Photo Tagging Software on OS X

[Polydactyl]

I'm at my wits end trying to find a decent (and preferably cheap) solution for bulk tagging photos. Before I cave and end up buying Lightroom 3, I thought I'd check here first. My requirements are:

- Must be able to write metadata directly to the picture file (i.e. destructive edits, which rules out any Apple software)
- Provide easy options for filtering based on keyword tags
- Will build list of keywords from my existing photos, so I can reuse.

I've tried dozens of programs and was planning to get the new version of Photoshop Elements, but alas they have replaced Bridge with the much more limited Organizer, which does not write metadata to a file. Even then, if I'm going to spend real money ($100+), I'd probably get more use out of Lightroom than PS Elements.

Picasa doesn't cut it, for many reasons.

I'm a recent convert from Windows, and Microsoft's Live Essentials Photogallery was more than adequate for what I need.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[fcortese]

Aperture 3? I do not know if the new iPhoto '11 can do what you are asking.

 

[Polydactyl]

I like iPhoto from a usability perspective, but it doesn't write keyword metadata directly to the picture files. Since the photos need to be accessible to multiple machines (and I don't want to lose my tags if the library gets corrupted) it's not practical.

Aperature 3 is the same in that respect. (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this)

 

[aurin]

lightroom makes database too...

I'm at my wits end trying to find a decent (and preferably cheap) solution for bulk tagging photos. Before I cave and end up buying Lightroom 3, I thought I'd check here first.
Any ideas? Thanks.

I have the same need and tried Lightroom, it makes an import and stores photos in a database system just like iphoto and aperture, thus useless for me, filling up the harddrive and almost impossible to move around

Shoebox has an export function to put categories as tags
http://www.kavasoft.com/Shoebox/index.php
abd picasa does puts tags in the photo file, although not name tags, missing easy tagging though

As for editing photos LightZone is having a really good and novel solution, making copies that refer to originals, thus it has replaced my need for other photoeditors, just missing tags...

 

[Jason Edwards]

I like iPhoto from a usability perspective, but it doesn't write keyword metadata directly to the picture files. Since the photos need to be accessible to multiple machines (and I don't want to lose my tags if the library gets corrupted) it's not practical.

Aperature 3 is the same in that respect. (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this)

Aperture 3 has the ability to write the IPTC data you enter to your photos. Its under the Metadata menu.

Jason