DAM software

lindsay

lindsay

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Lindsay
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Like many here, I have been using Lightroom for a while, mainly for DAM plus image editing/finishing. Then I started dabbling in Photoshop, mainly because I bought the CC package in a special promotion about 18 months ago. But now that I have to re-subscribe, I'm having second thoughts.
DAM is the main issue for me, as I had already bought Affinity in a promotion and used it a bit, probably preferring it to PS in truth.
Looking online for alternatives for managing my photos, I searched for DAM software for photography and the following came up:

Apple Photos (if you have a Mac)
Google Picasa
Google Photos
digiKam (Linux)
RawTherapee
darkTable
XnViewMP

The review I read of these suggested that most were curates eggs, ie good in parts. The standouts were (it appears) Apple Photos and Raw Therapee.
As I'm inundated with Apple computers, both are viable options for me, so I shall test them. However, I'm torn as I have a barely used Loupedeck+ that I've been wanting to set up fully and use, which as I understand it only really works with PS.
So I guess my question is: are any of these good enough to persuade me to ditch LR&PS, sell my Loupedeck+, and avoid paying? I'd be interested in real world advice please
 
I have been using Digikam for windows for the past 3 years as a DAM only, I don't use the editing side at all.
It allows hierarchical keywords, which are easy to use. It allows to you use your own editing software.
I have my photos in dated folders and add keywords. You don't have to import them, new (albums) and folders within are picked up when you restart Digikam or from a menu.
I have 45k photos in 1261 Albums (folders) with 635 keywords covering from 1996 to yesterday.

Pete
 
I love apple photos for organisation ,been using it for years,I also have Afinity photo,
im using Lightroom at the moment for editing as got it for £72 within the photography plan( Amazon prime day).
of course it depends if Apple Photos does all you need regarding a dam,so worth watching a few YouTube vids.
one question for you,why do you prefer Afinity to photoshop?
 
@SsSsSsSsSnake There's not a lot in it, but I seemed to find Affinity has a more intuitive interface for me, whereas I struggle with PS; having said that I've not used PS much and not watched any training videos. In my head I feel I should switch to free DAM and Affinity, but I'm conflicted by the ubiquity of LR&PS plus my Loupedeck kit.
 
Apple Photos is good, particularly how well it integrates across devices. But I only use it for phone snapshots etc, as I wouldn't want those sort of day-to-day photos being interspersed with my main image library (which is in Lightroom).
 
OT but looking again at Photos due to this thread I see iOS 16 has brought some useful improvements - find duplicates, batch process etc.
 
sphexx said:
OT but looking again at Photos due to this thread I see iOS 16 has brought some useful improvements - find duplicates, batch process etc.
Click to expand...
Thanks Richard, I updated yesterday but didn’t get a chance to look yet, that’s interesting, I use power photos for duplicates and merging libraries etc but now it’s onboard the app that’s great,i will take a look tonight.
 
I’m still using Aperture :(.

However one of the annoyances of Photos (which I do use) is that I’m fairly sure it indexes a lot more EXIF and other data than it displays because it produces results for searches for data I’ve added in Aperture in the past but doesn’t display it anywhere.
 
sphexx said:
I’m still using Aperture :(.

However one of the annoyances of Photos (which I do use) is that I’m fairly sure it indexes a lot more EXIF and other data than it displays because it produces results for searches for data I’ve added in Aperture in the past but doesn’t display it anywhere.
Click to expand...

I loved Aperture. It's a really pity Apple killed it.
 
I'd recommend looking at DigiKam. I've found it a very capable DAM. I like that it works with your images stored in the folder structure of your choosing. I'm using it with Affinity Photo for processing and FastRawViewer for initial filtering of images. Give it a try.
 
SFTPhotography said:
I loved Aperture. It's a really pity Apple killed it.
Click to expand...
It still works in Catalina with a modification, not sure about later and I assume not on Apple Silicon.
 
lindsay said:
Like many here, I have been using Lightroom for a while, mainly for DAM plus image editing/finishing. Then I started dabbling in Photoshop, mainly because I bought the CC package in a special promotion about 18 months ago. But now that I have to re-subscribe, I'm having second thoughts.
DAM is the main issue for me, as I had already bought Affinity in a promotion and used it a bit, probably preferring it to PS in truth.
Looking online for alternatives for managing my photos, I searched for DAM software for photography and the following came up:

Apple Photos (if you have a Mac)
Google Picasa
Google Photos
digiKam (Linux)
RawTherapee
darkTable
XnViewMP

The review I read of these suggested that most were curates eggs, ie good in parts. The standouts were (it appears) Apple Photos and Raw Therapee.
As I'm inundated with Apple computers, both are viable options for me, so I shall test them. However, I'm torn as I have a barely used Loupedeck+ that I've been wanting to set up fully and use, which as I understand it only really works with PS.
So I guess my question is: are any of these good enough to persuade me to ditch LR&PS, sell my Loupedeck+, and avoid paying? I'd be interested in real world advice please
Click to expand...
If you only want a DAM, Neofinder is very good. I use it in addition to other DAMs (Lightroom, Capture One and PhotoMechanic +) because of it's flexibility and speed.

NeoFinder - Digital Asset Management Software

Discover NeoFinder, the Digital Asset Management tool for macOS and iOS. Try the amazing NeoFinder today.
www.cdfinder.de

But it doesn't have any processing tools. Manual is good and technical support excellent, but it needs a little bit of learning.

If you just want a good browser, Bridge is free (you don't need a CC subscription). It isn't a proper DAM, but it does index metadata and give some search capability.

Raw Therapee is a superb raw processor, but it doesn't have any DAM capability. And it's tricky to learn, but it's great for halo free sharpening, recovering highlights, and upsizing (I haven't actually used it for the latter, but going and Andy Astbury's recommendation)

Andy Astbury has some very good Raw Therapee tutorials:


If I was looking for a best value combination, I would go for Neofinder, Raw Therapee and Affinity Photo. But of the programs you list, I've only used Darktable and Raw Therapee.
 
Interesting, I'll look at Neofinder. The review online that I read saifd that Raw Therapee did do DAM fairly well, so that's interesting.
I don't really want to use mul;tiple packages unless they integrate well, like LR&PS, but it's all part of the cost/benefit equation.
 
I just downloaded and ran Neofinder scanning my LR catalogue. It does look very promising.
 
lindsay said:
Interesting, I'll look at Neofinder. The review online that I read saifd that Raw Therapee did do DAM fairly well, so that's interesting.
I don't really want to use mul;tiple packages unless they integrate well, like LR&PS, but it's all part of the cost/benefit equation.
Click to expand...
Raw Therapee has a browser, but no DAM and the current version (5.8) doesn't work with XMP metadata. Meant to be fixed in 5.9.

Neofinder reads Affinity (Photo, Publisher and Designer) files, but nothing really matches the LR+PS integration (Capture One + Photoshop is close, but C1s DAM is nowhere as good as LR, and you lose smart objects). But you can launch files from Neofinder, but saving edited files back into Neofinder isn't as slick as LR+PS.
 
Also consider iMatch. Very flexible but when I used it 10 + years ago I found it not intuitive and I didn’t use it enough to learn. It is usually referred to as a pro tool.
 
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