How can I help with Apple, Photos, iCloud and photography?
Frustration by Peter Alfred Hess/Flickr,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterhess/
In theory it’s simple. Any image (including video) you capture on any device should automatically be uploaded and made available across all your other devices using iCloud (assuming you have sufficient storage space). Not only does this mean everything is available to you everywhere, but it also means you should never lose a single image.
Not only this but the built in editing tools of Photos on Mac and iOS mean you should be able to create fantastic images on any Apple platform, sharing these wherever you like.
These are promises I can buy into, but even though I live and breathe this stuff I still find it a little challenging — I’m not certain that’s a crisis of belief, or a crisis caused by a degree of technology confusion, but I don’t find the experience as seamless as described.
Not only do some images never seem to proliferate, but proliferation seems less than instantaneous in some cases, and the options to control it all leave me a little confused.
That’s great business for me — I’m already working on books and stories to help guide people through the various confusions, but I can’t help but feel that if I, a relatively experienced Apple user, if I am finding the experience not seamless enough, then how is it for less experienced users?
So, I’m really interested in people’s comments on iPhoto on both OS X and iOS. I don’t just want the criticisms, and I don’t just want the tips (though I want both of those too), I’m asking anyone who chances across this blog, when it comes to Photos on Apple’s platforms:
- What works?
- What doesn’t work?
- What do you love? What do you loathe?
- What needs improving? And how would you improve it, if you could?
- What do you find most confusing when navigating Photos (and iCloud)?
- What could I write about that would help you have a better experience?
I’m keen to deliver my readers information they can use (not just opinions), so please, if you have anything you wish to share on this matter, do let me know — either in Comments here (sorry for the delay I have to moderate them because the Internet’s gone weird) or with a quick Twitter message (@jonnyevans_cw).
I look forward to hearing from you.
Jonny,
First off, when I attempt to eMail you I can’t be sure if I’ve found your eMail address. When clicking on the options, eMail is one of them and what I use to communicate. But your eMail address is not included in the new eMail window. When I click on Mail or Gmail, I get a link in the text box of the eMail, but no Jonny Evans eMail address to send it to.
I’ll try leaving this communication in your comments section.
I’ve been using iPhoto since the beginning. I have often found it completely confounding and confusing when Apple changes iPhoto or Photos – for the sake of change. A new version, new button layout, new features or the elimination of features.
The biggest grip of mine is the cropping tool in Photos. There was a version of iPhoto that allowed me to just click and select a rectangle of any size of my choosing. Once created, I could move the entire rectangle around to make it perfect. The select done and voila! Done! Now this was in iPhoto probably five or six years ago. Cropping has been fiddled with many times since then, but NEVER as good as that version way back.
But in PHOTOS – it is so frustrating. When I choose to crop, not only can I NOT create a rectangular selection of my choosing, no it is even worse. I start by reducing unwanted portions – say I lower the top portion of the photo. When I release the mouse where I want the top of the photo to be, I then move to say the right side of the photo. And just as I’m ready to grab that cropping bar, the entire photo gets resized – automatically by Photos. So just as I am locating that cropping bar with my mouse, the whole picture changes and my mouse has to move again to the newest location where I want to continue cropping. It is so frustrating. WHO THINKS THIS STUFF UP???
But what are my choices? Learn some new software package?
And I’d be happy to scream some more about Photos if it would help.
Frustrated with change, for the sake of change, And stupid stuff,
Peter
[email protected]
The most confusing thing for me is the Photos, Shared, Albums and Projects, and the associated controls. They don’t seem to make any kind of cohesive architecture…