Found a nice DAM to manage photos: LynApp

[oblomow]

There's no commerical interest for me. I found a nice and simple DAM that seems to do the trick for me and that I want to share. It manages photos in a directory ( and subdir ), can handoff to external editors (Affinity, Pixelmator etc) and understands keywords (IPTC, Exif, xml). Have a look at Lyn, if you're just like me don't want to start using Lightroom and are missing a DAM tool.

 

[iDento]

Lyn is good, I prefer Pixave although it's geared toward design and inspiration more than organizing but it's still amazing.

 

[oblomow]

I will give it a try. It's a bit cheaper than Lyn too...
From a quick read I think it's using its own library to store photos. That's not what I want. The ideal DAM uses the normal file structure so that migrating to another tool is easy. It also enables the use of simple queries in Finder and the use of unix-like scripting ( with exiftool for example).

 

[Freida]

What is this DAM thing everyone keeps talking about here?

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

What is this DAM thing everyone keeps talking about here?

DAM = Digital Asset Manager

 

[Freida]

DAM = Digital Asset Manager

So something like Aperture's way of organising photos for you?

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

So something like Aperture's way of organising photos for you?

Absolutely!

 

[Freida]

Absolutely!

i see, thank you.

Although I'm confused why people would be looking for DAM instead of good editor for pics. Shouldn't the editing capabilities be way more important? I don't know

 

[oblomow]

i see, thank you.

Although I'm confused why people would be looking for DAM instead of good editor for pics. Shouldn't the editing capabilities be way more important? I don't know

But some editing software does not include a way to manage photos (Pixelmator, Affinity Photo). So in order to get full Lightroom/Aperture possibilities you need a separate DAM.

 

[stillcrazyman]

I tried to get a trial version of Lyn, but the disk image was corrupt. Three different tries - no joy.

 

[oblomow]

I tried to get a trial version of Lyn, but the disk image was corrupt. Three different tries - no joy.

I would suggest contacting the developer. A new version was released this week because there was a small problem with exiftags of 6D raw images( that I reported, that's why I know about it)

edit: just tried a download. Not very fast, but the diskimage was ok.

 

[Freida]

But some editing software does not include a way to manage photos (Pixelmator, Affinity Photo). So in order to get full Lightroom/Aperture possibilities you need a separate DAM.

I see. Well I guess me purchasing ON1 Raw yesterday solved it

Although I miss Aperture. It stopped working for me in latest macOS ((
It keeps crashing

 

[page3]

Although I'm confused why people would be looking for DAM instead of good editor for pics. Shouldn't the editing capabilities be way more important? I don't know

Because if you can't find your photos there's not point in having them.

 

[Sohappy]

Because if you can't find your photos there's not point in having them.

I'm also a bit confused. I will have my first MacBook Pro in a few days, coming from windows. My photos are organized in folders by year and subject. I will tag my photos in the finder and it seems to me that it will do the job. I don't see the point to use a software for that.

What could a DAM give me I can't do with the finder ?

 

[thingstoponder]

I'm also a bit confused. I will have my first MacBook Pro in a few days, coming from windows. My photos are organized in folders by year and subject. I will tag my photos in the finder and it seems to me that it will do the job. I don't see the point to use a software for that.

What could a DAM give me I can't do with the finder ?

It really just depends on your specific wants and needs. If you're fine with the way you have it then you probably don't need to worry about it.

 

[Cheese&Apple]

I'm also a bit confused. I will have my first MacBook Pro in a few days, coming from windows. My photos are organized in folders by year and subject. I will tag my photos in the finder and it seems to me that it will do the job. I don't see the point to use a software for that.

What could a DAM give me I can't do with the finder ?

It's really about convenience. An application such as Lightroom allows you to import, cull, rate, sort, catalogue, view and edit within one workspace.

You can try one of these applications as most offer a free 30 day trial period. But, a lot of people manage their photos the way you do and if it's working for you, you may want to stick with it.

~ Peter

 

[Sohappy]

Thank you both for your reply

 

[stillcrazyman]

I went ahead and paid for the app (Lyn). After letting it sort through all 22000 photos, it's fairly swift and easy to do what I need it to do. Sort, view and move photos.

 

[maflynn]

What could a DAM give me I can't do with the finder ?

Adding keywords, ratings flags and color labels. Once you set the metadata to what you want, then you can easily create smart collections based on those settings and/or just filter out to what you only want to see.

This may not be something that is important to you, but for my usage, I like setting these so I can have different collections based on need.

edit: I'm referencing Lightroom's capabilities, regarding those settings and abilities, I have no idea if lynapp can do that or not. I'm going to be looking into this app when I have time.

 

[Sohappy]

Adding keywords, ratings flags and color labels. Once you set the metadata to what you want, then you can easily create smart collections based on those settings and/or just filter out to what you only want to see.

This may not be something that is important to you, but for my usage, I like setting these so I can have different collections based on need.

edit: I'm referencing Lightroom's capabilities, regarding those settings and abilities, I have no idea if lynapp can do that or not. I'm going to be looking into this app when I have time.

Ok but I can add labels and colors and create smart collections in the Finder I think (I saw that in tutorials as I don't have any mac yet).

Delivery date tomorrow. First app I'll buy will be affinity Photo. And then, FCP X. I think I'd like motion 5 too. I'm ready to learn all that and I must admit I'm quite excited !

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Ok but I can add labels and colors and create smart collections in the Finder I think (I saw that in tutorials as I don't have any mac yet).

Delivery date tomorrow. First app I'll buy will be affinity Photo. And then, FCP X. I think I'd like motion 5 too. I'm ready to learn all that and I must admit I'm quite excited !

Fairly limited though, yes you can do some but it just doesn't offer the flexibility of a proper DAM to quickly ask the question like show me all photos of my daughter between ages 4 and 6 where she is in school. I think you can with some apple script but then you'll have to change it for the next question. Likewise if you want to do it on exif based. And then there is stacking of series of photos and pick your best. And so on ...

 

[maflynn]

Ok but I can add labels and colors and create smart collections in the Finder I think (I saw that in tutorials as I don't have any mac yet).

Not to the extent I prefer to filter and organize my images.

I find LR provides a tool that allows me to have a collection of images from a specific date range, keyboards or color lable.

True OS X has some of that, but I don't find Spotlight to to be that helpful.

 

[Sohappy]

Not to the extent I prefer to filter and organize my images.

I find LR provides a tool that allows me to have a collection of images from a specific date range, keyboards or color lable.

True OS X has some of that, but I don't find Spotlight to to be that helpful.

Thanks to all of you. I received my MacBook Pro, and I can see now that the finder doesn't give me all I wanted. I'll take my time to see what is best for my needs. For the time being, I created a second library in Photo which is not synced and where my files are only referenced and not copied. I'll see if it works for me.