Photos absolutely sucks! IS there anything even close to aperture

I tried photos and it's awful. Really Really awful.
Why in god's name did Apple kill off Aperture, I don't know. But I am hesitating upgrading to El Capitan until I figure out what to use for my photos.

Is there anything good that is similar to Aperture? Lightroom? Can lightroom be used without a cloud? I never put photos in the cloud

You're selling Photos "short". Lots of folks have complained at first but with a little practice and learning curve, are now using it instead of iPhoto. As for Aperture it still works and will continue to work for some time. However, it's your choice of course - you can always buy Lightroom or the newer Affinity Photos from Serif. You don't have to use the cloud with any of those programs as that is up to you.

Photos doesn't suck at all, but I can see where people with a bit more tact would say it's a poor substitute for Aperture, and I would agree with them.

The ability of Photos to take Extensions may eventually make a big difference -- I'm currently testing some Macphun Extensions for Photos and man does that kick it up to a whole new level! But until a lot of other PS plug-in companies take advantage of this, you might want to look at alternatives.

As Charlie mentioned, the best one would be ... Aperture itself! It still runs in El Capitan and Yosemite just fine, so it should be a little while (who knows how long) before it finally stops working.

As mentioned, Lightroom is an option, Affinity Photos is an option, ACDSee for Mac is an option. As for why Apple killed it, mostly likely because it catered to too small an audience to justify the development time/effort -- that's usually the reason why something gets discontinued. As I say, you might want to keep an eye on Photos over the next year or so -- there's a 1.2 version in El Cap that puts back some o the things that were missing in v1.0 (like geotagging) and then there's the potential of those Extensions.

curlyimac said:

I tried photos and it's awful. Really Really awful.
Why in god's name did Apple kill off Aperture, I don't know. But I am hesitating upgrading to El Capitan until I figure out what to use for my photos.

Is there anything good that is similar to Aperture? Lightroom? Can lightroom be used without a cloud? I never put photos in the cloud

Click to expand...

Lightroom stores your pictures onto your hard drives into the location of your choice. It also creates a catalog file (the catalog is a description of all the changes/adjustments you do to your photos). LR is a powerful photo organizer and editor that is well suited for enthusiasts and professional photographers. Some experience with Photoshop is helpful but not required to get the most out of the program.

You can set up lightroom to write your photos to a remote 'cloud' storage if you like.

Dan

People need to get over their fear of the cloud. Your images are encrypted in the cloud, whereas your local backup is almost certainly unencrypted ... and the chances of your stuff getting stolen in a burglary are probably MUCH higher than useless encrypted data somehow getting stolen off a cloud service ... unless you have an account full of naked celeb pics that are guarded by a weak password, of course ...

Ha Ha. No naked celeb pics lol.
I just hate keeping my stuff in the cloud. Just not a fan. I keep a duplicate backups off site so I'm protected. I like knowing where my stuff is. I'm in control.

What I don't like about photos is that you can't create an album and import pictures into it. Why must I import and then make an album and then choose the photos I want. Unless I'm missing something, I don't see a way to do it.
I used to love my apple products because everything just worked. I'm now considering buying a PC for my next machine that's how frustrated I am.

Good luck curly with your PC. Photos will do as you say you need a good guide to Photos. Try this and Google more:-


http://www.tdcurran.com/blog/2015/05/07/how-to-enable-advanced-editing-tools-in-photos-for-os-x

Sad to see Aperture go, Photos does sell short of a replacement. Keep in mind you can get Lightroom and Photoshop both for $9.99 a month plus tax with Adobes CC package. I was skeptical at first, but have had no issues and really enjoy having it now. Plus to me its cheaper then buying upgrades each year. That said, if you want a FREE program. There is Darktable. Its still not very smooth on OSX as it is on Linux and its learning curve can feel like a swift kick between the legs. However IMHO it has more potential then Lightroom does. You can get it at Darktable dot org..

Another vote for Darktable. It's pretty decent so far, it does have quite a bit of a learning curve but it's not too bad. The community is extremely active and the development is also just as active. One thing I do not care for, is the interface. It's wicked dark and you're limited by how much you can lighten it. Some folks enjoy the dark UI but I struggle with it during the day time. At night, it's not such a big deal.

If Darktable's learning curve is too much, you might try RawTherapee (http://www.rawtherapee.com/) They are quite active and just like Darktable, it's completely free to use. It does have a bit of a learning curve but it feels more like Aperture or lightroom. The interface is also customizable and you can theme it / arrange the panels to your liking.

LightZone is another pretty decent Aperture alternative. You do have to register on their website to download it, but it's free to use. They aim to be more of a Lightroom alternative than anything. Their focus seems to be geared more toward editing, versus cataloging, but it's still worth giving it a try. ( lightzoneproject.org )

Aftershot Pro (corel) and Phase One's Capture One are two great applications. However, they are not free. Both offer 30-day trials though. Over the two, I prefer Capture One a wee-bit more than Aftershot, but I would say, give both a try.

Hopefully one of these days we'll be graced with an amazing Lightroom alternative. Photos makes an ok iPhoto replacement, but it lacks some features that make it suitable for pro-grade work (IMO). Hopefully someone like Serif will step up and offer an alternative. Their Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer applications are stupendous and they are a step in the right direction for getting away from Adobe. I would love to see Serif come out with an Affinity "library" application. Anyway..

Hopefully some of those work out for you.