MacBook - how to import from SC card & import to LR?

[Seedeich]

I just got my first Mac, a Macbook Pro.

Coming from Windows I need some help.

When importing RAW files from a SD card, the Photo app opens, I select the files and import.

When trying to import the files into Lightroom I can’t find them. I can’t find them in Finder either. As far as I’ve found out researching the net this is “normal” behavior. But completely unusable.

What I want to do is create a folder and name it with the date in a picture library.

Open the SD card and copy the images into the folder.

Open Lightroom’s Import option, find that folder and import the images to LR.

I don’t want to auto import the images into Photo, I don’t want them to be hidden in Finder and I don’t want them to be in iCloud.

Any help is much appreciated.

PS. I am pretty experienced with Windows and Lightroom, but Mac is new territory for me.

 

[Dave Braun]

Don't use Photos use Image Capture. I'm afraid Photos will open up every time and you will have to quit it. There is an option in there that can stop it opening but if you Format your card it will open again. Also there is a clever command that can be entered to permanently stop this that has been posted recently on DPR but not sure as a beginner if you would want to do that although it worked well for me. I'm sure someone here will be able to post the link.

 

[noirdesir]

I just got my first Mac, a Macbook Pro.

Coming from Windows I need some help.

When importing RAW files from a SD card, the Photo app opens, I select the files and import.

When trying to import the files into Lightroom I can’t find them.

Photos is an image cataloguing and parametric editor similar to Lightroom itself. With a twist called managed library, think of a managed library like an email client. You'd access emails only through the email client with the actual text files representing the emails being stored somewhere inside the bowls of the computer.

For most people there probably is little point in using two image library applications. So just forget Photos and use Lightroom to import your images into your computer (which I guess is what you did under Windows). For your sanity, you'd want to stop Photos from automatically open whenever you insert an SD card into your computer. The official way to this is to uncheck the checkbox 'Open Photos for this device' at the top left in Photos which shows up when a card is connected (see below).



That setting is card/camera-specific, so you'll have to do this for all your cards/cameras. There is a design flaw, however, in the latest version of OS X (10.11 El Capitan), in that if you format a card in a camera, it is seen a new card and you'd have to uncheck that box again. This can get old quickly if you have the habit of formatting your SD cards every time after importing the images on it into your computer.

The solution to this is to disable this auto-launch feature on a lower level. To do so you need to launch the Terminal app and type (or better copy & paste) the command below, followed by hitting enter:

defaults -currentHost write com.apple.ImageCapture disableHotPlug -bool true

***

Now, for the images already imported into Photos, you might just delete them from Photos (or delete the whole Photos library) and re-import the images with Lightroom. Or you can select all images inside Photos and go to File > Export > Export Unmodified Originals.

I can’t find them in Finder either. As far as I’ve found out researching the net this is “normal” behavior. But completely unusable.

I don’t want to auto import the images into Photo,

There is no auto import, only auto-launching of Photos (how to shut that off, I've described above).

I don’t want them to be hidden in Finder

The technical term of this is that you don't like managed libraries but want referenced libraries instead (a Lightroom library is always a referenced library).

and I don’t want them to be in iCloud.

That is an option inside Photos for images stored inside the (managed) Photos library. It probably is on by default. If you don't use Photos, there is no iCloud to worry about (in regard to images).

BTW, Image Capture, recommended by Dave is an application that preceded the existence of Lightroom (or even iPhoto, Photos' predecessor, it goes back to 1999). If you use Lightroom, there is zero need to use it, Lightroom includes all its functionality.

 

[Tom_N]

For most people there probably is little point in using two image library applications. So just forget Photos and use Lightroom to import your images into your computer (which I guess is what you did under Windows). For your sanity, you'd want to stop Photos from automatically open whenever you insert an SD card into your computer. The official way to this is to uncheck the checkbox 'Open Photos for this device' at the top left in Photos which shows up when a card is connected (see below).

I believe that once upon a time the control for what to do when a volume containing photos was inserted was located in a neutral place, like in a System Preferences pane, or in an earlier version of the Image Capture application.

It's not clear to me why Apple changed that. Some user interface changes are for the better, but this one?!?

 

[Seedeich]

Thanks a lot, guys, for your helpful answers. Quite clear that it’s best to avoid Photos when importing.

After some research I succeeded to make the Picture location in Finder visible. It was hidden by default.

Now I can do like in Windows Explorer - create a new folder, open the SD card in a second Finder window and drag the files into the new folder.

Next step is to find an image viewer like FastStone to cull the images before importing to LR.

LR was running a bit slow on my old PC, so I tried to limit its use. It’s much faster on the Mac, so maybe….

NIK software is also running nice and fast.

Things go definitely the right way.

 

[noirdesir]

Thanks a lot, guys, for your helpful answers. Quite clear that it’s best to avoid Photos when importing.

I think that statement can be split into two parts: It's best to avoid importing something into a library application you don't intend to use and it's even more counterproductive to import something into a managed library you don't intend to use. To give another example: It's best to avoid Capture One when importing images into your computer if you don't intend to use Capture One.

After some research I succeeded to make the Picture location in Finder visible. It was hidden by default.

I am not sure what you mean with this. Did you make mounted volumes (which includes memory cards) show up on the Desktop? Technically that wouldn't make them visible in the Finder as they always should have shown up in the Finder sidebar.

 

[Gesture]

Adobe Bridge CC is free if you register with Adobe. However, Lightroom can do what you want: look at everything and only Import what you want to.

 

[noirdesir]

I believe that once upon a time the control for what to do when a volume containing photos was inserted was located in a neutral place, like in a System Preferences pane, or in an earlier version of the Image Capture application.

Up until Yosemite, there were two levers to control what happened when you mounted a memory card (or connected a camera). One was a global control that set what application would launch (incl. no application) and a card/camera-specific one. Changing the global control would override/reset the card-specific ones, meaning a card-specific one would stick until you changed the global one.

The card-specific control was set inside Image Capture (an app going back to at least 1999). The global setting could be accessed from the preferences inside iPhoto or Aperture. There also were third-party preference panes (RCDefault) that allowed you to change this global setting without using iPhoto or Aperture.

(With one interesting difference between iPhoto and Aperture: in both applications you had a dropdown menu with a list of applications to choose from but only in Aperture did this menu include an 'Other' option. This meant that in a stock install of Yosemite or any earlier OS version, which did not include Aperture, that menu contained only one entry: iPhoto. Once you had Aperture installed, you could then, via the Other entry, select, eg, Lightroom and after you had done so, Lightroom would show up in the list inside iPhoto as well. It is possible, however, that the first time a memory card was connected while Lightroom was running, LR prompted you to set this global setting to LR. Alternatively, you could also use RCDefault to 'add' LR to that list.)

The actual settings were/are stored in a preference file (com.apple.ImageCapture2{random string}.plist) in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/. This pref file also includes the list of apps showing up in the dropdown menu in iPhoto and Aperture (more details here).

It's not clear to me why Apple changed that. Some user interface changes are for the better, but this one?!?

What changed with El Capitan (and Photos) is that:

1. Photos (ie, the successor to iPhoto) now sets the card-specific preference instead (while iPhoto set the global preference), and Image Capture also keeps controlling the card-specific setting.
2. Unless you already had it, there is no iPhoto or Aperture anymore, meaning there is no UI anymore to change that global setting on a stock system.
3. Even if you kept iPhoto or Aperture (or used the third-party RCDefault) or went as far and edited that pref file manually, the OS now ignores the global setting (and changing the global setting doesn't reset the card-specific settings).

All that wouldn't be such a big deal if the card-specific setting would stick. However, many people report that formatting a memory card in-camera results in the OS overriding the previously-set card-specific setting resulting in a reset to the default behaviour: launching Photos. Note that the above-mentioned pref file still has some function, changing the card-specific setting (in Photos or Image Capture) still changes the entry for that card in the pref file.

 

[Selene]

Thank you! I am in the same situation, and your explanation is very clear. The best I've read so far.

 

[noirdesir]

I must be doing something wrong ( ;-)) in that if I uncheck that box in Photos, then format my memory card in-camera, Photos does not revert to auto-launching. I'd be really curious what happens to the card-specific setting inside the preference file mentioned in my previous post, for people who have that problem of Photos reverting to launching automatically after formatting their card in-camera.

(a) Do you see the string indicating which application should launch change when you check or uncheck that box in Photos (for me it changes to '/Applications/Photos.app' when checking the box and back to nothing when unchecking the box).

(b) What changes in that preference file after formatting the card in-camera?
(1) Does it change back to Photos?
(2) Does Photos launch despite the string staying empty?
(3) Does your card get another 36-alphanumeric string after formatting?

Here is the relevant part of the preference file (viewed by Xcode):

 

[Seedeich]

For now I’m happy that things work but I will report back when I find out new interesting things.

I found the “Picture” folder after making it visible in Finder - Preferences - Sidebar.

Now I drag my images to new folders, that I create in the Picture folder.

In that Picture folder was also the System Photo Library, which I wisely (?) deleted.
When I insert a SD card, only a small dialog box pops up complaining about that Photos cannot find the System Photo Library. Just quit it. No big annoyance.

I haven’t changed anything in Photo preferences.

Photo might even become one of the many apps I have thrown off the Dock. It gets pretty spacious down there.

PS. removed Photos from Dock. The small pop-up still appears and needs a click on Quit.

 

[noirdesir]

For now I’m happy that things work but I will report back when I find out new interesting things.

I found the “Picture” folder after making it visible in Finder - Preferences - Sidebar.

The technical term would be you added the Pictures folder to the sidebar (which can be seen as list of bookmarks/shortcuts), which makes accessing it easier and faster. The Pictures folder is always visible in the Finder as one of the folders in your Home folder.

The general, default folder structure on OS X starts at the top level of the (boot) drive:

• System
• Library
• Applications
• Users
  * YourUserName (your home folder)
  - Desktop
  - Library
  - Documents
  - Pictures
  - Music
  - Movies
  - Downloads
  - Applications
  - Public
  - Sites

Of he folders inside your home folder, some have a special purpose, others are just default locations for certain data. The Desktop folder needs no explanation, the Library folder is by default hidden and contains settings files but also a lot of 'internal' data of application, including your actual emails. The Documents folder is where a number of other applications put user-related data (eg, any templates you create in MS Office).

The Pictures, Music, and Movies folders are simply the default folders for the bundled photo (ie, Photos), music (ie, iTunes), and movie (ie, iMovie) applications to store their respective libraries. But you can move the libraries (or create new ones) anywhere you want within your home folder. The Download and Applications folder again are only default locations that can be changed (for files downloaded by web browsers and applications installed only for one user). The Public and Sites folders have special permissions to a allow other users on the computer or even the whole world (for websites 'hosted' inside the Sites folder) to access.

It general is a good idea to not put any data you chose the location for into folders that contain data generated by other applications or the OS itself. This reduces the risk that you modify, move or delete data created by other processes. That includes the Library and Documents folder (though some consider the Documents folder the location for all data you directly create). Most people probably store all their data in custom folders inside the home folder or on the Desktop, though most probably use the Pictures, Music, and Movies folder for those type of files since they are there anyway and cannot be deleted.

Now I drag my images to new folders, that I create in the Picture folder.

In that Picture folder was also the System Photo Library, which I wisely (?) deleted.

It contained the images you had originally imported into Photos. If you have secured those images, you can delete the library. You can at any time create a new library if you wanted to use Photos for something (while you can have multiple Photos libraries, only one can be synched with iCloud, the 'System Photo Library' and I don't know by heart how you assign that status to a given library).

When I insert a SD card, only a small dialog box pops up complaining about that Photos cannot find the System Photo Library. Just quit it. No big annoyance.

If you applied the Terminal command or unchecked that box inside Photos, nothing should be happening anymore when you insert a memory card (unless the lack of a system photo library is triggering this, personally I'd keep a system photo library around, when it's empty it should take up almost no space and it might avoid such dialog boxes, you cannot 'open' Photos without having a library or creating one as part of the launch process, and without Photos, you cannot uncheck that checkbox inside Photos).

I haven’t changed anything in Photo preferences.

But have you unchecked that box in Photos (not sure if you consider it to be part of the preferences)?

Photo might even become one of the many apps I have thrown off the Dock. It gets pretty spacious down there.

PS. removed Photos from Dock. The small pop-up still appears and needs a click on Quit.

Except for the Finder (anchored at the very left) and the Trash (anchored at the very right), you can remove any application from the Dock. The only thing this does is to remove the ability to launch the application via the Dock.

 

[UncaMikey]

I must be doing something wrong ( ;-)) in that if I uncheck that box in Photos, then format my memory card in-camera, Photos does not revert to auto-launching. I'd be really curious what happens to the card-specific setting inside the preference file mentioned in my previous post, for people who have that problem of Photos reverting to launching automatically after formatting their card in-camera.

I struggled with this problem after getting a new iMac a month ago and after much testing discovered that this Photos behavior is somewhat dependent upon the type of camera. When I format a SD card in one of my Canon cameras, Photos sees it as a new device and launches. If I format the SD card in my Fujifilm X30, Photos does not auto-launch, meaning that the OS recognizes the card as a known device.

I'm sure this has something to do with how each camera maker's internal system formats cards.

 

[noirdesir]

I must be doing something wrong ( ;-)) in that if I uncheck that box in Photos, then format my memory card in-camera, Photos does not revert to auto-launching. I'd be really curious what happens to the card-specific setting inside the preference file mentioned in my previous post, for people who have that problem of Photos reverting to launching automatically after formatting their card in-camera.

I struggled with this problem after getting a new iMac a month ago and after much testing discovered that this Photos behavior is somewhat dependent upon the type of camera. When I format a SD card in one of my Canon cameras, Photos sees it as a new device and launches. If I format the SD card in my Fujifilm X30, Photos does not auto-launch, meaning that the OS recognizes the card as a known device.
I'm sure this has something to do with how each camera maker's internal system formats cards.

I suspected as much (and forgot to add that I tested this with an Olympus E-M5, a Nikon D800 and a Sony RX100). Adding Fuji to that list, only Canon cameras behave in a way that results in undesired behaviour (still leaving Pentax and Panasonic among the major camera makers as unknown here). Though, there easily could be difference from model to model for a given brand.

Testing this a bit further, the 36-digit alpha-numeric key in the preference file I mentioned above is in my testing linked to the card reader and not the card or camera (of course, if directly connect your camera via USB, the camera is the card reader and thus things are camera-specific as well). Three different SD cards from three different cameras all resulted in the same 36-digit key in the pref file that got a changed entry when checking or unchecking that box in Photos. (I have, however, only tried the mass-storage mode, not the PTP mode.)

Mikey, could you have a look what changes in that pref file when you format the card in-camera? Does the 36-digit key change? Does the entry belonging to that key change? Does Photos open despite the entry for that key being empty?

(To figure out which key belongs to your camera/card reader, open the pref file and open Photos at the same time while the card/camera is mounted. When you check or uncheck that box in Photos, the string '/Applications/Photos.app' should appear (or disappear) next to one 36-digit key.)

 

[nopix]

Look at Lyn as an image viewer similar to Faststone.

 

[Seedeich]

The folder structure is quite like in Windows.

What baffled me was that only a few “Favorites” were visible by default. No Home folder, Pictures, Music. Movies etc.

The funny thing is that I could see everything when opening the Import dialog in Lightroom.

Well, I begin to find my way around in Mac land.

My external hard drives, that I used on Windows, also run on the Mac.

I haven’t unchecked anything in Photos. But I have fished the System Photo Library out of the trash. It’s almost 500 Mb - how can I empty that file? I can’t see any images in Photos, that I can delete.

Sorry that I don’t have much time for testing. My priority is to get that thing working smoothly and get some work done.

 

[Seedeich]

Look at Lyn as an image viewer similar to Faststone.

Thanks for that tip. Saw that before here on DPR, possibly in a post from you.

Have installed Lyn - looks good so far.

 

[UncaMikey]

Mikey, could you have a look what changes in that pref file when you format the card in-camera? Does the 36-digit key change? Does the entry belonging to that key change? Does Photos open despite the entry for that key being empty?

(To figure out which key belongs to your camera/card reader, open the pref file and open Photos at the same time while the card/camera is mounted. When you check or uncheck that box in Photos, the string '/Applications/Photos.app' should appear (or disappear) next to one 36-digit key.)

I did some testing and it is all inconclusive. Sometimes reformatting a card in a Canon S95 triggered Photos, but more often it seemed to remember Image Capture (which is my preferred app for importing photos). The same card was recognized with a different key when reinserted, sometimes not.

I think I give up now, too much reformatting and reinserting with different cards and cameras. This is all so silly, under the older versions of the OS one could check a global pref in iPhoto to use Image Capture for all memory cards, as I did, and be done with it. I think Apple is aware of this issue, perhaps they will fix it.

 

[noirdesir]

What baffled me was that only a few “Favorites” were visible by default. No Home folder, Pictures, Music. Movies etc.

I personally only have the Desktop, system-level Applications, and my home folder (from the list of default folders) in the sidebar. If I need to go to the Pictures, Music or Movies folder, I go to the home folder and open them from there. Instead I have three user-created folders in the sidebar (which aren't top-level folders in my home folder, it's exactly the deeper folders that profit from having a shortcut).

There are exist keyboard shortcuts in the Finder for three main folders, which I use quite frequently:

• cmd-shift H opens the home folder
• cmd-shift D opens the Desktop folder
• cmd-shift A opens the system-level Applications folder

I haven’t unchecked anything in Photos.

Unchecking that box at the top left (when a memory card is connected) saves you from the dialogue box (or Photos itself) coming up every time you insert a card.

But I have fished the System Photo Library out of the trash. It’s almost 500 Mb - how can I empty that file? I can’t see any images in Photos, that I can delete.

Simply open the library, select all images and delete them. Then go to Albums (in the top toolbar), open the 'Recently Deleted' album (a sort of internal trash) and hit the Delete All button at the top right. Photos will remove deleted images after about 30 days on its own, but if you want to reclaim the space right away, that is the procedure to do so.

 

[noirdesir]

Mikey, could you have a look what changes in that pref file when you format the card in-camera? Does the 36-digit key change? Does the entry belonging to that key change? Does Photos open despite the entry for that key being empty?

(To figure out which key belongs to your camera/card reader, open the pref file and open Photos at the same time while the card/camera is mounted. When you check or uncheck that box in Photos, the string '/Applications/Photos.app' should appear (or disappear) next to one 36-digit key.)

I did some testing and it is all inconclusive. Sometimes reformatting a card in a Canon S95 triggered Photos, but more often it seemed to remember Image Capture (which is my preferred app for importing photos). The same card was recognized with a different key when reinserted, sometimes not.

Thanks for the testing. What might help our further understanding is to know what this key actually means or how it is generated.