[77me]

I can understand using the Apple storage space if you have lots of different types of files. However, if you have predominately photo files, as most photographers do, then I would go with Flickr as it is more cost affective but more importantly you get unlimited storage for photos & videos. I don't know how much dropbox costs, but I'd be interested in it's price and the amount of storage one gets for the price. As far as an Apple Ecosystem goes, I find that terminology to be more or less gimicky as most file types are standard across all operating sytems and can be opened and edited across them as well - for example a .jpg photo file or .mpg video file can be worked with on Apple, Windows, or Linux equally easily.


There's still that sneaky option someone told me about, which is to simply create multiple Flickr accounts when you reach 1,000 photos in your Flickr account - the guy I messaged with wasn't paying anything for Flickr storing his photos in 2 Flickr accounts. And here I sit and foolishly pay them monthly for one account.

Apple's iCloud for Photos is really good for many users but incredibly infuriating when something is broken. The advantage of using iCloud is for instance on your Mac where you have plenty of disk space, you have all your DNG's and when you edit the photos you nondestructively edit using the DNG and create a new jpg. On your iPad or iPhone, you might not have enough space for the DNG's so there you only have the jpg's. But when you try to edit on the iPad or iPhone, Photos downloads the DNG and again you edit using the DNG creating a new jpg. The edited jpg is synced to all your devices and when you need to free up space on the mobile device, the DNG is removed. The same process also occurs on the Mac when the option to "Optimize Mac Storage" is active.

[dbs]

Ya, stuff like that takes talent.
And they say old people shouldn't mess with computers, why?

It takes the smartest guy in the room to figure out what I've done.

Well Norm who would have thought that 2 people on either side of the globe would and can do the same thing to a computer !

IT people just shudder when we call,

[normhead]

hey, using iCloud is fine, just not for a photographer. My mail goes to all my devices, 2 computers , iPhone, iPad, I can respond or read from any one of them. My medical documents, contact etc. are available on my phone if I need them at the doctors office or anywhere else. My problem was that the two different things that control cloud access are in different preferences and one had an unclear description. The guy one the phone broke it down for me quite clearly. There is no where that information was available anywhere else. I have to say, I've been in situations like this before where I never came to a good conclusion, working with PCs. The old "it's a hardware problem, no it's software problem " run around. Apple put me in touch with "the guy."

And as for my workflow, every image I post or want to keep is saved as a tiff with editing changes, on an external. And those are back up on second external drive every month or so. Because I do that I still have every file I wanted to keep as a tiff, although some that may have been useful but were passed over on the first pass, were gone. I'm not going to make any changes to iCloud or my workflow, except to turn off saving my images to iCloud. And, I now understand what the command that messed me up does. So I'm safe unless dementia gets me.

Now let me tell you about the CAM software I tried to set up on can IBM PC. After month and 6 phone calls, hours on the phone, the tech asked me if I was running on an IBM, I said yes, he said CAD/CAM doesn't run on IBMs. I asked why not, "I don't know, it just doesn't." As bad as this current situation might seem, I've had worse outcomes. 10 times more time for an unacceptable result. Until then I ran two systems, PC and Apple. At this point, I haven't had a PC in more than 20 years. I don't need to know both systems for work, my Board of Ed. finally got an Apple Lab for my photography courses. My need for PCs was gone.

As for the current crisis, it took a while, but the conclusion was acceptable. If you've ever been a computer administrator, you know 4 hours really isn't that bad.

[normhead]

Well Norm who would have thought that 2 people on either side of the globe would and can do the same thing to a computer !

IT people just shudder when we call,

I guess it just proves, no matter how obscure the problem might be, anything that can go wrong, eventually will.

In any case, I still think Apple Photos is one of the gems of the photo world. The AI is impressive, it cut my work load by a few minutes in every photo I do , sometimes with better results than I would have obtained.

There are images that need more than Photos. It's not for everyone. But fo those who don't care to spend time mastering the software, it's my preferred solution. I've used Photoshop, Aperture, Pixlemator and a number of others. Photos is both not as powerful and more powerful. It's more capable of quickly and easily creating an acceptable result, with the aid of its AI. But if you need total control of every aspect of the image, then there are better choices.

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Last edited by normhead; 02-08-2023 at 10:18 AM.

[normhead]

Past the operator and design issues, Aperture was dropped for inability to play nice with 64bit SW. Good bad or whatever doesn't really matter, that was what, 8 years ago. We're using a lot of SW now that's potentially susceptible to similar vagaries. That's why you want to keep the orig raw if you ever want to revisit and/or a standard flattened full res file. I'm a bit confused over what you do/don't actually have and what you do need. While you're still young enough, and your favorite devices are still running, I'd figure out how to get them out to a lasting format. That could be accomplished with a reasonably simple scripting solution once you've got the recipe and locations down you can press go and hit the woods, dance floor, or sack, the Retroactive Ap may also be worth looking at depending on you ultimate plans for your catalogue. Odds are the problem/issue won't be getting easier as all parts ages. ;

Personally, I save full size high quality jpegs in another folder reduced size jpegs, in another folder the DNG originals, and in another full size tiffs, most in folder organized year/month/day so I can look them up easily, with a quick look at the exif of the image I want to retrieve. The full size tiffs and jpegs are saved with all the editing changes so I don't lose my edited work. As well I save the Photos libraries, for re-editing if necessary. Like Aperture, if this Photos is no longer supported, I'll keep these computers alive for access. The crappy Aperture to Photos import function which deleted cropped portions of the images so you can't go back and recrop or change your edits is unacceptable. I'm willing to stop upgrading a machine to avoid that trap, currently a 2019- lap top is my Aperture machine.

The only thing I might do different in the future would be a 6T drive to back up the 4T, which is pretty much full to add 2020-2021-and 2022 files that are currently on working drives.

One drive has archival files, there are two working drives that I use for referencing files from the last two years. As well there is a drive that has full size finished tiffs of all images I've posted in the last 2 years, that's permanently plugged into the computer for instant access. My archival drive is plugged into an older computer, that is slow but steady.

My only worry would be fire.I guess I could solve that by putting one of the archival drives over in the Cabin... there's a pretty large parking lot between the house and cabin, so it's unlikely a fire could destroy both.

[JohnMc]

We all have somewhat unique needs/environments/limitations... and possible solutions. The cabin could well be a sorta off site location; do you have it wired for networking? That would make it possibly simpler to be able to plug unit in over there and connect to your other devices, remembering that they should be disconnected when done, or they could suffer from whatever befell the main quarters. But you're making progress, and that's the goal.

[normhead]

We all have somewhat unique needs/environments/limitations... and possible solutions. The cabin could well be a sorta off site location; do you have it wired for networking? That would make it possibly simpler to be able to plug unit in over there and connect to your other devices, remembering that they should be disconnected when done, or they could suffer from whatever befell the main quarters. But you're making progress, and that's the goal.

My buddy when he comes to stay here (sometimes in 30 below, in an uninsulated cabin) gets our wifi in the cabin, and it just got better, a new router with longer range, just before X-mas. However, when no one's visiting it goes down to as much as minus 40 in there. It might not be the best place to run a hard drive. Storing, maybe, running, there could be problems.

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Last edited by normhead; 02-08-2023 at 07:56 PM.

[JohnMc]

My buddy when he comes to stay here (sometimes in 30 below, in an uninsulated cabin) gets our wifi in the cabin, and it just got better, a new router with longer range, just before X-mas. However, when one one's visiting it goes down to as much as minus 40 in there. It might not be the best place to run a hard drive. Storing, maybe, running, there could be problems.

Is that -40C or F? Either way it's a rough visit to the privy

[normhead]

Is that -40C or F? Either way it's a rough visit to the privy

Ours has foam seat, so not as bad as you might think. Some prefer the view...

[cpk]

Is that -40C or F? Either way it's a rough visit to the privy

At that point they are the same.

[JohnMc]

At that point they are the same.

Yes, positively cold! I had to learn those conversions to visit to your neighborhood on a road trip chasing frozen rubber disks around outdoor rinks way back when, a truly chilling experience on many fronts.

[normhead]

Yes, positively cold! I had to learn those conversions to visit to your neighborhood on a road trip chasing frozen rubber disks around outdoor rinks way back when, a truly chilling experience on many fronts.

Chasing rubber disks on our outdoor rink is popular up here. We can hear the pucks hitting the boards, from our bedroom, even though the rink is probably a Km away. But then. we don't have much noise pollution.

[JohnMc]

Did 2 midget tours Sherbrooke, Montreal, Quebec back to Sherbrooke then back south. Y'all used us for target practice! We'd stop and ski Blanc on the way which was a clever ploy to break us even more. Those black things are much louder bouncing off your face mask.

[K(s)evin]

A scenario, if you will. You're feeding a friend's cat on the other side of the city and there's no-one at your house. You've not taken your computer with you because, who does that when feeding a cat? A large "weather" balloon falls out of the sky and flattens your house. This causes some electrical arcing in the wiring and your already damaged house, with everything in it, goes up in flames. What's not destroyed by the fire, is drenched by the firefighters.

Where's your data?

The CCP has already accessed (via said "balloon") and copied it. So you call them.

[Lord Lucan]

My only worry would be fire.I guess I could solve that by putting one of the archival drives over in the Cabin...

I have backups on a second PC at the far end of my sprawling bungalow, which is built of brick. If I had a fire big enough to take out the whole place I'd have far bigger problems than lost data. In any case, the main pictures I would want preserved are things like family ones that are already distributed around the family.