Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Looking for a Photo Library/ Organizer/Container alternative to Apple Photos, not an editor.

katbel

katbel

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 19, 2009
3,686
33,513
I've been reading around but all the threads I found there are mixed with editing more than just organizing.
Any experience with some app that doesn't want you to rent its space, but once you buy it, it helps you to organize your photos?
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveTheRave
What kind of organization are you looking for? I use LR, but my file structure is based on the folders in Finder. So my images are still organized outside of LR, albeit with out keywording.

What specifically are you looking for in a program (no, I'm not going to suggest LR to you, because I know it's not a great fit for a lot of people, and I respect that. 🙂) But helpful to know what you want to replicate outside of Photos (which I've never used to be honest).
 
  • Like
Reactions: katbel
A tool I use in broader organization - it doesn’t really do editing - is Photo Mechanic Plus. No renting, it’s a little pricey at the get-go, and honestly a little complex (so patience needed), but I haven’t found a better or faster cataloging and managing system. For the price, you get updates for years. I’d mentioned Capture One in a previous thread and it’s great, but can be a little limiting. I do my ingesting, culling, rating/color tagging, file lay-out, backup, keywording, and cataloging (searchable stuff) in Photo Mechanic. It’s UI is sorta 1990s in some ways.

Obviously, you knew you’d get a lot of opinions asking the question :).
 
  • Like
Reactions: harshar, katbel and Jumpthesnark
I wholeheartedly agree with @r.harris1 on Photo Mechanic. It's user friendly, powerful, fast and it does as much or as little as you want. I run all of my images through Photo Mechanic for editing/batch renaming/batch metadata application, etc. Only after I've used PM do I do my post processing.

But the answer to your question really depends on what you mean by organizing. Photo Mechanic will apply searchable metadata to image files, for example. It helps to move/copy/export files to specific folders that you create. So if you are happy with having your files stored/archived in folders, and doing the work yourself, it's a gem.

But it is not a database. So I'm not sure what you are really looking for in a DAM app.

You can get a free trial version of PM at camerabits.com, and if the price is more than what you want to pay, there's also XnView MP which is almost a copycat of PM.

EDIT for clarification: When I say I use PM for "editing," I'm not talking about changing the appearance of photos, using Instagram filters, etc. I'm a photo editor and I'm using the word in its true sense, the way the word "edit" has been used in photography for years - to select images for publication. Everything I do after that (adjusting color, brightness, cropping, etc.) is post-processing. Over the past few years, people outside of the professional photography world have been misusing the word "edit" to mean changing a photo's appearance. PM doesn't have those tools aside from cropping, and if you go to camerabits.com and read their pages about what PM does, you will see them using the word "edit" in this traditional, accurate sense. Hope that helps!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: katbel and r.harris1
What don't you like about Photos? I've set mine up so the library is on a local hard drive/SSD, not iCloud, and it doesn't cost anything. The only thing I don't like about Photos is, heh, they keep improving it, and I have to re-learn things too often (but, yeah, that's true of everything).
 
I don't know if Darkroom is what you're looking for but google photos is a solid option too
 
I like to keep things simple and also under my control, so I do not ingest my images into any software program. The files on the memory card are copied and go right to the desktop when the card is in the card reader. I use PhotoMechanic when I've got a bunch of images to sort through, it makes the culling process go quickly, but if I've only got a few I just take the images directly into DXO PhotoLab 5 and look through them there and choose what I want to edit. Once edited, images are sent back to the desktop and after that I put them into various folders and after that share them or not, as I choose. Once a week I upload some of my favorite images to my Zenfolio gallery and I also back up the images on external drives. I don't use Photos either on the Mac or on my IOS devices, and so I don't use iCloud for storing any of them.

As for organizing my files, I do that manually and tend to organize by year/month/week and if need be, say if I've shot a lot of a special event, by event name within the date of that event. So as an example, I'd have a hierarchy of year (2022), Month (right now we're in June so I'm putting all images that I shoot this month into a June folder), Week (if I've shot during a given week, which I usually do, then I have a folder for that week, and for simplicity's sake I use the number representing the week of the year (I think now we are in Week 23 of 2022). If I've shot a lot of something special during that week I create a special folder for that event (day's date and title of Visit to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, for instance). Each week I back up everything. Some weeks I shoot a lot, other weeks not so much so.

Yes, image files are duplicated in several places as I'm going along, too, and that works for me. I don't use keywords and such when processing images, although of course that is a great way to organize images, too, so that photos of one's pet or favorite flowers can be quickly found in various folders and categories. I do try to assign meaningful titles to my edited images and that often is enough for me to quickly find something that I remember having shot a few months ago or even a year ago.....

I do all of this manually because being retired and living alone without a lot of responsibilities, I have the time to do so and it just works out comfortably for me. For others with busier lives letting a software program do much of the heavy lifting works better for them.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Joe D33, Snowlover, katbel and 1 other person
I’m curious what you might find as well. I’ve tried others, but Photos is just so easy that I have a hard time not using it. I like how easy it is to share with the family, and how it does much of the recognition and tagging. Whenever I set out to tag and sort, I give up after a couple months of photos, and I have a library that goes back 20+ years at this point.

I think the key to Photos is to not rely on it entirely, but export from it regularly to a backup source with the file structure of your liking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: katbel
I've never used it but I've generally heard good things about Photo Mechanic. You might also want to look at FastRawViewer. Adobe Bridge is free and is well liked by a lot of folks. And there's a Mac specific (I think) viewer/organizer named ApolloOne.
 
kenoh said:
Adobe Bridge is free.
Click to expand...
I just wanted to post the same, as that's what I use.

It's pretty fast, configurable, has decent metadata support, and offers things like ratings and (very important to me) grouping pictures. There are a bunch of bugs, though, and a couple of the options would require you to have a paid Adobe subscription, but for being free it's easy to look past this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: katbel and kenoh
mollyc said:
What kind of organization are you looking for? I use LR, but my file structure is based on the folders in Finder. So my images are still organized outside of LR, albeit with out keywording.

What specifically are you looking for in a program (no, I'm not going to suggest LR to you, because I know it's not a great fit for a lot of people, and I respect that. 🙂) But helpful to know what you want to replicate outside of Photos (which I've never used to be honest).
Click to expand...
This is a structure I would like to have : just in the folders in Finder, so less wasted space.
My original library was 36GB~ the new one in 25GB, 300 photos less that would not fill 10GB
The space is grown in Photos by unnecessary nesting folders with copies of all sizes of my photos .
This is what I would like to avoid.
 
r.harris1 said:
A tool I use in broader organization - it doesn’t really do editing - is Photo Mechanic Plus. No renting, it’s a little pricey at the get-go, and honestly a little complex (so patience needed), but I haven’t found a better or faster cataloging and managing system. For the price, you get updates for years. I’d mentioned Capture One in a previous thread and it’s great, but can be a little limiting. I do my ingesting, culling, rating/color tagging, file lay-out, backup, keywording, and cataloging (searchable stuff) in Photo Mechanic. It’s UI is sorta 1990s in some ways.

Obviously, you knew you’d get a lot of opinions asking the question :).
Click to expand...
Yes, I know 😊 but it's good to have multiple opinion and then find the one that fits what I'm looking for.

kenoh said:
Adobe Bridge is free.
Click to expand...
stillcrazyman said:
Lyn app.
Or ACDSee

I have Lyn as an organizational tool. Not for editing.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'm going to try them

Not Adobe though, same reason I'm not keen in LR. Even if Bridge is free .
I used to love and know Photoshop but then I had to stop. Now every program need a long study before mastering their menus and resources etc.

When I need a photo app I'm using Pixelmator Pro- this is why I tried it in Big Sur : they stop updating it for Mojave, sigh.
Affinity Photo is great too, a little complicated but they have amazing tutorials and Raw Power.

P.s. ACDSee doesn't work in Mojave 😟
 
  • Like
Reactions: r.harris1
cthompson94 said:
I will also vouch for Photo Mechanic, I mainly use it for culling because it loads RAWs very quickly. They do have an education discount (can't remember how much) that I used when I got it.
Click to expand...
Thanks but I don't qualify 🙂
 
To clarify at the outset as with jumpthesnark - when I mention 'editing' I am also referring to the organisation, cataloguing and selection of images.
I have worked in the stock photo library industry for over 25 years. The best software I have used is MediaPro (now owned and subsequently killed off by Phase One - and a ghost of only some of its features lives on in Capture One). The only other alternative I have found that comes close is Photo Mechanic ('PM'). The one big and hugely important aspect is that like MediaPro, PM allows you to work with images direct from their location - external hard-drive, usb stick, local folder...). There is no need to have to ingest images into the software first. You can plug in an external hard-drive containing a folder of 3,000 images, drag that folder into PM and it loads the images then you can colour tag, add star ratings, move, rename, edit metadata etc. then save and it will either reflect those changes and selections in the original file locations or you can copy to another folder.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jumpthesnark and katbel
Slightly different route, and yes, would love to find one that mirrored the way I set up folders on the harddrive...but ultimately have to work around the program developer "grand vision". My workflow is download from camera to first folder, labeled "1" to keep at top. Then create the meaningful location folder that reflects the shoot and cut/paste the raw files from "1" to the new descriptively specific folder. Then launch Lightroom and import that specific folder, keeping the processed in sub folders of that folder. Unfortunately, haven't found any programs that would maintain that organization.

While have used Apple Photos, for obvious reasons I don't have my raw files go there, so it is a manual designation of which photos, other than iPhone and some apps where automatic, I want to have available in Photos. If I need to work on RAW files, I know where they are on the hard drive.

While I have a Synology NAS, all of the apps are free, including Synology Photos. I am in the process of setting it up but looks promising. Unfortunately, I have to start over as got lazy on the drag and drop and grabbed two folders "Books" (illustrations in book I wrote) and "State Parks" (folders with each state park visited and date if multiple visits to same park). It was suppose to filter out duplicates but my duplicates have slightly different names line 800px or 2500px or a straight name if full size. It also had the same frustration I have with Apple Photos - doesn't display file name as you see a string of the same photo, but at least there is a sidebar that can be activated and will give file information. RAW files were obvious as duller than the others, but I don't need them in Photos as it doesn't serve an archive function as that is another program "Active Backup" on the Synology NAS. If I need to work on a RAW file, it is usually at home and I skip the NAS and go directly to the harddrive location. Perhaps load the result to Photos when finished.

Now, about the program. It has 3 headings "Photo" "Albums" and "Sharing". Plus with an app on your phone or other device can reach them wherever you are like iCloud. "Photos" is master everything and organized not like my harddrive system, but chronologically. Here is where it gets interesting, and depending on my sign-in, admin vs personal, will either see everything (admin) or specific albums I gave myself (and others) permission to see. Interestingly, it does create some albums based on features (face ID) or keywords I happen to assign in Lightroom. But as administrator, I can create albums and pull specific photos from the master group "Photos" and assign them to any and multiple Albums I may want to. Sharing is similar to albums but allows more features, similar to Dropbox. If I shoot a house for a Realtor, setup and load a folder with the house photos in "Share" and they can obtain/download the photos essentially from my computer. I don't have to contract out with a third party or set up a FTP protocol transfer on my website (that the ISP won't allow.)

Now the hard work. After deleting the two folders an clearing out Synology Photos to it's just installed state, I then have to go and drag/drop just the photos (entire subfolder, but not master) that I want, then set up the albums which may mimic my harddrive organization. Once setup, should be great.
 
  • Like
Reactions: harshar and katbel
katbel said:
This is a structure I would like to have : just in the folders in Finder, so less wasted space.
My original library was 36GB~ the new one in 25GB, 300 photos less that would not fill 10GB
The space is grown in Photos by unnecessary nesting folders with copies of all sizes of my photos .
This is what I would like to avoid.
Click to expand...
If you used Photos in referenced mode, instead of managed, you would have what you want without going through a lengthy process of weeding through a lot of marginal apps. I'm not a Photos user but I assume the option to run in referenced mode still exists.

A word of caution: It’s easy to find apps that represent themselves as image catalogs. And there’s a reason they remain obscure and relegated to the sidelines. It’s quite easy to waste a lot of time and six months later begin running into limitations that become dealbreakers. I’m not a Photos advocate but a lot of people use it and it appears to meet a lot of photography enthusiasts needs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: katbel
You could also use Luminar from Skylum, but they have a track record IMO of constantly updating their programs which requires purchasing that license (at a discounted rate if you have the older version). The software is more of a editing one, but they do have a catalog type setup, I figured I would mention it.
 
The Luminar products are primarily for quick-and-easy, AI-enhanced editing rather than cataloging/storing one's images. And, yes, they tend to move on to something shiny and new within a year's time or so, meaning that the consumer then needs to decide if they want the new software since updates will no longer be available for the older version(s).
 
  • Like
Reactions: katbel
For strictly "browsing", I have either Lyn or XnViewMP.

The latter can do some basic editing, but very basic and not particularly "Mac-intuitive". And it will modify the originals, unless one is careful to save any modifications "as a copy".
 
I've just converted to "DigiKam" it is free and Open Source and runs on Linux, Windows and Mac. It has functionality a bit like Adobe Lightroom.

The software allows you to import from camera or folders or whatever and it stores the information like geolocation and keywrods inside the file and inside a database. So searching with filters is easy. It also does face recognition so I can apply person name tags to 100,000 photos.

Unlike many others, DigiKam allows the library to live on a network file server. I keep the data on a Synology NAS and then I can access the files from any computer I own. I can work on the notebook and the desktop and do not have to move files.

You can do basic edits and RAW processing too or you can have the software open an image in some different editor.
DigiKam can do basic things with video files too like keyword search, flip horizontal to vertical and such. But it is not a video editor.

It is 100% free and always will be, and they come out with frequent updates. But the big thing is being cross platform so you are not tied to MacOS

https://www.digikam.org/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back