Photos on Mac and Affinity

[Pinfold]

Sorry for the very basic question.  I have a 2018 MacBook Pro with 512k SSD.  I have about 30gb of Photos in my Mac Photos library.  I want to continue to use Photos as it syncs with iCloud Drive, so my pics are available across devices.  I tested Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, and found with both that I had to import my Photos library, effectively doubling the space given on my SSD to pictures (30GB for the Photos Library, and 30 GB for the Lightroom import).  Is this the same with Affinity?  The tutorial only shows how to open a photo as if it was a file, but not if you can open photos that are stored in the Mac default Photo's library.  Will I have to import my pictures from Photos library on the Mac to a duplicate library for Affinity, effectively doubling the amount of storage space I have to make for them, as I did with Lightroom?

 

Hope that wasn't too confusing - this is new to me.  I was hoping to find a good photo editing program that would not require me to import all my photos into a 2nd library, doubling the storage space needed.

 

Thanks for any info.

 

Pinfold

[GarryP]

I don’t use Affinity products on OS X and don’t use iCloud but I think I’m correct in saying that you shouldn’t need to import anything to use your images in Affinity Photo. Also, you should be able to open images from pretty much anywhere on your local machine including, but not limited to, your Photos library. From what I remember about OS X, the Photos library is just a specifically named folder which OS X “knows a bit more about” but it’s nothing special from a user’s point of view.
Downloading the free trial and trying it should get you a definitive answer.

[stokerg]

Hi Pinfold,

GarryP is correct, we don't need to import the whole library.  When you go to File>Open down the left side you have an option for Photos, which will access your Photos library on your Mac.

I'd suggest checking out the 10 day trial from here: https://affinity.serif.com/photo/trial

[Cecil]

This will open a Apple Photo but problems prevent saving changes.  Many threads for months, if not a year on this problem.  If you work with iCloud, Affinity Photo is not a reliable program to date. Sorry, it’s just a fact. Mojave/Catalina, Apple vs. Affinity.  It doesn’t work.  You can open in Affinity Photo and export, just cannot save your edits back to iCloud.

[R C-R]

15 hours ago, GarryP said:

From what I remember about OS X, the Photos library is just a specifically named folder which OS X “knows a bit more about” but it’s nothing special from a user’s point of view.

There is considerably more to it than that. For example, Photos Library.photoslibrary is not a folder; it is what Apple calls a "package," which is a set of folders & files that looks like a single file in Finder views. Among them are folders for masters, resources, database items Photos.app uses to manage library content, & so on.

 

13 hours ago, Cecil said:

This will open a Apple Photo but problems prevent saving changes.

I think @stokerg is referring to the sidebar Media > Photos item, which provides direct access to opening photos in the Photos library. Photos opened this way are not automatically added to the Photos library, nor do they replace the photo in the library, but can be added to it as new items via the File > Share submenu.

[Cecil]

My point was to the OP, I should had used quote.  All Affinity Photo members want is the ability to open Apple Photos, click, double click, open in or open with, no one cares.  Make changes, click save, and their changes can safely spend the night in Apple Photo App.  Is this too much for Apples Photo program of the year? 

 

[R C-R]

35 minutes ago, Cecil said:

All Affinity Photo members want is the ability to open Apple Photos, click, double click, open in or open with, no one cares.  Make changes, click save, and their changes can safely spend the night in Apple Photo App. 

That is definitely not the only option I want.

[Cecil]

10 hours ago, R C-R said:

That is definitely not the only option I want.

I was staying on the thread subject, not eternal life.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Cecil said:

I was staying on the thread subject, not eternal life.

I am trying to stay on topic, but there is quite a bit more to it than just using 'edit in' or 'edit with' from Apple Photos.

For one thing, as discussed at length in this article, there are some non-obvious implications for using either one that the OP might want to know about. In particular, even if 'edit with' was working properly, there are good reasons to avoid it.

For another, the sidebar Media > Photos option works where 'edit with' & 'edit in' won't work or is not appropriate, even if both were working properly, most notably the 5 File menu options in AP for panoramas, stacks, the 2 merges, & batch jobs.

Of course, I assume like everyone else, I too would like to see Edit In Affinity Photo working correctly with any & all versions of the MacOS, but from what the staff have said it remains unclear how to fix it, so it is good to know about alternatives that can be used right now.

[Cecil]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

For another, the sidebar Media > Photos option works where 'edit with' & 'edit in' won't work or is not appropriate, even if both were working properly, most notably the 5 File menu options in AP for panoramas, stacks, the 2 merges, & batch jobs.

Media, the same as Pictures Sidecar Catalina? Pictures, my macOS Catalina just opens Photos Library. 

I think, IMHO, OP was questing if AP was similar to DAM.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Cecil said:

Media, the same as Pictures Sidecar Catalina?

No, it has nothing to do with the new Sidecar feature. The Media item is on the sidebar on the left side of Open dialogs for apps like Affinity Photo that support directly opening photos stored in the Photos library (or in the iPhoto or Photo Booth library if those apps are installed).

[Cecil]

57 minutes ago, R C-R said:

No, it has nothing to do with the new Sidecar feature. The Media item is on the sidebar on the left side of Open dialogs for apps like Affinity Photo that support directly opening photos stored in the Photos library (or in the iPhoto or Photo Booth library if those apps are installed).

Finder, macOS 10.15.1, if we are speaking same sidebar, I have Pictures.  Pictures, if clicked, shows Photos library and Photo Booth.  I have no Media Folder, on my Mac, left sidebar, Finder.  If I click Photos library, the problem(s) Open In/With remain.  Share, from Affinity Photo, is the only way, I know to save AP to Apple’s Photos.  

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Cecil said:

Finder, macOS 10.15.1, if we are speaking same sidebar, I have Pictures.  Pictures, if clicked, shows Photos library and Photo Booth.  I have no Media Folder, on my Mac, left sidebar, Finder.

It is not the Pictures folder & the Media item is not a folder. Try it from the Open menu of Affinity Photo. You may need to scroll all the way down the sidebar, but you should see a "Media" item. If there is nothing indented under it, hover the mouse pointer next to the word "Media" & the word 'Show' should appear. Click that & indented below "Media" should be a camera icon & the word "Photos." Click that.

This is what it looks like in High Sierra. I'm not sure what it looks like in newer OS versions but I am fairly sure this is what @stokerg was talking about in the 3rd post of this topic.

[Cecil]

Yes, from Affinity Photos, Open, Media and Photos and open Photo.  Actually, I can make changes and Save the changes.  The photo is not saved back to Apple's Photos; however, in AP, Open, Recent, and Today I see the Photo saved with afphoto extension.  If correct, these are deleted after 30 days.  On my system, Media is different, after tags.  I don't use them, so I never scrolled down.

 

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Cecil said:

The photo is not saved back to Apple's Photos ...

As I wrote earlier in this discussion:

Quote

Photos opened this way are not automatically added to the Photos library, nor do they replace the photo in the library, but can be added to it as new items via the File > Share submenu.

 

4 minutes ago, Cecil said:

On my system, Media is different, after tags. I don't use them, so I never scrolled down.

Like with other sidebar categories, you should be able to hide the list of tags by hovering the pointer over the word "Tags" until "Hide" appears. Click that & the list will collapse to just the "Tags" title. That will make for less scrolling if you decide to use the Media > Photos feature.

Alternately (assuming it still works the same in 10.15 as in 10.13), you can choose which tags will show in the list in Finder preferences, delete ones you never use, rename exiting ones or assign any of 7 colors to a tag:

There are several uses for tags but the one I find most useful is that they can be used in Finder windows or with open dialogs in the search field as a filter that shows only items with a specific tag, regardless of what folder they are in. So for example, I can quickly locate every file or Folder I have tagged as "Obsolete?" or as "Tilable" (intentionally misspelled to make it unique), or whatever.