Photo Library or Files

[Sead Lejlic]

Long time Aperture user.

200G iCloud
700G photo archive

Lately shooting RAW+Jpeg.

I intend to use Nitro on my MacBook Pro as well as on iPad.

Should I keep my photos in Photos or in a file manager folder system?

Is there any benefit in keeping photos in Photos app library when it’s not possible to sync the whole library with iCloud?

Thanks!

[Rick Fee]

for my needs, I use folder management. I do not like the way Photos stores files in their unique way, I don’t trust proprietary systems. YMMV.

[Nik Bhatt]

There is no simple answer to this question, which is why Nitro offers both options.

Photos organizes R+J as a single “item” which is good and bad (you can’t split the two pieces apart, but you don’t have both images cluttering the grid, etc.)

Even if you don’t use iCloud, there is value in using Photos. You can access the library with multiple apps. If one day, there is enough storage in the cloud, you can use iCloud syncing. you can mix and match editors. You can make albums, etc. If you use the file system, you have full control over storage (where it is and you can split across drives).

[Sead Lejlic]

Thank you Rick and Nik.

If it was a simple choice, I would have selected one already. 🙂

With Aperture proprietary system, in panic, I have not done the cleanest of the exports of the library and I have ended up with a mess of the “library”. I was frustrated almost to the point to give up on photography (which I did for couple of years). So, I am with Rick on issue of file handling.

I still have to deal with serious number of duplicates, part of library in Photos, part of the photos (mostly iPhone ones) in second Photos library (synced to iCloud) and half of the photos in a partly structured and partly just a dump folders. Frankly, I don’t even know where and how to start sorting the structure and duplicates. Choice between Photos and File system will greatly influence the methodology in sorting out the duplicates.

Then, there is question of printing. During testing I did not see print option in Nitro and that is something that Photos have on the basic quality level (like everything else in Photos – all bells and whistles and more are there but for mainstream users at best, lacking for HQ use, at least for those of us who want to use ICC profiles for printing and other more elaborate aspects of handling photos).

Another question for me is sharing photos with family and clients. iCloud makes it easy but is there anything out there that does not necessarily involve iCloud?

[Ben Hughes]

I’m not saying this is the right way to handle things, but it might give you some ideas. My approach is:

– Use the file system – this means I’m not locked into a cloud storage provider, editor/manager or operating system
– Use XnView to import files into a directory structure based on EXIF (I use YYYY/MM but it’s pretty flexible)
– I use Mega for cloud storage, mostly because I already had it before switching to Mac, but also because I still need to sync to Windows machines and iCloud on Windows is terrible
– Photos I take on my iPhone are automatically uploaded to a folder in Mega and synced to my MBP. I then use XnView to move these into my YYYY/MM folder structure

If I want to edit on both my MBP and iPad, I use syncthing to sync a folder (it works well, with some limitations – https://support.gentlemencoders.com/forums/topic/sharing-edits-between-mac-and-ios/).

[Nik Bhatt]

@Sead, given the uses that you have listed, Photos is the better choice. You have enough work to do without also having to manage the file locations etc themselves. The ability to share a library with family and friends, duplicate detection and such are all part of Photos.

[Ben Hughes]

I think any cloud storage will let you share folders with people – Mega and Dropbox certainly do.

I’m sure Photos has its benefits, but there’s no way you could convince me to use a proprietary storage format again (I made that mistake with Lightroom back in the day). I’ve changed operating systems, editors and cloud providers multiple times since moving to a file-based approach and it has been essentially seamless. Even though I’m very happy with Apple (and Nitro!) at the moment, having to start from scratch if I ever change my mind is just too much hassle to consider.

Of course if you think you’re going to be in the Apple econsystem forever, maybe Photos makes sense. But even then I find it more frustrating to use than a logically ordered folder structure.

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