Digital Asset Management

[ST1]

If I understand correctly what you want, LR does this. You can manage everything from within LR, including moving and renaming. You can set up any programs you want, as far as I know, as external editors and access them via LR. I am not an expert on the cataloging functions of LR--I don't make very heavy use of them, even though I do much of my editing in it--but I can think of only one limitation: AFAIK, a LR catalog cannot span more than one logical drive. Someone can correct me if I am wrong about that.
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My catalog spans multiple logical drives.

[rpcrowe]

Although I use and like On One's Perfect Photo Suite, I don't use it as a stand-alone program. Rather I use it as a Photoshop Plug-in and do my file work with Adobe Bridge.

However, there are some people who like the File Browser concept of On One's Perfect Photo Suite V. 9.5,

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/o...5-review-27350

[loosecanon]

Lightroom allows the creation of new disks, folders and movement of files.

One "trick" I use is to tell it to import all of the master disks photographs, excluding duplicates, no rename and no subfolder - it then finds any uncatalogued images for whatever reason and includes them in the catalogue - simple, easy and quick.

[purplehaze]

Thanks to all for your contributions. I am not a little ticked off at Apple for encouraging me to commit my library to Aperture, as I am now in the position of having to consolidate years' worth of originals (sitting on a separate hard disk) with their edits in order to move my library to the new computer without risking losing anything. This because the version of Aperture I was using on the old computer, which was running Mountain Lion, is not compatible with Yosemite and vice versa, and I am afraid that the process of upgrading my library to the new version will break the references to the originals. Maybe it won't, but I am afraid to risk it, particularly as there was a Mavericks-compatible version in between the two versions I am working with. Arghhh!!!! In any case, I am used to Aperture and I like it better than Lightroom for certain tasks and certain types of images and I expect I will use it for as long as I can as an editing program, just as I will continue to use Lightroom, and the Nik tools, and eventually Photoshop and Perfect Effects. But because I use multiple editors, I would like a centralized image database that makes it easy to keep all edits of whatever origin together with the originals (or reference to same).

[shreds]

Phase/Capture One's DAM is called https://www.phaseone.com/en/Imaging-...edia-Pro.aspx?

It has been through various iterations including at one point, ownership by Microsoft and subsequent sale to Phase One.

I started using it in the period before MS owned it and the best thing that could have happen to the old iViewMedia was that Phase got hold of it.

Theres a free trial available to check out its functionality.

[purplehaze]

Phase/Capture One's DAM is called https://www.phaseone.com/en/Imaging-...edia-Pro.aspx?

Ah hah! Folder watching--that sounds promising. That, together with Capture One's much vaunted rendering of RAW files, make the free trial tempting. But it won't be tomorrow. I still haven't finished migrating everything to the new computer and it is going to take a few hours (read days) to get my existing image libraries sorted out. What a job. It would have been better left to the dark days of winter.

Thanks, Ian.

[billtils]

Janis

I posted a response in your other thread about this. Summary: Don't panic! You don't actually have to do anything dramatic.

[billtils]

You are partly correct GrumpyDriver. But there are sever limitations to the programs you mention in regard to Janis being able to use her Aperture library for DAM.

[billtils]

Janis

You can get a copy of Aperture 3 on ebay ...

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Bill, but I don't need a copy. I have the latest version installed on the new machine, but because my original purchase was a disk copy, I had to jump through a couple of hoops to get it.

[billtils]

Sorry about the hoops Janis, but glad you got an up to date copy. And nice to see another MBP/Aperture user gracing these discussion boards!

[billtils]

Janis, not that it will make any difference to what I've posted, but just to give you a heads up: I know a pro photographer ("pro" in the sense that that is how he makes his living) who is an avid Aperture user and who has also downloaded El Capitan from the beta test site. He confirms my experience that Aperture does indeed work on it but is currently having issues with some of the more complex edits. As I posted to you earlier, I really only use Aperture for library management (and downloading from the camera - I like its RAW engine) with minimum editing, preferring to call Affinity Photo and a few Topaz plugins for that function.

Even if what he says is not corrected in the release version of 10.11, it is still a stable combo regarding managing your library and as a gateway to other editors. I don't know if you get the old BBC comedy "Dad's Army" in Canada, but the catchphrase of one of the characters "Don't panic Captain Mainwaring" applies here too ...

[rob211]

Ah hah! Folder watching--that sounds promising. That, together with Capture One's much vaunted rendering of RAW files, make the free trial tempting. But it won't be tomorrow. I still haven't finished migrating everything to the new computer and it is going to take a few hours (read days) to get my existing image libraries sorted out. What a job. It would have been better left to the dark days of winter.

Thanks, Ian.

Good luck with the migrating; bit of a chore that.

Lr also has a watched folder capability, but with referenced photos I find it less useful than I did when I ran a managed library in Aperture. Since I have to copy off the SD card anyway, they get imported by Lr into appropriate folders and rarely get moved to other folders (although I do move the whole folder tree eventually to an external volume). The watched folder is used most frequently by shooters in a sort of semi-tethered scenario, like when others dump photos in there.

Lr also has a cool synchronize command; I don't think there was an equivalent in Aperture. It can import new photos and/or metadata from a folder that already exists in Lr's catalog.

For the ultimate in watched folders, though, check out Mylio. It watches folders and syncs them across devices. So say it watches the folder "Pictures of mom" on my iMac, iPhone, and NAS. If I edit a photo within in say Lr on my iMac, and change it to B&W and crop, those changes instantly propagate to my iPhone and NAS. Then if I caption it on my iPhone, the changes propagate back to the iMac and NAS. Without any file being stored in the cloud, although you could add that capability as well.