Apple just announced the availability of its new photo application, Apple Photos. While its not shipping yet, there is a public beta program available. Apple also released more details about the application.
Migration from Aperture
Aperture libraries can be moved to Photos for OS X. This includes photographs, their adjustments, keywords and albums. The Aperture library will remain intact after migration. Aperture and Photos do not share a library. Any changes made to the same photo in Photos will not appear in Aperture. Remember, Aperture will be removed from the Mac App Store when Apple Photos is released.
Details About Photos
Photos for OS X sports a new, streamlined design according to the Photos page on Apple’s website. iCloud Photo Library is a core feature of Photos allowing a users to store all of their images in iCloud. Every photo becomes available on Macs, iOS devices and of course on iCloud.com. The unified Photos navigation means that operation is familiar across all platforms.
Editing
Change a photograph with an adjustment, add it to an album or mark it as a favorite on a Mac; those changes are shown on iPad, iPhone and iCloud. It doesn’t matter which device edits a photo, the changes update on the other devices automatically. Enhance improves photos with a single click. Smart Sliders adjust lighting and color using algorithms to make the “just right” adjustments to photos. Seven tools comprise the editing suite...
- Light changes highlights, shadows and contrast.
- Color adjusts saturation, color contrast and color cast.
- Black & White removes color, allows control of intensity and tone. Grain can be added to mimic black and white film.
- Levels tonal balance tool to modify shadows, mid-tones and highlights.
- White Balance has options for neutral gray, skin tone as well as color temperature and tint to make photos warmer or cooler.
- Definition ups image clarity.
- Vignette shades image edges to draw attention to the central subject.
- Revert Press M to compare the original to the newly edited version. If you don’t like the changes revert back to the original.
Filters
Photos for OS X offers eight effects: Mono, Tonal, Noir, Fade, Chrome, Process, Transfer and Instant. There a great demo on the Photo’s web page for each one. Interestingly Process, Transfer and Instant imitate cross processed film, Polaroid emulsion transfer and the look of SX-70 instant film respectively.
Sharing
Photo’s Share menu distributes photographs via iCloud or AirDrop and on Facebook, Twitter and other websites that offer compatible sharing extensions.
Books & Prints
Beautiful, high quality books may be made right from Photos. This continues Apple’s book making tradition that extends all the way back to early versions of iPhoto. Additionally prints can be ordered of iPhone panoramas up to thirty-six inches wide. There are a variety of new square sizes too.
Library
The Photo’s library is stored on iCloud so devices never run out of room for photographs in full resolution. The same holds for video. Both are stored in their original formats. Storage saving versions are kept on mobile devices. iCloud provides five gigabytes of space for free. Up to one terabyte, that’s a thousand gigabytes of storage, can be purchased.
Photos Beta Program
If you are excited about Photo’s and don’t want to wait for warmer weather or Spring to get here, Apple has a public beta program to allow uses to test drive Photos and provide their ideas. This link takes you Apple’s beta sign up page (or sign in, if you did the earlier Yosemite beta.) You will need to sign up for the Yosemite beta to gain access to Photos (this is free to do so).
Closing Thoughts
Photos promises to be exactly what an iPhoneographer or amateur DSLR shooter has been pining for. An elegant interface, simple to use and understand adjustments, filters with flair and a consistent navigation method from computer to device to web combine to make Photos a potentially great photo app.
I have one caveat. Apple touts user’s being able to “automatically upload your lifetime’s worth of photos on your Mac to the cloud…” which for non-photographers makes a lot of sense. For professionals and serious amateurs it’s not practical. While a terabyte of storage works for most people on the planet, it’s not enough for heavy users. Apple’s price of $240.00 a year for a terabyte is not unreasonable. Considering that a 6 terabyte hard drive can be purchased outright for $290.00 today, it’s not a totally good deal. The bigger the library the longer it takes to upload the first time. Too, it’s a really good idea to keep a copy locally. What would happen, heaven forbid, if your credit card expired without you knowing and the plug got pulled on that lifetime of photographs? Trust the cloud is good. Verify that you have a current local copy or two is better.Kevin is a commercial photographer from Atlanta. He works for fashion, architectural, manufacturing and corporate clients. When he’s not shooting, he contributes to Photoshop User magazine & writes for Photofocus.com.
http://kevinamesphotography.com
https://facebook.com/KevinAmesPhotography
The new Photo app really seems to have gone a long way. I don’t know that replacing Aperture with it was the best thing to do for photographers but for the average Joe, I think it’s plenty.
Thanks for posting this. I am not clear on one thing. Are the photos kept on both your device and the cloud? Does it free up space on your device by having them in the cloud?
I am using this in Beta and I am really liking it. To answer your question, it stores the photos full quality in the cloud and you can choose to have them full quality on your devices (you can choose on each device) or “space saver” quality, which amounts to a thumbnail of the photo which downloads from the cloud when you click on it. The space savings is enormous on my phone.
You say that $240 a year is not unreasonable when this really is not the case. You need to look at the costs of other cloud based storage options to see how it really fairs. iCloud pricing is more than twice the going rate for consumer cloud based storage and is only storage. It does not have any other apps included for the price. Example #1 – Dropbox offers the same 1TB of storage for $99, a 59% reduction. Dropbox also offers a photos app called Carousel that replicates much of what Apple photos offers in terns of storage and… Read more »
Its useless, i’m a photoshop photography teacher of “regular people”, among 50-70 years old for more than 10 years, they own , average 8000 pics, and the only way they can know what they have and find the pics they want is having them in a regular folders, pics>years>issue. Iphoto and this new one will be useless, same as the streaming.
How does it handle RAW files?