the edit--or not--and revert to the camera image. That original can always be there if you want to keep it. I do that a lot so that I can go in another direction with the editing to see what I like best, or go to b&w, or whatever. You'll like it.

Demik Loc: New York City

Unfortunately, El Capitan will no longer download pictures to Picasa, which many of us who don't want I photos or Photo Shop have used for years. It looks like Apple deliberately made this change to force us Picasa users to use Apple photo programs.

Has anyone found a way to get El Capitan to work with Picasa?

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Demik wrote:

Unfortunately, El Capitan will no longer download pictures to Picasa, which many of us who don't want I photos or Photo Shop have used for years. It looks like Apple deliberately made this change to force us Picasa users to use Apple photo programs.

Has anyone found a way to get El Capitan to work with Picasa?

I have Yosemite 10.10.5 an do it all the time--no problem. I don't download directly to Picasa3 because I don't do any primary editing there. I move edited photos to Picasa after editing for framing or other special effects because I find the editing choices in Picasa3 (or any other version) inferior to Photos or iPhoto.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Scouser wrote:

I have a 5yr old Mac desktop, my wife has a 3yr ol... (show quote)

FWIW - I run El Capitan, I usually upgrade to the latest OS right away - have never run into a reason not to yet myself.

I was an Aperture user for several years, when Apple announced they were dropping support I jumped to Lightroom.

All that being said, I still have IPhotos & Photos on my IMAC under El Capitan, both function still and I maintain them as apps "just in case" along with several other post processing applications.

My opinion of IPhotos and Photos is not very high. I see them as a starting point possibly, but they quickly pale when looking at a dedicated product like Lightroom & Photoshop.

You might wish to take a look at several of the alternatives for Post processing work - Lightroom, Photoshop, Gimp, Dark Table, Rawtherapee, Capture One, Picasa, LightZone, View NX-2, View NX-I, Capture NX-D (View NX-2, NX-I & Capture NX-D are Nikon products) DPP (Canon)

There are a host of FREE and commercial products to replace the OS dependent freebies like Photos and IPhoto.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Demik wrote:

Unfortunately, El Capitan will no longer download pictures to Picasa, which many of us who don't want I photos or Photo Shop have used for years. It looks like Apple deliberately made this change to force us Picasa users to use Apple photo programs.

Has anyone found a way to get El Capitan to work with Picasa?

When you say "download" pictures to Picasa - are you talking about importing from camera to Picasa, or from card to picasa?

The Mac will default to launching Photos to import from the card or camera when connected, BUT that is fully configurable by the user - if you wish to launch Picasa when a card or camera is connected, you can.

Myself, I launch NO program when a card is inserted, since I wish to do whatever I wish to do with the images.... possibly edit on the card with Bridge or launch Lightroom to import the images.

EDIT

BTW - I just set Picasa to launch when a camera is connected, or camera card is inserted - my iMac is running El Capitan, and sure enough, just as I said, I plugged in a card and Picasa launched to "download" the images from my SD card....

Apple did NOT stop Picasa from working, it merely set the default import program when a camera is connected... EASILY settable by the user - you can do that from with Picasa, or from within IMAGE CAPTURE in your utilities on your Mac.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Consider buying a stand alone program like LightRoom 6. It will organize your images and a whole host of corrections you can make. You will love it. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1132136-REG/adobe_65237578_photoshop_lightroom_6_download.html

Scouser wrote:

I have a 5yr old Mac desktop, my wife has a 3yr ol... (show quote)

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

I wasn't sure about Photos but I went to an Apple for free Photos class and am quite happy with it. Am going to another one soon because there is a lot to learn.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Scouser wrote:

I have a 5yr old Mac desktop, my wife has a 3yr ol... (show quote)

One program that offers a considerably high level of photo editing is Light Zone. It's free, along with a free learning curve.
--Bob

jerrypoller Loc: Huntington, NY

Dngallagher wrote:

FWIW - I run El Capitan, I usually upgrade to the ... (show quote)

I've followed your posts/replies for quite a while now and respect your Mac computer knowledge. I was curious why you didn't mention Pixelmator in your list of alternative PP apps - I switched to it from iPhoto about 6 months ago and have found it very user friendly.

NoSocks Loc: quonochontaug, rhode island

Scouser wrote:

I have a 5yr old Mac desktop, my wife has a 3yr ol... (show quote)

I used iPhoto regularly and have migrated to photos with no problems. I like it a bit a better. That said, I also have Lightroom and Photoshop and I'm struggling to learn them.

jerrypoller Loc: Huntington, NY

Dngallagher wrote:

All that being said, I still have IPhotos & Photos on my IMAC under El Capitan, both function still and I maintain them as apps "just in case" along with several other post processing applications.

.

I missed this in my first read/reply to your post - I didn't realize I still had access to iPhoto - thanks very much for pointing it out - I think it has features that are superior to Photos that I missed when I upgraded to El Capitan/Photos - especially the edge blur feature - iPhoto also had a better "enhance" feature for simple, quick PP of otherwise acceptable pics. Thanks for your info.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

jerrypoller wrote:

I've followed your posts/replies for quite a while now and respect your Mac computer knowledge. I was curious why you didn't mention Pixelmator in your list of alternative PP apps - I switched to it from iPhoto about 6 months ago and have found it very user friendly.

Hmmm... I have not looked at Pixelmator myself.... will put it on the todo list ;)

Thanks.