Carlmk Loc: Naples, FL & Boston, MA

How good is the latest Apple Photo?

Received a Mac Pro 13 from my kids a week or two ago as a gift. Had been using Picasa on my old PC'S for years. Transferred all my photo's to the MAC via a flash drive and have been using Apple's Photos to manage and to edit them. Here is my question" Photos seem to me as good as Picasa was. Am I missing something? I think it is more user friendly than Google Photos. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks in advance.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You have lots of choices for processing. There are two new ones, Affinity and Luminar.

https://macphun.com/luminar

https://macphun.com/luminar/compare
http://digital-photography-school.com/a-beginners-guide-to-choosing-the-right-post-production-software/
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2015/03/23/best-photo-editing-software-photoshop-cc-and-7-photoshop-alternatives-tested/1/
http://www.redmondpie.com/best-adobe-photoshop-alternatives-for-windows-and-mac-list/

Free -

http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/the-best-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-totally-free-5974500
http://lightzoneproject.org/

jmsail365 Loc: Stamford, Ct

As you may know Apple dumped Aperture in favor of Photos. Aperture was great Photos is just the basics. I mostly use Lightroom now and Aperture on occasion and ignore Photos.

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

You are right, Carlmk, and welcome to the MAC world! Despite a few naysayers stuck in the past, Photos is just fine.

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

Photos is very good. I was an Aperture 3 user and felt that Photos was lacking in comparison, but either Photos improved or I learned to use it. In any case Photos will serve you well. One thing you may want to consider is Luminar by Macfun. Luminar is a really amazing program and can be used as an extension in Photos.

Carlmk Loc: Naples, FL & Boston, MA

I read that the latest version of Photos has improved.

Linckinn Loc: Okatie, SC and Edgartown, MA

Photos is absolutely wonderful for what it is. Editing is quite basic, but also a lot better than people realize. Color, light, etc all expand into several individual sliders that can be adjusted. For those who don't want to get too deeply into post processing, it is excellent.

Where it really shines is organization. One can easily keyword, title, geotag, caption, etc in batches or picture by picture. The search function is almost instant after typing in just a few letters. The "Places" function shows a map of the world with all your pictures located, which expands out as much as you want, right down to whether the picture was taken in your front yard or back. And pleas try the "memories" function, which puts forth a new small collage around a different central theme every day. A nice touch.

I personally use other software for post processing (Capture One) but love Photos for its other features.

mineart

Photos is a deceptively powerful piece of software. It has much of what was Aperture folded into it. If you need more you can add plugin functionality as in photoshop. Macphun (horrible name, I know) has some very good reasonably priced products.

BJW

The ease, simplicity and elegance of Photos is what has kept me from committing the time to learn LR/PS/CC. And now that I have seen MacPhun's Luminar as an add on to Photos for only $69 or less, it presents for me a very "alternative fact" in the post processing world.
Try it, you'll like.

beckleybunch Loc: Indiana

Can you process RAW in Photos?

Linckinn Loc: Okatie, SC and Edgartown, MA

Yes. It processes RAW, and Apple very quickly updates to accommodate new camera models.

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

Yes you Can.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Mac Pro or MacBook Pro?

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

It seems to me that whether Photos is any good or not should not be the only question. After I installed El Capitan op system, noticed theold iPhotos was superceded by Photos. Then when I next plugged a SD card in a window popped up that had little thumbnails of all the pictures on the card and there was a button that amounted to import, so I did. Next a few days later I wanted to edit some of them in Photoshop and this is where the kicker came in. First Photos did not allow me to do that; next, I was unable to find the folder having the image files. So it seems Photos stores the image files in an unaccessible proprietary folder. After that I make sure to drag & drop from the SD card to a folder of my creation. In the early days of OSX, my first was Jaguar, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie were all easy to use intuitive applications that really facilitated doing things, but over the years Apple has revised OSX to the point that versatility seems lost. For pictures, I would suggest you try to get demo versions of the many image editing applications that others will name, try them out to see which suit your fancy, and proceed frim there. To the others I would suggest you tell what features your suggestion offers that you like.

Linckinn Loc: Okatie, SC and Edgartown, MA

As with iPhoto or Aperture, Photos allows you to store them in the "proprietary" folder by importing them into Photos, or they can remain in the folders on the computer and be "referenced" in Photos. Either way, Photos organizes them all by date, searchable by location, file name, title, keywords, etc.

In your situation, it probably defaulted to storing in Photos, which you can change in Preferences. It is very simple to get at them. Simply select the pictures you want, right click, and select export original, and a copy will go wherever you want. Sounds like you are better off importing straight to Lightroom.