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What photo management app to use?

ppc_michael

ppc_michael

Guest
Original poster
Apr 26, 2005
1,498
2
Los Angeles, CA
I'm new to the dSLR-ness (you guys helped me pick out my camera :D), and I'm wondering what photo management app you would recommend? (iPhoto/Aperture/Lightroom/etc)

I just really want something that I can dump all my RAW files to from my camera. I don't really want any editing capabilities; I'd just like to be able to easily open it in Photoshop to do some editing, keeping EXIF data intact the entire time.

I guess iPhoto is the best, since it's free. I just feel like it "hides" the original photos, and I'm afraid I'll click some "enhancement" tool in there and overwrite the original file or something.

What do you guys like?
 
Lightroom integrates nicely into Photoshop for more advanced editing. It has a lot of basic editing functionality buitl right into it. Its also very intuitive to use (more so than Aperture in my opinion). Downside is that it doesn't integrate into the rest of the mac as well as iPhoto and Aperture do. I recommend you try both.

Another option is to just download a simple freeware photoviewer (similar to what Windows has) and use PS for all your editing. Do a search here in the forums or on macupdate/versiontracker. You'll find some pretty decent apps.
 
On the editing side, even Adobe PS Elements is way more than most people need. Photoshop CS3 is really overkill for 99% of photographers.
 
netdog said:
On the editing side, even Adobe PS Elements is way more than most people need. Photoshop CS3 is really overkill for 99% of photographers.
Click to expand...

Is Adobe even continuing with the development of PS Elements into a Univ. Binary version? That what create 3 versions of PS. (4 actually if you include Lightroom.) Seems a bit over the top.
 
I use Lightroom for various reasons the biggest was because it would work on my G4 whereas aperture would not. So i gave it a try, loved it, bought it, use it, and recommend it. I tried out the other program on my MacBook and it is okay, but i am so used to Light now I only gave it a half try.
 
Used iphoto for my cybershot. bought a highend camera, and tried aperture because I prefer final cut to premiere. Didn't like it's library managment system (how it stores and imports everything into one large file) and how it handles projects (it was a PAIN moving images from one project to another) so I tried LR. Love it. Faster on my MBP and I like the interface better.
 
Aperture here! Actually, though, before I even put the images into Aperture I start out with Photo Mechanic. This is a dandy little program which ingests and shows you your thumbnails VERY quickly and allows for very quick sorting-and-culling. I use this program to weed out my images, then I put the best ones into Aperture and do most of my PP there. Sometimes I still need to take an image into CS2 (haven't upgraded to CS3 yet) and that is an easy process, too, right from within Aperture.
 
Agree with Redrabbit

I am new to digital photography and bought a G4 15.01" and dumped all my photos into iphoto, now I am having a really hard time getting them organized into categories which I want to view as proof sheet style, burn to cd and export to XP box to edit using ps elements, cant afford photo shop.
 
I currently am using Photo Reviewer to go through all my photos to pick out keepers and then move the keepers to iPhoto. Editing I use Photoshop CS3. Worked with Aperture a little but don't work in Raw that often anymore. I'll prob take a look at Lightroom as a lot of people are recommending it but I'm happy with my workflow at the moment.
 
Aperture and CS3

by the way Aperture runs ok on most macs my friend runs it on his macbook the low end $1099 model, i run it on my MBP santa rosa and my 2.0 C2D imac.
i will say this for lightroom it supports more RAW formats than aperture
 
I use Lightroom and CS2

Lightroom is pretty slick although I do have issues exporting to CS2 - maybe CS3 is better.

But it is a great nice organiser, nice interface and you can make good adjustments in it.
 
Aperture and PS CS3, here.

I don't know anything about Lightroom, but I find Aperture to be a very powerful and capable program. It runs a little slow on my 2Ghz CD MBP, but still resonably fast and great. Lots of great tools. :)
 
Kamera RAWr said:
Aperture and PS CS3, here.

I don't know anything about Lightroom, but I find Aperture to be a very powerful and capable program. It runs a little slow on my 2Ghz CD MBP, but still resonably fast and great. Lots of great tools. :)
Click to expand...

Download the trial and have a look then if you don't like the performance of Aperture. :)
 
I import my photos by dragging the CF folder to the desktop, then I use Preview to look at them and trash the rubbish immediately, I like preview because I can delete straight from preview and I can also reorder the drawer of icons.

After the folder is sorted I give it a name that makes sense or if appropriate I put some of the shots in other folders of related things. Sometimes I use the Finder to look at them by setting a folder preference to huge thumbnails.

However I'm currently studying iPhoto in detail to see if it can work for me. I will not use it till I understand it completely and I'm satisfied with how it works. I don't particularly want millions of cluttered icons and folders that are only magically ordered by iPhoto.

Sometimes I use the Photoshop CS1 browser.

I'll certainly use Aperture sometime in the future when I have a computer that can run it.
 
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