Help required - not new to photography but pretty new to editing/storage

Hey,

So I got my first DSLR about a year and a half ago, at which point I was completely new to photography. Since then I feel like I've come a long way in terms of the kinds of shots I've been getting and the techniques I've been able to learn. I've got a good idea of what kind of things I want to focus on shooting and the sort of kit that I'm going to look to buy in the future. One thing that I haven't really thought much about though is editing or storing my images - basically I use a Mac and so whatever photos I take will just be uploaded to "Photos" (previously iPhoto).

I don't mind Photos for Mac in that it's quite user friendly and offers some basic editing options like cropping, tilting, colour/brightness boost/reduction etc but what annoys me is:

1.) I don't like how there isn't just some straight-up folder that is easy to find where I can see my photos and open them up in whatever application I want without having to use Photos.
2.) Whenever I edit a photo and try to upload it from Photos to Facebook it will only ever show me the original - the only way I can get the edited one is to open it full screen, take a screenshot to my desktop and then upload it from that - which I worry will result in a deterioration in the quality of the photo.

Does anyone know how I can overcome the above issues? Or am I just kidding myself by still using this program when I need to be getting something else - if so then sell it to me so I can convince myself that it's worthwhile

Cheers for any help people can give.

Since you're on a Mac; check out Affinity Photo. Fantastically good and only 50$.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

+1 on Affinity Photo!

And while Photos has it's quirks (its a 1.0 release after all). It's a reasonable cataloger and it'll get better.

For now just export the photo you want to work on or post.

Sounds like Photos is storing the originals and then separately storing the adjustments you made in another file possibly a sidecar file (.XMP)
A lot of packages do that. Perhaps there is an option in Photos to prevent this happening I don't use it so not sure about that but check in the preferences.

As well as affinity photo which is very good you could consider Lightroom which is easier to use.

wornish said:

As well as affinity photo which is very good you could consider Lightroom which is easier to use.

Click to expand...

Easier than RT maybe but not easier than Affinity if you use that to process RAW too. I'd say they're fairly identical to learn.

EddceLLent said:

2.) Whenever I edit a photo and try to upload it from Photos to Facebook it will only ever show me the original - the only way I can get the edited one is to open it full screen, take a screenshot to my desktop and then upload it from that - which I worry will result in a deterioration in the quality of the photo.

Click to expand...

I have never seen the Photos app, but what you are describing is a lossless editor... like Lightroom for example, like any raw editor. I do think Photos is a lossless editor (a raw editor, and it does JPG too, in the same way). Raw editors do lossless edits, meaning, they always preserve the original and they just add a list of the actual edit operations, the steps to take which will be performed anytime you Output the edited image. The edit is NOT performed until you output it to another JPG file (the lossless editor will show it as edited... but it is not yet edited.) Edits make a LIST of the edit steps requested, but the edit does not happen until OUTPUT to new file copy. The original image data is NEVER modified.

This is the new modern way. The advantage of lossless editors is that any output of any new edit does NOT have to suffer from undoing the shifted tones of previous edits... but instead it merely just edits the original data ONE TIME with the new final edit list. The edit steps are Only done one time when output to a new file copy. At any and every Output, but the edit is applied only that one time.

When we do edit more times, all we actually do is to edit the edit list. Then we do the actual edit only ONE TIME at output. We don't shift image tones back and forth all over the place. Only ONE set of new added JPG artifacts too. Preserving the original is a big advantage. We can even uncrop it.

Bottom line of your problem:

But other programs do not know how to do that edit list, so all other programs ever see is the original unedited version. So what needs to be done is to use Photos to Output an edited JPG copy for other programs to use, so they can see it too. Simply do a SAVE AS to a new JPG file name, for other programs to use.

It would be the same issue in ANY lossless editor (the good ones, raw editors), so it is no reason to switch editors.

Your screenshot is one form of output, but you get the original large size if you simply output (Save As) a JPG file, and use that edited JPG copy in other programs.

Then when you might want additional edits later, DISCARD that first JPG copy you output (it is very expendable), and make your edit (maybe just a new crop or resample for some other purpose), and then Output the new edit into a new replacement JPG copy for other programs to see. The pristine original image remains as your archived master copy. The edit list is saved too, but you can revise it at any time.

If you're using the photos app for mac this is what you need to do.

1. Create a new folder anywhere on your Mac, I personally just create one on my desktop named OS X export.

2. Edit your image as normal

3. When finished editing click done at the top, its a yellow tab.

4. Go to file then export.. Now export your file to the desktop folder you created. That's it, you're done.

5. If you think you're gonna have a decent library in the future do yourself a favor and just spend the money on the Creative Cloud, no other program out there works as good as LR and PS together. LR is amazing at keeping your files organized, but you have to learn how to make LR work for you.