Photo software master list

[maflynn]

I think it might be a good idea to see if we can pull together a master list of photo software. Its a wiki thread, so anyone can edit the first post.

I'll start the list going, I think capturing the name, purchase price, upgrade price (or annual cost) along with some comments that describe the software may be beneficial. Please fill in the details or add to the list.

• Aperture: Free. Apple has EOL'd the software but its still being used. Strong editing and DAM capabilties
• Apple Photos: Free. Limited editing, and limited DAM capability. Strong integration with iOS/macOS
• Lightroom CC: Subscription $119+ annually. Market leader, has the most robust DAM capability. Plug-in support
• Lightroom 2016: $149. Adobe has ceased any development or updates/
• Capture one: $299 and $119 for upgrades. Strong editing capability and UI customization, Dam capability
• ACD Systems Photo Studio for Mac 4: $99 dollars and $60 for upgrades.
  
• One1 photo raw: $119. No DAM capability
• Luminar. License: $70. No DAM capability
• Photo Mechanic: $150. Fast browsing, some DAM capabilities. No editing capabilities
• Darktable: Free. DAM, Non-destructive Editing.
• Affinity Photo: $50, Strong photoshop like editor.

 

[MCAsan]

Topaz Studio, from well known Topaz Labs, which free with 10 adjustments, 100% non-destructive, includes raw editor, optional adjustments do cost

Studio had become my main go to for edits and styling that are beyond Lr capabilities. If it had a DAM, it could be a best alternative to Adobe for me.

 

[stillcrazyman]

Graphic Converter - Been around since the 90's at least. Useful browser and editing. I think I paid $40 or so for the recent version.

Lyn - Useful browser, though I found it choked on larger folders of images.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

Darktable, it's free, and it beats Lightroom hands down, in fact, many of Lightroom's inclusions are directly emulated from Darktable, but they are incorporated a considerable amount of time later. Its "lighttable" module is a more than capable DAM for most requirements.

It's the only program I recommend to the participants of my Mindful Photography sessions. From mid year, I'll start holding editing sessions using it at one of the community centres.

 

[r.harris1]

I'll add that Photos is highly extensible - you can get a lot of editing capabilities via extensions and via edit-in for applications that support it. There are definitely limitations to it but it's important to call out. In a way, you can get best of breed noise reduction, local edits, etc, from applications that do it well, such as Pixelmator, Affinity and DxO. My 2 cents.

 

[macuser453787]

Just FYI and FWIW, ON1's website says their Photo RAW 2018.1 has DAM. Here's a screen shot of feature comparisons between their software and others (also from their website).

 

[MCAsan]

Photo RAW misses:

The import does not let you set up rules for how to create folders and subfolders like you can easily do with C1P, Lr, or Photo Mechanic

Photo RAW does not give you fields (ie camera serial number) to use in any file renaming like you can easily do with CiP, Lr, or Photo Mechanic.

Photo RAW does not do m43 lens corrections based on data in the raw files (although that was promised around 2 years ago). Instead they use LensFun which is missing many lenses.

Photo RAW does not have 100% non-destructive processing as Layer and Resize render the image to open it. On1 said around 2 years ago that they planned to redo Layers and Resize.
[doublepost=1520571086][/doublepost]On CiP you can import your files into referenced folders, or into the catalog database (managed library), or have some images referenced and some managed. And there there is the Sessions ability. I am not aware of any other DAM that approaches the C1P DAM feature set.

 

[The Bad Guy]

Exposure x3 by Alien Skin is definitely worth a look.

 

[v3rlon]

ON1 - has DAM capability, but slow browsing, even with SSD.
Luminar - DAM coming in mid 2018 according to their twitter. Lots of good editing. Has brushes and masks. Its "Sunrays" filter will, I suspect, be in all manner of landscape photos like the 21st century lens flare.
Aurora HDR - limited to HDR stuff, from the same people as Luminar.
Pixelmator / Pixelmator Pro - $39/$59 - photo editor like photoshop is an editor, no DAM, but lots of strong tools. Note that the Pro version will not allow purchase/DL on an old Mac, no matter how good a video card you put in it.
Affinity - $49 another Photoshop clone, able to even use some Photoshop plugins - no DAM. It has a built in Frequency separation system and other useful tools easier to use than Photoshop.
Apple Photos - Decent DAM, limited editing out of the box, but can be greatly extended using most of the software on this list.
DXO Photo Lab - okay DAM, excellent lens corrections and minor edits. Like Lightroom, you can uses Brushes and masks. Excellent shadows/highlight recovery. Lots of engineering fiddly bits. Some complain it is more an engineering tool than an artist's.

Anthropics collection (no DAM here, specialized photo editors)
Portrait Professional - This is a photo editor specifically dedicated to portraits. It has skin smoothing, eye brightening, teeth whitening and minor face sculpting. You can even add makeup in post.
Portrait Professional Body - Like Portrait Pro above, but more emphasis on the body and less on the face.
Landscape Professional - Edit landscape photos, relighting, sky place, bring the reflections out in water and so on.

Portrature - similar to Portrait Professional above. I am less familiar with it, but it does the same thing.

If I think of more, I will let you know,.

 

[maflynn]

ON1 - has DAM capability, but slow browsing, even with SSD.

Yeah, it looks like they added that into the app. I tried the application with the DAM, and its a nice feature but I'm not sure its a good fit for my work flow. I'm not complaining because I think the more applications that add will keep the competition moving forward.

 

[MCAsan]

ON1 - has DAM capability, but slow browsing, even with SSD.

Depends on how you define DAM. Photo Raw does not have import features that you can set up to create folders and subfolders as needed. It does not have the ability to rename files on import using meta field names such as camera body serial number. Such things are easily done in Adobe Bridge (free) and Photo Mechanic to name two.

Photo Raw is more a Browser than a full DAM.


Don't forget Adobe CC with Lr Classic, Photoshop and ACR. What can be done in other apps that can not be done in Ps?