Professional image management for Mac OS X

To our faithful users: we’re sorry for the lack of updates, but it turns out that Aperture is really good! We’re in the process of changing our focus from standalone image management tools to tools to integrate with Aperture (and iPhoto). Stay tuned!

iPhoto to Keynote plug-in! – now for iPhoto 08 and Keynote 4!
What’s new in Lightbox 1.0.2?
Photographer’s Guide to Lightbox (sorry no longer available) (1 MB)

Lightbox is a new, easy-to-use, inexpensive photo management application designed from the ground up for serious photographers. Unlike other photo applications, Lightbox doesn’t require you to keep track of what folders you put your images in–it manages everything about an image, including the thumbnail and original raw file, for you. And it can even do so on multiple hard drives! Let Lightbox manage your photos, and don’t ever forget where you stored an image again! Lightbox also has support for:

Sep 24, 2018 — Managing a huge gallery and organizing photos is a tricky business, even if you’re generally tidy, so it’s always a good idea to use some help. Especially when there’s software out there designed specifically to deal with an overload of pictures. The only trouble with professional photo organizing software is that, much like any photo equipment, it’s painfully expensive. An open-source photo organizer has to be included in our list of 2020 Image Management Software. DigiKam is an advanced solution for Windows, Mac & Linux users who quickly wants to sort pictures by name, size, date, title and other attributes. Sadly, it is only compatible with Mac operating systems. JetPhoto Studio. JetPhoto Studio is compatible with Windows and Mac OS and boasts almost all the tools you will need to sort out and edit your photos. This free photo management software solution boasts powerful photo batch processing, geo-tagging and tags.

• Importing from iPhoto™
• Emulating iPhoto for use in iDVD™ 3 and iMovie™ 3
• Raw conversion
• Previewing some types of raw files*
• Print contact sheets
• Multiple storage locations and albums
• Searching using many options
• Custom metadata–and searching by it
• Adobe® Photoshop® integration–Lightbox works flawlessly with the Adobe Camera Raw plugin!
• Backup to tar.gz
• Offline viewing (relocate images to CD/DVD and still search for them)
• Directly burning to a CD or DVD
• Archiving originals
• Customized workflows–e.g. copy photos into the storage location or leave alone?
• 3D Printing Geeks compatibility
• And more!

Best of all, Lightbox costs only $25 US!

Who should consider Lightbox?
Any serious amateur or professional photographer who’s shooting and wants to use an album system to organize photos instead of just folders on the hard drive. Photographers who wait to convert their raw files, and don’t edit and convert, one by one, will also benefit from Lightbox. Photographers who miss a binder (or drawer) + slide sheet method of organization will also like Lightbox.

Advanced Photo Management
Raw conversion is only a minor feature in Lightbox–it’s designed to be a platform for new tools to help your photography. Currently, you have to remember what folder you stored your images in, browsing and searching can be slow, and finding a system to organize raw and converted can be annoying. Lightbox takes care of all of this for you–use its interface to move files between albums, storage locations (hard drives), revert to the original raw, and more. Choose what images you see/search through by showing and hiding storage locations. Lightbox even includes offline viewing–move some of your images to a CD or DVD but still include the image in your search results! Along with standard EXIF data, Lightbox also lets you add your own custom properties to each image.

Custom Workflow
Convert images with a different raw converter, edit your images in another piece of software, and more! When you’re ready to move the new image into Lightbox, just click “Load New Version from Folder,” and Lightbox will find the converted image, archive the original raw file, and manage the new image for you.

Try it out!Share Your Photos
Lightbox comes with email, slideshow, archive to tar.gz, make website, set desktop background, and file converter plugins. Its advanced plugin architecture also lets developers quickly and easily create new plugins. Even use your Lightbox albums in iMovie and iDVD!

Download the demo (2.6 MB). It’s completely functional, although it will close after 15 minutes (you can relaunch it).

Sep 24, 2018 — Managing a huge gallery and organizing photos is a tricky business, even if you’re generally tidy, so it’s always a good idea to use some help. Especially when there’s software out there designed specifically to deal with an overload of pictures.

Photo Organizer Software

The only trouble with professional photo organizing software is that, much like any photo equipment, it’s painfully expensive. In this article we’ll suggest tools that tame your giant photo gallery without leaving a hole in your pocket.

Best photo organizing software for Mac, as of 2018

Gemini 2: The duplicate photo finder

The first thing you need to do to organize photos is remove the extras. There’s a high chance you’ve got plenty of duplicates and similar images — 15 shots from slightly different angles, for instance. You usually only use one of those, so there’s really no point in keeping them all.

Image Organizer App

The easiest way to get rid of those files is to get a duplicate photo finder, such as Gemini 2. It can scan your whole gallery, locate duplicates and point out similars. It usually takes a few minutes to clean your whole photo collection, so download Gemini and give it a quick test drive.

Photos: Mac’s native photo organizer app

Here’s the biggest secret to good photo organization: master Photos. You might be thinking: seriously, a native Apple app is any good? And you’d be surprised how much it is.

Since macOS Sierra, Photos has been getting makeovers and new features. In macOS Mojave, the app lets you organize content just by dragging-and-dropping it, and with Smart Albums, you can instantly group photos by date, camera, and even the person in them. At this point, it’s just a really good piece of photo management software.

Mylio: A free photo manager app

If you’ve been meaning to consolidate your photos in one place for years, Mylio will help you do just that. When you first start using the app, it offers to look for your photos on the current device, on an external drive, and even on your Facebook.

File Organizer Software

Once all the photos you’ve taken in your lifetime are imported, Mylio organizes into a variety of views. The coolest one is Calendar, showing you photo collections on an actual calendar. That way, you’ll quickly find the photos from your son’s first birthday, even if you forgot how you named the folder. Plus, Mylio offers a free mobile app, so you can access your photo library wherever you are.

Final word on photo management on Mac

There are basically two things you need to remember to bring order into your photographing life:

1. Before you get to organization and management, be sure to unclutter your photo library. The easiest way to do it is with a duplicate finder, such as Gemini 2. Otherwise you'll be rummaging around in thousands of photos you don't even need.
2. Photos, the native Apple photo manager can accomplish everything you need to make organizing photos into groups and categories easy.
3. Third-party tools can provide you with added functionality that’s missing in native macOS tools, like calendar view or managing photos right in the Finder.

Now that you know all the secrets to photo organization, Mac photography shouldn’t be that hard or that expensive. Not when you’ve got the right tricks up your sleeve.

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