I use LrC to do my importing only because I also use it to do my keywording, but I do also like that it automatically sorts my images into date-based folders.
I’ve recently been using Image Capture for scanning, but if the goal is simply to get photos off the card, Finder is perfectly up to the job!
I use Image Capture to move images from my iPhone to my Mac. For everything else I just use the Finder and drag and drop from the card to a folder on my Mac.
After that I use Photo Mechanic, which I’ve had for quite some time, to review and keyword. And then a number of tools to further process.
But if Image Capture works then good for him.
You can also get Adobe Bridge for that kind of thing for free. And recent updates have made it quite useable again.
I tried Bridge when it was suggested last time I was in this situation. It was “close but no cigar” on keyword handling for me. Lightroom’s capabilities have spoiled me for anything else.
Did you ever come up with anything good? I’m reviewing the Best photo organiser / management tool post from Nov 2021, and will look for similar posts, but am looking for an app I can point at the Synology Photos folder to edit, occasionally organize and export, etc, for our family photo collection(s).
Photos/iCloud have gotten too… much of a pain to work with.
To tell the truth, Photo Mechanic 6 blows everything else out of the water. When you learn how to use variables and code replacemnets, everything else seems like a toy.
Thank you! I’ll give it a look!
Does it work well with Google Photos? I’m trying to organize with Mylio but despite their claims, it can’t get the metadata right.
It works with anything that gives you direct access to the photos. It’s kind of like Adobe Bridge, but vastly more capable and infinitely faster.
Do you use Photo Magic or Photo Magic Plus? Trying to determine if its worth the extra investment. We are mostly trying to organize, do light editing (though we can do that in other software), store, and occasionally export (for calendars, holiday cards, family prints, etc), our somewhat vast photo library. I just downloaded almost 2TB from iCloud so that I can eventually close that down.
I’m guessing you mean Photo Mechanic and Photo Mechanic Plus, so that is what I will answer about.
I have Photo Mechanic Plus but I don’t really use the cataloging features, as I use NeoFinder as my cataloging tool. (As noted way up in the thread I got a license for Plus at the discounted introduction price.)
One thing you’ll need to realize is that Photo Mechanic is not a photo organizer like Apple Photos. Rather, it works with photos in plain old folders. You need to devise an organizational structure for those folders. What Photo Mechanic does is allow you to view, rate, delete, and add metadata (keywords, user info) to the photos, and it does so very quickly. The catalog features of Plus creates an index of the images in your folder structure, allowing you to search and find images quickly by any of the metadata in the image file (this includes both data entered by the camera and data entered by you).
So when you say:
Photo Mechanic does not organize, although it helps in organizing by making it quick and easy to add keywords; it does not store images (images are stored in folders in the Mac file system); it doesn’t provide editing tools (other than in the sense of rating and culling images, it is not an image editing tool like Photoshop or Lightroom); and it doesn’t export, since it does not store the images.
Photo Mechanic is targeted at professional and prosumer photographers. I learned of it from a friend who was a sports photographer for the Philadelphia Inquirer for many years.
Here is my typical usage. In November we went on a wildlife tour of Madagascar and took several thousand images. When we got home we used Photo Mechanic to quickly review and select the keeper images, add keywords for location, species, etc. (which allow for efficient searching later), add metadata including contact and copyright info (automatically upon “ingestion”), and select images to process in Photoshop directly from the Photo Mechanic image browser window.
It is not inexpensive, and they are moving to a subscription model, a model I’m on the record as saying is consumer hostile (although they may be relenting a bit and providing one time licenses as well). So be sure to take advantage of the trial version and see if will work for you.
Hopefully this helps you to understand what it is, and is not. Fell free to ask any follow up questions.