In the list of photo organizing tools to check out in the aftermath of Aperture/iPhoto try SnapSelect by MacPhun; it's on sale right now for $10US in the Mac App Store, and I think now in a non MAS version in a bundle at Stack Social.
Basically, it's a picker. You point it at a folder of photos from the Finder, or a set of photos from within a Lightroom catalog, or an iPhoto or Aperture library. It processes them, finds suspected "similar" (note NOT necessarily dupes; it's smarter than that), and throws them up in a timeline view. You have some options in term of grid, side-by-side, and other views.
It has a histogram and exif data panel, and easy keystroke zooming, and basically you can pick or reject. More on that later.
I dismissed the similars function at first, thinking it was like a dupe finder. Sorta useless for me. But then I realized that what's really going on is that it can kinda match subject; like a bunch of shots at roughly the same time of a robin I took. Sort of handy, since it isolates them for easy culling (the photo, not the poor bird). And of course brackets show up, making it easier to pick or reject them.
Or you can just use the time view. Both it and "similars" can be customized.
You can show all your picks or rejects separately (no ratings, unfortunately; it's for quick and dirty culling). You can show them in the Finder, or share a pic right then to whatever sharing services you have (check Sys Prefs Extensions). Note this shares the file; it's not necessarily an export (makes a diff if you use RAW for example).
But the cool thing is that you can then move or copy your picks somewhere, like from an SD card into a folder on your desktop. The VERY cool thing is that it will export to Lightroom (or Aperture or iPhoto, but who cares...
). Once you hit export, it will open up the familiar Import module in LR, with your picks highlighted and checked for import. Nice. If you review photos ALREADY in LR, then once you quit SnapSelect your picks/rejects are sent to metadata, and then a sychronize or re-reading of the metadata will propagate your picks/rejects to LR's catalog.
You can also choose to open any of the images in MacPhun's excellent photo editing applications (I love Tonality Pro). It opens in a stand alone editor in that case.
I had several gigs of images on an SD card and tried this as a step BEFORE importing into LR; the thumbnails LR shows aren't all that helpful to me for culling. And since I make smart previews and 1:1 previews, I thought it might save some import time overall. I found it actually did a relatively speedy job of making it's own previews of the photos (must use Apple's RAW engine), considering, and the layout was a bit easier for me to use for culling than LR has. It was nice to have the subjects grouped in SnapSelect. And then easy to pick/reject. Aside from marking them that way in LR, it also creates SnapSelect pick and a reject collections.
So if you think of it as a $10 LR or Aperture/iPhoto plugin it's worth looking at, even if you use those other apps for a lot of your organizing. I have found MacPhun's tech support to be great, and they are steadily making their applications more polished and pro-like.
Basically, it's a picker. You point it at a folder of photos from the Finder, or a set of photos from within a Lightroom catalog, or an iPhoto or Aperture library. It processes them, finds suspected "similar" (note NOT necessarily dupes; it's smarter than that), and throws them up in a timeline view. You have some options in term of grid, side-by-side, and other views.
It has a histogram and exif data panel, and easy keystroke zooming, and basically you can pick or reject. More on that later.
I dismissed the similars function at first, thinking it was like a dupe finder. Sorta useless for me. But then I realized that what's really going on is that it can kinda match subject; like a bunch of shots at roughly the same time of a robin I took. Sort of handy, since it isolates them for easy culling (the photo, not the poor bird). And of course brackets show up, making it easier to pick or reject them.
Or you can just use the time view. Both it and "similars" can be customized.
You can show all your picks or rejects separately (no ratings, unfortunately; it's for quick and dirty culling). You can show them in the Finder, or share a pic right then to whatever sharing services you have (check Sys Prefs Extensions). Note this shares the file; it's not necessarily an export (makes a diff if you use RAW for example).
But the cool thing is that you can then move or copy your picks somewhere, like from an SD card into a folder on your desktop. The VERY cool thing is that it will export to Lightroom (or Aperture or iPhoto, but who cares...
). Once you hit export, it will open up the familiar Import module in LR, with your picks highlighted and checked for import. Nice. If you review photos ALREADY in LR, then once you quit SnapSelect your picks/rejects are sent to metadata, and then a sychronize or re-reading of the metadata will propagate your picks/rejects to LR's catalog.You can also choose to open any of the images in MacPhun's excellent photo editing applications (I love Tonality Pro). It opens in a stand alone editor in that case.
I had several gigs of images on an SD card and tried this as a step BEFORE importing into LR; the thumbnails LR shows aren't all that helpful to me for culling. And since I make smart previews and 1:1 previews, I thought it might save some import time overall. I found it actually did a relatively speedy job of making it's own previews of the photos (must use Apple's RAW engine), considering, and the layout was a bit easier for me to use for culling than LR has. It was nice to have the subjects grouped in SnapSelect. And then easy to pick/reject. Aside from marking them that way in LR, it also creates SnapSelect pick and a reject collections.
So if you think of it as a $10 LR or Aperture/iPhoto plugin it's worth looking at, even if you use those other apps for a lot of your organizing. I have found MacPhun's tech support to be great, and they are steadily making their applications more polished and pro-like.