Photo management software

Posted by: EJS on 13 May 2016

For the photo enthusiasts among us: which photo management software do you use? I have been using Aperture since v1, but the software hasn't been supported by Apple for a while now and I am concerned that at some point in the near future, it won't run or new cameras aren't supported anymore. I haven't found a good alternative: Photos is not sophisticated enough to easily manage a large catalogue; I don't like Lightroom's interface or Adobe's move to subscription-based licensing; Capture One 9 is OK, but still prone to crashing and at EUR 300 a bit much. Are you aware of alternatives, or perhaps Photos plug-ins I could be looking at?

Cheers,

Posted on: 13 May 2016 by Erich

I use the nikon software for simple things and for more sophisticated ones photoshop. I have to recognize that each time I use PS I have to battle hard with so many options and pallets.

Regards. Erich

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by Derek Wright

I have moved from using Aperture to using Lightroom, it look a long time to get convinced by Lightroom, but a combination of some tutorial videos, a good set of presets and learning how to do the partial image presets I am now using Lightroom, in fact I loaded quite a few images into Lightroom that I already had in Aperture so that I could tart them up for printing in a book.

Erich - the key element in the subject heading is Management - ie the storing, describing accessibility of the files - or Digital Asset Management. Photoshop does do do DAM, I would expect the Nikon software to be a photo editing program rather than a DAM program.

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by Stephanie Gelder

We have photoshop and Lightroom. Pay 8.80 or around that price monthly to have the adobe cloud version, so get it updated to the latest and grateeat/worse version depending on the updates :-)

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by Bert Schurink

There are some low cost versions of Photomanagement software, but I think the Adobe suite can't be neglected. I would only avoid it when you are too occasional in your photo hobby and the learning curve might then be too much. Otherwise Adobe is king.

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by Bert Schurink

Bert Schurink posted:
There are some low cost versions of Photomanagement software, but I think the Adobe suite can't be neglected. I would only avoid it when you are too occasional in your photo hobby and the learning curve might then be too much. Otherwise Adobe is king.

Sorry missed out on suggestion Google Picasa, Daminion, ACDSee, Photodirector...

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by tonym

I've been using Lightroom for a fair while, but I do resent this monthly fee business. I'm using Lightroom 5 and so far I can't see the advantage in going for the later version. I use Photoshop Elements, which does all I could possibly want for the sort of photo editing I do.

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by EJS

Thanks for all the responses, much appreciated. Adobe's made it clear that their future is subscription based, so Lightroom's out. For Apple-users in a similar predicament, please note that Capture One 9 has 'borrowed' the DAM interface and functionality from Aperture with the keyword controls from Photos and is really slick now in that area.

Cheers

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by Kevin-W

I'm a fan of Lightroom as well, it's easy to use and works very well with Mac OSX. I've got Photoshop Elements as well, for more complex stuff, but I'm not keen on the workflow/management.

For those complaining about monthly subs and the like - I think this is the way software is going. The era of buying a box with a disc, or downloading a program for a one-off payment, looks to be coming to an end. Subscription-based services are the way software houses are going, so I think we are going to have to get used to it. [This is why I'm still on MS Office 2011 and Lightroom 3! ]

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by dayjay

Stephanie Gelder posted:
We have photoshop and Lightroom. Pay 8.80 or around that price monthly to have the adobe cloud version, so get it updated to the latest and grateeat/worse version depending on the updates :-)

I finally subscribed last week following a wedding shoot and my laptop packing up. I don't have a problem subscribing but I am having a problem with Lightroom which keeps freezing, photoshop works perfectly

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by winkyincanada

Lightroom for me. Takes some getting used to. The instructional videos are invaluable, particularly for streamlining workflow. I have an older version of PS that I go to if I really need to.

Posted on: 14 May 2016 by Erich

Derek Wright posted:
I have moved from using Aperture to using Lightroom, it look a long time to get convinced by Lightroom, but a combination of some tutorial videos, a good set of presets and learning how to do the partial image presets I am now using Lightroom, in fact I loaded quite a few images into Lightroom that I already had in Aperture so that I could tart them up for printing in a book.
Erich - the key element in the subject heading is Management - ie the storing, describing accessibility of the files - or Digital Asset Management. Photoshop does do do DAM, I would expect the Nikon software to be a photo editing program rather than a DAM program.

You are right I didn't realize.

Posted on: 15 May 2016 by EJS

Fooling around with Photos last night; what struck me is that its raw conversions don't seem half bad but early days - not sure how lenses are profiled for instance. On the asset management side, it's interface is simplified to the point of causing extra work but amongst all programs I know, this is the only one that simply lets you filter for any photos that aren't in a map, and sweep up any 'lost' photos. Nested projects/folders aren't natively supported but if you had them in Aperture, they're still there in Photos. Within the container file, pictures are logically ordered by date, which can also be useful in case you need access to the master file. Definitely more to it than meets the eye.