Best App for Organizing Photos

[puma2]

Hey guys, what are you guys all using to organize your photos? Iphoto is bloated, and I don't want to use picasa.
Anyone using Aperture? Is it as bad as all the reviews say it is? I read many reviews saying it crashes a lot, and becomes slow over time. I just want something to safeguard my pictures as the library grows.

Mi

 

[Bending Pixels]

From an organizational standpoint, Aperture 3 is a lot better than Lightroom 4. From an image processing standpoint, LR4 has the edge with it's improved Develop module.

Rumor has it that Apple is working on Aperture 4 (or Aperture X), with a possible announcement this week at WWDC.

I haven't noticed any slowdown in Aperture, even as my library grows.

I'd suggest waiting a couple of days to see what Apple announces.

 

[flynz4]

From an organizational standpoint, Aperture 3 is a lot better than Lightroom 4. From an image processing standpoint, LR4 has the edge with it's improved Develop module.

Rumor has it that Apple is working on Aperture 4 (or Aperture X), with a possible announcement this week at WWDC.

I haven't noticed any slowdown in Aperture, even as my library grows.

I'd suggest waiting a couple of days to see what Apple announces.

Lightroom and Aperture are the two leading contenders. They tend to leapfrog each other in capability. At the highest level, they can be considered interchangeable in overall function.

Advantages/disadvantages:

LR: Cross-platform (PC & Mac), integration with Photoshop, better RAW processing, (at the moment), better lens correction (at the moment). Worse user interface. Rigid workflow constraints.

Aperture: Great user interface, very fluid workflow, spectacular integration with other apple programs (iLife/iWork). Amazing photo organization capabilities. Currently behind LR in terms of image post processing such as sharpening etc... but then most serious photographers (irrespective of using PS or not) use Nik Software post processing along with either LR or Aperture. Aperture is Mac only.

Personally, I use Aperture 3. It meets all of my needs, and every time I have tried to do a comparison with Lightroom, I have found A3 to better.

For sure, if you need to work on PCs and Macs, then choose LR. While I use both PCs and Macs... I choose to do all of my photo processing and organization in the Mac environment, and for me, A3 is the top choice. YMMV.

/Jim

 

[hollysurly]

Visolu, a universal app, is unlike every other app here in the way it organizes photos. What is does is organize pictures by the way they look. What that means is that if you take two pictures of a sunset on different days, the app should put them next to each other. The downside of Visolu is that it doesn’t handle a large amount of pictures well and the sorting algorithm doesn’t always work correctly.

Pics
by Phyar Studio
This universal app stands out from the crowd by implementing an great interface similar to Windows Phone 7. It can organize photos by album as well as sync them to other iOS devices, Macs and PCs. Pics undoubtedly has the best and coolest interface here and it's compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. If you are looking to sort photos with all the bells and whistles, then just get this app.
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A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend.*

 

[stil]

I use Aperture on my main machine but Lyn is a simple photo organizer that uses your file system much like Picassa. It has a very small footprint so I like to use it on my older machines.

 

[snberk103]

Unlike some other posters in this thread, (smile)... I like the Lr4 interface. It has a 30 day trial so you can judge it for yourself.

I agree that for most people Lr4 and Ap3 are pretty interchangeable, depending on their personal preferences for workflow.

However..... I also find that many people use the organizing tools in Lr4 and Ap3 wrong. Well.... not, 'wrong' perhaps... but they do things the hard way.

If you already have your photos sorted into subject based folders, then prepare to abandon them.... sort of. Let Lr4/Ap3 move the images into their own default folder structure, and then train yourself to work with those images only by going through the Lr4 or Ap3 interface.

During the importing process you can replicate your existing subject based folder structure through Collections/Albums. This gives you back your subject based folder structure that you've come to know and love. From here you can add keywords, and put photos that should be in two or more places into those places (except you aren't actually putting the photo in more than one place, you are still have just one photo - and it's the database entry that is getting duplicated. It's a powerful feature...)

Luck.

 

[flynz4]

I agree that for most people A3 and LR are pretty interchangeable. I actually own both now (due to a big Adobe purchase), but my library is in A3.

Either is the way to go on your Mac. Most people seem to think that A3 is more flexible. Most think that LR has better integration with PS. LR is cross platform if you use both Mac and PCs interchangeably for your photos. A3 integrates very well into Apple's ecosystem (iLife and iWork).

Take your choice, or flip a coin. I personally wouldn't stray from one of these two.

/Jim

P.S. I just noticed that I had replied earlier to this thread... so you should count my opinion only once.