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A better photo library application?

ArisaemaDracont

ArisaemaDracont

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 7, 2008
55
38
Madison
I need a more robust photo library program. I need to share between multiple computers on a network and be able to tag photos easily, and have geotagging functions as well.

Photos doesn't do tagging well, iPhotos and Aperture don't play well shared over a network.

What are some options?
 
kirky29 said:
Lightroom is pretty good :)
Click to expand...

For $150 for the discontinued Lightroom 6 or $9.99 for Creative Cloud Photography package that includes 7, it better be. Surely there are better cheaper (maybe even free?) options out there...
 
I’m willing to pay for a good product, but I want to host the photos locally on our small company’s macMini server, not in the cloud, and I don’t want to pay a subscription fee.

My needs are primarily organization and tagging, not editing/manipulation.
 
Lr can access and reference images on a NAS or locally mounted server, but it's not a multi-user DAM. For that you need something like Daminion, but I think the server side might be Windows only. There's a list of other DAMs here: https://www.capterra.com/sem-compare/digital-asset-management-software?headline=Digital Asset Manager Software&gclid=CjwKCAiAk4XUBRB5EiwAHBLUMW-vCxptUz6T-LxVIfDg3QudUhkzc7qaGgoD-Gh9ciTeOUHmozHo2RoC38YQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Since your needs seem pretty lightweight, and maybe not enterprise level, maybe Photo Supreme. It can run in a shared environment with a client and server. Requires PostgreSQL be installed on the server, and uses licensing based on users. BTW, on sale right now, act fast!

If that's still too much (money or effort), your best choice would be Lr (getting past the subscription objection) and organize single-use instances of Lr and/or Bridge so that people aren't stepping over each other in editing the same photos differently. Say if one person adds the metadata, initial development, and then the others just use Bridge to access photos for say product catalog placement, insertion in newsletters, etc. Tough to find something on a Mac that does the keywording, georeferencing, and all the other metadata work of Lr in one package.
 
UPDATE:

I gave Lyn a try. I liked that it just worked with image files which are stored in folders, rather than a "library" file that can get corrupted. I would also assume this would mean that multiple staff members could access the image library from different computers at the same time, as long as they weren't editing the same file at the same time.

Unfortunately, Lyn is very poor at using keywords. I need to be able to search keywords and batch apply them, which does not seem possible in Lyn.

I guess I'll look at ACDsee and Pixave.

I remember that Aperture has the ability to manage photos within a library or out of a library (there is a term for this I can't recall at the moment). I'm kind of wondering if I just use Aperture to export the photo library and manage it that way rather than as a "library", if I can keep trucking without the file permission errors... at least until an OS upgrade finally kills Aperture.
[doublepost=1520003245][/doublepost]OK, I looked up the Aperture feature. There are Managed libraries where all the photos are in there, and Referenced photos, that are not in the library, but the data you save about them IS in the library.

I suppose, in theory I could have an Aperture library on each computer in the office that references a folder full of photos on the server. But then each Aperture library would have to be set-up individually... I'm not sure how this would impact applying keywords and such, if the original files are altered in that they have keywords applied to them or if the keywords are stored in the Library, in association with the photo.

That, and Aperture is EOL.
 
ArisaemaDracont said:
UPDATE:

I gave Lyn a try. I liked that it just worked with image files which are stored in folders, rather than a "library" file that can get corrupted. I would also assume this would mean that multiple staff members could access the image library from different computers at the same time, as long as they weren't editing the same file at the same time.

Unfortunately, Lyn is very poor at using keywords. I need to be able to search keywords and batch apply them, which does not seem possible in Lyn.

I guess I'll look at ACDsee and Pixave.

I remember that Aperture has the ability to manage photos within a library or out of a library (there is a term for this I can't recall at the moment). I'm kind of wondering if I just use Aperture to export the photo library and manage it that way rather than as a "library", if I can keep trucking without the file permission errors... at least until an OS upgrade finally kills Aperture.
[doublepost=1520003245][/doublepost]OK, I looked up the Aperture feature. There are Managed libraries where all the photos are in there, and Referenced photos, that are not in the library, but the data you save about them IS in the library.

I suppose, in theory I could have an Aperture library on each computer in the office that references a folder full of photos on the server. But then each Aperture library would have to be set-up individually... I'm not sure how this would impact applying keywords and such, if the original files are altered in that they have keywords applied to them or if the keywords are stored in the Library, in association with the photo.

That, and Aperture is EOL.
Click to expand...

If you use Aperture (shudder) then yes, you can use a referenced (vs managed) library. And you can write the metadata changes to file with the Write IPTC Metadata to File command. Unlike Lr, you can't write in adjustment parameters themselves, so remember whoever accesses the image is gonna get the master plus IPTC, like say caption and keywords. But if others don't need adjusted images, it would work. They could use Spotlight and any old image browser that can do keywords to find stuff.

If you want free, just use Bridge to keyword. Or if you want to get something more powerful, Photo Mechanic. It's the best keyword application for photos period. Both can do templates and such for fast keywording, and PM can do geotagging. I prefer HoudahGeo, but it's mostly just for that.
 
Google Photos is currently the best app for this.....

And they have macOS and iOS apps for it.

I use 100% apple hardware..... but do not use iPhoto at all.
 
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