Photo Handling - Mac and PC

AlNipper49

AlNipper49

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So I've keep my 400GB of photos on a server at my house for years.  It's backed up in a few places, both online and locally.
 
I've started converting my kids over to Macs, since that is what they use in school and it would be awesome for them to be able to view these photos.  However the Mac Photo thing is a piece of shit that just wants to import everything rather than giving me the option of also retaining those photos on a file share.
 
Ultimately I'm OK if they import as disk space isn't and issue (either locally or on the server) but if the import is an option I would like for it to happen automatically.  I have too much invested in my server photo structure to give it up at this point, but I guess if push came to shove I could live with it.  
 
I also have a MacBook Air that has space issues if I end up using the full import, but do have a bunch of USB drives that I could use as alternate storage.
 
I am definitely not a Mac person! 
 
Thoughts?
 
crystalline

crystalline

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I use Picasa on the Mac. It can read existing file structures without importing. Its UI is decent, though not mac-like, and it has decent photo editing features.

When I tested iPhoto several years ago I also didn't like it. However there have been changes to Mac photo software in recent OS X releases, 10.10 and soon 10.11. I don't know much about them so reviews from others that have used them would be great. I believe they terminated aperture and merged some features into iPhoto.
 
crystalline

crystalline

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Also, if you're using a SMB/CIFS server, Macs don't always play perfectly with them. I had permission issues when connecting from one Mac to a CIFS server running on another Mac. I'd guess commercial NASs have squashed those sort of bugs. You can deal with issues browsing to find servers and slowish transfer speeds. If the Mac clients will be creating files on the server you may wish to double check owner and perms.
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

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The photos app will allow you to add photos while keeping them in the original server location.

In preferences, uncheck the box that says "Importing: Copy items to the Photos library"
 
AlNipper49

AlNipper49

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crystalline said:
Also, if you're using a SMB/CIFS server, Macs don't always play perfectly with them. I had permission issues when connecting from one Mac to a CIFS server running on another Mac. I'd guess commercial NASs have squashed those sort of bugs. You can deal with issues browsing to find servers and slowish transfer speeds. If the Mac clients will be creating files on the server you may wish to double check owner and perms.
Click to expand...
 
yeah I am using freenas and fortunately I haven't had those issues yet but I do have a bunch of other options of presenting out in ways instead of/in addition to SMB/CIFS.  
 
As Tric can attest to, I've been hit in the nuts with a titanium bat with Macs reading from large SMB shares in the past.
 
AlNipper49

AlNipper49

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swiftaw said:
The photos app will allow you to add photos while keeping them in the original server location.

In preferences, uncheck the box that says "Importing: Copy items to the Photos library"
Click to expand...
 
So if I add photos to that location I can either re-import everything and not get duplicates or it's smart enough to know that stuff is new?  
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

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AlNipper49 said:
 
So if I add photos to that location I can either re-import everything and not get duplicates or it's smart enough to know that stuff is new?  
Click to expand...
I just tried it out (I don't use it either since I have free access to Lightroom), and yes, it knows which photos it has already imported and only identifies the new ones. 
 
Also, any edits they make to the photo aren't saved back to the original file, so the copy of the server remains as is.  
 
Furthermore, if they delete a photo from their Library it doesn't delete the file from the server.  
 
AlNipper49

AlNipper49

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crap, still will not import.  I have 50GB free on this machine and I guess that it needs more than that for metadata on 600GBish of photos and video
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

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AlNipper49 said:
OK that's perfect!

Is it easy to transfer meta data when I inevitably swap machines?
Click to expand...
Yes, the library is a single package that can be copied to a new machine.
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

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AlNipper49 said:
crap, still will not import.  I have 50GB free on this machine and I guess that it needs more than that for metadata on 600GBish of photos and video
Click to expand...
That seems like a lot of metadata.
 
AlNipper49

AlNipper49

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yeah i have no idea.  it took like three hours for it to "import" and it pooped saying it needed 6.76 more GB.  Fuck it, I just installed Picasa and it's working in like 8 seconds.  I historically have not been a fan of it, but whatever.  It's not like I look at pictures every day
 
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